AFTER U take the air OUT, there is absolutly NO danger at all. , like said above the correct hammer is the key to break the bead ...Then u pull the ring...THEN U pull off the tire, older tires are usually stuck and hard to get off, alomost all truck tire shops I have found stil do these split rims, they are not the most dangerous split rim out there, they are dangerous when FILLING them, like if U did not set the ring correctly and it could pop off and kill or seriously hurt U are someone, there are a hundred threads on this I suggest looking them up and get reading, but a real truck tire shop by me charges 25 dollors off and one on and 20 for a new tube if i want, seems to be the going rate from other guys i talked too, all guys who do tires for a living are not created equal, one guy i called to come to my place was , everthing was a problem , another guy i called who i use now, was sure they are easy....U do NOT need to do anything but pull the valve stem, all air our then, and there are indentations in the ring, U start at one end and work it off, I have seen guys do off on and new tube i under 15 minutes here......If the shop u go to makes it a big deal grab the yelow pages , these are not a big deal,