Truck tire shop can't dismount Galleria tires on aluminum wheels

[KanzKran]

I took my Galleria to a truck tire shop for tire rotation, and they had no problem removing the rear-inner tire on the factory steel wheel, but they couldn't break the bead on the aluminum front wheels. They said that neither machine would do it without hitting the dish, which of course would have ruined it.

These wheels are not Alcoa, and in fact don't seem to have any marking on them at all, but they are original from Coachmen and replaced the OEM steel wheels from M-B.

I don't know where to go from here. Has anyone ever run into this? If so, what did you do about it?

[rowiebowie]

If I had tires that had to separated from the rims to rotate, I just wouldn't rotate them.

But you have discovered a problem that might affect your next tire purchase. There has to be a tire shop with a different machine that can dismount & mount tires when the time comes for a new set or to fix a flat.

[KanzKran]

That's a fair point, but the reason I'm rotating them is that the local M-B dealer did a front end alignment for me at 17k miles, due to it wandering all over the road, but in the following 7k miles the outside edges wore down to almost bald.

It handles way better, but tire wear is crazy. I readjusted the camber, which went from -1.0 deg to +0.8 deg (DS) and +0.6 deg (PS), and perhaps not so coincidentally the tire on the drivers side wore faster than the passenger side, but they're both wearing way to fast. I want to put them on the drive axle, and the inner tires on the steer axle, so I have fresh tread there. I'll monitor wear from there.

I'd like to upgrade from the Vancos it came with, but not until I get a handle on tire wear.

[mikeehlert]

Originally Posted by KanzKran

I took my Galleria to a truck tire shop for tire rotation, and they had no problem removing the rear-inner tire on the factory steel wheel, but they couldn't break the bead on the aluminum front wheels. They said that neither machine would do it without hitting the dish, which of course would have ruined it.

These wheels are not Alcoa, and in fact don't seem to have any marking on them at all, but they are original from Coachmen and replaced the OEM steel wheels from M-B.

I don't know where to go from here. Has anyone ever run into this? If so, what did you do about it?

I would go find a shop that sells custom aluminum wheels and tires. They do it all the time and some of those custom wheels are both big and high dollar items.