Hot Rods Excelsior tires and early wires

I posted about waiting on tires but I also have a question. Most of the guys in this area have thrown away the tubes and are running the Excelsior radials tubeless on aluminum wheels and steelies. I have a pair of 35 wires with 500/16's and a pair of widened to 5 inches 32 wires with 700/18's. Will the tires stay on the rim if I chose to run them tubeless?

 

I'm curious about this as well.

 

I’m curious how a tube keeps a tire on the rim? Less pressure on the bead area?

 

is this a trick question? you already provided the answer
---> Most of the guys in this area have thrown away the tubes and are running the Excelsior radials tubeless.

 

Ran both bias and radial Excelsiors on ‘35 wire wheels with standard tubes with no issues

 

I have tubes in Excelsiors on ‘32 wires. Only three years use so far.

 

I always thought using tubes (or not) is based on the wheel you are running and not the tire? I was under the impression that older wheels that don't have the safety bead on them should be run with tubes. Newer wheels with safety bead do not need tubes.

 

It might come down to the question of will the lip of the wheel that the tire seals on hold a seal with the tire and not loose air over a few days. I've got some 35 wires that you can sand blast, prime and paint and they would look perfect, then I have a couple that are pretty pitted and without a lot of work would never seal for any length of time.
The only thing I actually know about tubeless tires not working on Tube type wheels was from back when I was in high school and one of the guys decided that he could put tubeless tires on a set of wheels that had the riveted centers in them and came back in and broke them down again and put tubes in them because when he went out the next morning three of the four tires were flat.

 

Curious to know if the previously posted source for widening the 32 Ford 18" wire rims provides a safety bead, would seem to be the opportune time to do so & could be cut from a donor rim.

 

Safety bead has nothing to do with tube or no tube. That just helps keep the tire on the rim in case of a flat. I run my '35 Ford wire wheels tubeless with radials and also any disc wheels. It's the tube type tires that need tubes, not the wheels. Now, adjustable spoke wire wheels need tubes unless built to be run tubeless.

Dave

 

Anyone running a radial tire 750x16 on a wide 5 4"rim tubeless?

 

My friend here in Australia fitted 4 Excelsior whitewall radials on his 46 convertible. It was recommended by his tire guy to run tubes. Personally I would not have.
On the inside of these tires is a small metal sticker which is hard to see. This sticker heats up when driving and burnt through the tune and BANG at 60MPH. Luckily a rear tire. The tire distributor here knew about the problem but not advised as I guess they thought they would be run tubeless.