bead breakers

yes there are, R&R Beadbreaker are really good, still a bit exe tho,

You could use your hi-lift jack under your tow bar for a lot less dosh, or drive over the tyre and pop the bead

I have tyrepliers tho

I bought tyrepliars and am glad I did. They are so easy to use, that I now find that breaking the bead is the easiest part of the job.
Of course now that I don't have split rims I use them a lot less :)

G'day, I use my Tow Bar and a bottle jack. Works well. I have now made a device that replaces the tongue with a locator for the jack and it incorporates a recovery hook as well.

Cant remember how much my tyre pliers were but they were no where near that much and that was buying them in the country

Jas,

You can always check Ebay

Hi Jas0

I have R&R beadbreaker and have used it in earnest more than a few times and found it easy and relatively effortless to use. Tried years ago driving over tyres to break the bead, waste of time effort and dangerous as well.

I find the biggest problem is getting the bead to set and will install an air cylinder to get the rush required to set it. The experience of being at Mt Dare has made the whole process easier for me. I would recommend you practice plenty at home before you leave.

Cheers Ian@Mt Dare

As Ian said practice is the key whatever tool you use.

I have an R&R and love it. I have repaired tyres on a number of different vehicles including my sisters Astra which has alloy rims. I was worried about damaging the alloy with my clumsy outback tools, but I needn't have. It was fairly easy.

The other bonus with the R&R is that it helps you put the tyre back on.

Can't and won't comment of Tyre Pliers 'cause I haven't used them or even seen them used, but the R&R works fine for me.

Duncs

Jas.
I made the mistake of getting a set of tyre pliers, they are very hard on rims they make a groove in the steel that has to be sanded and painted. I loned mine to a mate to use on a disco aly wheel and he broke a 50mm long piece out of the rim. I dont use them anymore. Eric.

Jas $360 is the price for whole recovery kit not just tyrepliers.

Brought mine some time ago now at $95 and found them really useful but as per other posts here , there is potential to damage rim if not to careful.

Just other day I had really hard tyre to get off , but just use my home made tyrepliers and put force onto 2-3 areas before the final bead breaking effort.
Great tool but agree with Ian comment about doing a couple first at home.

www.tyrepliers.com.au/home.htm

Site has useful instructions on repairing tyres.

A big reason why I got them was that they were thin and compact and could easily be tucked away under car seats.

Having said that though , we are a bit into lightweight stuff so a friend borrowed mine and made a copy in 4 hours once using non-hardened 6mm flat steel, after seeing this we made up a set which doesn't have the adjustment bar and only works on 15-17 tyres.

The optimized new tool only weighs in at 2kg and is even more compact hence it lives in the car now.

Robin Miller

I made all sorts of beadbreakers in the past (including one similar to the R&R), but the humble jack or highlift jack is still the easiest in my experience.

Used to use the scissor jack with the Corolla I took outback in the 70's, and with the early Landcruisers; Used the bottle jack with adaptor on the Prados, and now use the High Lift Jack with the 79series.