Aircraft Tire Bead Breaker

The first couple of times I changed or flipped my tires on my RV-10, everything went perfectly in getting the tire off the old rim.  The last couple times though, it's been really tough for me.  I don't know if it's just gummed up from residue over time, or what it is, by the tires just did not want to come off the bead.  I'd stand on it, jump on it, have 2 people stand on it, and use 2x4's in creative ways, and I still had trouble getting the bead to break free.  It was then that I resolved myself to getting a bead breaker.

I found a couple online that you could buy:
Bogert Aviation 13M-TBB Aircraft Tire Bead Breaker  $129.99
Meyers Hydraulics Tire Bead Breaker AB-1  a hefty $193.00!!

Well, those of you who know me know that I actually like doing it myself if I can.  So here is what I came up with.  It's very similar to the Bogert's bead breaker...I looked at their photo to think about it.  The entire thing cost me $20 or less to build....about $10-12 in steel, and about $7 for 3 of the 3/8" hitch pins.
The 4 bars on the floor are all 1.25" x 14" square tubing of I think 3/32" thickness.  I think the vertical was cut to 18", but it's way taller than what is needed. My guess is that 14" would be fine for that too.  The handle was 16-17".  So in total, allowing for a couple inches of spare, you would need 90" (7.5') of 1.25" square tubing.  On mine, I chose to use a little 1.5" box tube on top of the frame to make a "socket" to plug the vertical piece into.  I don't remember the specific thickness, but the steel supplier cut me a 6" piece of that and gave me the thickness that would allow them to nest with no slop.  The only other steel I needed was 4 pieces of 1.25" x 4" x 3/16" steel plates to make the forks on the ends of the 2 box tubes, and a piece of scrap of 3" x 4" x 3/16" that I used for the piece that pushes on the tire.  For that piece, there are many options.  Looking at other bead breakers you can make them push hard vertically, or do it many different ways.  I just did what was easiest for me, rather than bending a piece into a curve, I let it hit the tire at a slight angle and I ground the edge to roughly follow the curve of the rim.

It took maybe 1.5 hours to cut and weld up, and maybe 1/2 hour to drill.  I put in extra holes to make it adjustable, but that was because I didn't have a tire on hand at home to test fit it all with.  Turns out my first guess on the holes was right, so I could have saved a lot of drilling if I would have brought a tire home to test it with.

So, as you go forward with your RV-10's maintenance, here's a cheap tool to keep around the garage that may save you some time.