Mounting 15.5/80R20 Tires on Original M35A2 Deuce and a Half Split Ring Rims 

I remember doing 11of these tires in the middle of the gravel parking lot when I was in the Army back in 1988 while stationed over in West Germany. I didn't have a tire cage, so I improvised and used the equipment that I did have. A 10 foot long tow chain, looped in a figure 8 through the rim and around the tire, the split ring side down, and a 10 foot long air chuck that gave me room to stand away from it. A Lt. Colonel saw what I was doing and asked why I wasn't using a tire cage? I said that this tire swap was not pre-planned and that my tire cage was 150 km away back at my unit's shop and I didn't have access to another one and I made the decision to just use the gear that I had available ,and the ground and the chain would catch the split ring if it popped off . He saw what I did and he called his Command Sergeant Major over and ordered that every vehicle in their battalion that had these wheel/tire combo should also have this type of chain to safly do tires in the field from now on. You're welcome.

There's a man that is not afraid of a ton of work. He also straight up says "don't do this". Thanks for posting the video.

Take it from the guy who has done about 200 of these in the field without equipment. Swap the spare first, then you can break beads by driving a front wheel over the tire edges to break the bead and save mucho hammering and sweat.

Wow. It's been 50 years since, as an assigned driver to my duce, I had to repair a flat tire. Back then, you have a sledge hammer, large steel spoons and a pry bar to break down your tire. With the help of another Private, we got the tire taken apart before noon chow. After chow, we returned to the motorpool to finish putting the tire back together and mounting it. We had just hot patch repaired the hole in the tube, got it all back together and put the air chuck on the tire and started airing it. The Staff Sergeant motor Sergeant called us to his office a few feet from our truck. He wanted us to do some detail. We tried to tell him the tire was chucked and being filled with air but he didn't want us to tell him anything and to get on his detail as he ordered us. We tried again to tell him , but he ordered us to SHUT UP and move out! Reluctantly we did..... A few moments later came a HUGE....KA-BOOM!!!!! The split rim went straight up and through the tin roof. Large pieces of tire rubber blew out windows and lights. It was like a bomb had just arrived in the motor pool shop! Of course the Motor Sergeant was yelling a lot of select profanity words and demanded to know what the %$#@!!! had happened!! The air hose chuck was long gone and the air hose was whipping wildly around the shop. A couple of days later, after an investigation was completed by a young Lieutenant, the whole story got reported. The Motor Sergeant ended up getting an Article 15 over the incident. We were lucky no one was seriously injured or killed. My buddy and I, were banned from doing any more flat repairs on my duce as punishment(?). LOL

I was on the USS Durham during the first gulf war with Mssg-13. They made us change all of our M-813’s to super singles. It wasn’t fun as we were underway the whole time, trucks were chained and binders to the deck. New tires and the old ones were winched rope and pulley style sometimes 4 levels. Brings back good memories lol... nice vid!

Here's another helpful hint. After you have removed the ring, hold it flat with both hands and just drop it on the concrete driveway. When it hits the ground it should make a ringing sound not a clunk. If it just goes clunk check it for cracks. Sometimes they are hard to see.

This brings back some old memories....I was a 64c driver in the 6th Infantry Division U.S. ARMY in 1975 and we had to break the beads with a pick-axe, and the best way to attack the bastard is to stand right on the tire while striking the bead/rim. I got so good I could change a tire out in about ten minutes.The trick I learned on my own was, when inflating the death ring to 50psi, I placed the flat tire just repaired with the ring facing up and back into the spare tire mount with the cable ratchet, put on the two lugs and filled the tire from underneath with the on board compressor , so if the ring breaks loose, it will explode up into the deuce frame....I was 19 !!

Using the chains was a good choice when you don't have a cage when you aired up the tire-tires. Good field process from a retired Army National Guard wheel mechanic like me.

Great video, did a lot of these back in the 1970's as a 19 year old 64 Charlie - Heavy Vehicle Operator (M52A2/5Ton); with just tire irons and lug wrenches, no impact tools. Now that I'm in my 60's my back is paying the price.

Slide the tire underneath the truck as an added measure of protection. At least that's what we did in the Army when we had to repair a tire in the field and didn't have a cage.

