I've got a pile of free RA1's with a weekend or two worth of life in them. They'd be "free" if I didn't have to pay to get them put onto a set of rims.
Anybody mount and balance your own tires? My internet searches tend to bring up motorcycle guys who do it a lot, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for car wheels/tires too. For example: http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html
There's a hardcore guy I know that does slicks, r's, street tires etc all the time with tire irons. Never seen him do it but I've heard him talk about it enough. I'll repeat though, he's hardcore. From his stories, it sounds like more work/effort than I usually am willing to put out.
Using tire spoons on a stiff-walled performance tire make you more hardcore than I plan to be.
I've had long and hard risk/benefit analysis sessions over spending the money on a second-hand tire machine for the garage. Thankfully, right now I don't have the space. Operating a tire machine is pretty easy, but you need to be attentive because you could seriously break an arm (ask me how.) It also takes a good bit of space.
Balancing is a bit easier. A bubble balancer can be sufficiently accurate.
I've been doing it a while, I will now only do it with high profile tires (65-70 series or so) lots of soapy water and only on steel rims (ie. the daily grinder).
I bought the cheapo HF mounter about 10 years ago. I have bent the "spoon" in half, its 5' long, and ruined some Al wheels. Once you get the hang of it its not too bad. I have ruined some sidewalls of cheap tires in the beginning. Trying to dismount a 215 35 16 on an alloy rim about killed me. I ended up just cutting it off with a saw.
The balancing part can be fun. Bubble balancers work fine and you can get anywhere. I also got a snap-on balancer that balances vertically (the way the wheel runs) off ebay a while ago. Recently I got a Hunter strobe wheel balancer that will balance the tire mounted to the rim on the vehicle using light. I haven't figured it out quite yet but it was a deal.
So, I would balance anything, but am willing to pay someone to use their fancy equipment for the tough stuff. I don't own anything that requires road force balancing however.
I learned to do it years ago at an 'old school' Amoco station in Miami. The local racers would bring their racing tires and magnesium wheels in for us to do by hand. (Think 10" Minilites for a Mini) Not too hard once you learn the trick of it. You need some real tire irons. Not the bent rod, chisel on one end, lugnut wrench on the other that come in the trunk of a car. Real tire irons are steel rods about 1/2", tapered and flattened on one end into broad, flat spatulas, with all the edges smooth. But you can alter a couple of big flat balde screwdrivers by grinding and smoothing all the edges. There should be no sharp points anywhere to catch or cut a tire, or mark a rim. You also need some tire lube. (Yes, KY will work) You can buy it, or make a weak soapy solution of liquid detergent.
Disclaimer: This is the way I've done it for 40 years. YMMV. Please take all appropriate safety measures, and work safely.
Every normal wheel is designed with a depression or valley around the center of the rim. This allows the tires to mounted, by providing a place for the bead that allows the opposite side to slide over the edge of the rim. Start by placing the rim on a flat clean work surface, on the side that places the valley closest to the top of the rim. Slap some tire lube onto the tire beads. Lay the tire onto the rim, and push one side of the bead down and over the edge of the rim, and into the valley.Push the bead down and around as far as it will go. Hold the tire down onto the rim with your knees, and slip a tire iron between the rim and bead on each side, about 1" in from the point where the bead is past the rim. Hold one iron in place with a knee (you have 3 knees, right?), and then lever the bead up and over with the other iron. You shouldn't have to use a lot of force. If you sense that the tire is being cut or gouged, stop. The bead may have slipped out of the valey, or you may need to take smaller bites. Use the 4th knee to hold what you just gained, and move about 1" in, slide in the iron, lever it up and over, ...Continue until you get to the other iron, and lever it up and over. Repeat with the second bead. You may have to crush the tire down to get the bead into the valley, that's OK, it's made of rubber.
Wipe off the excess tire lube and inspect the beads for damage and debris that may have stuck.
Now, to seat the beads and inflate the tire. CAUTION Compressed air is like a spring, it can store a tremendous amount of energy, and release it suddenly and unexpectedly. Never put your fingers (or any other appendage) into the bead area when inflating. As much as possible, keep your distance (use an airchuck clip), and wear eye protection. When a lower bead suddenly seats and pops into place, the tire and rim can leap into the air and hurt someone.
Try to seat the beads and inflate the tire. If that works, cool. Otherwise, you have to mess with it some. You want the greatest inrush of air you can get. Remove the valve stem core. Slather some tire lube onto the beads. Use the shortest/fattest hose you can get. Start with the highest pressure you can. If that doesn't work, wrap a ratchet tie-down strap around the center of the tread, and cinch it down, that will help to hold the beads apart. It can help to raise the rim, to allow the tire sidewall to fully extend, another rim of equal or smaller diameter helps here. Once the beads do seat, stop, remove any devices, re-install the valvestem core, and then inflate to the correct pressure.
I hope this helps, video would probably be a big help ( 1 pix = 1K words ).
Now, breaking the beads loose to remove a tire can be really challenging. But that's another thread.
