I was actually thinking about this years ago!
Then I caught this ad-
So- for $100 per tire you can fill it with foam and never worry about flats again... huh?

$100 per 9" or 10" rim??? Who would spend $400 for this product to get anti-flat technology for a track ridden sport atv rim (because most utility's come with 12"-14" rims)

You could buy a new tire for a 9-10" rim for well under $100-

The bulk of the riders who would consider this ride trail ridden utility quads with 12-14" rims, not track ridden sport quads with 9-10" rims, right? They are going to price themselves out of the market and alianate the riders who would consider this product the most. I know I'd never pay $100 per tire just to have to replace it every other year!

Dealer Expo Spotlight: HiPer PROFill System : ATV Blogs

 

and then- I was thinking, what do you do when you want to replace the worn tires every season? scrap the whole rim? refill it for another $100?

Sounds like this concept needs to be re-worked!

 

I was thinking would you be able to vary your air pressure for different types of terrain, and what you were with changing tires.

 

it says you can still use the tire nipple to inflate, but that sounds weird... what keeps the foam from bouncing around in the larger space when the tire inflates?

If it's formed to the rim before the tire is installed, how does the tire machine get the bead on?

What dealer would deal with that mess- trying to pull a tire off a rim with solid foam in it?

Just sounds messed up to me...

 

Try rereading the product description. It says the system is made up of foam INSERTS. Which to me means they would go in the tire before mounting on a rim.

 

um- ya, I did read it.
still cant mount a tire on a rim if you have foam in it against the tire... think about it. If you could- then it would go flat with a puncture where the foam isn't touching-

but thanks for the input.

 

No offense if it sounded that way. I would think they would use a medium density foam that would squeeze down a bit to get the rim on and then conform to the rim. After all I doubt it would take much to support a quad seeing how you can run most atv tires down around 2-3 psi and still hold a bead. Also I'd have a hard time believing they would use high density or a spray/fill foam. I've driven skid loaders with the foam filled tires and they never go flat but you can't put air in them either. Not to mention they don't give enough to be suitable for atv's. Also, I wonder if the system wouldn't require a true bead lock rim, which may make a difference on getting the tire mounted.

 

beergut, this product is aimed squarely at the racing community. Given the popularity of the HiPer wheels, I would be willing to bet they make enough money on these to keep them in production. The foam is reusable, and you can mount a regular tire on that rim easily with them. remember, these are going in beadlock rims, although there are similar products such as TireBalls that people also use in regular rims. Heck, I know a few riders that have the pool noodles from Wal-Mart inside a regular rim. Even with this type of thing in, air pressure is still adjustable for the tire.

really, the idea is when you are competing, be it mx, xc, desert, whatever, you don't want to have a DNF due to cutting a tire. The top echelon of racers spend to much time and money to have a (now) preventable breakdown. As someone that has cut a sidewall during a race, I can say I wish i had been running one of the "run flat" products that are out there. Alas, they are still to new and expensive.

 

I forgot about the beadlock rims- still seems kind of steep at $100 each tire.

 

No doubt the stuff is expensive. But it is priced competitively with similar products. When you are in a points race and have 15K into your machine plus thousands more into a season of travel and maintenance, $400.00 is a pretty cheap insurance policy. It is easy enough to slice a sidewall even on 6ply tires when you are all out through shale and tree roots.