RE: Pounding Tires in Southern Cali

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oh my god! mate ! wow.. there arent many people who know what hard work it is to pound tyres solo.. normally its minimum a two person endeavour.. Respect!!! Amazing to see this happen.. i was hoping you would do something again soon ;-)..

THANJ you also for documenting what you are doing,.. i think it really important..and i for one will be watching and learning what you do!

best of luck, and ALL power to you!

oh and.. i thought id ask.. I made a video recently of an 'easy way' pound tyres when working solo.. I personally thing its really good, but id LOVE to see what you think! It lets you ditch that big hammer for nearly the whole thing.. IF you feel like it id be super stoked if you tried one tyre like this.. id be really curious to have your feedback and if you think its any good..

heres the vid if your up for it!

much love, i smile when i see you do this.



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Hello @eco-alex! Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, I remember watching your tire video when you posted it, but I thought I'd go right ahead and immerse myself in studying your tchnique. On the tiny building site I'm actually done with the tire part, as it is going to be a timber-framed cob / adobe construction with tirefoundation. However, I wanted to share my own detailed impression, so I took an unused tire, and applied your technique to filling it.

So before even picking up a hammer, I used a crowbar to lift up the edge, and push the dirt inside. That is actually something I have been doing anyway. The difference is, I tend to use the sledgehammer to lift up the edge while standing, using my feet to kick the dirt inside the tire. Steel toed work boots kinda offer themselves for this, and to be honest, I don't like to keep bending down and up again.

Rocks are a great resource, as you've shown so well. In fact, they deserve their own paragraph, if not chapter, in the tire pounding handbook. In Mazunte, where they're abound we've used them just like you have, to get the dirt around them even more compact. For some reason, the rocks around here tend to be giant boulders, but when it comes to hand size rocks, they are quite scarce. So I didn't really use that technique here.

Finally, there is a rubber mallet I found in this trash-filled shop, and I tried using it like you demonstrated with the smaller hammer. It works all right, but once again, I don't like getting down so low. I prefer swiniging the sledgehammer. Previously, I liked the 8 or 10 lbs ones, as I didn't need to actually sing it, just using its own weight as it fell diagonally every time I lifted it waist high. This time, the only sledgehammer at my disposal was a smalle 6 lbs one, which wanted to be swung. I obliged, and ended up compacting the dirt quite well, as long as I made sure to aim well.

All in all, I must say that your technique of solo tire-pounding works just as well as mine, and in fact tires can be filled by one person without a problem. Obviously the tools we have at our disposal affect it greatly, as does our personal preference. Time wise, it didn't take me longer than 30 minutes to fill a 225 tire using your technique, so I guess it's about the same. I did not bother with the leveling, though.

Thanks once again for sharing, and sorry that it took so long to even post my response. This is the second version, by the way, as the first one vanished somewhere in this mess of connectivity I'm dealing with here.

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thank you SO much for this feedback.. really helps! yeah i do like sitting on the floor whilst i work and bending over.. TOTALLY get that you prefer to stand.. you definatley make it work!

my only comment is that i didnt use a rubber hammer.. its a good metal hammer but smaller.. that is maybe worth mentioning

thanks again for trying.. really good to know it works as well as the traditional approach!
glad u finished, well done!!
xx

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