I had my buggy in the back of my truck getting ready to head off to the beach when I heard this big bang. It sounded like a bomb went off. I wasn't sure where it came from so I looked around alittle bit and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then when I got to the beach I figured out what it was. My front tire had blown off the rim. The only thing I can figure is the sun warmed up the tire and poof. Its weird though the sun wasn't out for but a few hours here today and the highs were maybe low to mid 60's. Has this happened to anyone else and what tire pressure should I be running in my tires ?

lol ... last year at NABX my buddy's buggy front tire blew off. we thought it was from the sun heating up all the liquid when we put the tire on.

Your tires are rated at some high PSI number, but the rims are rated at 2 Bar.
We had his tires up to 30PSI, but I run my tires at 22PSI.

Wow, I run my tires at 29 psi all the time and leave them in the stupid hot Georgia summer sun all the time with no problem. The back of your truck must have been hot!

Thats funny ... well there's my problem. The tires said 75 psi max and I had them at 65 psi . I will drop them down alittle Good to know ... I thought it was going to be a little sketchy at NABX with exploding tires all over the place

65PSI!!! I'll assume that you had the plastic rims rated at 2 BAR? (or 29 PSI MAX!!!!!!!) I have seen more plastic wheels blown to pieces, split apart, or just completely unusable due to over inflation!

15 to 18 PSI is fine for most if not all situations. Even in the desert, just ask Eli.

I never even thought to look at the wheel. Even if I did I wouldn't of known what 2 bar was. Now I know. Thanks eveyone. Its fixed now (thanks bridgestone tires in Monterey) and I'm going to the beach.

I try to start out at 18psi, heating through out the day usually gets you up to 25psi by noon.. I saw a tire fly almost 30ft up when it pooped it's wheel...huh bison, "heads up"

it happens at nabx every year.
you`re just sitting around bulling with other buggiers and all of a sudden POW you will hear a tire blow.
it pays to check your tires a few time a day out there as the sun heats them up pretty quick.
i run about 20psi and never had problem with blow outs.

I had a rim fail and I do not keep that much air in my tires. I will be adding more air for the desert.

Susan (npw goddess)

Wow I did not realize that the sun increases the pressure in tires. It would not be a good thing to have a blow out while crusing at any speed. Glad you got it fixed dlish Did you have to get a whole new tire? Or did it just blow off the rim?

It just blew off the rim. I got it back on the rim, but didn't have a big enough air compressor with me to get the bead set. I found a tire shop and they let me use their air
Forgetful me I forgot to take some tires with me. I won't forget them again ... just incase.

My Flexi midis or wide tires as they call them came with 22 psi in them. I can put my full 228 lbs on top of one tire with the ball of one foot and can't see or feel any deflection. What have you guys noticed the tradeoffs were with more or less air. I guess the issues are grip while turning or holding a line, while considering ride quality and soft sand performance. I imagine these tires will help some in soft sand but does it help to have the pressure reduced? I typically ride on grass and will spend 3 days at Jekyll Island next weekend with almost concrete hard sand. Woohoo for JIBE! Just wondering what your thoughts on this were. I noticed above that Angus runs 29 psi which is the max for the wheels and others are running 18 and 20.

When I assembled your buggy I put like 23-25 psi in as I do for mine. I know that in the hot GA sun on a hot beach that the pressure will come up some.

You must have already aired them up by the time I got there so I didn't know you had aired them up. They measured 22 in cooler weather and no sunshine on them. Angus, have you played with air pressure to see the positives/negatives of less inflation? You seem settled on the matter. You have that really hard flat sand so the higher pressure should allow you to slide good in your turns and minimize rolling resistance.

This is what they say in the manual and Jekyll would certainly qualify as "hard" sand. Maybe not like in the dry lakebeds but hard enough that you barely make tracks unless you are turning/sliding.

quote from the Flexi manual:

Inflate to your preferred pressure but do not exceed 1.7 Bar (25 psi.)
Note:
Tyre pressure can be lowered to increase the footprint when using your buggy on very soft sand. On
hard surfaces like tarmac (blacktop) and hard sand, it is recommended that you inflate your tyres to the
maximum pressure. There now, I've read the instructions and thereby solved my own question. I'll try to do better next time. :duh:

Lowering the front tire pressure can give it more grip in turns, but yeah, I keep the back tires hard for the hard sand. I have split helmets open on that sand.

Be careful when filling your tires at a gas station with a compressor tank for their air tools. These tanks may run at up to 150 psi. When gases expand rapidly, they cool. So the air in your tire may be at 30 psi just after you fill it, but be at 60 psi when you tire reaches ambient temperature. Lots of bike tires have blown up from this.
S

Quote:

Originally posted by Scudley Be careful when filling your tires at a gas station with a compressor tank for their air tools. These tanks may run at up to 150 psi. When gases expand rapidly, they cool. So the air in your tire may be at 30 psi just after you fill it, but be at 60 psi when you tire reaches ambient temperature. Lots of bike tires have blown up from this. S

That ratio might be a bit extreme for normal air at 150 psi, but the principal is accurate. For every 10 degrees drop in temperature, the psi drop for atmospheric air is about 1 psi. Air up with 150 psi air on a cold morning and then let the tire sit on hot sand in the sun all day and you could have a 5-7 psi. increase. The wheels on my flexi says 2 bar max which is 29 psi. They say don't fill more than 25 psi to allow for such expansion. I had to air my car tires this morning because they were ok at 90 degrees but these mornings in the upper forties are dropping the pressure down about 4-5 psi.