Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing To Tube or Not to Tube - and balancing

When I purchased my 1991 plus 4, I have five Avon ZT-7 tires installed. They have been great with no issues.
HOWEVER, for some reason, the installer used inner tubes. reasoning is unknown. The tires do say tubeless..... Why would they have done this? I did have a flat before shipping it back and the tire shop inquired as to why tubes were used. At the time,I had no answer other than to say it was going on a boat the next day!

I'm asking because I'm going to have the rims resprayed and demount the tires. Should the tubes be reinstalled??

If I go tubeless, has anyone tried the balancing beads?

Depending on the age / style of wheel rim they may not have the 'safety ridge' some call it an inner lip, some tyre fitters will then recommend using tubes

I would certainly recommend balancing beads, although just check they are okay with tubes, as I've only used with tubeless

Are the wheels tubeless (i.e. sealed)?

If the wheels are designed for tubeless tyres be very careful. Tubeless tyres will wear the tube & it can fail catastrophically.

They normally put in tubes if the sealant band on the wires is leaking.

There are (limited) tubes available that can be fitted to tubeless tyres. Michelin used to do a heavy duty tube and Vredestein tubes are in my TTracs.

Googling “can tubes can be used with tubeless” will send you dizzy.

Observations when I first changed tyres……
Original tyres were bog Continentals
Inner tubes were fitted as an OE item
The spoke wells were sealed with mastic, not a rim band
The wire wheel rims were, according to my local tyre fitter, for tubeless tyres
There is a yellow sticker on the rim inner stating inner tubes must be used!

I continue with this set up.

For a bit more info….
https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classic/fitting-inner-tubes-tubless-tyres.html

Latest Update - It appears from the australian website, the rims are indeed tubeless. So, tomorrow we are going to dismount the tires and see what's inside. As cooperman said, it should have a safety ridge.
from the longstone tyre website: "Only in tubeless tyres with a series or aspect ratio equal or higher than 70, i.e. 185/70 x 14 would be ok, 185/65x14 would not". That would rule out the 195/60/15 installed and the standard on the 91 plus 4.
Enough to drive you crazy! We'll see if there is a rim band or any type of sealant on the .. I'm guessing probably not since a tube was used. I'll be on the lookout for the yellow sticker on the inside!!!

Thank You to all for sound advice.

Image below shows a spoked stainless rim from my Roadster. A band of special sealant is carefully added to cover spoke nuts and so give an airtight seal to accept tubeless tyres alone.



Here I'm repairing damage due to foolishly adjusting a slightly loose spoke in situ

Richard's image clearly shows the extra safety ridge, rolled into the rim about half an inch behind where the tyre bead sits, if you have this it's safe to run tubeless (assuming your spokes are sealed)

On my 2005 4/4 are tube type rims.

I read somewhere (MWS Website?) that tubeless wire wheels startet later.
But perhaps Iam complete wrong. At some time Morgan also used an Indian supplyer..