Tubeless Woes Followed by Tubeless Success

[The Cumbrian]

Over the last few weeks I've been adapting my old hybrid into something a little beefier and more comfortable. I've changed the stem and added Jones bars, changed all the cables, brake levers and rear shifter and fitted 40mm Schwalbe Land Cruisers. After a couple of rides i changed the SPDs for flats, and I was really happy with this, until the punctures started. All of them were caused by thorns, which probably wouldn't have been an issue if I'd have been on my tubeless mountain bike. I hadn't fitted tubeless tyres because it's an old bike with V brakes, and I didn't think they would work. After the punctures though, I thought I would try it.
I ordered some Maxxis Ramblers and they arrived yesterday. I unpacked them and left them in the sun for a couple of hours to regain their shape, and then tried to fit them. After a couple of hours of faffing, they simply would not seat on the rim. I've got a blast pump which worked really well when I converted mine and my son's mountain bikes to tubeless, but it wouldn't touch these. I then jumped in the truck and drove to five local garages to use their compressors, but they all had the type where you preset the pressure and they don't give out a blast of air.
As a last gasp I tried YouTube last night, and I found this film that explained a technique I'd never seen before. You pre-seat the bead using a tyre lever, and then pump the tyre up. I tried it this morning and after half an hour of fettling I had both wheels sorted. The first tyre went on easily first time, but the second took a couple of attempts.
https://youtu.be/tE3h4nmDdOo

[ScotRoutes]

I always fit with a tube first, leave overnight, break one bead, remove tube fit valve, then inflate. Other than my fatbike tyres I've never needed the fancy tubeless-pump I bought.

[The Cumbrian]

I tried fitting a tube last night, but didn't leave it very long.
I've just fitted the wheels to the bike, and being lazy I deflated the tyre rather than removing a brake pad from the rear V brake. This broke the seal, so I had to go through the process again with the tyre lever. It looks like I'll have to accept that they're a poor match and not take any short cuts.