I'm almost always able to simply use mounting lube on a tire, mount the wheel to my old fashioned tire machine and push the tire onto the rim with my hands.

I have a set of S Lites with no tires on them. I will order 215 40 17's. Will I be able to simply mount the tire on my old fashioned tire machine, lube the tire with mounting lube and push the tire onto the rim like I do with most size tires or is this going to be difficult or impossible with the low profile tires? If it is, you can save me some trouble and I'll just take everything to a shop where they have a rim clamp machine.

Thanks for your help,

 

215/40-17 will fit the 17x7 S-lyte rim.
I don't know if you will be able to do it yourself or if you will need more modern equiptment.I take my tires and rims to a performance wheel shop. Costco is afraid of me and told me I could not do what I ask them to do- mount 205/50-15 tires on a stock 15x5.5" rim. It was easily done with the right equiptment.

The stock size tire is 205/45-17 and is a runflat.

You have two S-lytes- what about the other two? What tires are on those two rims?

Generally it is not recommended to run tires of different sizes on the same car. For the technical reasons and whether you can mount your tires yourself talk to Alex@tirerack
he would know.

 

Thanks for the response. I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I have four S Lites and I am ordering four 215 40 17's.

I normally do all my own tire work. I have an old manual tire machine with an air powered bead breaker. I can normally just push the tire onto the rim with no prying. My worry is that with the 40's they might be stiff when pushing on the second bead.

I understand your comments about the tire stores not doing what you want. My biggest problem with them has been getting them to balance correctly. I got so frustrated with the tire stores that I bought a computer balancer and I came up with the tire machine. I live WAY out in the boondocks, so running to town for tire work is more of a hassle than for most folks.

Thanks again for the response.

 

I'm far from an expert. But, this weekend I helped my buddy mount my 205.50.15 Kumho V700's on a set of oem 15X5.5 wheels.

I don't know how comparable the sidewalls of the 15" kumhos would be to a 17" street tire, but if the 15's were any indication, there's no way it will be possible w/o a pry bar. With two of us and 3 pry bars, it wasn't THAT hard to get the tires on there. With one of us and no pry bars, those tires would have never gone on those rims.

He has a pretty nice mounting machine, though.

Anyhow, that was my first experience mounting tires. Pretty neat how that works.

 

I thought LilRedMini was clear that he/she had a SET of wheels rather than a pair, but who really needs all 4 wheels anyway?



An important point that our dear expert on all things MINI forgot to mention is that 40 series tires do not meet MINI's specifications for load rating. Many people run them and I have never heard of a single problem due to running a tire with a slightly less than specified load rating, but it is a consideration which was first pointed out to me by our resident tire/wheel expert, alex@tirerack. . . .

Personally, I would not use 40 series tires because the MINI exerts incredible forces on tires when cornering and I do not feel that it is absolutely safe to use a tire that is not designed to carry the load of a MINI in a sharp spirited turn.

When my MINI is running on my 17" R-90's, I am using Yokohama ES100's in the 215/45/17 size. They have a load rating greater than specified by MINI and I like having a little bit more sidewall to cushion the bumps. 215/45/17 tires are very slightly larger in diameter than the 205/45/17's stock size but it is negligible and they look good filling up the wheel well a bit more than the stock size.

In the event that your MINI is lowered, you might have problems fitting 215/45/17, so that is also a consideration as some people have had rubbing issues. . . .

 

Yes, The 40 series isn't up to the same load ratings as the stock 205/45-17 size or 215/45-17 which I also run in Yokohama ES100s. I have seen many others use the 215/40-17 with no apparent problems even on the track and at autocross.

Alex@tirerack has reminded us to always pay attention to load ratings and not cheat too much. It is an important point to remember. Thanks for the reminder.

If you are the only person in your MINI and rarely have four passengers then you might get by on the lower load rating tires. I didn't do that myself. The 215/40-17 tires will fit those rims.

Doesn't sound like mounting them will be an easy thing to do. What about getting the runflats off the S-lytes? Is that difficult as well?

 

I have already checked the load rating and thought that on the 215 40's it was okay. It was the 205 40's that were low.

I have bare wheels so I don't have to worry about getting the tires off. If I did, I could get them off on my machine but would risk scratching the wheels. I have pushed tires onto rims that were as low profile as 55, but never a 40.

Thanks for your comments and concerns about load ratings.

Have a great day,