Take some advice from a former commercial tire tech that dealt with these every day. The next time you break down one of your wheels, break the bead on the backside first; then flip the tire over & do the lock ring side. After you get the lock ring removed, stand the tire up (with the valve stem top dead center), and use your hammer & hit the rim out of the tire. Also have a good pair of steel toe work boots on as well. Tire safety cages can be had in several configurations, ones on a mobile truck fold & unfold like a sawhorse for storage on the truck. Also only put 20 # of air in the tire when airing back up, (you need to take a 5# maul and go around the inside edge of the rim where the lock ring is and you need to hit every inch of the wheel, as this makes the lock ring seat properly)

I DID THIS YEARS AGO IN THE FIELD IN THE RAIN AMD MUD AND COLD AND WISHED I D JOINED THE NAVY

Sweet memories.. Lol.. We use to fill em up with a shot of ether and an MRE match tossed at em. Those were the days 🤠

Never saw the baby powder trick before ... (maybe its common? ... But I never saw it) ... GREAT idea .. makes sense! 10:30 Great trick with the tie down straps too! .. a compressed sidewall like that REALL protects the RIMS if your off road in rocky terrain ... 14:00 That chain set up was standard practice when was a kid .. only the biggest tire shops had a proper cage

On a "pucker Factor" scale of 1 to 10..That was a 15-20. You are a better man than I am. The only way I'd try that is take the whole rig and tires to a tire shop. It'd probably cost the better of $1,000. I'm 70+ years old. 40 years ago I might have tried that.

the easy way to replace a tire (on the rear outside) is to take the jack and throw it under the inside tire, and just back up until the tire is off the ground. sounds funny, but it's the fastest way to swap out tires quickly, especially in the gulf. we also used the Air Impact connected to the trucks air.

After watching the video, I took three ibuprofen tablets. My back was hurting from remembering how this used to feel.

Thanks for posting this. Having done this myself, I can appreciate the amount of work you've done here. I installed a set of 395/85/20 Goodyear MVT's on stock wheels and new tubes. And didn't like the fit. Changed over to new MRAP wheels and adaptors and flipped the rear hubs. What a back breaker though!

Yikes, did a couple of these combat rim change out's in the bush, we used an old section of chain link fence over the tyre and rim u can still get your assorted prybars and sledges in there. But man I was fit and bad ass in my 30s wouldn't do it now in my late 50s hahah, I really enjoyed this while sitting in my shop sipping a bourbon and coke....

The M35A2 Wheels for 9.00x20" tires which you use, are 7,5x20", 7,5inch wide. A M35A3 wheel, which originally is used for 14,5R20" tires, is 11x20", 11inch wide.

I have known 3 men in the Billings Montana area who had their heads removed with these split Rims. Frank Bros. Tire in Billings had one accident and then built a tire cage to handle it. Then the next Bonehead figured he’d not use the cage when the boss left. Needless to say when he returned his employee was missing his head on the shop floor. Sign went up the next day that the business was closed for good. I lived just a block down the street and always used this shop for my needs. So I knew both the victims of these tragically flawed wheel designs. The next tire guy I knew I did work for in Park City Montana. He was mounting the tire back on a truck and the tire blew as he was facing it. He never had the time to blink before his head was laying on the ground.

Yes!! Safety cage!! Seen one go!! SCARY AS HELL!! 1978 OKINAWA 9TH MARINES

I have a M35 Deuce. Bought it and with the help of a friend, storing it on his lot. The split ring wheels freak me out (early in my 21yr Army career, I heard nasty stories). Anyway...this video helps increase my comfort level. Thank you.

Thank you! This Confirms that I'm keeping my 9.00x20 NDTEs ;-D

Dude thats nuts and a lot off work, well done! Rocking split rims is some craziness!

Hats off to you mon brave; I did similar things in a desert far, far away - ball breaking in the extreme.

I used to do this at a tire center and you are so rite when you said dont try this at home because at as little as 40 psi if it comes apart it would take your head clean off.

MY DAD nearly lost his life changing a tire in oklahoma city back in early 70's he met Jesus. had migranes rest of his life

Iv done truck tires for over 20 years and i always put 15 or maybe 20psi in the tire with no chain or cage .make sure the ring is locked in good as possible .and roll it to the truck bolt it up and air it up all the way not standing anywhere in front of the tire.i have even bolted them on the truck with no air at all then air them up also.

