How to put atv tires on a go kart

How to Change Go Kart Tires: A Step by Step Guide

 Changing a go kart tire is easy. This guide will show you how to remove and replace the tires on your go kart, ATV, or golf cart rims. Let's get started!

Tools and Tire Selection

Often, people ask me if any specialized tools are required to change a go kart tire. The short answer is: no (just some elbow grease). Most smaller ATV, golf cart, and go kart tires can be removed with just a few simple tools that you may already have hanging out in your garage.

Here is the list (with links) of the tools you should have prior to replacing your tires:

• leather gloves
• dish soap
• pry tools (such as long handle screw drivers, or tire spoons)
• locking pliers
• 4-way valve tool
• side cutters

When selecting tires to replace your old ones, just look on the sidewall of the tires you already have. This number should be the one you search for to match your rim.

Here are two examples of tire sizes, and how to read them:

• 22 X 11.00 – 8 this tire is 22″ in diameter, 11″ wide, and fits on an 8″ rim.
• 145/70-6 this tire is 145 mm wide, 70% of its width is the distance between the rim and the tread (aspect ratio) and it fits on 6″ rims. FYI: the diameter of this tire is 14″, which can be calculated by multiplying 145mm by .7, multiplying that figure by two, converting it to inches, then adding the rim diameter to that figure.
  

For most racing go karts, slicks or rain tires are the way to go. Yard karts and golf carts can use turf saver tires. For off road use, nothing beats knobby or v-tread tires. Click on the image below to check out where I get all my go kart tires:

Break the Bead from the Rim

Breaking the bead from the rim, especially on old, crusty tires, could be a chore. The bead is the innermost portion of the tire that is actually steel wires, which are covered in rubber. Breaking the bead means that this rubber coated steel ring becomes separated from the rim itself, allowing you to remove the tire from the rim.

First, you should let all the air out of the tire, which can be accomplished by removing the valve from the stem with your 4-way valve tool.

Next, you should mix a little dish-soap and water together, then pour it on the area where the rim and bead are touching. As you work around the bead pushing down with a pry tool or screwdriver, the dish-soap mixture will flow into the space, lubricating the bead and rim for easier tire removal. You may have to press down on the bead in a few areas around the rim edge before the bead will break free from the rim. If you are having a lot of trouble with breaking the bead, you can always get a tire changing tool, which gives you the extra leverage to separate the tire from the rim.

Demount the Tire from the Rim

De-mounting the tire from the rim only requires a few pry tools, and proper positioning of the bead on the rim. Press the bead toward the middle of the rim with your knee or hand, which will allow a small space on the opposite side of the tire to open up, where you will insert your pry tool or screwdriver to begin pushing the bead over the exterior edge of the rim. Work additional pry tools under the bead, working in a circular fashion until the bead pops off of the rim.

You are now halfway finished with removing the tire from the rim. Next, you position the remaining tire bead toward the thinnest (center portion) of the rim, while simultaneously prying the opposite end of the tire bead off of the rim. If you do it right, the bead will pop off relatively easily. If you fail to position the bead on the narrow portion of the rim, there will not be enough space to allow the bead to slip off of the exterior portion of the rim.

Replace the Tubeless Valve Stem

I recommend replacing the tubeless rubber snap-in valve for one piece rims every time you replace your tires. Why is that? Well, valve stems are made of rubber, and rot just like tires do. Additionally, the valve inside the stem can corrode and eventually fail. Replacing the valve stem requires breaking the bead, so why not replace the valve stem while you have the tire off? It will save you time and effort in the future, and will give you piece of mind knowing that you have the proper seal for your one piece rims.

Most tubeless valve stems are snap-in style valves, which need to be cut from the base and pulled out of the rim. A pair of side cutters makes quick work of the valve stem.

Next, partially insert the new snap-in valve stem into the rim hole, then screw the 4-way valve tool onto the stem threads. You can now pull on the 4-way tool, which will allow the rubber stem to ‘snap’ into place on the rim.

