Difficulty Removing OEM Westlake Tires from Solitude Wheels

[Nuffsaid]

Preventative maintenance bites me in the rear once again! I have a 2018 310GK and I decided since the tires are 6 years old that to be on the safe side I would replace them. The Original tires are Westlake all steel 14 ply. I own a small tire shop and since I retired from my M-F job I just do my tire sales. I should mention that I have been selling and installing tires for the better part of 35 years. So I decide to remove my Westlakes from my 310 and at the same time, convert my 6 lug 5200 lb axles on my Jeep hauler flat bed trailer to 8 lug hubs by using the original hubs from the 310 because I was tired of looking at them on the shelf. Simple swap since the spindles are the same from 5200 to 7000 lbs, all I had to change was the seals because the 5200 lb spindle used a smaller seal surface. Piece of cake. I sourced a set of aluminum 16x7 wheels from a buddy and planned on installing the Westlakes onto my flatbed trailer. I pulled the wheels on the 310 and started dismounting tires. WHAT A HORRIBLE PIA!!!!!! Top bead would come off ok, but bottom bead would get stuck and stop my tire machine. I soaped and soaped and the amount of force was so much that it was twisting my duckbill head. Finally got all the tires off and I am scratching my head as to why such a PIA. I installed the Westlakes on the other set of wheels I had and piece of cake, no issue at all, tires went right on. I installed the wheels on my flatbed trailer, loaded up my 5500lb Jeep TJ and inspected everything and Houston we have a problem!!! Tires are too close to the deck crossmembers and will surely make contact when going over bumps. Not good, back off with the wheels and tires and dismounted the Westlakes and ordered some 235/80R16 that will be about 1.25 inches shorter giving me adequate clearance. Fast forward to today. My tire truck shows up and I unload the new 14 ply Hercules 901 235/85R16 and a set of Hercules Strong Guard 235/80R16. I immediately go to install the 14 ply tires on the OEM 310 wheels and NO GO!!! The tires won't go over the bead without stopping the turntable on the tire machine. I tried some tire spoons and still couldn't get them to budge. I dismounted the bead and scratched my head. I got the calipers out and measured top of wheel to the edge of the drop center. The 310 wheels measured about 2 1/8 inches. Then I measured the other wheels and they were about 1 1/2 inches. Found the problem. I decided to swap wheels and install the aluminum mod wheels onto the 310, tires went on without a hitch. Then I mounted up the other tires onto the OEM 310 wheels and right off the bat stuck the first tire. I got it removed and soaped the entire drop center area along with the beads and it went on better but not perfect. These 235/80R16 tires have normal thickness beads, not the extra thick beads of the 14 ply tires. Having the drop center so far away from the top of the wheel lip is the issue. I have run into this with some other aftermarket truck wheels that were a PIA to install and it isn't fun fighting with a heavy tire on a wheel that is improperly designed! I am not super happy with the outcome right now, so I ordered a new set of Ultra trailer wheels and hopefully they show up before our next trip to Montana next week. I have never had an issue with Ultra wheels and I have an email in to tech support to address my concern. Since the wheels are rated at 4400 lbs each I am hoping they are designed around the 14 ply version of the tire.The wheels that are on the 310 as of today are only rated at 3000 lbs each and I am not really to concerned because there is a safety factor built into wheels and I never exceed 6000 lbs per axle, but I will still change them out if the new ones get here on time.

Has anyone else run into this issue with your factory wheels when replacing tires?

 

[Rudy35]

Having mounted tires at different jobs through the years, sounds like the wheels are what is called "deep dish", and have to be put on your tire machine upside down to dismount and mount. Hope this helps.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Having mounted tires at different jobs through the years, sounds like the wheels are what is called "deep dish", and have to be put on your tire machine upside down to dismount and mount. Hope this helps.

Believe it or not, I tried this too and it was worse. On my last tow rig 2017 Silverado 3500 I ordered a set of Vision wheels that looked really cool in 18x9. They were a horrible pain in the ****** to mount tires on. The tire had to be pulled all the way to the top of the drop center and then the tire bead was super tight going around the wheel. I then ordered another set of wheels for summer tires and they were Ultra 18x9 and mounting tires on them was a breeze. The difference was the distance between the top of the wheel and the drop center, the smaller the distance the better.

