How to Remove Tires from Wheels

mrblaine said:
We were trying to de-bead a set of tires from Walker Evans bead locks. We had a Jeep park a front tire on one side, I was driving back and forth in a semi circle to keep the front tire of the diesel 1 ton tow rig at 80 psi right next to the rim. I had to move it back and forth about 10 times to get the bead to pop loose. Then we went to remove the bead lock rings. WE uses Time Serts, we couldn't figure out why the lock ring was lifting with the bolt. Turns out the owner did not use anti-seize on the bolts. The bolts seized to the inserts and the inserts were threading out against the underside of the lock ring. We had to unscrew each bolt about 2 turns over and over to fully lift off the lock ring. Then we had to put vise-grips on each insert, break the bolt out of it that way, make an install tool, reinstall the inserts back in the rim with red Loctite this time, then put the new tires on. There were enough screwed up inserts that we couldn't do the 5th rim after we plundered enough to get 4 done.

May not have been quite so bad but this was all done on the lakebed. After the first rim, I was looking for a can of gas and some matches.
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That reminds me to add a little antiseize to the ring bolts, it has been a while.

This is how I tried to concentrate more force onto a smaller area of my spare tire I was trying to unseat, not even the 4x4 was enough. It wasn't holding air which had been a real problem on the trail several weeks earlier.

Tire unseating.png
 
707kevin said:
When i was 17 and 130lbs i used to change semi truck tires with two tire irons and a sledge hammer to break the bead. We used a sealing ring and a bucket of slime too during mounting.

I take my car tires to a shop.
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Yup , me too. We still do big truck tires at work but , thank goodness I don’t have to do them anymore.
 
mrblaine said:
It is like most things. Every trick and tool works until it doesn't. When it does, you wonder what all the fuss is about. When it doesn't, you want to throw rocks at the folks that said it was easy. We've done a shitload. We have a small handful that made me want to burn the rig down, with the tires in the back seat, while the owner watched.
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So what tricks and tools are your go-to?
 
I run 40" beadlocks and mount my own. Beadlocks are certainly different than doing a conventional tire by hand as originally asked by the OP, but since breaking the bead has been mentioned a few times I thought I would post this: On a beadlock breaking the rear bead is still a pain, and I've done it enough that I built this contraption which bolts to the floor.

Jeep - 14 Bolt 28 (1).JPG


Even with a five foot lever it is still no fun.
 
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I do mine with a HF manual tire changer. It takes some practice but is easy once you get the hang of it. I use a No-Mar bar that works good to keep the rims from scratching. The metal bar will scratch the lip for sure.

Breaking the bead is tough soemtimes and mostly where I had mishaps that scratched a rim.

A bead blaster is required equipment sometimes. Also, a clip on tire chuck and a ball valve control to seat the beads. I use tire lube that is made for it (Ru-glyde)

Beats taking it to a tire shop to screw things up and waste time. I can get fancy with match mounting tires on the rims and stuff that tire shops won't do. Somewhat a lot of time invested into learning and experimenting.

I do balancing on a HF manual unit. It works good but there is a certain calibration method that MUST be done or it won't work right, It's not in the instructions or anywhere else.

I think 99.9% of people would be better off going to a tire store.
 
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You can remove and mount a tire using tire irons and there are YouTube videos out there to show you how. Having worked in a tire shop as a young man I personally wouldn't screw with it unless there was literally no other option.
 
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steelhd said:
You can remove and mount a tire using tire irons and there are YouTube videos out there to show you how. Having worked in a tire shop as a young man I personally wouldn't screw with it unless there was literally no other option.
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Not to mention they still need to be balanced.
 
have used a manual machine for motorcycle tires and it wasn’t fun. i’ll stick to feeding the tire shop guys. they gotta eat too, right?
 
I worked in a gas station part time during high school and college - late 60s / early 70s. We used a Coats manual tire machine like the one below. We changed a LOT of tires and dreamed of getting a Coats 10/10 which had "air". It never happened. It was a bit of a workout and I don't think I'd want to try it again now.

Coats Tire Machine.jpg
 
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