Tubeless valve stems come in a variety of lengths, and widths. The most important part is measuring the diameter of the hole in your rim, which will most likely be 0.453″. The below table shows all the available valve numbers you can choose from:

Industry Valve Number	Max Inflation Pressure (PSI)	Effective Length (Inch)	Hole Diameter in Wheel (Inch)
412	65	0. 88	0.453
413	65	1.25	0.453
414	65	1.50	0.453
415	65	1.75	0.453
418	65	2.00	0.453
423	65	2.50	0.453
415	65	1.25	0.625
425	65	2.00	0.625

Install the New Tire

Mounting new tires to rims is basically the opposite of removal. Start by lubricating the edge of the rim and tire bead with a mixture of water and dish-soap. Next, push the tire bead over one edge of the rim. For smaller tires, the bead can be pushed over by hand. For larger tires, you may need to position the bead on the narrow portion of the rim, then use a pry tool 180 degrees opposite of the bead to allow the tire to slip onto the rim.

Once you have the the first half of the tire bead mounted to the rim, take your locking pliers, and clamp them down to the rim edge. The locking pliers will act as a second hand to prevent the tire bead from rotating off of the rim while you use the pry tools to work the bead over the edge of the rim. As previously mentioned, please make sure you push the bead over to the narrowest cross section of the rim, which will allow the rest of the tire bead to easily slip onto the rim.

Seat the Bead

You are almost finished with your new tire installation, but a major obstacle still remains: seating the tire bead to the rim. With all of these methods, you will need to remove the valve core first, then apply compressed air through a compressed air nozzle.

Here are three ways to seat the tire bead to the rim:

1. Simply apply compressed air to the open valve stem until you hear the bead ‘pop’ twice. The popping sound is when the bead is pushed onto the rim, locking the tire in place.
2. For larger tires, the bead may not touch the rim, so you can tie  a loop in a rope, and pull on the rope to help force the bead outward against the rim. While you pull on the rope, apply compressed air to the open valve stem until the bead pops into place on both sides of the rim.
3. If all else fails, spray a small squirt of starter fluid to the interior of the rim with the tire roughly in position. Use a BBQ lighter (keeping fingers away from the rim, having  a compressed air nozzle in the other hand) light the starter fluid by the edge of the rim. The expanding flame and gas will almost immediately pop the bead into place, and the tire will start to deflate very fast. Quickly apply compressed air to the open valve stem, which will prevent the bead from breaking loose again. This method works very well for me, but should be done with caution. If you are at your wits end, you can always take your tire to a shop, where they can professionally inflate it.

Inflate the Tire

After you have the tire bead seated on both sides of the rim, simply reinstall the valve core, and inflate the tire. Make sure you read the side-wall of the tire for PSI inflation settings. For most go kart, ATV, and golf carts, low pressure tires should be inflated from four to ten PSI.

Congratulations!  Now that you have installed your new tires, you can enjoy them driving around at your favorite riding spot.

If you like this maintenance tip, please like it, comment below, and share it!

Need other maintenance tips for your go kart? Check out the go kart maintenance tips and tricks section.

Studding a kart with glue | AUTOSTUDTING

It is the glue that professional athletes most often ask and use to ensure that the protrusion of the body over the tire tread remains unchanged from the start to the long-awaited crossing of the finish line, which is strictly controlled by a special commission.

Most of the complexities and problems covered in this article apply equally to gluing studs into any type of tire, regardless of purpose, type of race and dimensions of competitive vehicles: i. e. these nuances are typical for winter karting, as well as for jeep and car races on ice, on lakes and snow-covered tracks.

How to Prepare Competition Tires

As a rule, for competitive karting, the tire model is 4.5x11-5 WKT-ICE for 140 Tecom studs of type 9-13-2 with a body diameter of 6.5 mm, but how to put the studs on glue - here, as a rule, sportsmen , there are two ways:

• purchase "zero" tires and using do-it-yourself studding methods, glue spikes into self-drilled holes;
• s buy already studded kart wheels, remove the studs from the machine, add glue, and push the stud back one way or another.

Difficulties in gluing with do-it-yourself studding

Both of the above methods, alas, are not ideal.

