Mounting your own tires?
 

I just discovered Harbor Freight stores recently and noticed they had
a tire mounting tool as well as a tire balancing tool.

If they work, it would sure represent quite a savings over time if I
mounted my own tires. Anyone ever used one of these and have a feel
for how well they work? I have an '89 Toyota Cressida with what appear
to be aluminum wheels. Should this tire mounting tool work with these
kind of rims?

On 21-May-2004, (Doc) wrote:

> I just discovered Harbor Freight stores recently and noticed they had
> a tire mounting tool as well as a tire balancing tool.
>
> If they work, it would sure represent quite a savings over time if I
> mounted my own tires. Anyone ever used one of these and have a feel
> for how well they work? I have an '89 Toyota Cressida with what appear
> to be aluminum wheels. Should this tire mounting tool work with these
> kind of rims?

It must be a static or bubble balancer. Spin balancers are far superior, and
a whole lot more expensive.
As far as a mounting tool goes, unless you're mounting a whole lot of tires,
it's a whole lot easier to let the guy with the powered machine do it. Just
breaking the bead loose on a tire that's been mounted for 4 or 5 years can
have you digging deep into your store of expletives.
--
Every day is a good day- it's just that some are better than others.

(Doc) wrote in message . com>...
> I just discovered Harbor Freight stores recently and noticed they had
> a tire mounting tool as well as a tire balancing tool.

Here's the tire mounter:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34542

"Change tires at a fraction of the cost! No expensive 220V power
hookups or pneumatic lines. Handles all tires from 8" to light truck
(7.5 x 16 and flotation tires up to size 12.5L16). Use in the shop or
on the farm--you can even mount tires at the jobsite. All steel
construction."

And the balancer:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39741

I have experience with the mounting device , do not waste your money , a
local mobile service shop that puts tires on tried it and after broken tools
, smashed knuckles and a success rate of less than 50% they invested in an
air powered mounter , and maounted in their van. I can't imagine breaking
the bead on a tire thats been on a aluminum wheel for a few years. I've seen
our pnuematic machines struggle to pop the bead at 220 psi.
As for the bubble balancer , if its all you have I guess it is better than
guessing but not by much. Radial runout accounts for most shimmies nowadays
and a bubble balancer can't compensate for rotational forces that a
electronic balancer can find.
Brad
"Doc" > wrote in message
m...
> (Doc) wrote in message
. com>...
> > I just discovered Harbor Freight stores recently and noticed they had
> > a tire mounting tool as well as a tire balancing tool.
>
> Here's the tire mounter:
>
> http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34542
>
> "Change tires at a fraction of the cost! No expensive 220V power
> hookups or pneumatic lines. Handles all tires from 8" to light truck
> (7.5 x 16 and flotation tires up to size 12.5L16). Use in the shop or
> on the farm--you can even mount tires at the jobsite. All steel
> construction."
>
> And the balancer:
>
> http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39741

On 22-May-2004, (Doc) wrote:

> Yes, it's a bubble balancer. No time like the present to learn. I just
> got done putting in another engine/transmission, and heft plenty 'o
> iron at the gym, I imagine I can handle mounting tires, if in fact the
> machine works halfway decent. And hey, I have a large supply of
> expletives to draw upon. The thing would pay for itself on the first
> set of tires.

-- Years ago (like in the fifties) bubble balancers were the only thing
available. And lots of places still use them, especially places that deal
only in used tires. A sharp guy who does this for a living can do a fair job
with one of these. But it's easy to have too much weight on one side or the
other of the wheel. A spin balancer takes the guesswork out, and you get the
right amount of weight on each side every time. If you just jig around town,
a bubble balancer is fine. If you drive the freeways, pay for the spin
balance.
The tire mounter looks interesting, but before I bought one I'd want to see
it in person and peruse the instructions. The base looks a bit on the small
side, unless it was bolted down.
There's a harbor freight just a few blocks from me. I'll have to stop by and
see if they have one or if it's only available online. Having bought a few
things from them over the years, I've noticed that most of what they sell is
light duty. If it's only for occasional use, it's fine, but if it's
something you're going to use a lot it's usually cheaper to buy something of
better quality. That way you only have to buy it once.
Just my 2 cents worth.