I ordered a new set of ultra wheels from my distributor and I also contracted Ultra tech support to see how much trouble I was going to have mounting the 14 ply tires on their wheels. The response I got was they will likely be a PIA to install too! The 14 ply tires mounted up with no issues on the 16x7 wheels, but the wheels are only rated for 3000 lbs ea. The big difference with the 16x7 wheels are the distance between the edge of the drop center and the outside lip is about 1/2 inch less than the factory 310 wheels and that distance is huge. I don't know that there is really any difference in the wheel design and the weight rating between 3000 lbs and 4400 lbs, it is probably just what they were tested at. The factory 310 wheels are cast aluminum and rated at 3980 lbs. the older modular wheels I have are heavier than the 310 wheels but are only rated at 3000 lbs. The new Ultra wheels are rated at 4400 pounds. I asked tech support about being rated for 110 psi and he said that they test the wheels to 110 psi but they are not rated for that pressure, just load.

 

[Rudy35]

Hmmm, don't know why a wheel manufacturer would not understand how a tire is mounted and make a compatible wheel. The darn engineers should have to use their product before it's distributed!! Being a do it yourself type, I'll probably have fun when it's time to replace my tires!!

 

[Cpb9294]

Nope, mine came off fine.

 

[traveldawg]

I went to a tire shop that dealt with cars mostly and bought a set of Sailuns for my camper. It turned out that they couldn't get the old Sailun tires off ("...our machine is too small..).

So I went to a shop that does truck tires and they swapped out the old Sailuns and installed the new ones with no problem.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

Yeah, the sidewalls on the Sailun's are very stiff, especially after seeing some of those ST tires.

 

[Nuffsaid]

I went to a tire shop that dealt with cars mostly and bought a set of Sailuns for my camper. It turned out that they couldn't get the old Sailun tires off ("...our machine is too small..).

So I went to a shop that does truck tires and they swapped out the old Sailuns and installed the new ones with no problem.

Hard to say if your wheels are the exact wheels that I have.

 

[KamFlyer]

Put 6 new Sailuns on our 374TH with Lionshead rims. It took 3 guys at Big-O to get the the old Westlakes off and 3 to put the Sailuns on. Each wheel took a good 20 minutes of fighting!

 

[Nuffsaid]

Put 6 new Sailuns on our 374TH with Lionshead rims. It took 3 guys at Big-O to get the the old Westlakes off and 3 to put the Sailuns on. Each wheel took a good 20 minutes of fighting!

All wheels are not created equally. Most of the wheels made for our trailers are made for 10 ply 235/85R16 tires. With the substantially thicker beads on the 14 ply tires, there simply isn't the propper distance to make mounting the tires seemless. I am really hoping that the new Ultra trailer wheels I ordered have the proper dimensions to make changing the tires a pleasant experience. I don't want to have a tire on a wheel that needs a specialty shop to replace if I have a tire failure in the middle of nowhere. If I can't get the tire on and off with my tire machine, I will purchase a wheel that works. The 16x7 wheels I have mounted right now were easy peasy to mount the 14 ply tires on. I am hoping the new Ultras will be the same. I can't say the same for the factory wheels that came on the 310. I had a hard time mounting 235/80R16 10 ply tires on those wheels and I never have a hard time mounting that size tire on any wheel. I don't know the brand name of the OEM wheels, but they were probably what GD could purchase at a cheap price.
Regaring your lions head wheels, are they 16x6.5 or 16x6 because the latter makes for harder installation due to lack of space in the center. The 14 ply tires specifically call out a 6.5 inch wide wheel.

 

[KamFlyer]

Regaring your lions head wheels, are they 16x6.5 or 16x6 because the latter makes for harder installation due to lack of space in the center. The 14 ply tires specifically call out a 6.5 inch wide wheel.

16x6 to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Nuffsaid]

I will try and take some photos of my wheel install when my new wheels show up and I will also try to take some photos of the 16x7 wheels to show the differences.

 

[Nuffsaid]

My new Ultra Armageddon 16x6.5 wheels showed up today. I took some quick measurements and dismounted my Hercules 901 tires from the aluminum modular wheels. I put a new wheel on my tire machine and soaped the entire inside of the wheel, beads and drop center and then soaped the tire beads. Tires went on nicely, I had to assist the tire going around the duck bill because the tire was slipping on the wheel. For the most part, piece of cake, much better than the factory Solitude wheels. I don't think I spent 3 minutes each getting the tires on the wheels. These wheels are rated at 4400 lbs @ 110 psi and my tires are also rated at 4400 lbs. Hopefully I don't have to mess with this again for a while. I do think it is a good idea to soap the entire inside of the wheel so the tire bead can find it's way to the top of the drop center.

 

[Flyn2high]

I had a 2020 310GK and ordered new G rated LT tires from Goodyear and had them delivered to a Goodyear tire shop. They also couldn't get the Westlakes off. I was sent to another Goodyear shop and they had the same problem. I ended up going to a heavy duty truck shop and it was a piece of cake for them.

Now I have a new 390RK with H rated tires.

Lou.