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Going from foam filled back to pneumatic tires on a Bombardier SW48

Idaho Living

Idaho Living

Member
I have begun the process of replacing all my old tires with doughnut spares and high pressure tubes. The numbers are in, the foam filled original tire and tube weighed 73 pounds! The air filled Yokohama weighs 34 pounds. I found that the foamed wheels are nearly impossible to hoist back onto the axel alone, especially if the track is still on. I’m done with foam. Never mind it costs an additional 50 dollars per tire, there is just too much weight penalty and they have to be cut off with a reciprocating saw.
 
8AFA8A25-0306-4569-AB93-3A5CA333983C.jpeg
 
Personally I would run your best 2 foamed tires on the rear , it will save a lot of cursing later on. But .....this is just my opinion.
To bad we weren't closer on the map , I'd swap your solids for 6 cleaned/ painted rims.

J5 Bombardier
 
I would also take your solid tires against inflated ones. I mean, I never had a flat with solid tires, but I have a flat tire every 2 or 3 years and those spare tubes are hard to find and it is time consuming to replace.

I do agree that the solid wheels are heavy and I'd need help to remove it without removing the track (for the center one). But I don't remove only a wheel now, I remove the tracks completely and clean the bearings in any ways.

jf
 
I agree with both of you in a way, the rear tire is important for tensioning the track and under a lot of stress. I will run the rears as long as they hold up, per J5s opinion. I respect the work he has done on all the machines he owns and what he has learned from it. As for busting open the tracks, it is the best option hands down. My tracks are coming off this spring to remove the rubber from the grousers, which is falling off from age. I will service the bearings then like jflarin.
 
So I got two Yokohama tires and two high pressure tubes from Alpine Guide for the tires right behind the sprocket. The two rear tires need new tubes. Is it best to take the track right off or not ?????
 
gabbott3 said:
So I got two Yokohama tires and two high pressure tubes from Alpine Guide for the tires right behind the sprocket. The two rear tires need new tubes. Is it best to take the track right off or not ?????
Click to expand...
With other wheels than the rear one, it is very difficult to change it without removing the track, but it can be done. However when I did it, it was with a lot of external help (having extra hands to pry the track while pushing the tire).
I would not try it with the rear tire.
But now, since I do the job all by myself, I remove the track every time.
It is mostly because because I check and clean all bearings. I've lost wheels because the bearings would become full of mud and rust. That is not funny. If you try to put back the wheel without removing the track, you must make sure that you don't distort the seal on the back of the wheel. That is very difficult to do with the track.

jf
 
Great !!! That's good info, I will have a look at the wheel bearings...If I take off the middle wheel will the steering bands be exposed ???
 
The steering band are located in the differential in the front under the fuel tank. This is how it looks like after you remove the 'dash' and the fuel tank:
equipement-forestier 014.jpg


After you remove that cover, you should see something like this:


J5-differentiel.JPG

As you can see below, this picture was taken when it was really contaminated. The two bands are tightened by pulling the 2 bolts shown on the top of the picture by the 2 levers you can see on the top of the picture.

jf
 
Well, excellent explanation and pictures!!!! I put an external fuel tank on my machine because the internal tank was a mess inside.
Looks like it's 2 birds with one stone...
Thanks a million jf
 
If the top cover is off ,you can dump some diesel fuel in if you want to clean the tub , if the cover is on don't bother.
Some have a drain plug underneath the pinion box ( just in front of the diff yoke , remove it , you'll get some oil out of there. Myself , the cheapest TDH I can buy
J5 Bombardier
 
gabbott3 said:
jf are you flushing the differential with some product ???? Any what oil product are you using ???
Click to expand...
Hi,
It gets contaminated quite often, so every time I bring it in the garage for a check-up, I end up emptying the differential and refilling it with gear oil (Walmart 80W-90). As far as I understand it, the system is not sealed enough to prevent contamination for my current use, so oil will be contaminated with water no matter if I flush it or not. So what I need to do is to put a roof over the J5. In the meantime, I change oil more often.

jf
 
Thanks jf fortunately I have a sw 48 with a top. I'm going to drain the fluid and go with the JD hy- gard.
Certainly thank you for your thoughts !!!!
 
Matts offroad is in the middle of replacing all of their Bombi bogies to traditional 5x4.5 trailer fixed, that's right FIXED axles. Tires will be inflated obviously. Their theory is the cushioning of the tires will help mitigate some of the suspension, not like it ever had much to begin with since the old swings were bottomed out anyways.

Yeah I'm not so confident on the 100% air approach, I like the idea of keeping the rear foam because of the forces involved, but heck try it out and see how it works! They are upsizing their tires a bit since they're building new tracks (tires in the thumbnail obviously not final tires), that's not a bad idea IMHO, but that could in theory mean less contact area on the drive sprocket because of the angles.

 
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