HEMTT Rim, Breaking loose the bead. No beadlock. Ideas to make this a smoother process.

[Superthermal]

I found that a Harbor Freight bi-metal reciprocating saw blade can cut through two tires before losing enough teeth to become ineffective I remember having melted rubber gum up the blade too, but I found that improving my cutting technique helped with that!

Looking at the way you cut the tire, you might've been able to save some effort by avoiding cutting through the bead - there is a lot of steel in there as you described. What I did is start my blade horizontal to the sidewall then plunge it in and completely cut around the bead. Once that was done I worked the bead still attached to the rim by hand, loosening it with a pry bar if I had to.

I just added a pic of my work. Note the intact bead on the rim.

View attachment 883168


Out of curiosity, how thick are the side walls on the tires you're taking off?

Sorry had to read that again, sidewall not bead. Bead is .5inch

 

[HDN]

Thanks for measuring that! It seems the military super singles have about a 0.5" sidewall regardless of tire size. The 14.5R20 and 395/85R20 have the same sidewall thickness as what you measured.

I hope the rest of your tires come off easily! If you can get the remainder off the rim without cutting through the bead, that should save you some effort and saw blade.

 

[Superthermal]

#6 Tire being assembled now. I do have 2 more tires to mount but I still need some cash to buy and ship those so I can have 8 total tires.

 

[HDN]

Are you using the ratchet straps to pull the rim into the tire? I did mine by first seating the rim while it was standing upright, then flipping the wheel onto either blocks or old tires rimside-up and jumping on the rim until it finished getting seated.

 

[Superthermal]

Are you using the ratchet straps to pull the rim into the tire? I did mine by first seating the rim while it was standing upright, then flipping the wheel onto either blocks or old tires rimside-up and jumping on the rim until it finished getting seated.

I had the tire laid down flat on blocks. I centered the run flat using my high lift jacking horizontally. Once centered I used a tire seating lube on the tire and run flat and the rim. I pressed the rim into the tire keyed perfectly with the runflat air channel and then jumped on it to get it seated as much as possible. I then ratchet strapped it in place to ensure it couldn't slip out while I lifted the tire up and then laid it back flat, filpped over, onto blocks only under the rim. I would then slip the lubed up o-ring down onto the rim and then lube up the shallow side of the rim and lower it down onto the other side of the rim then jump on it until it was as low as possible about enough threads to have full threads on any bolt. Then tightening evenly until torqued. Note that the runflat is absolutely clamped with insane pressure as the tire and runflat were about a half inch wider than the rim width. So the runflat is crushed a half inch between the beads.

I will say the single most helpful thing for this process was the tire butter stuff that made the rim slip into place. The first few I did with soapy water and those were not easy to assemble. The tire butter was king! Was from Napa.

 

[HDN]

That sounds familiar, except I got away with not using tire soap or butter! The only thing I did differently with the clamp ring is that I flipped the wheel over on two tires (one on each "end" of the tire) with the rim in it clamp ring side up. Then I used a jack and a few blocks to jack the rim up in the tire to the point where I could align the clamp ring with the rim's studs and thread the lock nuts on.

Looks like you're doing a good job! I look forward to seeing this finished