I have had the "privledge" of observing a split rim come apart. Inside a cage! oh MY gosh, I nearly soiled my pants. I can see how folks are killed by such.

Sketchy and effective, making it work with what you got. Well done!

That's the way we used to do it in the Army. Good job.

The split ring is the easy part if you have the right tools to remove and seat them, did hundreds of them in my twelve years in the Army

You should try doing this in the mud, raining, and at night. It would have only been worse if it were winter. Still got it done and only, thank God, only had to do it once.

Oh god, I changed so many of those split rim duce and a half tires when I was in the service. I do not miss those days.

I worked on these a lot in the 70s. Old timers told about a guy who had the top of his head taken off.

You did a great job with trying to keep yourself safe. You did good.

A lot of people get a false sense of confidence if they air up the tire in a cage. I got news for you. You aren't safe. The pieces or ring may miss you but, the air blast can turn you inside out. I've seen what the air blast did to a truck parked nearby. I use those same wheels with 11:00 R 20s on my '56 ford F-900 Marmon Herrington. He showed perfect examples of distorted and damaged wheels and rings. As long as the parts aren't distorted, they are pretty safe. That's why they invented clip-on infiltrators. I've had 2 trucks with the old widow-maker rims. I took them off and rolled them to the junk pile.

My hats off to you I could not even lift one of those tires let along do all the other stuff.

That's definitely the man way! My buddy and I did a similar swap on his but used the skid steer with the set of forks and a couple boards. Setting the bead ring and mounting back on the was not a backbreaker.

Heck yeah ! Thumbs up. I will bet people don't mess with you in traffic driving that beast. I want one some day.

One thing the old timers did was to stand on the tire when swinging the tire hammer it wedges the hammer between the rim and the bead instead of chopping straight down on the tire. The other thing was to put the tire over the rim instead of putting the rim into the tire . The rest I agree you did what you had to do

Kudos for busting your hump on this project. That looked like a lot of work

You can drill a hole on each side of the split in the ring and thread the holes then a 3/8 inch flat bar 1 inch wide 5 inches long and drill holes in the flat bar then bolt the flat bar to the ring and that will keep it from flying off at you. Your welcome . God Bless us all

Man that winch chain combo is badass

Here in the Philippines, go to one of those vulcanizing shops, those really small run down places by the road side. Some small and really skinny guys will show you how it is done in less than 5 minutes! But i know this is really hard to do! Great video.

I don'r need one of these trucks...but I sure do want one!!! Enjoyed the video. I'll never change one of these sure was interesting.

Thanks fer sharin all those years ago !!!. You'd need deep pockets to have someone do that job !!.

been in those boots, outstanding job ! out lay for tools sucks & and you probably won't need them for awhile. But you got em DON'T LEND EM

I worked at Montgomery Wards Auto service many years ago. The shop had an imprint of a ring upon the ceiling from a ring blowing off!

wow, those are great looking tires,,!!!!

Kinda like driving a corvair, not too hazardous if you pay attention and take your time. Ive done many! Thanks!

When I was 16 (1968) I worked at the local Firestone store in Bellevue Washington. One of the older guys (maybe 22-24 yo) was airing up a split rim tire, the rim blew off going straight up and proceeded to takeoff the front of his face..... I reported to work a couple hours later and the blood and facial material was still stuck to the roof of the shop. Using a chain here is a very good idea, but migbt not be enough to keep you safe

Snap on tool #TR-100. Split rim. Pry bars I've got 2 of them. They are a multi purpose tool great to have in any box.

Did this when I was a kid of about 10 or 12 with my dad in the basement of our house, big hammers , flat end bars and a quart of brake fluid. The truck we had to haul our Cat D2 around had 10 hundred 20s on with two piece rims. I remember reading about a retired cop in New York was standing on the street corner and a truck with two piece rims stopped at the light, the ring let go and blew to the walk , hit him and killed him.

Damn if that ain’t a serious PITA! That truck looks like a BEAST!!

