R500 Wheel tyre removal procedure?

[anthony1956]

R500 Wheel tyre removal procedure?

 

Is standard garage tyre removal equipment too much for the R500 wheels?

 

If so what is the recommended method for removal?

 

Anyone got two Rear R500 wheels I can buy?

 

Anthony

[Graham Perry]

Must admit after breaking the beads we always remove ours with tyre levers and a rubber mallet using lots of protective rag. Some of the machines can remove them carefully but there are none round where I live.

 

 

[Gridgway]

the HiQ I use in woking has quite a sophisticated machine that seems to do a good job.

Graham

[anthony1956]

what does breaking the beads mean?

[Graham Perry]

Anthony, to make a tubeless tyre seal on the wheel, the tyre bead (the interface between rim and tyre) has to be very tight on the rim. When putting the tyre on, the air pressure forces the bead onto the rim. However when the tyre is deflated it is then difficult to force the bead of the tyre off the rim. That is why tyre fitters have a device on their machine that uses an air ram with a tyre rim shaped pusher to force the rubber away from the wheel rim into its deeper centre trough where it becomes loose.

 

On vehicles with large tubeless tyres they can be very tight indeed. I have sweated for many hours in the past weilding a large sledgehammer and a piece of angle iron trying to break the bead on large truck tyres. However you can't do that with car wheels or you will damage them easily.

 

The rims on R500 wheels are quite thin and have to be treated with respect or damage will result when changing tyres.

 

Edited by - Graham Perry on 23 Nov 2003 07:45:30