Little_Horse

So I am tired of shops in general and the last time I had tires mounted it wasn't done right. So I looked at no mar and at the harbor freight unit and decided the design was easy enough to copy. Thats what I did, this is my version of the design. I still need to cover the pins that hold the rim. The don't scratch aluminum finish surfaces but they may on paint I probably will put rubber end caps on them or inner tube. I also built a removal bar and 3 flat bar spoons for putting the tire back on. I may need to get myself a few real tire irons. The flat bar spoons though worked on my trial runs. I use the ratchet strap to apply tension to the rim instead of the screw and pins that the HF unit uses. This actually works really well. I also made a lever for a bead breaker. I may change the design of the end as it is too cumbersome and sharp. So yes a few refinements but its coming along nicely and works!

Dan Cronin

Nice work. You have a way to lock the wheels on the bench to keep it from rolling when putting the tire? It takes an amazing amount of leverage to get the bead over the rim.

Hawkrider

Intereresting... But I'm only slightly biased, and I'm sure you know why.

You'll have to be careful on the scratching. I'm sure you probably know, but you can end up putting a lot of torque on a wheel when you're mounting a tire. Any slip with those metal pins and you've got a nice scratch. I know, you already said you're going to coat them or put something around them, but in the meantime.. Also, consider coating the bead breaker tee. They slip sometimes.

Interesting bead breaker hinge..heheh..tie rod end balljoint?

Consider a beefier center post. That one may bend.

captainchaos

+1 That's awesome. I love anything you can fix or build yourself. It sucks but I've gotten to the point where I try to do almost everything myself and am willing to learn stuff I don't yet know how to do because I just don't trust any so called "experts" with anything any more.

smokinjoe73

I applaud projects like this. My only observation is that harbor freight sells one for like $45 clams. Also check out you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XArpY_hSdk Just another way. Its amazing what they will charge you for 1.3 minutes of work to change a tire

VTRsurfer

Tie rod end, for sure. The engineering/fabricating abilities of some people simply amazes me.

Little_Horse

yeah tie rod end, the center/axle stay was just a quick put it in and try it out.

The strap actually holds the wheel very very tightly I took off and put on the tire a few times and it held just fine. I just need to remember to break the bead on both sides before pulling the other side off of the rim. Today was the first time I had mounted a tire.

Also the harbor freight units is $45 but if you want the bead breaker tool it cost another $45 for the stand and bead breaker unit. I suppose I could have done with out, but work has been in limbo and I had an inkling to build it. I actually like my design a bit better since in reality it is simpler. I will probably get a chance to use it for real in not too much time since the cx project is in need of tires, and pretty soon so will the hawk. I guess it only takes 2 tires mounted for me to save the money in time spent. I think it took me a couple of hours to build a couple messing around since I didn't know what I was doing. Tomorrow I will probably finish all the welds and paint it so it looks good.

YTKinWI

I found a Harbor Freight tire changer that was only 2 month old for $45 because the previous owner was so disgusted with it. In the past week I have changed fr/rr of GL1800, fr/rr on VTR and fr on Burgman 650 with nary a scratch and very little sweat.
Photo 1: I hot glued fabric-backed rubber to the HF rim-grabbers
Photo 2: a rim protector that was cut into pieces and JB Welded to the mount and dismount ends of the HF dismount/mount bar
Photo 3: a piece of rim protector JB Welded to HF mounting end
Photo 4: a piece of rim protector JB Welded to HF dismounting end

smokinjoe73

Thats some smart mods. I plan to adapt some of that tech at some point.