clueless question on inner tubes

How closely do tire & tube sizes have to match? Can you use tubes for 35" tires in a 31" tire, for example?

Sorry if this is too dumb, I know nothing about working with tube-type tires.
Thanks,

A tube bigger than the tire will fold over in the tire causing wrinkles. These wrinkles will cause rapid failure of the tube. You can get by with a smaller tube than because it will stretch but have no wrinkles. If it is to much smaller then it will stretch to much and cause early failure.

Poppop nailed it. I will only add that once a smaller tube has been used in a larger tire size, it has stretched out, and can no longer be used in the smaller tire.

Lee in Alaska

Also, Do not use bias ply tubes in a radial tire.

Thank you all for these answers. I'm truly clueless about tube-type tires, and I need all the help I can get.

One more - can you use radial tubes in a radial tubeless tire?

BSH said:

Thank you all for these answers. I'm truly clueless about tube-type tires, and I need all the help I can get.

One more - can you use radial tubes in a radial tubeless tire?

Click to expand...

I had a tire guy tell me if you put a tube in a tubeless tire (Like putting a tube in a 14.00 XL radial) you should put baby power between the tube and tire to help lube it. He said the roughness of the inside of the tire will wear the tube out and the power will help with that.

Umm, not sure about the baby powder deal! I have 13/14r20 firestone tubes in my 395 radials and have over 4500 miles on them with no issues as of yet and have gone over a 1000 of that in one sitting. So I wouldnt worry about about tubes in radials.

I just had to put a new tube in my TXARNG International. It has 8.25 tires and tubes in it. I was at the big truck tire shop as they are one of the few dealers that mess with split rims any more. They didnt have any in stock so I asked about a 9.00r20 tube and they said it would work but they didnt have any either. So they went on a parts run and got me a 8.25 tube. The point is yes you can put different size tubes in different tires but its best to go with the size the application calls for instead of being cheap and using what you have. If you dont know ask your dealer for his advice!

8.25R20 tube about $25
13/14R20 Firestone Tubes as of 2008 were $40