DIY : Tire Bead Breaker!

This is how I built my own tire bead breaker with stuff I had kicking around and so far it's working pretty well! The general design is something I saw online at some point that someone made out of wooden 2x4s and hinges but I adapted to what I had to work with and how I envisioned it which means you can do the same and make it your own way! The important part is to anchor the leverage bar on something sturdy that can't be overcome easily by the leverage created.


What I started with was the lift handle and mount assembly for a lawn tractor mounted snowblower.



I chose to mount it on my heavy duty steel workbench. I drilled and tapped holes to bolt the mount on then welded it all the way around then trimmed back and rounded everything not needed that would end up being a knee banger!




I welded a piece of flatbar into a piece of thick walled pipe I cut a slot in to and drilled a hole in it, this will become the vertical piece.



Then I cut these tabs off that were part of the lift handle, bolted them on to the vertical bar (with a washer for spacing) and then welded them on to the leverage bar.



Then it was time to make a spoon! I found this which was the mount for a wheel for a cart so I cut off the (remaining) tab, cut out the shape I wanted, hammered a curve into it and welded it into a slice on the other end of the vertical bar.







In hindsight I should've either put the slice closer to the inside edge (rim side) or just welded the vertical bar to the outside of the spoon because the bar contacted the rim (red arrow) but not before it broke the bead so maybe it's not an issue...



... but I still modified it by cutting it up and on an angle, fill welded it then ground it smooth and it does provide more clearance!




So there you have it! I've only tested it out on a couple tires but it worked well, I'll have more to do soon enough but I'm not going to go around needlessly breaking down tires! Lol. A big bonus in my design is that the leverage bar assembly is easily removable so it will never be in the way!

I'll update this with more results after it's gotten more use but so far it's looking good! I hope this helps some folks out, let me know what you think!

Looks like a winner to me. I dislike messing with tires about as much as I dislike concrete work. Arrggg. But, I need to stop airing up tires every time I want to ride a rig, so must do tire work.

Now for a little vise mounted tire changer thing.

Nevadablue wrote:

Now for a little vise mounted tire changer thing.

I think that sounds doable but I'll leave it up to someone else or maybe do it sometime in the future if I'm bored! Lol

I made one that will do all sizes of rims using adapters.
I use with 4 inch thru 15 inch rims.

Hint: I use a high lift jack where I can jack down on a tire that is mounted on a rim, for example on a 12 inch rim I cut the center out of a 14 inch rim and place it on top of the tire on a 12 inch rim and just jack down and if it don't break loose immediately just walk away and leave it under stress or whack on the tire and it will break off the bead. I sometimes lube the rim/tire at the bead.

For a 8 inch rimmed tire I use a 10 inch rim, etc. some of them 6 and 8 inch front lawn tractor rimmed tire that have the deep dish on one side I can now defeat easily.

@Okie743 I've used my HiLift but found it to be a real pain and awkward especially on stubborn tires, @MN mudder almost had his head taken off by one doing tires! Check out the conversation here.

https://www.atltf.com/t6713-no-bead-breaker-no-problem.

I sized up my spoon with a 6" and 12" tire so I'm hoping for good versatility but have yet to put the unit to a real test yet, sure broke down those old as dirt 6"s pretty easy though!

I really like yours a lot!

Most excellent job!

I made mine a little different for 'other' tires

Thank you very much @Kinky_Dee! What kind of tires did you make yours for? I'm planning on testing this on dirtbike tires and an old truck tire I have kicking around on top of atv and lawn tractor tires.

Stay tuned, I'll get around to it soon enough! Lol

Feel free to post pictures of yours here for all to see or heck make a thread yourself showcasing and explaining the details of yours if you want!

I have the crappiest tire machine in the world (dad owns an auto shop) so I don't have that much trouble doing tires, but these are some interesting ideas, didn't know of any ways that you could break beads without a bead breaker or a tractor...

Small update on the bead breaker, I used it today to break the bead on an old Firestone on a Cub Cadet rim, it took a little working it but by the time I got an eighth of the way around the wheel it busted the bead and I was able to get the rest done quickly! So far so good!

Another quick update on this.

I've now used it to break down about a dozen tires including 1 trailer tire and it's working really well! For stubborn tires I need to work my way around the tire slowly but it's broken down every tire I've used it on.

There is a little trick to make it work well, I need to prop the tire up on a bit of an angle to get the spoon to dig in at the right angle and sometimes I need to stand on the tire but that's it really.  


I'm super happy I built it and that it's working well, I'm saving alot of time and money by not running back and forth to a tire shop so that's big bonus!