Question about breaking the bead using a harbor freight bead breaker?

I have a question about mounting and balancing tires at home that didn't come up when I was researching this problem. If you have never mounted or balanced your own passenger-car tires, then you won't know the answers (most likely) but if you have, you'll know because you must have solved this problem.

I have the Harbor Freight Pittsburgh Manual Tire Changer HF item #62317 which is mounted in concrete so that it is stable.

That tire changer comes with a "bead breaker" but the bead is just not breaking when I used it today!

formatting link

I also bought a couple of Harbor Freight item #61603 Pittsburgh 24 in. General Purpose Tire Irons.

formatting link

The problem is that the harbor freight tire changer bead breaker just seems to slip off when following the instructions.

formatting link

I would be glad to use the the Harbor Freight item #67403 Tire Bead Breaker with Swan Neck:

formatting link

But it doesn't come with instructions. Have you used these goose-neck bead breakers on passenger tires?

Which way does the goose-neck go? a. It can't fit under the rim with the finger pointing up, and, b. It can't fit under the bead with the finger pointing down.

So how did you use this bead breaker anyway?

Reply to
Frank Baron
Loading thread data ...

Move the top of the vertical piece (with the shoe on the bottom) closer to the pivot on the horizontal arm . You want it to push out as well as down .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 18:19:51 -0600, Terry Coombs advised:

I appreciate that you're staying on topic and trying to answer the question of how to break the bead using the two bead breaker tools I pictured (and I appreciate that you didn't give me useless redneck method jokes).

I assume you're talking about the red tire breaker (and not the black one), but I'm not sure what you mean by "moving the top of the vertical piece".

Are you saying that the red double-arm vertical element should be as straight up and down as possible when I'm pressing down on the red lever handle (that is out of the picture at top)?

formatting link

I don't know if I can do that because the tire can get no closer to the vertical red tube as it is now since it *touches* the vertical red tube.

Or, do you want me to move the tire in the opposite direction, which is

*away* from the vertical tube?

I appreciate your advice - but I'm just trying to understand it because we have a terminology issue where I don't know the names for the parts of that red bead breaker contraption.

Reply to
Frank Baron

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 16:16:28 -0800, Oren advised:

I was going to say that I want to do it the "right" way at home. I know all the redneck methods, so I don't really want them. I know about the trailer hitch jack method, and the driving over it method and the use the car as a lever method, etc.

But I just want to use the tire breaker because it is *designed* for the job.

If you've never broken the bead of a passenger tire with a tire breaker you won't be able to help because this is the kind of question that takes someone who has actually done it.

Jokes about going to the tire changing shop are also out of place in this thread (but someone will think he's funny by mentioning that).

I just am asking for an answer from someone who knows the answer. Nothing more or less than that.

I don't mean to be rude, but I am trying to use the tire breaker and not some redneck method.

I'm just asking how.

Reply to
Frank Baron

Have you looked on YouTube? Ya know, the old thing about a picture being worth one or ten thousand words?

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

m It's a pretty mediocre bead breaker - and even a good one often needs to be applied to several points around the tire to knock it down. The (cheap) breaker sometimes needs to be tied with a twisted rope to keep them against the rim.. Helps to have it adjusted properly too.

You are really going to need to change a lot of tires to pay for the equipment with the money saved by not having someone else do it, and I'll bet you ruin a few tires in the process.

If you are doing it yourself because you don't trust tire shops, "rots 'a ruck,"

If you want instructions, look at

formatting link
or
formatting link

As an apprentice mechanic in the sixties I changed hundreds of tires with a commercial quality manual changer very similar in concept to that machine - got it down to about 4 minutes a tire to strip and re-install a typical 14 or 15 inch bias ply automotive tire - about

16 minutes for a full set of 4 - including removing and installing the wheels on the car (not including putting it up on the hoist or removing hub caps/wheel covers)

Not a whole lot faster with the air powered machines that took it's place, but a whole lot less sweat!!!.

