In technical terms, this is what we call, "bad news"

Recently I lugged a massive, completely-full water heater out of place with my hand truck and managed to flatten the tire trying to turn. here ) A bazillion pounds of sloshing, hernia-inducing awkwardness, peeled the rubber right off the rim.

After an instantaneous blast of air, I lurched hard to the right . I don't know how I managed to hang on without dumping over. Somehow, I avoided a horrendous face plant, alongside the cylindrical leviathan.

Flat tire.

This particular type of utility tire is like a car tire. Unlike the bicycle type, there's no inner tube. In order to get the tire back on the rim and inflated , you need to blast air in there, hard and fast. The tire needs to expand and grip against the edges of the wheel tight enough to hold air. That's important when you load your hand truck, wheelbarrow or utility cart with bazillion pound, carcasses of household appliances. Most homeowners don't have beastly, high volume air compressors and tire shop tools to do the trick.

Luckily, I've got just the quick trick to get it mounted and rolling again. It's super easy.

I DIY it, with my little pancake compressor, but it will also work with the cigarette lighter, plug-in tire inflators  too.

First, I wiggle the loose tire around on the rim to make sure the valve stem is sticking out straight again. I had spun the tire a bit around when I was manhandling the hand truck out from under that stupidly heavy water heater.

Do the twist.

Next, I wrapped the tire with a ratcheting tie down strap. These are the things I use to lash loads to to the back of the truck (or the roof rack of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster like Clark Griswold). 

With the strap laying nice and flat, crank it tight. It squeezes the center of the tire mushrooming the sides outward, allowing them to touch the wheel again.

Fire up the air compressor and give the tire a good toot of air. Don't overdo it, just enough to get the tire to grip the wheel.

Release the strap slowly and fill the tire the rest of the way up. Use a pressure gauge to double check pressure. All done in about five minutes! Piece of cake eh?

If you don't have any of these handy ratchet straps around, you can tie a rope loosely around the tire and spin a tool handle through it, like you are making a tourniquet. to tighten it up. It's a little trickier, but it's possible to use a belt too. You may want to do that method behind closed doors, if you need the belt to hold your pants up.

In my case, with full tires, I was able to lug the beast out to the curb (for an autopsy).

This was attempt number six to tip it back

It's really not as heavy as it looks. It's at least three times heavier than that.