Tire Changing DIY

[topsites]

omg the pics make it look a LOT easier than it is lolololol ...
Cost of kit: $100
Cost of wooden base: $45
Cost of valve tool: ~$10
Time to assemble entire thing: ~2 hours or so
Time to do the below tire change (w/ valve stem): 1 hour LOL!
(You have to go slow cuz if it slips you could hurt yourself, and it gets hairy towards the end)
Other notes: I never got the bead to seat, and will be taking this and the other 3 tires to a mechanic to have it done LOL!
> I will keep this for lawn mower tires, and it might still work for the occasional 1 tire replacement (like a flat that has to be replaced).













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[topsites]

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[topsites]

That's it.

[carcrz]

just so everyone else knows, you can buy the changer a kit cheaper @ Harbor Freight. I paid $40 for one that works on my mower wheels.

[topsites]

Yeah, I knocked myself about the head for not having waited, but I had no way of knowing Harbor Freight would sell them ...
I bought mine from J-Thomas out of Detroit (shipped).
And I agree, it is good for lawn mower tires.
The pics don't do the work any justice: car tires are a ROYAL PITA!!!
You really are way better off paying the $20-$25 / tire at a shop.
But, this I had to see for myself (very educational hahaha).

Other required supplies:
Air compressor (to refill)
Flat head screwdriver and vise grips (to remove old valve)
Valve stems (also from J-Thomas, bulk ordered about 10 of these).
A new tire

And: For car tires you really need this tire glue crap which...

[topsites]

btw, you also need a tire balancer...
A nice dynamic one (rather used) is around a thousand dollars.
You can get a manual one that looks almost like a mower blade balancer, but after what I done went through with this manual tire change, there's NO way I'm getting into manually balancing a tire LOL.

The tire(s) I got from tirerack.com

It's a Kumho Touring plus, which is 1 step below a Grand Touring tire, and a GT tire is one step below performance (or the highest grade passenger tire). So the T+ is two steps below performance (still above average).

The last set of GT tires I bought, I paid close to $400 for all of it (mounting and balancing and everything)...
This time, the tires I paid $190 for and had them in 3-4 days shipped.
It'll still cost me close to $300 for all 4 installed, but I can tolerate this.
It was all about saving money concerning tires, I learned quite a bit LOL

[Dirt Digger2]

that looks like the same thing the real tire changing machines look like except the real ones are powered by air pressure. You can change the tires yourself more easily by using 2 tire irons...another reason you may have had difficulty is that you were not using a bead lubricant. it takes practice but after a few tires you can get pretty good at changing them.

[LindblomRJ]

Originally Posted by topsites

omg the pics make it look a LOT easier than it is lolololol ...
Cost of kit: $100
Cost of wooden base: $45
Cost of valve tool: ~$10
Time to assemble entire thing: ~2 hours or so
Time to do the below tire change (w/ valve stem): 1 hour LOL!
(You have to go slow cuz if it slips you could hurt yourself, and it gets hairy towards the end)
Other notes: I never got the bead to seat, and will be taking this and the other 3 tires to a mechanic to have it done LOL!
> I will keep this for lawn mower tires, and it might still work for the occasional 1 tire replacement (like a flat that has to be replaced).

Cost to fix a flat tire on a car $12.00. When was the last time I had to fix a tire on a car? 8 years. Time it takes at the tire shop 15 minutes...

I did tire work for about a year.

[The Intimidator]

lol my local wallmart mounts car and truck tires up to 35"s I think maybe 33"s and atv tire's ect for 5$ each and they have yet to mess one up I forget how much it was to have them balanced but it was no more then 40$ for the 4 of them. I used to just go to the high school and do the tire's they have a tire machine and a balancer 45 minutes of my time and I have 4 tire's mounted and balanced

[MowerMedic77]

Damm Tops you just need more practice..LOL the last time it took me that long to change and car tire I was using my friends car to drive up a board and break the bead and then removed the tire with large screwdrivers.

I use that same set up in my shop and do trailer tires all the time. What you need to do is once you have the bead started like in the first pic push it down as far as you can so that the tire is not setting so close to the bead seat this will help with getting the rest of the tire on. I am not sayin this will make it super easier but you should not have to fight it soo much. Hope this helps.