Recently there have been reports that tire techs have been flooding tires with too much water-based lube when mounting tires. This excess amount of lube starts corrosion in the tire/rim assembly and will interfere with the performance of ALL internal balancing media including the Counteract Balancing Beads that I have been associated with since that product was tested at Auburn University. What happened to the concept of ONLY clean dry air going into the tire? I wouldn’t think tire techs would be trying to increase tire sales by setting up tires for premature failure due to corrosion, which would be the tire owner’s fault for lack of proper maintenance. I also wouldn’t want to suggest a tire tech would sabotage a customer’s efforts to use a system that balances the entire wheel end assembly, even though many of my associates deem this to be the case. Based on my personal experience, my conclusion is some techs need to go back to the classroom and get retrained. If my associates are correct and this is an act of sabotage, all I can say is, “What the hell is the matter with you? Don’t you know tire prices are going through the roof and you should be recommending products like this to extend tire life?

Regardless of the reason, here is a great training video from the tire industry’s leading authority (Tire Industry Association) on installing tires. At about 5:40 minutes into the video below it says lube the rim and beads. It goes on to clarify that the bead is to be lubed ONLY from the toe to the molded rib; nowhere does it say flood the interior of the tire with a water-based lube. Before letting anyone work on your tires please have them review this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzaQzeGfpO4&feature=related

From YouTube about the video: This is an outstanding video on Radial Tubeless mounting procedures created by TIA (Tire Industry Association in conjunction with Michelin Tire Corp) Snider Tire Inc. Russ Hunt 800-528-2840 is pleased to be able to share this information with you and your new and experienced tire mounting employees.