Those split rings can take your arm off. In the army we always had to cage the wheel when airing back up for our safety.

you made it look hard to change a split rim And fyi you only need 2 log chain one on each side but i recommend using a bolt and washer to hold the chain together hooks can come undone and yes i changed them when i was a teen and i have changed too many to count and never had one escape a chain

Every damn truck and bus in Sri Lanka still use these tires!! I have seen they work on them like crazy fast

The old school trick for split ring tires is air tire split ring side down the weight will keep you safer. I've been present when an ill seated ring went @ the backwoods garage. The tire/rim will jump when ring blows but always be behind a object when airing. Also mount split rings inward so they blow twards the frame, commonly done in the 70's semi trucks to avoid liabilty. A good practice in pretrip when airing up when mounted/pressure check so as not to take your head off, having split ring inward.

Not too dam bad. Very innovative.

I never did tires when I was in, just M60A1 tracks by hand, 2.5 tons each. I did, however, change a lot of tires driving dump truck in the early 90's.

rumor has it the split ring makes the same sound as an empty M1 Grand clip as it takes your life ;)

TY...NOT THE FIRST TIME YOU'VE DONE THIS...

What a monumental pain in the ass!!!! That’s a lot of hard and dangerous work for one person to do. They turned out great! Fantastic job!

When I was in the Marines in the 80s and in Motor Transportation we never used a cage or chains to break down or inflate tires. We were careful with what we did. The reasons tires explode is because people over inflate them. If you pay attention to what you're doing that will not happen.

You got bigger balls than me brother, good job , awesome truck 👍

Don't listen to the Monday Morning Quarterbacks the professional Tire Changers,and the would of could of and should of hoopla malarkey.. Thank you for sharing the video sir you did one hell of a job,much respect to you sir your hard work is to be commended.. liked shared and subscribed.

Very awesome video. I like ur methods despite them not bein the"proper" ones. I'm interested in gettin an m35a2 and I'm lookin into all the goods n bads first. I know that was a huge pain in the ass but was very worth it once you were done. Subbed.

amazing, fantastic and truly great work !

You are doing it like we used to do it in the field

Well you got it done and survived to share the video, my biggest concern isn't the way you did any of it fitting the tire as such, I don't have a cage either, but work with a backhoe or front loader bucket and rail tie for the safety catch using the machine weight with open center Dayton truck rims. I'd be more concerned that extra tire width could possibly flip that band out before the tires fully inflated to lock it in place properly with the bead. Thats my thought anyway it "might" never be a problem.

Love that truck and looks mean with those tires

You got Michelins on front ("Pilote XL") ? Wow your truck Knows it is loved! The large Harbor Freight 3/4 pistol style impact would take off your lugs, I have the $250 "Earthquake Gun," it works lots better than my 3/4 drive Ingersoll Rand. When we'd air up a new tire on a deuce, we'd turn the lock ring side down, using a locking air chuck, and Stand Back! You're doing good and clever work, and making good videos. Keep it up! I got 42,000 miles on a Deuce, tough as nails they are....SP4 Patrick Young, US Army. :-)

Hope you was careful man be safe

Very nice truck !

Kudos. That's a hell of a job to undertake. I think I would have gone to the local tire shop and said: "Yo! Your problem!" Lmao

I change these for a local company. They aren't the widow makers that you make them out to be and they definately aren't 300 pounds.

I use a 4x4 front tire on the ground to break the bead. Just roll rubber on rubber, rotate when she pops.

these look really nice. Debating on if I'd want these or keep the stock duals to keep it looking original

Why didn't you get the M35A3 wheels? They fit on your axles, are to mount without danger and wider, so your bigger tire will fit better on the A3 wheels.

How did you know when the bead was seated? How did you know when/if it was safe to approach the tire and take the chains off?

Very interesting video indeed, always good to watch a different way of changing tyre's, as I worked in tyre's for twenty years plus in the Army, Basically doing this job is very good but sadly one wears out from the back breaking job, tyre's definitely get in the blood right,

WOW that looked easy peasy. Love the truck! I almost bought one but couldn't come up with why I really needed it. But I wish I had could have it would have made parking a lot easier. Oh is that your car stuck between my tires MUHAHAHA!

