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Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 1st, 2013, 8:34 am
by gdavis
I have one of those manual Chinese tire changers and am going to attempt to flip my tires using it. I know that with our short, stiff sidewalls, changing tires is not easy. Can anyone offer any tips to make this procedure a little less onerous? Should I be using a bead sealer lube when trying to get the tire on the rim, etc, etc.
I appreciate any input on this.

Re: Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 1st, 2013, 8:55 am
by fvracer27
Get some Vodka and a first aid kit :mrgreen:

Re: Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 1st, 2013, 1:24 pm
by FV80
Ditto on what Mark said but ... get yourself some TIRE LUBE too. Like this stuff
http://www.gemplers.com/product/162457/ ... 001171834s.
It'll make the job MUCH easier and help the beads to seat when you air them up.

Good luck,
Steve, FV80
BTW - if you're flipping on the rim instead of just swapping sides of the car, the tires don't seem to care about which way they roll. I don't bother to flip mine - I just put the best rubber of a set on the side that I think gets the most wear. Of course, the inside edge is still the inside edge if that's the problem.

Re: Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 1st, 2013, 1:41 pm
by gdavis
Hmmm..... from those responses this sounds a little ominous. Maybe I'll just break down and go ahead and pay the tire shop and figure in the money I'll save for the trip to the emergency room. :shock:

Re: Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 1st, 2013, 1:51 pm
by fvracer27
FV80 wrote:Ditto on what Mark said but ... get yourself some TIRE LUBE too. Like this stuff
http://www.gemplers.com/product/162457/ ... 001171834s.
It'll make the job MUCH easier and help the beads to seat when you air them up.

Good luck,
Steve, FV80
BTW - if you're flipping on the rim instead of just swapping sides of the car, the tires don't seem to care about which way they roll. I don't bother to flip mine - I just put the best rubber of a set on the side that I think gets the most wear. Of course, the inside edge is still the inside edge if that's the problem.

Steve this year I flipped my tires after every weekend and had much better luck. I was not having a problem with the inside or outside wearing but I wanted to try something because last year I was getting 6-8 heat cycles at most then they went away. This year I have a set with 12+ and they still seemed pretty good I'm sure not as good as cycle 2 but at least I did not end up in the weeds.

Re: Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 1st, 2013, 2:38 pm
by brian
I am not familar with the chinese changers but when you use a manual changer it's very critical to start rolling the tire on and then move the mounted portion of the tire into the smaller dia. area in the center of the rim as you go. You can do this by pushing down on the beaded portion of the tire. This provides extra movement for the last half of the bead to clear the rim. When working the last bit of tire on the rim, be careful not to tear the tire and use a large screwdriver or tire spoon to leverage the tire over the rim while the tire is being rolled on.

Secondly, after the tire is on the rim, manually push the part of the tire that's likely still on the smaller dia. area of the rim, back up on the outer bead area. You can do this by pushing outward on the tire and it will slide up.

Lastly, remove the valve core and slowly air the tire up. I add a bit of air then let it out, do it again and again watching the tire SLOWLY move up on the rim. Don't just jam air in and wait for the pop. Once fully beaded, put the core in the stem and air up to no more than 30-35 psi.

Then using some water check the bead all around and look for bubbles.

Re: Mounting tires tips

Posted: October 7th, 2013, 3:11 pm
by Hal
I've found a thin coat of white lithium grease on the wheel and the tire bead (then some tire lube) helps greatly in getting the tire on easier and the grease helps seal it to a point where virtually no air will escape while sitting around. Of course on every bare wheel I run around it with a wire brush wheel on an electric drill to make it as smoot as possible. Usually is tricky to keep the beaded side down so I have taken to a balancing act of pulling on the tire mounting bar along with holding the beaded part down with a pry bar. Still a struggle but works pretty well for me and have had no visits to the emergency room. Yet.