Reply to
clare

Move the breaker shoe part in to the first hole on the handle so the shoe pushes out and down when you lean on the handle - as shown in the 'tubes I referenced. The inner part of the rim needs to be against the stop on the foot of the changer.

Reply to
clare

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 20:09:56 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca advised:

Oh. I didn't even realize, until you mentioned that, that there are holes in the handle where we can move the breaker shovel further to the center of the wheel or further away from the center of the wheel.

Too bad, because I don't have the SUV (I only have one spare tire right now) as I'm doing this for a relative.

Last night, I destroyed the tire changer bead-breaking arm:

formatting link

It bent like it was made out of butter.

I may have to head back to Harbor Freight for this one:

formatting link

Reply to
Frank Baron

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 19:04:13 -0600, Dean Hoffman advised:

Of course I've looked on youtube. There were plenty of mounting videos, for example, but they mostly just showed you the end result, and none of the practical stuff that I learned here.

Also, there are lots (and lots) of redneck methods for breaking the bead, and a few on the HF tool.

The ones on the HF tool just showed the obvious, which is you press down and that's it. Some even ran into the same problem I ran into which is that the HF tool is made out of butter.

formatting link

I removed the bent section and will straighten it and try again:

formatting link

But it may be that I actually will need to buy this tool from HF:

formatting link

I also picked up some new tire valves which will be interesting to put in since I have never done it before:

formatting link

Reply to
Frank Baron

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 20:07:38 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca advised:

I have to agree with you that it's a "mediocre" bead breaker because I bent the heck out of the breaker arm last night working on the one spare tire that I have (it's not my SUV - I'm helping a relative by doing her tires):

formatting link

I don't have welding equipment, but I should probably weld on stronger steel to make the arms more rigid:

formatting link

I had calculated about $200 for the tools which, at about $20 per tire, is about 10 tires. That's about two years payback time, assuming tires changed on two cars every two years plus a flat fix once every two years per car (which is about my rate).

So, pretty much, I'm going through 10 tires on two cars every two years so two years from now, it will have paid for itself.

Tire shops suck.

  1. They don't remove BBS hubcaps with the tool (they just pry them off)
  2. They don't remove all the old weights (they just put on more)
  3. They don't line up the heavy (or high) spot (they just use more weight)
  4. They don't pressurize the tires correctly (everyone gets the same psi)
  5. They don't torque lug nuts/bolts correctly (ditto on egalitarianism)
  6. I've had bent BMW rims (I think they did it but I can't prove that)
Reply to
Frank Baron

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 19:55:25 -0700, rbowman advised:

Just to let folks know what does *NOT* work, this black swan-neck bead breaker bar from Harbor Freight is utterly useless also.

formatting link

You can't get any purchase anywhere with it. You may as well use a butter knife for all it does.

I'm a bit mad at HF because the ad says it's for cars but it's not:

formatting link

The reviews tell us that it is only for certain types of trucks and tractors with a "lock" bead (whatever that is). REVIEW QUOTE: It is meant to break the bead from lock rings on a loader tire

I don't know what a "loader tire" is, nor what a "lock ring" is for such a tire, but I do (now) know emphatically that this swan-neck bead breaker bar is utterly useless for passenger car tires.

Reply to
Frank Baron

When working with automotive size tires, makes sure the tire is warm (put it in the heated part of the house, if you are in a cold environment, for a while before trying to break the bead).

Make sure you have removed the valve stem core.

Put a little diluted liquid soap where the rim meets the tire.

If possible, stand on the area of the tire where you are attempting to break the bead. This will add some additional force without exerting any effort.

We use our HF bead breaker for tractor and other yard equipment tires, some of them are pretty large.

Reply to
Stormin' Norman

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 20:07:38 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca advised:

I should be clear that I already know how to go through the motions. The problem is what to do when the bead won't break.

