I may be wrong but my understanding is that you only need a compressor or a good bang to get the bead on a tubeless tyre, if you are tubed then inflating the tube should do the trick.

Yea, there's no trick needed to inflating a tubed tyre, the difficult bit is fitting the tyre without 'nipping' the tube between the tyre lever and the rim.
I fitted the four tyres on my car earlier this year. The wheels were freshly powder coated so I didn't want them scratched, I didn't have to use tyre levers, just 'walked' around the bead. Get yourself some tyre soap, 5kg bucket from ebay about £12 iirc, will last me literally forever.

A few comments afore heading 'next door',
Waxoyl seems to work fine for easing tyres onto rims, plus it keeps the inside of the rim rust free.

It's possible to 'walk' Michelins onto rims, but virtually every other brand I've used seems to need at least a tickle with the tyre levers, with that awful Champiro brand being even more awkward than Firestones.

Don't forget new valves when fitting tyres, surprising how often you'll find that the old valves have been left in place...

ken

hairspray trick works cause the propellant is butane gas which when it burns releases heat that expands the air in the tyre

only works if the bead is touching the rim all the way round , almost sealed but not in the seat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3kmGOrfQDw&feature=related

heat inside a tyre does strange things it can start a chain reaction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLeji8bLOk&feature=related

Thanks for your advice chaps!

I did the job this afternoon. Getting the old tyres off was the hardest part of the job. Did a Michelin first. (Christ it was perished. God knows how it still worked.) Being the first time I've done the job, I'm sure I made it harder for myself than I needed to. The second was a Firestone, and it made the Michelin seem easy! Must have driven over it 20 times to get it off the bead, and even then it fought me every inch of the way.

Getting the new Toyos on wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. Used special mummies and daddies playtime lubricant... worked a treat!

Back hurts a bit now, and I had to buy 2 tyre levers so I'm no better off than I would have been if I'd had them done at the local garage... but at least I've taught myself a new trick, and it'll stand me in good stead for a little project that I have coming up (when I have time)...

Thanks again!

Oh! tell us more about the van...

OK, I will!

I got off to a bit of an unfortunate start with this one, since while I was negotiating to buy it the vendor (a perfectly decent chap who had experienced a time wasting purchaser) put the vehicle back on ebay, prompting interest from a fellow I2CVF user. This made it rather embarrassing for me when I bought the van, since the vendor's cancellation of the ebay ad pissed my fellow forum member off quite a bit.

Anyway, all is sorted and the I2CVF-er has been characteristically understanding about it... leaving me with a bit of a project, which will take me a while to sort out, given that my life is pretty busy anyway and I'm currently committed to training for next year's London Marathon.

You can catch up with the story so far and details of how it unfolds by taking a look here. Comments welcome!