How to Break a Tire Bead at Home: Steps and Tools by Tire Type

This page covers one step of taking a tire off: getting the bead loose. The six steps below are the common core of three makers' instructions: the owner's manual of the Harbor Freight Pittsburgh changer, read according to the copy of the owner's manual on ManualsLib, the instructions for the BeadBuster XB-450i, and the tire makers' bulletin for motorcycle tires. Your own tool's manual comes first; we have not run these steps in a shop.

What you are pushing against

The bead is the stiff inner edge of the tire. Air pressure has pressed it onto a ledge of the rim, the bead seat, behind a low ridge. Breaking the bead means pushing it over that ridge into the deep channel in the middle of the rim. The parts are explained under what is a tire bead. So the push has to land at the rim edge, and the bead lets go a few inches at a time.

The right tool by tire type

For stiff ATV sidewalls the better documented tool is the BeadBuster XB-450i^* (paid link), in the premium price class; its limits are on our BeadBuster page. All hand-operated types are compared under manual bead breakers.

Six steps

1. Empty the tire completely

   Remove the valve core with a valve core tool and wait until no more air comes out. BeadBuster, Ken-Tool and the tire makers' motorcycle bulletin all start here; the bulletin adds to stay out of the line of the valve stem and core.

2. Lubricate the bead

   Apply a commercially available lubricant made for bead seating along the bead. Press the sidewall down with your hand so the lubricant runs between rim and tire. The Pittsburgh manual has the bead coated before the handle is pushed and warns that removing a tire dry can damage it.

3. Set the tool at the rim edge

   Place the shoe or the feet in the gap between rim lip and bead, as close to the rim as the tool allows. A tool set out on the sidewall presses on the wrong part of the tire. With a clamp tool, BeadBuster advises starting on the shallow side, the side nearest the drop center, which is usually the outside face of the wheel.

4. Push the bead off its seat

   Press the handle down, or turn the ram screw, until the bead moves past the ridge. With a clamp tool keep the body square to the rim face: the maker warns that a tool leaning toward the rim can gouge the rim, and one leaning away can slide down the sidewall and puncture it. Do not hammer a clamp tool into place.

5. Work around the rim

   Release the tool, move it a few inches along the rim and push again. On tight wheels BeadBuster advises bites of about 3/4 to 1 in.

6. Turn the wheel over and repeat

   Break the second bead the same way. The side away from the drop center usually takes more passes. Before you lever anything, check that both beads are loose all the way around.

Before step one: what is in the tire?

• Eye and hand protection. The Pittsburgh manual calls for ANSI-approved safety goggles and heavy-duty work gloves.
• Lubricant. The tire makers rule out silicone, petroleum and solvent-based products; see tire mounting lube.
• Sensors. On wheels with a tire pressure sensor, follow the vehicle maker's service procedure for where to set the tool.

Striking tools: slide hammers and wedges

Truck and tractor beads are often broken with a slide hammer or a handled wedge instead of a press. Ken-Tool's instruction sheet for its handled wedges says the blade goes into the bead along the rim, the back end is struck with a soft-faced hammer, the wedge itself is never swung, and the wheel and its parts are never struck with a steel tool. We do not recommend striking tools for alloy car wheels; the type is covered under slide hammer bead breakers.

Typical mistakes

• Air left in the tire. Take the valve core out.
• Working dry. The Pittsburgh manual warns of tire damage.
• Tool on the sidewall instead of at the rim edge.
• Forcing a clamp tool. BeadBuster names over-clamping as the most common user problem.
• Improvised presses. No tool or tire maker we read backs vehicles, jacks or clamps.

What comes next

With both beads loose, the tire still has to be levered over the rim flange. That job, with a changer or with irons, is described under how to remove a tire from a rim. Which bead breaker suits which tire is the subject of the overview of tire bead breakers, and small rims have their own page on lawn mower tire changers. Wheels with pressure sensors need extra care at the valve; see changing tires with TPMS sensors. Improvised tools are the subject of homemade bead breakers. When the new tire goes on, the tire makers' limit applies: never more than 40 psi to seat beads; if they are not seated at 40 psi, deflate completely, reposition the tire on the rim, relubricate and reinflate. See how to seat a tire bead. The whole subject is sorted on the manual tire changer homepage.