Bigger cages available.

Mechanics need a bigger tire inflation cage to stay out of harm's way, especially when they have to inflate big tires, meaning ones larger than HEMTT tires.

NSN 4910-00-025-0623 gets a cage 76 inches long, 32 inches wide and 78 inches high. It weighs 1,600 pounds and is big enough for most construction and material handling equipment tires.

The best thing is, the cage is available to the Army through the supply system.

For those of you who inflate HEMTT, PLS and other smaller military tires, you can use tire cage, NSN 4910-01-373-0267. It's 40 3/4 inches long, 29 inches wide and 60 inches high. It weighs 375 pounds.

Do not fasten the cage to the floor of your shop. That prevents the steel plate bottom from flexing. If the plate cannot flex, explosive forces are concentrated on the cage bars and they can fail, releasing parts of the wheel rim.

Keep the cage at least 3 feet from any wall, too. That helps keep the cage from moving if a large volume of air bounces off the wall--and back toward the cage--when a rim separates.