If you hung around shops and work spaces at any time I'm sure you have seen and heard all kinds of things. Yes split rims are as dangerous as they say they are. I never saw one go, but I met a fellow who was leaning over one when it went, and it bounced him off the ceiling 16 feet up. Broke a couple ribs, and took the tips off two of his fingers.
I'm in the process of slapping some new rubber on the '42 GPW to make it a little easier to roll around the yard. Breaking down the old tires (not split rims) was quite a chore. Nothing work. The bumper jack trick didn't even make the beads break a sweat much less break loose. I bent the lever on the bead breaker on my manual tire changing stand, and the hydraulic bead breaker I bought wasn't (in my opinion) setup right. Over the last few months I played with all of that.
The hook feet and the press foot on the air over hydraulic bead breaker were no in a line in the shelf state. Made it impossible to get them in between the bead and the rim. I unbolted the hook feet, and machined
0.180" off of them and it looked a lot better, but I still couldn't get them in between. Not even with a 3lb hammer. I tried hammering in wedges, and that was okay, maybe, but it wasn't enough.
Now to be fair those tires have been on those rims well over 40 years in one of the hottest climates on earth. I imagine the rubber is melted and extruded into the pores in the metal.
I soaked the bead with penetrating oil, and invented my own slide hammer style breaker bar. I ground the pointy end of my straight pick flat, and slid a post driver over it. BAM! Slide hammer style bead breaker.
IT DID NOT BREAK THE BEAD. Maybe if I kept at it way to freaking long it might have, but it did give me enough purchase to drive the hydraulic bead breaker in between. After several presses I was able to get the bead off the bead seat.
Then it wouldn't flex enough to come off the rim. My duck foot was a total waste of time. Its fine for soft pliable tires, but this thing was half rock and half rubber band. I had to cut the beads with a sawzall to get it off the rim. That first tire took me well over 3 hours. Maybe closer to 4. I had to take a break after that. First I sprayed all the beads with penetrating lube.
When I worked up the gumption out back of the shop again, the second tire took me just 30 minutes. It was all the same work, but no wasted work. It actually seamed easier, but 30 minutes to get a tire off a rim is not what I would call easy.
The third tire seemed easier than the second, but it took a little longer. I guess I'm getting old.
Anyway, if the wedge end isn't to sharp a straight pick and a post driver make a fair slide hammer style bead breaker. I bet it would work pretty good if the tires weren't nearly rock hard and dry rotted in place. A cheap Chinese air over hydraulic bead breaker works pretty good if it can actually get some purchase to do its job.
I still haven't dragged the 4th tire over to work on it. I needed to take another break.