Steel belted radial tires?

[BZLuck]

So we bought a weather worn 2003 Club Car Villager last summer and rebuilt it over the last few months.

Sadly as the stripped down frame sat in the garage, the (pretty darn new looking) 205/50 - 10 Tour Max tires went WAY out of round. It was like riding a bucking bronco after we put it back together. Tried all kinds of things to fix it from over-inflating, to under-inflating...

I wasn't sure what was wrong at first, so I called a local golf cart repair company. They came out and brought 4 used "stock" 8" steel rims with "Hole N 1" tires that were nice and round and the bouncing went away, which is good. I feared it was something else.

So, for now we are just keeping the 8" rims and tires on it while we think about what to do next.

However, when we bought the cart, it came with nice aluminum ITP 10" rims. I'd like to put those rims back on, but they obviously need new tires. The repair guy said I might want to look into steel belted radial tires to avoid them getting flat spots, but those bastards are like $110+ each. That's almost like actual car tire prices. Everything else I see for cart tires are like $40-50 each for the most part.

So now I'm stuck between biting the bullet and going with steel belted tires, or literally being able to buy almost 3 sets of other "regular" new tires.

The rebuilding process only took about 10 weeks, so it's not like they sat there for a year. Does keeping the tire pressure higher or lower help with preventing this from happening? Of course putting the whole thing up on jacks when we are not riding it around the block would solve it, but that seems a bit excessive to me. It makes sense if we were storing it for months, but not if we want to take it out every few weeks or so.

What are your experiences and solutions with tires getting flat spots? Are any brands/sizes better than others? Is getting flat spots on tires something common?

Note: This cart will only be driven on smooth asphalt as long as we own it and we live in Southern California, so it's not like we battle against freezing temperatures.

I'm new to the golf cart scene, so thank you in advance for any advice or tips you may have to offer.

[golf cart man]

is your cart going to be sitting for extended periods of time? They do sell these things that you drive onto that keep tires round but if the cart won't be sitting for long periods of time I don't see flat spots being an issue for you in the future. Two of the carts I have are custom fiberglass bodied carts. They are much heavier than a normal cart because of the body. Even sitting for a week or two while I'm away I don't have flat spot issues. The tires I have are the standard low profile tires from china that come on all the wheel and tire combos from the major retailers these days. I do own two classic cars and if they sit for extended periods I overinflated the tires and never had flat spot issues and they are very heavy cars.

[joesam]

I had a set of Carlisle tires that were terrible for flat spotting. Even overnight. Eventually they were replaced with a nice set of Kenda tires that never flat spotted. Even when parked for 5 months of winter! Finally wore those out and I replaced them with LSI Elite (China) tires that came with new 10 inch rims. No flat spotting with these either. Ive concluded there was something defective with the belts on those Carlisles (only the front tires had the problem). I do overinflate to 30 psi for many months of parked winter storage.

Flat spotting is NOT normal. Go back to your nice rims and get normal golf cart tires. You should be fine.

[BZLuck]

Originally Posted by golf cart man

is your cart going to be sitting for extended periods of time?

I think that's part of what I'm asking in this thread. What would be considered an extended period of time? IMO, that would be 6 months+. Apparently with Tour Max tires, 2 months was enough.

I would say that during the summer we'll be driving it at least every other weekend, but there might be other times where it will sit in the garage for a month, maybe 2 and I don't want to worry about it costing me $200 in tires if I don't lift it off the ground or check the tire pressure every morning.

I'll look into those tire stands. Thank you!

[BZLuck]

Originally Posted by golf cart man

They do sell these things that you drive onto that keep tires round

Is this what you are talking about? I can see that being an easy solution. Drive on, drive off Daniel-san. I wonder if since these are made for cars if they would be too large for golf cart tires.

https://bunkerwall.com/collections/r...vention-4-pack

[golf cart man]

Originally Posted by BZLuck

Is this what you are talking about? I can see that being an easy solution. Drive on, drive off Daniel-san. I wonder if since these are made for cars if they would be too large for golf cart tires.

https://bunkerwall.com/collections/r...vention-4-pack

Yes thats what I was talking about. Ive seen them used on classic cars. I don't really think even 2 months of sitting would give you flat spots. I can tell you that in my community half of the people are snowbirds that leave their cart sitting in the garage for 6+ months. I will ask to be sure but nobody has ever reported flat spots and I don't see people getting new tires each year. Proper inflation is key. I don't think the weight of a villager would make much difference, like I said many have custom bodies including myself which adds considerable weight.

[BZLuck]

I'm thinking now (I've learned a lot along the way) that the tires were probably at a "pleasure driving" lower pressure of like 18-20 psi, (when they should have been at the recommended 32 psi) for the whole time they sat there immobile in my garage. If I had *any* idea that this might have occurred, I would have checked the tire pressure every other day to avert this from happening.

Lesson learned. However, now I'm thinking that steel belted radials would be a silly "investment" now that I know what I need to do to prevent this from happening again. I'm just gonna run these Hole N 1 used tires until they are bald out and then buy new tires and keep an eye on the pressure and roll them around to some degree on a regular basis, sitting or not. Like I said, I'm new to this, but I'm kinda neurotic when it comes to any type of maintenance like this.

[mrgolf]

Back in the old days tires would get flat spots over night on cold nights. Today's tires still get flat spots if they have sat for a while. I've seen it on everything from golf carts the Cadillacs, after a wile of driving they have always smoother out for me. Don't think I've ever had one that didn't do this. The tires on my car were 283.00 each, they get flat spots.