Tire building drum and method of building a tire

A tire building drum comprising an inboard section (12) , a center section (13) and an outboard section (14) is disclosed. The inboard section has a rotating spindle (20) and a sliding shaft (32) which is slidable within the spindle and rotationally coupled to the spindle. The inboard section (12) is axially fixed, wherein the inboard section has a radially expandable bead lock device mounted on the spindle (20). Also, a tire building drum is disclosed wherein the inboard section is axially fixed, wherein the inboard section and the outboard section each have a fixed tile deck and a telescoping tile deck (90), wherein the center section is mounted on the sliding shaft and further comprises a center deck having a plurality of radially expandable tiles (71) and wherein the outboard section of the drum is mounted on a distal end of the sliding shaft.Finally, a method of building a tire on such tire building drum is disclosed.