On the one hand, glue (for example, the popular studding glue - Loctite 480 / Loctite) certainly makes it possible to more reliably keep the stud from protruding from the tread after extreme use in strenuous races.
On the other hand, the methods of factory studding and "garage" studding may differ not in favor of the latter:

• Hand drilling is no match for factory-drilled cleanliness: the patented PSS machine allows you to make identical, perfectly shaped holes with smooth, undamaged edges, carefully removing rubber columns;
• When studding in a groomed area, the EP-9 gun in the frame of an OKU semi-automatic machine is clamped at a certain height above the tread, providing a more stable fit, while do-it-yourself studding is still an eye operation.

After the stud 13mm high has been removed from the protector with wire cutters or a screwdriver, it is more difficult to install it back with the same quality, and here's why: the machine automatically adds a soapy solution to each hole before the stud is inserted, providing lubrication that prevents microdamage to the hole walls.

A freshly installed spike is pulled out by the operator using the same "grease", if, for example, it was installed with a mismatch. A spike without such a “lubrication” (and the shampoo dries out in a few hours) enters and exits with difficulty - and even a hole evenly cut by a machine will not save from the appearance of micro-tears that are invisible to the eye. What can we say about the fact that the “dry” removed spike by itself is insignificant, but it expands the hole - count: initially, to install the spike from 9-13-2 with a 9mm flange, a hole with a diameter of 3.2mm is drilled.

Of course, some athletes even manually and with glue hiss their kart so high quality that one can envy. However, you must admit that it is one thing to slowly and thoroughly stud one set for yourself and another one for a friend, and another thing is to repeat the same thing on hundreds and thousands of tires.

Difficulties in gluing with mass studding

Unfortunately, studding quickly and cheaply using glue is hindered by two factors:

• regular stops are required for cleaning machines and guns - because the glue in the machine can simply dry out and then the professional equipment will become unusable or the spikes will be damaged;
• it is necessary to do regular ventilation - so that employees working with the use of appropriate PPE are not continuously wearing masks and in a room that is permeated through with toxic cyanoacrylate.

Looking for new ways and continuing to test

Tire stud production, in collaboration with Tecom's R&D facilities, is in a relentless search for a kart stud model that can withstand even the toughest and wildest races without any adhesive, yet is affordable and can mass-produced and studded, available. At the same time, it was installed in compliance with the studding technology, did not lead to the risk of tearing off the tread blocks or tire puncture, without home-made and drills. And, of course, he categorically ruled out rigging, when the spike is independently leveled either higher or lower.

Correctly determine the size of ATV tires

05/17/2018

The numbers written on the side of the rubber tire can tell the owner of the ATV everything that interests him. And if you are for some If you don't know what these mysterious numbers mean, then you can be mistaken when choosing the next set of tires. But tires directly determine whether it will go technique further or not. So, in this article you will close all the questions on about the decoding of size ATV tire .

All tires have their own basic parameters - this is the width, height and diameter. The value of these parameters is mainly measured in inches. Exists two units:

1) If you have ATV, then this is for you. English version is the most common number system that is used when determination of tire dimensions on ATVs. All measurements here are in inches. (1 inch equals 2.54 cm). For example, the size indicated in English classification looks like this - 25x8x12 . Let's take a closer look at the meaning of each digit:

- The first digit 25 shows the height of the tire in inches;

- The second digit 8 indicates the width of the tire in inches;

- The last, third digit 12 indicates the diameter of the wheel disk, it is also measured in inches. Disc diameter on each ATV can be different. Therefore, be careful before you buy tires for ATV, see what regular disks are installed on your vehicle.

And a very important point worth noting. Often our customers ask themselves: “If I have a tire size of 20x10x10, can I put instead of them 20x11x10? The answer is yes. First, you can put rubber on regular wheels with a size exceeding 1 inch in height and width. Secondly, if you want tires even wider, then for this you will need to buy other disks. But again, there are limitations. On discs of other diameters, you can install rubber, the largest is only 2 inches in height and width.

These two rules must be strictly observed, otherwise, if you try to put tires of an unacceptably large size, this may adversely affect on a quad bike. After all, the rubber will be larger and, accordingly, heavier, which does not fit the technical parameters of the ATV. In production ATVs take into account all the characteristics, so manufacturers of ATV equipment I don't recommend using larger tires at all.

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