change your own tires
 

Hey guys, just saw this nifty little tire changer. Would pay for itself in like 2 changes. I have always done my own with the harbor frieght unit.

Portable Tire Changing Stand With Bead Breaker - Chaparral Motorsports

Man that is nice!

Hey Joe.....When changing your own tires out what do you do about balancing? Or is it just not much of a concern?

You buy the 1 oz lead wheel weights onlin, paint them to match your rims, then balance. It is VERY needed, dont believe lazy fake mechanics that tell you otherwise.

I made myself a really nice balance after finding roller blades where like $5 in thrift shops, but for years use this method to perfection.

+1 to the method in the video that joe showed. It takes a minute, but motorcycle wheels don't need dynamic balancing so that method has worked very well for me.

I've always changed my dirt tires, but never street as I was unsure of balancing. Wow, do I feel silly. Next set will be done at home, that's for sure.

Also - I'm looking at that tire changer & I'm wondering 2 things

1. The way it looks - I'm guessing one would manually rotate the rim to break the bead.

2. And what about remounting - the ones I've seen have a bar that rotates to remount, placed between tire edge & rim.

I'm used to seeing something like these

http://www.nomartirechanger.com/

I go to a buddies house in NJ & he does them for a nominal fee. Plus I just ship the tires to his house. He's very neat & cleans my always filthy rims as well as balancing them.

But I wouldn't be against getting a unit to do my own, as well as others to make some side cash. DTR....

Have one of these tools. Two flaws with this tool.

1. centrer bolt is not long enough for the rear Wheel. I had to cheat the mounting of the center bolt when doing the rear. I have found a new nut and bolt to take care of this problem.
2. The bead braking pallet/spatula is not long enough. The arm hits the bolt long before you have managed to brake the bead to it's fullest. My repare to this problem is three 1'' blocks to raise the whole arm to give me more travel.

I've seen much cheaper units on EBay (55-60$) which is what I have. If your willing to overlook these flaws, and tend to them, then yes, it's a good deal to save a few dollars, but not the best tool out there. Before you manage to get it working and manage to hold it down well enough for it not to move, then it's an ok buy. Doesn't take much space, pretty light unit to hang on the garage wall, and, one tire change later, it's already paid for.

I have the harbor freight model. Daddy likey

I have the Harbor Freight cheapo bead breaker and cheapo balancer. Did I really have to say "cheapo"? Had to straighten the shaft on the balancer, but both items work fine. Use the zip tie method now for mounting/unmounting. Need to get a lifetime supply jug of RuGlyde tire lube from NAPA as suggested by someone on here and I'll be set.

You could always just balance the wheel by mounting it on the bike without the caliper(s). As long as the wheel turns easily on the axle, which it usually does.
The problem with the tool in the OP is that it only breaks the bead. You'll need tire irons and rim protectors to finish the job. The frame probably helps a little with the actual changing but not much.

Beater, if it does it like my harbor frt, it does alot. This video show about how I do it on mine. If this table topper has a way to clamp the wheel w/o stressing the bearings then same result.

On my HF unit I fabbed some 'jojo" blocks to hold the rim out of delrin.(firm grip, no scuff) You can buy it in bulk from mcmaster-carr and hacksaw it.

The hf unit has a really good bead breaker so no prob there, but you need some plastic rim savers and a c clamp with innertube over it to speed things up.

I'm leery of the home balance job. It's easy enough to find the heaviest spot and to weight it's opposite but what about secondary? Don't electronic spin balancers identify the best location to place weights to address this? It seems like high speed balancing is more complicated than this to me.

Just to add to Joe's comment, if the tire comes with a marker for the air valve location, some mechanics can also tell you that if they install the tire with the marker on the valve, you will not need balancing, well that maybe true if your wheel is brand new, and even then I wouldn't trust that. It is always a good practice to balance your wheels when changing tires.

I made my own balance device from a Toyota window rod and couple other car parts that I found, you can be as creative as you can be, as long as you make it work ;)

Toyota window rod? Now thats creative

At the racetrack when they mount my tires right next to the pros tires, they balance them just the same way I do and thats for maintained triple digit speeds at full lean.

Not sure how you are gonna notice at regular speeds