mounting tires myself with the $40 harbor freight changer

[Traction]

Originally Posted By: supton
I've read the shorter trailer tires are a pain to mount/unmount. I just picked up a camper with 13" tires, for some reason the PO replaced the two main tires--but left the 17 year old cracked spare tire alone. ? I can mail order tire&rim but am halfway tempted to at least try unmount and remount.

At least for trailer tires you don't have to balance. Why I've never figured out, never seen a trailer with unbalanced tires (but plenty of cars and trucks).

Balancing trailer tires can make a huge difference in how long they last. Just because you can't feel it, they can easily be 4 oz out of balance, and bounce merrily down the road slowly but surely wearing flat spots all over from skipping.

 

[yvon_la]

If tire doesn't air up .grab a auxiliary air tank thingy.put the mouth close to valve stem but opposite side of valve stem and boum .it should air up no grease soap or any of that stuff

 

[eljefino]

Sure, a Cheetah(tm) air tank thingy. That's on my shelf next to the unicorn polish...

 

[supton]

Alright, I gave it a good try, but after an hour of trying to remount, I may have to admit defeat. I managed to get one side on, but the othe refused, and I sliced up the bead really bad (junk tire to practice on). The hook on the long bar eventually binds up and pops out, forcing me to restart all over.

Going to review the vids but it is not looking good here.

Where do they measure tire diam anyhow? The inside of my tire is about 15" but the actual rim is 16".

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Were you using the drop center when mounting the tire? You also need to lube the bead. Someone here suggeested using coolant as a bead lube as it doesn't corrode the wheel or tire ... I use it and it works great!

 

[leeharvey418]

Originally Posted By: supton
Where do they measure tire diam anyhow? The inside of my tire is about 15" but the actual rim is 16".

I was about to launch into an explanation, but then I figured I'd better ask:

You're saying that the outside of the rim flange measures 16" with a tape measure? Or you're saying that it's actually a 16" wheel?

 

[supton]

Ok, think I got it. Had the bar upside down. Doah! Still hard work, and it likes to flip and make me restart. But the second tire went better.

I used dish soap, no water. At least while apart. I have a bottle of water and alcohol that I used to install headlight covers that I then hosed on while doing the grunt work.

Might be with a run to NAPA for proper lube, if it makes it easier.

Rim measured 16" at the widest point. I figured it would be 15", and the tire smaller. Appears to be the other way round, tire min diam is 15 and the rim is larger. Didn't know that.

Time to try the balancer, but I am not expecting much there. I got stick on weights, but the wheel is nasty with rust. Likely have to order actual snap on weights.

 

[supton]

I tried wrestling with it in the ground, using stakes, but no way it would mount that way. Another use for the trailer.

Quarter inch hardware isn't really the right stuff, but the wood would give way long before then.

The jack stand keeps the trailer level, sorta. Chocking the wheels might help too.

 

[Traction]

This is the tire changer I use,a Corghi Master, along with the rest of the proper equipment, and training. Safety first.
https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=ApBGWjJ_sQbe.qHB6wuIog.bvZx4?fr=yfp-t-901-s&toggle=1&fp=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&p=corghi%20master%2026

 

[Traction]

Sorry bad link to the Corghi Master. Awesome tire machine. Watch the video. I have had mine for 10 years. It is the ONLY tire machine out there that can change a tire without touch the edge of the wheel. Try changing a 335/25-20 run flat off of a ZR1 with anything else. But what sucks is that machine can't change a 245/75-16, so I have to have a rim clamp machine too, along with the endless other stuff you need to properly change a tire on anything.
http://www.alltiresupply.com/p-AM26.html

 

[Traction]

Hate the edit time out when I am busy. Just wanted to add, that after thousands of dollars, I don't have to pay $10+ a tire to have them mounted anymore.

 

[supton]

Well, I tried this out on my old snows, went ok. Tried it out on my alloys, and ouch! Duct tape was not enough to prevent damage to my rims. My fault, not a fault of the the tool (more precisely, a fault of the tool using the tool).

I tried out the HF portable balancer. My review is mixed. The spindle that the balance sits on rusts fast, and i fear it will wear fast. Definately a friction stop, so one has to rock the wheel to see if it is truly balanced. Otoh I balanced a pair of tires last night, and it seemed fine at 60. At 80 I might feel something, maybe not.

 

[eljefino]

Yay! You'll get better. The plastic they use in flexible cutting boards is good to stuff in places that scratch, like under the "spider".

 

[supton]

Hmm, I had wracked my brain for what work. Cutting board material? Will search for that, thanks for the tip.

 

[eljefino]

Also if your dog ever got a "lampshade" collar so it wouldn't bite its wounds, that plastic is about the right stuff. Same as those things that go under office chairs so they don't wreck carpet.

 

[supton]

Will keep an eye out for it. I tried using some cardboard; that helped a bit. Really need a new "star" wheel, something like a cone, for alloys.

Biggest help though came from the ephiphany that, if soap helps a tire come on, it can help it come off too. That dramatically reduced the effort of removing the old tires. Don't know if tires shrink in old age, but the Nokia enTyres came off hard. By contrast, the RT43's I could slide on by hand, no tools necessary. Which made bead seating harder.

Speaking of which: I couldn't get enough air in to seat with my HF trigger-grip-inflator. That tool requires a valve core. Looking in my stash I had the tool used for blowing air--you put it into an air line, and it has a trigger, and you blow stuff off. Turns out that it will shove into the empty valve stem just fine. That worked well for seating beads. Something like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/pistol-grip-blow-gun-68259.html

Balanced the front tires last night. Personally I find the static balance to work on hocus-pocus. One wheel needed 1.5oz. Another was fine with the prior tires 0.5oz! The fourth tire I did was fine with no weight at all (and it didn't have a weight on it prior either). [The third tire took 0.5oz.] Placing the weight on there, rocking it back and forth to be sure... a very touchy-feely act.

But it almost rides smooth. There is a bit of vibration, but no worse than the engine. We'll see how they work in the long run.

[Speaking of dynamic vs static balance: all three tires, save the one that didn't have weights (pre or post tire change), all had their balance weights almost center of the rim, and in one spot.]

 

[eljefino]

So these being alloys, do they have a flange on the outer lip for weights? I bet you got static balanced before, by the tire shop, in that mode, on their spin balancer.

I use the same blow gun from the "23 piece introductory air tool kit" you see everywhere. The rubber "needle" unscrews and you get a thing that screws onto your coreless valve stem.

 

[supton]

No flange on the outside, so I guess dynamic would be kinda hard.

Ok, I changed the spare tire on my camper, all four on my Jetta, and just finished up all four on my Camry. Jetta rides "ok", honestly the engine shakes more; wife just texted me and says that the Camry rides fine (I'll be the judge of that, but a good sign). So, despite my reservations about the static balancer being hokie it seems to be working.

Hated changing the Camry though, the rim, next to the bead is flat and I had to force the tire to the area where the tire "flops around". Seemed like a real fight to take off and on too. The tire iron that is suggested (the $5 one, when on sale) was helpful but a couple of them was more brute force with my hands than anything else. By contrast the Jetta's alloys took the tires with nothing more than my hands.

Not sure I'm about to offer mounting tires for friends but I don't think I'll be hesitant to continue doing this in the future on my steelies. Alloys, meh, for RWD it's probably ok but my FWD rims don't work so well for it.

Will state that this is a lousy way to save money if one buys long life tires. Easily 20-30min of time per tire to change and balance, maybe more if it fights you.