After spending 37 years in truck shops Ive never seen it done like that

Hi there :). I fought my 46"s onto 7 inch wheels as you did and developed an easier and safer way to do this. With a little preparation, you can remove a ring and reinstall a new tire and ring in less than 10 minutes without breaking a sweat. Find or borrow a tubing bender or roller and bend or roll a hoop from 2" pipe, slightly larger than the outer diameter of the safety ring. Then using 3 upright pipes, weld it all into a tripod set on top of the hoop you made. At the top of the tripod, weld a hook. Once you're done with the fixture, weld a heavy hook across a piece of square tubing long enough that it'll span the hole in the center of the wheel. Now place the wheel and tire safety ring up and place the tripod on the tire (standing upright). Slip the square pipe with the hook through the center hole and attach a come-along from the hook in the hole to the hook on the tripod and start cranking. It'll pull the whole wheel upwards as it pushes the sidewall downwards. I can easily mash my MV/Ts nearly flat in second giving you inches of room to easily slip the safety ring onto the wheel (Works equally well for ring removal). Once installed, you should be able to wiggle the ring back and forth in the groove to ensure its seated. It'll tighten as the tire inflates. I would always recommend inflation on the truck if you cannot cage it but the design of these particular wheels makes it near impossible to loose a ring if installed correctly. I only need about 35psi to hold up the deuce adequately. If you want to get a better ride yet, prefill your tube with about 1.5 lbs of dynabeads (i had filtered stems so I cut a tiny slit, filled with a small funnel, and patched with a radial patch before installing). This extra step will really smooth out the shakes. If you find that your truck is sorta "darty" on these tires and wheels, you can loosen the front axle U bolts and flip your caster wedges (between the axle and spring) this will lean your king pin center line backwards a few degrees and greatly improve the steering. The few degrees you'll pull the U joints out of phase won't be noticeable unless your locked in at 60mph. Happy motoring and enjoy your deuce! I drive a 68 as my daily driver :)

I always lay tire down and run over edge to get off the bead, always works good for me.

Done it a thousand times at least.. Put a steel bar through the slots in the wheels, turn it upside down and sit in the dish as you air it up.. The lock ring won't fly off if you didn't spring it when you took it off. We always used a maddox to break the beads. Easy Peasy.

Nice truck ! Nice tires also

beautiful truck... nice job..

Great job well done, I looks that you was handling a bomb. I have M38A1C not so dangerous.

A wet sand blaster kit for a 3500-5000 psi pressure washer would be your best friend. Especially hot water pressure washer.

McGraw Kaserne Munich motorpool. A GI was working on one of these, it frightened me and I went down the street a bit and he had a safety cage. Next thing I know there's an explosion, a hole in the roof and something is flying through the air. One very dead soldier.

The biggest problem with split rims is that there is pretty much no safe way to work on them outside of a blast cage, and this is part of why we don't use them anymore.

Son that was more than a 12 pack and one sammich job.

Damn I was a pro at busting truck tires as a private, this is great video, brings back memories 🤢

How we do split rings with duals (dayton rims) is partially inflate the tube. 20# or so. Install the lock ring. Mount the tire on the truck The split rings are against the spacer ring now using a locking air chuck. Walk away. Inflate to 85 to 90 lbs adjust for true buy spinning the ste buy hand with a heavy block close to tire re adjust the set till running true. Oh point the valve stem to the inter mounting hole between the spokes

Balls of steel Bubba, I remember when they all had split rims

I can verify split rims can possibly kill you. Had a fiend in Dearborn Mo. Steve Buckler. He'd opened a small garage shop in our little podunk town. He was a big man about 6'5", and maybe 400lbs. Generally Steve always used a cage, but 1 day, he was doing a truck tire, and for whatever reason didn't put it in the cage. Split ring exploded off, caught Steve right in the face. Smashed in his forehead and such. Fortunately, it didn't knock Steve down, or his wife and another guy would never had been able to get him into a car. So he managed to walk himself. Messed him up pretty good, and he never was 100% quite right after that. The garage eventually went out of business. Podunk Dearborn , pop 400, just isn't a place for business.

Split rims are all we used to have the trick is to clean everything real good run a screwdriver or something all around that Groove and then a good wire brush or wire wheel on a drill or something if the ring don't look like it's going into the groove all the way do not put air to it and when you do use a clip-on air Chuck point the ring toward the wall or a post and still stay away from it for a few knock on wood I'm still here I put 1400 /20 motor grader tires on some rims like that we used the forks on a bobcat to push the tire down