Enzo

Suprised to hear you're bending Matts tyre Irons, I'm taking truck tyres off - not your little toy 4x4 ones :-) and never had a problem with them.

Don't use split rims either so have no 'notch' issues.



------------------
Rich
LR101 300Tdi Ambi 'Tiggurr'

If your bending your tyre levers my bet is your doing something slightly wrong, are you using a lubricant?

Rich, you should try a set of tyre pliers, you can break the beads on both sides of the rim pretty quick without much effort.

They are just a luxury item, the highlift does work well, but the tyrepliers just make life a bit easier.

"are you using a lubricant?"


Col. what are you suggesting?!

Lubricant (washing up liquid) was used but these were old split rims and the rubber had "welded" itself to the rims. After many hours of "schlepping" I took them to a commercial tyre centre and they split them for me - now there's no problems.

Rich - what are you using? I'm using 750/16's so I suppose you're using 900/16' on your FC?

And stop talking of "girls" tyres: changing a tyre, any tyre, in the UK is a completely different story to changing one in the bush!

I actually still have MS's tyre irons - they fit nicely alongside my seat and are handy for swiping crip\pled beggars off the bonnet with!

Col - don't think the standard tyre plyers do 20 inch rims - there might be an extension for them but my pieces of angle work great and were free (I'm a stingy old sod at times)

Enzo - I agree washing up liquid works great i've found to get the tyres off/on , not using it risks tearing the edge of the tyre. As for changing tyres in the bush being different to the UK please explain - OK it may be a little warmer but other than that its the same as I swap all my tyres myself by hand so I know I can do it when I need to and have had to. And the 'little 4x4' tyres was cos I use 10.5/20 unimog tyres on my truck so both the rims and the tyre are HEAVY man (wouldn't even like to contemplate having to throw around robs bedford size rims and tyres)




------------------
Rich
LR101 300Tdi Ambi 'Tiggurr'

Not to diss your 'mog tyre changing, but a little warmer...that's the least of it!

1. finding a dust free environment to change your tube is bloody near impossible.

2. If you have to change a tyre, out of nowhere descends a mob hell bent on either helping you change your tyre or helping themselves to any of your kit - this does not exclude them from opening the doors of your vehicle to take alook inside for something nice to pinch.

3. We parked up in TZ to change a tyre and found we had parked, off road, right next to a 2m long Black Mamba. Luckily for us, but not for him, one of TZ's lunatic truck drivers had already, just, quashed the life out of him as he as still all floppy.

4. There are no hard shoulders in Kenya, the road just comes to an abrubt halt. Apart from the danger of changing any tyre in the path of traffic, there is usually a 6 to 18 inch drop off to the side of the road (caused by erosion) so pulling off the road is sometimes a mission all on it's own.

So apart from the people, the wildlife, the evironment and the crap roads I can see how you can draw a positive comparison between our experiences!