Although a little dangerous,I have used a bumper jack base plate on the bead(make sure the valve core is removed. I jack the vehicle up and normally the bead breaks really easily. On some I have needed to leave the car suspended while the weight and gravity,slowly broke the bead.Sometimes I cant do this because I dont have a vehicle equipped with a bumper to accept a bumper jack.When using this method,stand clear and go(jack up) slow.Then once one side is done,I flip it over and do the other side.


Harbor freight sells bead breakers,and I recently acquired one,its pretty handy

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92961


Once both beads are broken down,I then break out my tire irons,and a mallet and go to town(not literally). Always remember that if you are working on a wheel with a reverse offset that the backside(side facing inwards when mounted on a car) has to be taken off first,otherwise youll have nothing but trouble.