I ran into a bit of a snag recently as I tried to mount Gama Goat tires onto
my DUKW rims. Both Gama Goat and DUKW tires are 11.00 x 18, though the DUKW
tires are 12 ply and the Gama Goat tires are 6 ply tubeless. My DUKW rims are
the later 2 piece, bolt together style.
Anyway, while visually comparing the tires, I realized the beads were
different. A quick measurement indicates the bead on the Gama Goat tire is
about 3/8 of an inch thinner than the bead on the DUKW tire. While this is
probably no big deal if you are running flaps and tubes, I was intending to
retain the bead locks. Now I'm faced with the bead locks being 3/4 of an inch
too narrow if I run the Gama Goat tires. No wonder that first tire I mounted
went on so easily, the tire beads never compressed against the bead lock.
The only options I can see which will let me run the bead locks are to either
run DUKW tires or make some kind of spacers for the bead locks. DUKW tires
are on the expensive side, but I'm really not thrilled with modifying the bead
locks either. I suppose one could take 3/8 square or round steel tubing, bend
it to the same diameter, and braze it onto each side of the bead lock. The
brazing would allow the spacers to be removed in the future with little or no
damage to the bead locks, but I bet the spacers would make collapsing the bead
lock for installation a real pain (if not impossible).
Anyone else struggle with this and how did you solve it?
Mike Bennett 1944 DUKW
Fresno, California, USA
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