Every day is a good day- it's just that some are better than others.

My local independent tire dealer mounts and balances the car tires for free.
Why would I bother to do it myself?

However, the motorcycle tire - last time I had the dealer do it - was $80 to
mount and balance the pair. Now I do those myself with plain hand tire
irons and a bunch of Yamaha Tire Lube. Balancer consists of a folding
ladder (to get an M shape to roll the shaft on) with a special shaft through
the middle of the rim so I can look for the heavy spot to stick on the
weights. So far so good, but the air does turn a shade of purple at
times....

Primitive Pete~

In article <oawrc.93060$xw3.5278448@attbi_s04>,
wrote:

> On 21-May-2004, (Doc) wrote:
>
> > I just discovered Harbor Freight stores recently and noticed they had
> > a tire mounting tool as well as a tire balancing tool.
> >
> > If they work, it would sure represent quite a savings over time if I
> > mounted my own tires. Anyone ever used one of these and have a feel
> > for how well they work? I have an '89 Toyota Cressida with what appear
> > to be aluminum wheels. Should this tire mounting tool work with these
> > kind of rims?
>
> It must be a static or bubble balancer. Spin balancers are far superior, and
> a whole lot more expensive.
> As far as a mounting tool goes, unless you're mounting a whole lot of tires,
> it's a whole lot easier to let the guy with the powered machine do it. Just
> breaking the bead loose on a tire that's been mounted for 4 or 5 years can
> have you digging deep into your store of expletives.

And then there's the fellow I met when some furniture was being
delivered to the house... The delivery truck got a flat. A semi-sized
rig, without actually being a semi. They called someone, and not long
later, here comes thise itty-bitty little pick-em-up truck. A fellow who
looks to be about 5-foot-nothing, and MIGHT weigh in at a hundred
pounds, fully dressed and dripping wet, pops out of the truck, and goes
to work. He had the wheel off the truck in minutes. He had the tire off
the rim, using nothing but two tire spoons and an 8 pound sledge hammer
in less than 30 seconds. Putting it back once he located and patched the
hole took about the same amount of time. Total time on-site: *MAYBE* 15
minutes, with a good chunk of it spent standing around shootin' the ****
waiting for the little digital timer thing to go "beeeep" and tell him
that the patch was finished curing enough to re-=mount the tire.

I was impressed. It takes the guys at the tire shop (complete with four
flavors of tire machine to choose from) longer to get a tire off of or
onto one of my 13 inch "normal car" wheels than it took this guy to
remove AND replace that big ol' 30-ish inch truck tire that probably
weighed as much as he did!

Never underestimate the speed/power/capability of non-machine methods of
doing things...

--
Don Bruder - - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21, 2004.
I respond to Email as quick as humanly possible. If you Email me and get no
response, see <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/main/contact.html> Short
form: I'm trashing EVERYTHING that doesn't contain a password in the subject.

"Doc" > wrote in message
om...
> I just discovered Harbor Freight stores recently and noticed they had
> a tire mounting tool as well as a tire balancing tool.
>
> If they work, it would sure represent quite a savings over time if I
> mounted my own tires. Anyone ever used one of these and have a feel
> for how well they work? I have an '89 Toyota Cressida with what appear
> to be aluminum wheels. Should this tire mounting tool work with these
> kind of rims?

For those of us who grew up in rural areas, mounting and dismounting tires
is not exactly rocket science. You can break the bead with the car's own
jack, dismount and mount the tire with simple tire irons, seat the bead with
air pressure, and balance it with a bubble balancer. No big deal, really.

However, and this is a big however, this is not exactly an enjoyable job.
Yes, I can do it myself, and if I have the "second flat" out in the desert I
will, but when a 10-spot gets the same job done better at the tire shop I'll
gladly pay the money.

George