What's the trick to mount tires?

[howlinwolf]

all these guys, but im suprized no one mentioned this. A lot of places may use dish soap as a lube, BUT the dish soap never really evaporates, leaving a possible sippery situation if your under load which may allow the bead to rotate on the rim.

[Stewart G Griffin]

Thanks for the info;  i've always wondered about that---sometimes when i dismount tires there seems to be still a little soapy residue.  Not a whole lot but definitely an oily condition.  i'll sometimes not use soap if i can get away with it.  Not for the reasons you mentioned though----mostly because it's more work!

[frickenbored]

I've mounted tires by hand at home and I've worked at a tire shop using the machine.  The machine is 100x  faster and easier.  Those machines are designed to work without scratching or bending the wheel. (by the way you would have to do something catastrophic to actually bend the wheel.)  The only time you have to worry is if you have spokes that stick up past the rims edge, I have seen people mess those up because they dont set the duckhead to the highest part of the spoke.  

[Irish_Alley]

Try this. At northentools.com item number is 145645-1101 or 14599559-1101
http://northerntool.digby.com/shops/web/northerntool?cmd=searchResult&itemId=145645&vendorId=110 kind of the same ideal as the starting fluid but just a little more money

[86gmc23]

They work pretty good when needed. We got a Cheetah at my shop for the tires that need "persuading" .
But overall you would have to be incredibility incompetent to bend a rim, I can see some idiot scratching it tho.

[Jim Rockford]

Soap is no problem, you have to have something on the bead to seal it to the rim, otherwise you run the risk of having a slow leak at the bead.
Soap doesn't hurt.