Do Tire Tubes Affect Load Capacity?

[exranger06]

I have this old dump cart trailer that I tow behind my lawn tractor that I'm fixing up. The tires have some dry-rot and one of them leaks out all of its air overnight. New tires are pretty expensive, and since I'm only using this trailer in the yard at a top speed of 10 mph, I'm thinking of just keeping the current tires and just putting tubes in them (they're tubeless tires).

I sometimes carry some significant weight in the trailer, so I'm concerned about the tubes blowing out. Are tubes affected by weight, or is pressure the only thing that matters? In other words, as long as they're inflated to the correct pressure, can I just load as much weight as the tires are rated for?

 

[mrsilv04]

You're fine. I put a tube in all tubeless lawn and garden tires when they get to that point. It's a great way to extend the life of a low speed tire. Your load capacity won't be affected.

Closely inspect the tire to make sure that there aren't any tiny thorns or anything else poking through the tire before installing the tube.

 

[skellyman]

Instead of tubes have you looked at tire foam ?
No more flats , no air to leak etc.

 

[Chris142]

Eventully the tire will split and the tube will start to poke through the holes in the tire. Until then keep pulling it around the yard.

 

[eljefino]

Nah the cords in the tire will hold it all together. Imagine wearing spandex then putting tight jeans on over it all, the jeans will give you the muffin top.

I hit a nail with my FIL's tractor then it started hissing from 6 different holes! Turns out it had a tube (with one hole) then air was getting around through the void between tube and inner tire and left through all the existing holes that created the need for the tube in the first place.