I got my new Mudlites and the replacement for my one bent rim. I have one of those Central Machinery manual tire changers from Harbor Freight. It has worked great on car and truck tires. Anyway, I can't break the bead on my tire. The instructions say for an atv tire to hold the bead breaker against the rim and work your way around the tire little by little (due to the soft sidewall). Is the oem steel wheel (Xplorer 400) a beadlock? Do I need to buy the atv bead roller/breaker from Harbor Freight? It says you only need this for beadlock rims.

 

This will sound crazy but try it. Put 1-2 pounds of air pressure in the tire and break one side down, it will break down because the air will keep the sidewall from givin, Then you have to put a little air back in it and break the other side down, do not blow the bead all the way out. A litte air in the tire is the trick.

 

Makes sense, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

This may sound even crazier, but take the tire and rim and run over them with your pickup truck. Getting the front truck tire to ride on the tire only and as close to the rim as possible. It helps to turn your front tire around the rim as much as possible. This will break the bead usually.

 

When I put my new tires on, I did them at school, where we have those tire changing machines in the auto shop. Let me tell you, even with the bead breakers that are on thoses machins, it was still a pain in the butt to get the bead to break, it was even harder to get the rears to seat. I thought I had them until I got up north and realized that both of the beads were a little off. We tried everything. The only thing that worked is that we filled the tires up with about 25psi and I ride it. That actually seated the beads on the rear. The only bad thing was that there was ice on the trails that day, and I had practicly NO traction. Made for some real fun burnouts and powerslides.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I tried leaving a little air in like Gumman70 suggested and that works. Don't forget a ratchet strap to squeeze the tire when you go to seat the bead. If any of you want to try mounting your own (and car and truck tires, too) the manual tire changer from Harbor Freight really works and it goes on sale for 35 bucks all the time. I would also recommend going to a tire shop and buying real tire mounting lube. It works better than dish soap.