mounting and balancing your own tires

A few years ago, changing too many tires, too often, so I got one of the cheap manual changers. They work fine when it's warm, but in an un-heated garage, in 10° weather, rubber isn't so malleable. Last winter, I F'd my back up pretty good, herniated discs, so I was done with it.

I got sick of it, and went looking. Took me a few months of wasting a lot of time at work, but I finally found a tire machine, for a reasonable price, a Hunter TC3500:

I also wanted a balancer, and I was looking at a used Hunter that ended up needing a new logic board, but the guy who was selling the changer happened to have an older balancer, that he threw in for $250. It's an old Hoffmann GeoDyna 30. From my reading, Hoffmann was top-of-the-line back in the day, and was bought out by Snap-On in the late 90's.

The cost was a couple thousand all told, BUT after doing the math, for me and my family, it will have paid for itself in just under four years. Less if I change friends' tires. I still need to get the garage insulated (it's at least heated now), and get a lift, but once that's done, everything will be gravy!

that being said, Spoons on stiff-sidewall, low-profile tires, on lightweight alloy rims really sucks. Doable, but it sucks, and not always doable by just one person.

--sarge

Just a thought- ask your local tire shops what it costs to only mount. There's a place here that will do it for $5 a wheel. I don't balance autocross tires, so sometimes I let them do it, even though I have access to a tire machine.

If you can get the mount done inexpensively, the ballance is a lot easier and cheaper to come up with a DIY solution for.

Take care,

Ed

At my old motorcycle shop, we had a manual machine that was basically like your standard Hunter/Coates hydraulic/220 unit, aside from the powered part. So you still had all the levers and such to do the fiddly leverage parts, and the tech provided the rotational force. Aside from super-stiff sport-touring tires in the dead of winter, it was practically a one-handed operation.

My problem (which I inherited from the shop's owner who used to work in heavy truck tire shops, among just about every other mechanic job on earth) with the powered machines is that, in the wrong hands, they're really easy to scratch rims with. The benefit of the manual version is that it forces you to take your time. If something's really fighting you, you're probably doing it wrong.

And we only used a static balancer. That is, an axle that goes though the hub center of the wheel, and onto a ball-bearing stand. Spin the wheel gently, let it spin until it stops; the spot on the bottom is heavy, put a weight on the spot opposite. Repeat if necessary. It takes time, again, but it's accurate and nearly fool proof. We never had a mount/balance job come back, and we never scratched a rim.

All that said, I am not man enough to do race carcass car tires by hand. I'd find a shop that's connected to your local club and start plying the techs with beer.

the hf one is good for wheels you do not care about. i would never use it on an aluminum rim that i was not going to scrap. i use it for all my truck tires, we're mounted or dismounted at least 100 with it. if i get a vibration then i take them to get balanced.

i'm waiting for a shop closing sale or other deal on a used real one and balancer.

I have some questions regarding the Harbor Freight / Princess Auto wheel mounters.

A. A couple of people have indicated they were able to use it on 17" wheels when the manufacturer indicates it can only be used for up to 16x7.5" rims. Do you think 18" would be possible as well? eg. I have 225/50/17 winters and 225/45/18 summers (rim is 18x8"). Edit: Princess Auto also sells a "truck" tire changer. Based on what I saw in the store it only seemed to apply up to 16" rims, but the website it seems to do 16-20". http://www.princessauto.com/trailer/trailer/trailer/tire-repair/2050003-16-to-20-tire-changer. Does anyone have experience with this unit.

B. It was mentioned above that you should only use these on steel rims. If I'm careful, do you think I could use it on an alloy rim withing causing serious cosmetic damage? What if I put something (cloth?) between the tool and the wheel to prevent scratching?

I bought a wheel balancer from Princess Auto last night. I'm looking forward to using it. I was thinking of using a magnifying glass to precisely center the wheel weight. Another thought - couldn't I simply place the wheel weight on top of the tire to determine which weight I should use before attaching it? Thoughts?

1988RedT2 wrote: Youse guys are doin' it wrong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0GNLvPmAg Caution: Language! NSFW.

THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

If you change tires often, be cool, pay in cash, don't ask for a receipt, carry your own tires in to the shop and occasionally bring doughnuts and coffee, you can get a surprising discount at the local tire place.

I'm down to about $15 cash to demount and remount 4 tires + balance and my tire shop of choice.

In reply to Snrub:

The bigger the wheel, the worse your leverage arm is for mounting them. Sure, you can do it, you'll just grunt harder. Might want a cheater bar. All that said, some tires and rims slip together (or apart) nicely, some don't. Never have figured out the rhyme and reason for it.

The bar slides across the lip of the rim, scraping it. When the bar is new, it leaves its red paint on it. If the bar is rough, it'll leave a scrape. If it's polished smooth, it doesn't really do anything to the lip of the rim. This applies to mounting and dismounting.