Tire iron

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A tire iron (tyre iron in British English) is a specialized metal tool used in working with tires that have inner tubes.

Tire irons usually come in pairs and are used to pry the edge of a tire away from the wheel it has been mounted on. After one iron has pried a portion of the tire from its wheel, it is held in position while a second iron is applied further along the tire to pry more of the tire away from the wheel. This allows enough of the tire to be separated so that the first iron can be removed, and used again on the far side of the other iron. Alternating in this way, a person can work his way all the way around the tire to fully remove it from the wheel, in order to reach the tube that sits inside.

Tire irons have not been in common use for automobile tires since the shift to the use of tubeless tires in the late 1950s. The term is now often mistakenly used to refer to a lug wrench, which is included along with a spare tire and jack on most new cars. Bicycle tire irons are still in use for those tires which have a separate inner tube, and can have a hooked C-shape cut into one end of the iron so that it may be hooked on a bicycle spoke to hold it in place. There are, however, refered to as tire levers more often than they are as tire irons by bicycle mechanics and enthusiasts.

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