Mounting tires with limited tools?

Is it possible to mount tires on rims with limited household tools and still do it in a way that results in a SAFELY mounted tire?



This guy does it with some soap, a paper towel and a screwdriver. Seems simple enough. I've mounted bicycle tires before and thought nothing of it.

However, I've seen some people use a bead sealant to mount the tires. Is that necessary? After you put the tire on the rim, do you just fit the stem in there and inflate it and that's it?

I've done this plenty of times before, and it's very easy. You'll need a bucket of water with soap, 2 large craftsman screwdrivers and your two feet.

Just mount the tire on the rim and take it to your nearest tire shop to get balanced. Shouldn't cost anymore than $5.

I heard you needed a powerful (very high burst volume) air compressor to pop the tire onto the bead. Otherwise, you won't be able to inflate it. I also heard about it being necessary to use bead sealant, since otherwise there might be a slow leak from the sidewall. Is any of that true?

I also read you can use a ratchet strap to pop the bead into place if you don't have a high volume air tank to blast the tire's bead into place. My only concern now is whether I need bead sealant or not.

You don't need bead sealant.

But you do need a compressor so you can add air quickly thus bypassing the bead sealant. Once you hear it inflating, you'll hear a loud pop so don't worry about that-that's just the tire sealing onto the rim. As soon as it's sealed get a bucket of water, and slightly pour water into the "bead" area to observe if there are any air bubbles coming out. If you see any, you'll want to get a heavy hammer or mallet and hit tire on the side as close as you can to the bead area making sure you don't hit the rim. I know you're wondering why hit it? Because that's how the tire and bead will correctly seat itself. You'll want to hit it with a medium hit, not as hard as you can okay? And do that repeatedly until you see the air bubbles leave. Most of the time it only takes the first hit and it's done. As soon as you're done airing up all tires, take them to get properly balanced. I've done this for nearly 13-14 years and counting so it's a good method we do/did in the shop.

Just to save $8??? I mean, you have to take it somewhere to be balanced anyway, why not let them mount it too? You're guaranteed that the proper mounting equipment isn't going to gouge up your wheel.


For the record, though, I've had to re-seat a blown bead on my 4x4 with a small compressor. You need to put a ratchet strap around the tire to push the beads out. Then start pumping up.