Mounting tires on rim

[BackwoodsMan]

Does anyone have suggestions for mounting new tires on rims? I bought new tires for my trailer (5.70-8). I struggled to get the old ones off. I finally thought of putting liquid soap on the beads to help slide them off the rims. Now I am trying to get the new ones on and can't seem to stretch the bead over the rim with tire irons. These tires aren't that big and I never expected it would be so hard to put them on.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Put one of the irons inside the rim and hold it there, work away from it going one direction and keep going that same direction till a bit over half the tire is on. Then work either one till you have it on. make sure the last little bit of tire you have that the opposing side of the tire is under the portion of the rim where it will seat or else it will be short of impossible to stretch the tire over the rim edge.

Put some grease on the new tires at the bead if they are still difficult, when it seats and the beads pop out when airing it up it will shoot a bead of grease around the rim and you'll know that they are seated properly.

 

[Soundguy]

Don't use a silicone or petroleum lube onthe tires.. use a vegitable lube.. it's widely available and won't attack the rubber.

Otherwise.. good info on the install.. 2 irons is the easiest.. preferably, one flat spoon, and one stepped spoon,. use the stepped spoon to flip the bead under the rim.. hold it there with one foot.. then use the other spoon to pop the bead over and as the other psoter said.. work around.. After you've done a couple.. the 10$ the local tire man charges will seem real cheap... I actively try to NOT get into a situation where I have to boot my own tires.. (grin)

Soundguy

 

[RichNJKubota]

I've mounted most of my tires for years. It takes practice to get the tougher ones. And sometimes the smaller tires are the hardest ones.
A couple years ago I bought a manual tire changer from Harbor Freight. I think it was about $50. Bolted it to the concrete floor and now it takes just a few minutes the change a tire. Much quicker than driving to town and waiting 30 minutes (at least) to get it done at the tire shop.
The main reason for doing it myself is just convenience.
I put a few drops of dish soap and water in an old windex spray bottle to help lubricate the tire bead when mounting the tire.
Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

[MJPetersen]

Just be careful if there is a tube. Screwdrivers can easily pinch the tube and you will be doing it again. Tire irons will also pinch and puncture the tube, but because of the rounded and smooth edges, not so likely as a screwdriver. The smaller are sometimes the hardest.

Mike

 

[Birdhunter1]

Yesterday i was putting 7.50-16's on my front tractor tires and I coudl only find one of my tire spoons so I deceided to use 1 spon and a crowbar. The crowbar pinched a hole in the tube very quickly, luckily I had another tube so I did finish the job but like MJPeterson said tire irons will work much better and less likely to pinch the tube.

 

[bx23barry]

Believe it or not I've alway found the smaller the tire the harder to mount. I love them bolt together wheels.

 

[travis potter]

make sure the bead is in the deep part of the rim opposit where the tire irons are. you can't streach the bead as it is steel wire it must go at an angle across the rim. hope this helps if you cansee what i'm trying to say. if it is tubeless use rope tied around the tread and tightened by twisting a tire iron in it to helpseat the bead.

 

[SFish]

Many years ago working for my ol-dad I mounted hundreds (maybe thousands) of tires on 8 to 20 inch rims. This was before tire mounting machines were common. An important tool was a large rubber hammer. Hold the tire tilted at about 60 degrees sideways from the ground and ram the rim straight down so that it sticks in the tire. Carefully lay the rim flat on the ground with the tire slightly tilted part way on the rim. Use the hammer (hitting hard) to push the tire bead out and down onto the rim. No tire irons necessary for this first bead. For the second bead (other side of the tire) use the hammer and two tire irons carefully, so as to not pinch the tube, to finish the installation. I still use this technique for home repairs.