Carter shore
I am with the original poster on this one. I have several cars and multiple sets of tires..........winter, summer, autocross and it sure would be nice not to have to pay someone to mount and un-mount them or have multiple sets of rims, which is my current solution.
Tire irons (spoons), like this:
http://www.alltiresupply.com/p-T19.html
Carter
Easier answer:
Make friends with someone with access to said machines through work.
See him/her late on a slow day.
I'm kind of glad I do have easy access to such machines. I forget what a pain it would be without them.
I am planning on buying a tire remover once my new garage is finished
Iaz...maybe try seeing if a local high school auto shop could do it for you for practice? My uncle teaches shop class and he's got a nice tire mounting/dismounting and balancing machines...we just call him up and schedule a time to go in and he lets the students practice their skills on em. As a plus, we get to learn too and get a lil shop class too!
I have a tire shop that is about 3/4 of a mile from my house that I prefer to do business with. In turn I get mounts, swaps, balances done for cheaper ( sometimes free)
Maybe there is an auto club near you that has equipment? A local defense contractor has one at the plant that I have wrangled a membership to. they have old school dismounting/mouting equipment, new school non contact dismount/mount equipment, computer balancing, an indoor lift, 4 bay shop space, out door lube rack, tire shaver
(I'm the only one who knows how to use it) and 24/7 access. Just look around and ask questions at car shows. These places often dont advertise.
I've done it with irons, don't like it. I do use the harborfreight manual changer, works just fine. Big 17" truck tires, little Spitfire wheels. High profile, low profile, etc. Does fine.
Bubble balancer does perfectly adequate job as well. Not able to handle the diagonal imbalances, but I've almost never run into this being significant.
This seems like the cheap answer to a question asked many moons ago. It seems like it would easily pay for itself using it on one set of tires. That being said, I haven't decided if I am brave enough to try yet.
With the apparently huge market for used tires on eBay, people must be doing something other than paying $100 to have it done at a tire place.
Otto_Maddox wrote: This seems like the cheap answer to a question asked many moons ago. It seems like it would easily pay for itself using it on one set of tires. That being said, I haven't decided if I am brave enough to try yet.
I bought this thing and it works pretty good. It does use the sliding removal method so it could conceivable scratch your rims. Also the bead breaker is a little wimpy and needs reinforced. Make sure your rim has a big enough center hole to drop over it, otherwise you need the motorcycle adapter, or to use the old fashioned method. I had some MG Midget rims to dismount and they wouldn't fit over the center post.
I mounted a set of 15" snow tires without irons or levers. I'm a total stud.
Actually, they had the flexiest sidewall and bead I'd ever seen. I lubed up the wheel and the beads really good, lifted the tire high above my head and threw it down onto the wheel. That took care of the first bead. The second bead I was able to force onto the rim with my feet and body weight. It was surprisingly easy, but there's no way I'd stand a chance with race tires.
I've been using a manual tire changer for several years now. I paid less than $50 for it from Princess Auto ( Canadian equivilent to Harbour Freight). It looks identical to the one in the link above. It's worked great for everything from 17" truck tires to 13" Spitfire rims. Like so many things in life lubrication is key.
I bought a tire changer and a balancer from Greg Smith Equipment, early this year for about $2000.00 Changer Balancer combo deal
It has already paid for itself in saved fees alone, but when you figure in the convenience, and longer tire life by being able to flip your tires around after each use, it's really worth the money. I have regularly installed 245/45/17 Hoosiers with no problems by myself.
I have used a tire machine and have done them by hand. I'll take the machine. The only time these days that I will break a tire down by hand is a truck tire, an 11x22.5 or large tractor tires 16Lx28. I usually end up using three tire spoons and a small pair of vice grips to get the beads seated besides a lot of soap. Once you get the hang of it, its not that hard to do, however it is very labor intensive.
I've used the HF one. It works OK. I'm still keeping my eyes open for a $300 hydraulic / pneumatic one on CL.
hi i mounted my own tires with no tools; 15 inch rims ive done aluminum and steel now on two dif make tires, so quickly: get the rim in started on an angle as much as it will go and pull up on that side while you screw down the other end with force and soap of course; otherside basically stand on and kick with some classic adidas sambas pretty easy and im pretty confident i can do it to most dif tires, getting them off is another story and not as easy.
if your anywhere near chicago, i'll mount/balance them for a burger.
we bought a couple machines we found a deal on, mainly because i didnt have time to get my track tires/wheels to places between 9 and 5, and it was getting expensive.
couple thousand bucks later, i can do tires at midnight the night before an event, and i can do all the wheels/tires/etc for our small fleet of trucks.
if your anywhere near chicago, i'll mount/balance them for a burger.
we bought a couple machines we found a deal on, mainly because i didnt have time to get my track tires/wheels to places between 9 and 5, and it was getting expensive.
couple thousand bucks later, i can do tires at midnight the night before an event, and i can do all the wheels/tires/etc for our small fleet of trucks.
I've got one of those Harbor Freight manual units if you want it.
Brand new- never been used (call me a wuss).
I'll sell it for $25 +shipping.
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