My friend told me that he uses two tire levers, not one, to help with the last part of the tire that is opposite from the valve. Does that help you?This exactly. I use 2 Pedro’s Bicycle Tire Lever together to work the last ~4" of tire into the rim. I do not think these levers are special, they are just popular in my area. I find that levers that are not quite as wide as the Pedro’s levers work a little easier for me.
Coincidentally, I got a flat this weekend that also tore the sidewall. I had to boot it with a candy wrapper along with doing the tube swap. I looked up my Garmin file, and it only took me 11 minutes total. That was probably my worst-case scenario for amount of time.
I don’t know if this is your case, but as a life long bike mechanic, I cannot count the many many many times I’ve heard this. NEVER use tire levers to install a tire, EVER. This can over stress the side wall, and lead to side wall blowouts. Sometimes immediately when you air up the tire, and sometimes a week or month or so down the road. Almost every time someone has a mystery sidewall blowout, I ask if they use tire levers for installation, and the answer is alway yes. Please read the above posts, and learn how to installs tires by hand.