In that first video above the guy used the same tool that I had:

formatting link

He mounted the tire changer on 2x3s which was a different way of doing it, and he did a tougher tire than the rest of the videos used.

He used a stronger-ply sidewall, and said that the bead was "really really difficult" to break off the wheel. He also bent his bead breaker bar like I did. So, the tool is really too weak for a formidable SUV tire.

He said "car tires would be way easier" than his truck tires that he did. He found putting the tires on was easier than was breaking the bead of the truck (SUV) tires.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the tool is stressed with SUV tires, and that my technique is sound. I just have to find another way to break the SUV tires so I'll probably pick up a single-purpose bead breaker at HF this week.

Reply to
Frank Baron

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 19:04:13 -0600, Dean Hoffman advised:

This video uses the same tool that I have:

formatting link

And he explained a bit about how the bead breaker shovel bends like mine did.

Unlike the other video, at least his beads popped off with a sound, so you know he was really breaking a bead.

That guy also used a 3/8ths in bolt which was too long! He didn't use the washers that the previous guy did with the drop-in anchors.

So it looks like everyone has the same problem that you need 2-2/4 inch bolts and not a quarter inch either way but none of them bother to mention that (so you have to know to look for it which means you have to already know about it to know to look for it).

But, overall, the tire he had was a low profile tire which is totally different from a SUV high profile tire, so, for bead breaking the video was useless.

Reply to
Frank Baron

On Mon, 12 Dec 2016 20:07:38 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca advised:

Thanks for those links.

Watching this video first, it's actually hilarious in one way:

formatting link

He's using an entirely different model tool from HF (it has a completely different geometry than the one I have) and he's doing a brand new 14-inch passenger-car tire which even he said in the video is super easy.

In addition, he welded stuff onto his tire changer (he didn't say exactly what he welded though) and his tire changer is totally different than mine in that he doesn't have those two weak arms that bent on mine.

formatting link

His has a steel tube (which will certainly be stronger).

But the non-realistic part of his video was that he used a brand new tire!

So all he did was press down like he was pressing his finger into butter, and the bead broke (in fact, the bead was already broken because there was absolutely no popping sound). He even stepped on the rest of the tire to get the rest of the bead, which means that he was just going through the motions.

It's fine that he was just going through the motions, but I already knew all the motions.

But he also bolted his HF tool to concrete (his bolt hole dimensions are wrong though since nothing larger than 3/8ths will fit in the pre-drilled holes of the tool legs).

He used the same threaded anchors that I did, so that's nice to know. And, he didn't mention it, but you can see that he stacked a shitload of washers under the bolt head, which means he had the same problem that I have which is you need 2-3/4-inch long bolts, but you can only easily get

2-1/2 or 3-inch bolts (he probably used the 3-inch bolts).

So, it was a useful video, but not the same model tire changer as I have, and, his test case was so easy that it simply showed what we already know which is you press down on the bar with the bead shovel in the bead.

He does another tire at time 937 but it's just as easy but at least we "hear" the pop of the bead, which means this bead was actually seated:

formatting link

The video is good for "instructions" for going through the motions, but it's not useful when there is a problem breaking the bead since the bead came off like it was buttered.

The guy blows up a tire at time 1408, which is certainly not standard procedure!

formatting link

Reply to
Frank Baron

On Tue, 13 Dec 2016 19:14:35 +0000, Stormin' Norman advised:

Which bead breaker do you use?

Is it this one?

formatting link

Reply to
Frank Baron

On 12/12/2016 5:45 PM, Frank Baron wrote: ...

Reply to
dpb

Yes, except the base is painted orange, I assume it is the older version.

Reply to
Stormin' Norman

It is every bit as crappy as the one on the changer

Reply to
clare

By the time you are done you will have spent as much as having all your tires professionally changed for the rest of your life (unless you are a teenager with a heavy foot) and you STILL won't be able to change yourtires ----

Reply to
clare

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.