Steve

 

[Bird]

Gosh, Steve, you're not as old as I am, are you? I started working in my dad's service station when I was 16 and repaired everything from bicycle tires to water filled tractor tires to big truck Budd, split rim, split ring wheels to cars and pickups and we didn't have any of the modern fancy tire changing equipment. The rubber hammer was commonly used to put tires on, and for breaking the bead loose on big truck and tractor tires, we had a sledge hammer type tool with a flat blade on one side so you learned to swing it accurately to hit the tire just right to have that blade slip between the rubber and the rim. Someone who either couldn't swing those things straight enough, or just someone who was a lot smarter, invented a slide hammer device to do the same thing in later years, but we didn't have that tool when I was a teenager.

 

[dfkrug]

I've mounted most of my tires for years. It takes practice to get the tougher ones. And sometimes the smaller tires are the hardest ones.
A couple years ago I bought a manual tire changer from Harbor Freight. I think it was about $50. Bolted it to the concrete floor and now it takes just a few minutes the change a tire. Much quicker than driving to town and waiting 30 minutes (at least) to get it done at the tire shop.
The main reason for doing it myself is just convenience.
I put a few drops of dish soap and water in an old windex spray bottle to help lubricate the tire bead when mounting the tire.
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I bought one of those on sale ($34) years ago and I love it. I mounted
it to the jig that goes on my tractor forks, instead of bolting it to the
floor. I have used it for CUT tires until recently, when I started to
mount/dismount some small truck tires. Also a convenience thing. I
sure wish I could use it for M/C tires (axle hole too small).

SFish:
I want to try your hammer technique. First I have heard of it. How
big of a rubber mallet are you using? Do you hit the wheel or the tire?

 

[toolaholic]

Life's too short. Go to a tire shop. It's cheap enough ! At 1 time I did this for a living! I use tire dealers

 

[Bird]

your hammer technique. First I have heard of it. How
big of a rubber mallet are you using? Do you hit the wheel or the tire?

I don't know just how to describe the size of the rubber mallet, but just a handle about as long as a claw hammer and a mallet head about the size (but much lighter, of course) of a 6 to 8 pound sledge hammer. And you hit the tire bead right where it's making contact with the wheel rim.

We used tire irons to take tires OFF the rim; never to put them back on; just a little soapy water and the rubber mallet to put them back on.

 

[zac]

i never changed a tractor tire but what i always do is fill the tube slightly to prevent pinches. this usaully keeps the tube awy from the iron or whatever you might be using. its worked for me on dirtbikes, bikes and fourwheelers.

 

[SFish]

Hi Bird. My experiences were similar to yours. I hated both the tire whacker and slide hammer tools. I used the slide hammer mostly for repairing water filled tractor rear tires while they were still mounted on the tractor. We also used a huge floor mounted vice (300 lbs) and tractor loader buckets for tough ones.

Hi Dfkrug. I use a rubber hammer slightly larger than mentioned by Bird. They are rubber coated with a handle a little larger than a claw hammer and a head in the 3 to 4 inch diameter range (a smaller one would be better for smaller tires). The ones I have seen in stores recently have lead shot in the head and we used to call them something like "dead blow" hammers. You try to hit just the lip of the tire to drive it outward and down onto the rim. Because it is rubber, hitting the lip and the rim doesn't hurt anything. They are good for moving things that a steel head hammer would bend , break or ding.

Toolaholic, that is a very un toolaholic thing to say. More tools! In my case I can have the tire repaired and the tractor out working in the time it takes me just to drive to the nearest shop that repairs tires.

