Red Inner Tubes.

[ivaldes1]

So I was tearing into my 30 x 3.5 rims acquired at Chicasha with hard as rock frayed tires on them. I had to reciproprocal saw and tire iron them off. However, inside the red inner-tubes appeared to be supple and possibly usable. On one rim it looks as though a home made flap had been fashioned out of a red tube. See the top rim in the stack, it has a red flap. Were the red tubes original to a wheel? Is there a way to tell how old the tire is from the hard tire carcass? The red tubes seem to be durable as I have some that are still good from other wheel rebuilds. I wonder what they are made of different than modern tubes?

[Rich Bingham]

Yessir. They are definitely a different material, being made of real gum rubber, the kind Henry was hoping to harvest from the "Fordlandia" plantation in Brazil. I believe red rubber tubes began to disappear before WW II, but real rubber (as opposed to butyl rubber and other synthetic "rubbers") was still a component in inner tubes into the 50s. Great elasticity, they made killer slingshots and other wonders that can't be had with the "dead" modern equivalents.

Others will know more.

[Rich Eagle]

This one showed up over the Winter. They seem to survive well inside the tire. They deteriorate fast when exposed to reality.

They are exceedingly charming though.

[Rich Bingham]

Yup. Tucked away inside a tire, they seem to survive. Here's one I had the pleasure of discovering a while back.

[BLB27]

My 1927 T coupe hasn't been run in 60 years, and three of the tires have never lost air. The other tire would go completely flat, but I would air it up whenever I moved it from one storage location to another over the years (6+/- times) and it would stay up for a month or two. I wonder if the tubes are red.

[Allan]

Ever since a fellow I was helping with his T restoration sawed off a set of hard rubber tyres, and destroyed four as new Olympic butyl tubes, I have made a policy to air up any tyres before getting stuck into them. That saved two Good Year red rubber tubes I found later. They are still in use in one of my T's. You never know what might be preserved in those old tyres.

Allan from down under.

[ivaldes1]

Allan how do you get the rock hard tires (tyres) off without destroying the tube?

Ever since a fellow I was helping with his T restoration sawed off a set of hard rubber tyres, and destroyed four as new Olympic butyl tubes, I have made a policy to air up any tyres before getting stuck into them. That saved two Good Year red rubber tubes I found later. They are still in use in one of my T's. You never know what might be preserved in those old tyres.

Allan from down under.

[Allan]

Ignatio, the same way porcupines mate, carefully!!!! Hard split rim types come off just the same as soft ones. Collapse the rim and off they fall. Your beaded edge variety are a little tougher. The two Good Year red rubber tubes were in rock hard new tyres, on what turned out to be as new rims too. My guess is someone ordered a couple of extras which were never used. I used my 18" tyre irons to lever the tyres away from the bead. Once I could get an iron under one side, it was cut with side cutting pliers That made it easier to get portion of the bead out of the rim and then gave me access to continue cutting over the top and down the other side. The sight of that perfectly protected red tube was reward enough to keep at it.
The tubes were also Good Year items, twice as thick as any modern repops, except for the new Blockleys. I have some on hand now and will weigh them to compare them to the modern rubbish.

Allan from down under.

[Rich Eagle]

When chunks of rusted metal bonded to the tire bead break off the rim it seems like a lost cause. I spent one Summer prying a dozen 36 X 6 tires from my White bus rims. The rubber was rock hard and nearly an inch thick. I did manage to save a few red Goodyear tubes.
It was good practice for the Model T work.
Sometimes medals should be given for these efforts.
Rich