At home tire machines - my experience with Derek Weaver

In reply to flatlander937 :

Got ya, I've never used the things though I've seen others use them. The assist arms make all of that unnecessary. 

I sold a miata so I .. naturally ... got a tire machine/balance combo from Derek Weaver based on this thread. 

Do you need any air-dryer system coming from the compressor for these machines? I didn't find a manual on the website. 

Did you have any problems situating them/moving them into the garage once they were unloaded from the truck? 

I'm excited! I sprung for the one with the crazy triple arm thing ... I figured buy once, cry once.

In reply to accordionfolder :

My machine came with a moisture separator mounted on air inlet. 

The machine is pretty heavy. I've moved mine a couple of times as the shop has gotten rearranged. It's doable, but you might want to call a friend or two. 

In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :

Thanks for the info!

Can you remember if while crated are they something that I could move with a moving dolly? 

In reply to accordionfolder :

I have the tire machine setting on furniture pads, it make moving around a lot easer.

In reply to accordionfolder :

Not really. The freight company was nice enough to roll mine around and in the shop with his pallet jack.

From there you can slide it with a hand truck.

In reply to accordionfolder :

They're pretty darn heavy and awkward. The mounting machine in particular sucks to move. The guy unloaded the crate directly into the garage for me.

It has a drier mounted to the machine. Empty it about 2x as much as you fill the oil container when it's real humid and gross outside.

I just ordered some tire equipment a few days ago.  This thread made me happy I did.

I mounted and balanced my 80th set last week. They are very nice to have on hand. 

Really glad I got the assist arm already, turns out 13x8 wheels are a bear

I think this is the right place for this question. I have a friend that is looking at a Coats machine. Does the hive have any feedback on this thing?

In reply to New York Nick :

That style Coates uses a pin to anchor the wheel rotationally. This can damage a stud hole, and always damages 4 spokes on a wire wheel of the spline drive knock on variety. Big no if you work on classic sports cars.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Thanks for the feedback on that. Does the stud hole damage happen if the tire is tight (causing a lot of torque) or is it more of a machine maintenance deal?

In reply to New York Nick :

Tight tire deal. The pin has some gentle upward pressure to get it to seat in the stud hole. Not enough upward pressure to kep it vertical/tight in the hole if the wheel really wants to rotate.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

ok thanks again.

You may call that a "cheap" tire changing machine but I would have thought I was in heaven if I  had that one when I changed tires in the 70's at my high school summer job.   Our machine had an air solenoid to break down the beads then a big steel bar for dismounting and remounting that  used muscle power to operate.   One thing about that manual machine was good.  After a summer of physical labor changing tires, loading tires, stacking tires in racks,etc.,  the bullies at school quickly realized I was way stronger than I looked and left me alone.

I used to use a tire machine at my godfathers garage that the tire sat at ~45 deg angle. I don't remember the brand, it was old enough that it had been repainted. You would literally wrestle tires off of that thing, and this was in the day when 18" tires were big so the tires were super easy by today's standards. He finally bought a nice snap on machine and then thing was so easy to use I couldn't believe it.

Still going strong with no problems about 3 years later and hundreds(maybe thousands now?) of tires changed.

Still doing dumb stuff with it too. This is a 255/40R17 on a 17x7.5 wheel just to see how hard it would be. This was actually much easier to mount than a 245/40R17 RT660 on my 17x9 Apex wheels.

On a side note it turns out the cheap Chinese knock-off "Yellow Thing" is much more durable and IMO better than the No-Mar brand. I still use a microfiber between it and the rim to avoid the risk of scratching should the coating get worn through, but this thing is solid. It's a relatively slick but thick/plasticky coating vs the very soft/textured coating of the No-Mar tool that I went through

https://www.amazon.com/WINTOOLS-Coated-Keeper-Changer-Yellow/dp/B07RW8TBNK/

New York Nick said:

I think this is the right place for this question. I have a friend that is looking at a Coats machine. Does the hive have any feedback on this thing?

 

Phenomenal machine.  Dismounts and remounts rubber bands on huge wheels like it was nothing.

Requires a certain level of skill to be able to use effectively, and since it is dependent on the ways being accurate, it seems like a long-term headache unless you are a high volume shop that replaces machines every few years.