Thread: Mag wheel bead breaker

only if you want to have a set of daily road rubber and an expiditionary or play set of tyres.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

only if you want to have a set of daily road rubber and an expiditionary or play set of tyres.

This is exactly what I have in mind. Currently SWMBO's D2 has a set of road tyres on the factory 8" alloys and a set of Cooper ST's on a set of '99 Disco alloys as "touring wheels".

After reading the doom and gloom of tyre change on D2 type alloys I wondered if it would be simpler all round to ditch the touring alloys and replace them with steel rims. At the time I bought them I didn't realise that there were factory steel rims to fit available.

What is interesting though, after reading of the difficulties changing tyres on the road I took a couple of different Disco alloy rims around to a mates place, with a box of VB, and told him of the issues. Out came his tyre pliers and the first bead was broken in about 3 minutes, he recons it took that long 'cos I'd psyched him into thinking it would be hard. The other side took less than 1 minute and the second rim also took less than a minute. He didn't bother with the other side as he reckoned I was a dill in thinking it was hard. So we sat down and drank the beer. I was staggered and confused. He reckons it's the easiest box of beer he's ever earnt.

I had a go and didn't find it difficult even though I'd never used tyre pliers before. What am I missing here ?

What was dis-concerting was setting the bead on re-inflation, no room for softies here, keep pumping until the bead sets, about 60 psi on one rim. Talk about going off like a rifle shot and that's with copious quantities of soap.

Deano

Originally Posted by DeanoH

What was dis-concerting was setting the bead on re-inflation, no room for softies here, keep pumping until the bead sets, about 60 psi on one rim. Talk about going off like a rifle shot and that's with copious quantities of soap.

Did you try a spray of ether and a match?

Originally Posted by p38arover

Did you try a spray of ether and a match?

Never been game.

Deano

Originally Posted by DeanoH

Never been game.

Deano

Neither have I!

Looks like a sound design but slow to use. I bought a set of tyre pliers and am very disappointed. On soft TR7 rims they make a real mess. On a 4wd tyre you need to be pretty strong to use them effectively. I have not been able to get tyres of the RRC three spoke with them. The highlift jack will not shift them either, even at the engine end of the car I can lift the whole car and not break the bead! On a cross country trip when the group had 14 punctures a R&R beadbreaker never failed; but it is also slow. Has any one got a home grown one that uses a bottle jack?

the bottle jack will make no difference unsless you make a frame to hold the tyre and thats going to be bulky.

if you can lift the car on the tyre with a highlift you'll do it with the bottle jack too.

Originally Posted by Bilbo

Looks like a sound design but slow to use. I bought a set of tyre pliers and am very disappointed. On soft TR7 rims they make a real mess. On a 4wd tyre you need to be pretty strong to use them effectively. I have not been able to get tyres of the RRC three spoke with them. The highlift jack will not shift them either, even at the engine end of the car I can lift the whole car and not break the bead! On a cross country trip when the group had 14 punctures a R&R beadbreaker never failed; but it is also slow. Has any one got a home grown one that uses a bottle jack?

Exactly, My tyre fitter bloke reckons the last set I sent him nearly broke his machine

I have a set of tubeless Wolf rims to go on next for this reason. Much as I like the alloys and NEVER had an issue with them for any other reason, struggling with changing a tyre in high ambient temps etc doesn't fill me with joy.

JC