Thread: Mag wheel bead breaker

Thanks Erich, I remember asking what the "thing" on your trailer was for, now I've seen how it works. Enjoyed going through your pics from the last trip.
Cheers

you can do them with tyre pliers... (but you must have the version that has the extedable leg and not just the adjustable anchor)

heres how... and be warned you are going to look like your trying to audition for so you think you can dance doing this.

Lay the tyre down, valve uppermost

• set the length of the tyre pliers 1 inch longer than the nominal rim diameter.
• seat the tyre pliers with the jaw at the valve
• with your master hand lift the handle so that the jaws are almost in the correct position with the anchor point at your toes so you are facing along the
• step on the sidewall of the tyre at the anchor side (the side thats opposite the valve) with your master foot
• turn your non master foot outwards and step onto the anchor of the tyre plier, if you've done this right it should not be just below the lip of the rim.
• as you lift the handles of the tyre pliers rotate your body and step onto the beam of the tyre plier with your master foot and slide it up towards the jaws as you lift the handles. keep most of your weight on this foot.
• when you get the double lip jaw under the edge of the rim slide your foot all the way up to the pivot of the tyre pliers and then extend the single jaw to break the bead. you should have all of your weight on the jaws at this stage.

once you have it started you can put the round end of a tyre lever in there to hold the bead down while you readjust the tyre plier to the correct size and work it around the rim...

It goes without saying that applying a wash of soapy water to the trough of the sidewall and rim and "walking" it around a few times helps heaps.

you need to be fairly strong in the arms and weighty to get it to happen as the rims tend to fight you a bit. I like the tyre pliers cause they're relatively light but If I had a permanant place to have it Id be doing something like bundalenes setup... be interesting to have a tyre changing comp with the 2.

There are three commercially available bead breakers that I am aware of.
1. The Tyre Pliers - These require a certain amount of effort and have a small 'foot' that presses on the tyre bead. If not used correctly it is easy to slip and punch a hole in the sidewall of your tyre. I have not been successful in breaking the bead on a Land Rover Alloy wheel with these.
2. The R&R Beadbreaker - I have not personally had experience with these but have heard that they require some extra bits to protect the Land Rover Alloys. They work on a threaded rod principle, similar to Erichs. They are also quite expensive.
3. The Tyre Jaws - (Thumbnail attached) These are quite compact and have two threaded rods, one to secure the unit to the rim and one to screw a 'foot' down to break the bead. I have used this type successfully on Land Rover Alloys.

Erichs looks quite good and has the advantage of a very large 'foot'. One of the important things with any of these is the ability to keep the 'foot' in nice and close to the rim while pushing the tyre down over the safety lip.

Regarding the actual repair to the tyre, as well as the externally inserted plugs and the internal radial tyre patches (make sure they go on the correct way), there is also a mushroom shaped plug which is inserted from inside the casing and is a more permanent repair than the external plugs. Actually I think the externally fitted plugs are only considered a temporary repair and may even be illegal.

Originally Posted by dm_td5

I was told by the inventor of TyrePliers that it didn't need an extension, just the correct technique for the LR alloys. They work fine on the steel rims.

well we spoke to the guy only a couple of months ago at the penrith 4x4 show.....and said to him that we have been told that you cant break a bead with them on landrover alloy rim.

He said that used to be the case but they made an adapter to over come this problem...

Originally Posted by dullbird

well we spoke to the guy only a couple of months ago at the penrith 4x4 show.....and said to him that we have been told that you cant break a bead with them on landrover alloy rim.

He said that used to be the case but they made an adapter to over come this problem...

I think you may have the Tyrepliers and the R&R Beadbreaker mixed up Lou.
The Tyrepliers are operated as explained by Dave above, whereas the R7R Beadbreaker is operated by use of a spanner on the nut and threaded rod.

the lip every one is refering to is atchaly called the mirical safety bead and is more commonly found on trucks than light vehicals ie landys

its main perpose is to stop sudden decompresion due to the tyre being pushed of the rim but it also helps mud and drit getting in the bead along with a few other things
sorry back to the thread

The later LR alloys have the AH2 (and later derivative) bead locks. The correct way to break the bead is to roll them off the bead lock, not use a shovel type bead breaker. However, I saw the local tyre service strip one of my rims a few weeks back and they used the shovel type bead breaker.

Erich has pointed out something I didn't know - the shallower lip at the valve stem. I shall have to look at a P38A rim when I can find one without a tyre fitted. That's good info.

I have an R&R BeadBreaker and I can assure you it is a pain in the backside on alloys owing to:

• the small centre hole on alloys,
• the proximity of the outer face of the wheel to the BeadBreaker and which doesn't allow sufficient movement of the tool,
• the need to go through a wheel stud hole requires disassembly of the tool to rotate it to the next section of the bead to be broken then it's reassembly,
• it's easy to mark/damage the alloy rims around the wheel stud holes.

I have some pics here somewhere for an article I wrote for the LROC News (never published).

The tool works well on LR steel rims.

The earlier Range Rover alloy wheels, i.e. the 3-spoke HiLine alloys, also have this safety lip. I was told by a rim repair specialist that it is compulsory under some European laws and is there to prevent the tyre coming off the rim in the event of a blowout.
I have an R&R Beadbreaker- I was fortunate enough to pick up an unused 2nd hand one for a bargain price when preparing for a trip, this was in 2001 and there was no adaptor available to my knowledge for the LR rims, and due to the way the centre of the LR rims comes out flush with the outer face of the rim, it could not be used on them. Great for toyotas and datsuns but not for proper vehicles. I made up 2 simple adaptors to enable it to be used on the above alloys plus the old steel rangie rims that I had on my trailer. It can be very difficult to break the bead on the alloys even when you start at the right place. I carry a laminated note with the kit to remind me where to start breaking the bead, easy to forget with something so rarely used.