Mounting and demounting tires onto and from a wheel can be a daunting task. The beads of a tire are designed to fit snuggly to the inner side of the flange of a wheel. Stretching the bead a sufficient amount to clear the flange is difficult, particularly when working with larger wheels and tires such as in the case of those for a truck. The task is made all the more difficult when the wheel is made of a soft material that can easily scratch or crack, such as aluminum. Thus, in this case extra care in an already difficult job is mandatory.
There have been many advances proposed in the field to make the job of working a tire easier; these working tools are well known in the art. Generally, these devices consist of a lever arm for gaining leverage, the lever arm having at least one working end configured to receive and work a bead of the tire. Early examples of such devices are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 834,908 to Hussey and U.S. Pat. No. 951,200 to Pilliner, each of which teach a tool for detaching and resetting tires. A more recent example of a typical device is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,479 to Kliskey. This device teaches a tool for demounting a tire, the tool consisting of a handle and working ends protruding generally perpendicular from the handle, the working ends adapted to work a first tire bead and a second tire bead, respectively.
Further examples of inventive devices is in the field include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,100,032, 1,567,025, 1,741,801, 1,829,804, 2,112,661, 2,188,211, 2,226,757, 2,294,271, 2,311,789, 2,344,704, 2,399,146, 2,571,517, 2,643,803, 2,712,350, 3,164,197, 3,584,672, 3,908,728, 4,436,134, 4,527,607, 4,919,184, 5,123,470, 5,143,134, 5,213,146, 5,265,661, 5,343,921, 5,363,897, 5,417,270, 5,740,848, 5,806,578, 5,971,052, 6,179,032, 6,182,735, 6,192,959, 6,273,171, 6,712,114, D134,799, D142,931, D158,110, D158,629, D264,043, D335,754, D395,809, D412,271, and D476,205.
A proposed advantage of many of the aforementioned devices is that in addition to offering leverage to mount or demount a tire, they provide a rim or flange catching feature to prevent the device or tire from slipping out of position when the tire is being worked.
A shortcoming of the prior art devices is it that due to the narrow nature of the working end features, the tools do not offer optimum leverage since they do not spread the torque energy of the lever arm beyond the narrow working end. A further shortcoming of the prior art is that they tend to twist about the narrow working ends. This can cause the tool to slip out of position when the tire is being worked, thereby, at best, causing a need for the user to start the process over or, at worst, causing injury to the user. This is particular troublesome when attempting to work the first tire bead.
Past attempts by the inventor to address these shortcomings included the development of a tire working tool consisting of a lever arm with a first working end adapted to accept a clevis, the clevis designed to work the first tire bead over the first flange of a wheel rim. The inventor soon discovered, however, that the design of the clevis was not well suited to the task at hand. The original clevis design was too narrow to provide optimal assistance in working a tire bead. The wings on the clevis neither extended a sufficient distance to prevent the clevis from slipping out of position nor prevented tires from sticking to the wheel rim. Moreover, when working a tire bead, the clevis did not maximize the leveraging energy along the bead of the tire and did not, therefore, reduce the effort required of the user to the degree desired.
Another shortcoming of the prior art, including that of the inventor, is that they do not teach or contemplate the added difficulties in working with soft material wheel rims, such as aluminum.
There is need, therefore, for a tire working tool that minimizes the risk of injury to a user and damage to tire rims and that, further, makes the demounting and remounting of a tire onto a wheel easier to accomplish than heretofore known. The present invention provides such a tool.