Beating up on MORE tires!

Well, I had some time tonight, as LTGal was out at a movie and we pressed Kidlet#2 into babysitting LTBabe… But I just haven’t worked up the nerve to hone the cylinder yet… So, I thought, after my adventure in tires over these past two weeks, I thought I would get motivated and try popping some tires off on my own, just for giggles… This past weekend, I went out to my dad’s plant to do some mowing for him, and while I had a bit of spare time (and the old rusty rims from Bror in the truck), I thought I’d try Team_Green’s recommendation for easily popping beads on tires… HE said, it never fails for him, take a 2 x 6, place it on the tire close up to the rim, then drive up the 2 x 6 with your truck… Sure, I thought, I can do that!

Or not…. And that was even a 2 x 8… Okay, so I had a mallet, a wrecking bar, a tire iron and a screwdriver in the truck, so I went after it for a while… DANG that’s hard work… I managed to break the bead, but not get the tire off of ONE rim… So tonight I did some shopping!

Here’s the handy set of tools from Princess Auto, along with my mallet, my trusty screwdriver and wrecking bar…

And of course, I couldn’t do it without one of THESE!

Here was the first victim-er-rim… Fresh off of the 120 I got from Team_Green last summer…

I think my favorite tool is the 12″ beater bar, just LAYING into that puppy with the mallet is VERY satisfying. I’m not really too sure WHAT to do with the other two, I used them for prying and pulling and stuff… After an hour or so, I was left with this!

One thing I’ve learned is that I’m not MAD enough to take off tires… To really RIP them off by hand (without a handy bobcat) truly takes getting some serious anger on! The second one went quicker, ’cause I was getting ornerier, and I wasn’t gonna take no guff from no tire! (of course, my aim is worse when I’m mad, I may need some advice on taking small dints outta the edges of rims now…). In no time flat (okay, 45 minutes or so, plus some cleanup of the grease) I had THESE!

So, one step closer to having the nice lugs from Greensail installed on a nice set of rims. Thanks for the awesome rims Team_Green! I’ll probably STILL sandblast them and paint them, but they’re sure prettier than the ones that were ON the tractor!