Homemade Bead Breaker

Ok, so you may have seen the guys who use the crude method of wedging a 2x4 under a car and prying the bead down.. The videos show it working but it just seems to crude to me so I looked for a better way.

I came across a video on youtube and adapted the design to work for me ( a little simpler).

Materials list is short (all to be gotten from home depot or simliar)

2 2x4's (you need one long piece for the handle and a shorter pieces where it attaches to the wall)

1 2x3 short piece for use as the ram

1 2x10 piece, maybe 18 inches long

5 3/8x5" bolts

10 3/8 washers

5 3/8 hex nuts


The reason for the 2x10 as you will see from the photos is I did not want to drill holes into my garage wall stud so nailing the 2x10 to the stud got me around this. I also noticed there is probably less torsional flex using the heavier 2x10.

The design as you can see is very simple. If anyone is interested in building one I will provide more details on dimensions.

Thanks for looking and btw, it works! Busted the bead on both front and rear tires

Edit: You will also need 2 20" lengths of 4x4 to prop the wheel off the ground (protect rotors)

I'm going to build one and would love to read any other details you have :thumbup:

Well done.
These guys have had this method documented for a while.

Mounting & balancing tires yourself - Ninja250Wiki

One flaw with your design though: it's hard to get to heavy bag now

DefyInertia said:

I'm going to build one and would love to read any other details you have :thumbup:

Click to expand...

Basic dimensions are:
- the short 2x4 pieces (2 of them): 18"
- the long 2x4 (handle) 52" (I might shorten it a little)
- the ram 2x3 18" (cut this piece last and one end at 45 degrees. the length will depend how high up on the wall you mount the mechanism)
- 2x10 20" (to nail to the garage wall stud)

It took some fanagaling to figure out how high off the ground to fasten the mechanism. I only did that once I had 1 wheel off so I could judge how high to attach it (to the 2x10). Getting the ram piece the right length took a couple of tries. It will need to be a couple inches shorter to accomdate the wider rear tire. I also found it works better (Easier to adjust ram) by using a belt sander to shave just a little off the contact points of the ram so there is less friction when the bolts are all tightened

and one more shot of it actually doing the job. Such a nice sound when you hear the thing Pop

Great idea! Thanks. :thumbup::thumbup:
That write up on doing a tire change was great too. :rockon:

Hey thanks i actually saw that one too and was about to do build one and get the levers out until i bought the freight changer.Still a possibility.