Steve

 

[zzvyb6]

I've gotten thru some small tire changes with some trial and error experimentation. But now its easy. First, use the dish soap on the bead so it will slide along the rim as it walks on. Start the tire with the opposite side bead in the drop center part of the wheel. Thats why its there: to give the bead some extra length to slip over the rim. Usually what happens is that the bead slips along the rim as you try to walk it on. To prevent it from slipping, use a Vise Grips on the rim flange to stop this action. Screw drivers can be used to work the tire bead incrementaly along the rim. Best if they have rounded corners. When the first bead is in, put in the tube if you have a tube type tire. Insert valve stem thru the wheel and use another Vice Grips to hold it in place and to prevent it from getting cock-eyed. Then start the 2nd bead same way: Get one edge over the rim, put your foot on it to keep it in the drop-center portion, set a Vice Grips on the rim edge to prevent the slipping and use the pry tools to work the bead over the rim. Use a lot of small increments in all of this. Don't try to get it done in just a few moves. If its a tubeless tire, many people can't get the tire to inflate because they don't have enough air flow. Use a Scraeder valve removal tool to pull ou the valve from the stem so you get maximum flow into the tire until it seats. Then put the valve back in. Often you can find valve caps with a valve removal fitting on their outside end.

Keep the soap handy. Don't use water, wipe away the excess when you are done.

 

[dfkrug]

I find tractor tire mounting to be much easier than passenger car
tire mounting, esp with the HF manual tire mounter. Although I
never enjoyed the process of mounting/dismounting with tire irons,
I started doing my own with M/C aluminum wheels cuz I saw the
dealer do it and scratch my rims. That was 30 y ago when most
wheels, even on M/Cs were steel. Nowadays any decent tire dealer
can mount passenger car or truck tires on Al rims with scratch
protectors.

I do order all the new car/truck tires I use from Tire Rack and take
them over to a dealer for mount/balance ($20 ea). Part of the reason
is that they balance them (I do not) and those low profile tires have
extremely thick and tough beads. VERY hard to break.

 

[ToadHill]

Once you have part of the tire mounted, push the bead down into the hollow of the rim beyond the rim bead. This gives you a lot more flexability with the sidewall and makes it easier to get the tire on the rim.

 

[AlanB]

I do lots of tires it seems....
For me it is a matter of getting it done NOW, or spending the time for someone else to do it.

My 2 cents, go to Napa buy a bottle of tire soap. It is about $5 and will last you a long, long time.

My next question will be do you have it clamped down somehow? Chasing those things around is no fun.

I have a couple different tools and clamp's to do the various tires.

As to stretching it over the rim, first thing is, do you have the right size tire?

If you do, then I bet the opposite side of the bead is not down in the recess as has been mentioned here before.

As to pinching the tubes. Tire irons, well polished and smooth go a long way, but I had something pointed out that really helped me with that problem.

If you do not push your tire iron past 90 degrees, you will not pinch the tube. You will have to take more bites, but the tube will not be pinched.

When I was 17 or so I worked on a tire service truck for a while and was paired with this old (probably in his 70's) black guy that probably went 100 lbs soaking wet with change in his pockets.

I would flail and flail at the tires with the tire hammer trying to get the beads to break, guess you had to be there but it was almost comical the speed that he would walk over too me and go, Now Alan,,,,,,, just hit it right, not a lot...............

I wish I could explain the picture better, but he would take that hammer from me, stand up on the tire, slide the hammer around behind him, then it would kind of pivot off his shoulder and more "fall" onto the tire then anything, and I kid you not a bit, the tire would fall off the bead.

He was also the guy though that would fall asleep airing up a split ring tire with his hand holding the chuck on the tire. Would wake up, check the air pressure, and it would be right................. Always scared me to death when he did that.

Anyway, if you can find someone experienced to walk you through it the first time, it is a good skill to have, and so much easier to learn by "seeing" then by reading.

Good luck, hope you get it fixed.

 

[bjr]

Your story reminded me of when I grew up I'd go with dad to the truck tire shop and one of the most productive service guys had just one arm. He'd get mad if and told you to stay outta the way if you tried to help him. He just knew what to do with the tire irons and the hammer. I worked road construction for a while and the most valuable man was the guy workin' the tire service truck evening shift. He always had the fleets loaders and trucks tires up and ready for next morning. You have to have a lot of respect for tradesmen that know their craft.Tire guys work hard and don't get enough credit. bjr