Changing your own Tyres- Seriously Considering this..

[swisstoni]

Why stop at tyres?
What a pain it is to keep visiting petrol stations just to top up a bit of liquid.

Tank submerged in the garden, buy in bulk, little vintage petrol pump on top. Brilliant!

[jamieduff1981]

simonh9 said:

I think the narrower the rim, the less dynamic problems it would have.

That's correct. What's not quantifiable is the practical limit at which static balance isn't getting close enough to dynamic balance to avoid accelerated wear. The wheel bearings will feel more than the driver does.

I remembered I had this on Photobucket from ~7 years ago when someone on another car forum didn't know what the difference between dynamic and static balance was. Excuse the quality - but OP may find it useful anyway

[RobM77]

Joey Deacon said:

In 24 years of driving I have never felt the need for different tyres for winter and summer, am I missing out and risk dying lots?

I'd been driving nearly twenty years when I tried winter tyres for the first time and it was a revelation. You're never too old to learn new things

[TooMany2cvs]

PositronicRay said:

TooMany2cvs said:

simonh9 said:

-Balancing works surprisingly well considering its just statically balanced. I've done up to 17x7.5J with good results. I think the narrower the rim, the less dynamic problems it would have.

Then there's the dynabeads. Little balls of ceramic that pour through the valve and move around to balance the tyre.

Dynabeads interest me, has anyone here tried them?

I've not long put a set in to a set of DIY-fitted, non-balanced tyres. First results are mixed. I'm about to swap to winters, and try them with and without - that'll help me make my mind up.

There's much less of the typical unbalanced vibration at speed. But they feel a bit funny after moving off or direction changes - almost as if it takes a little while for the beads to resettle back in the right position. If I was to make a snap judgement, I'd say they were much better than unbalanced, but not quite as good as proper balance weights.

They're a bit of a PITA to feed through the valve, too - the kit comes with a filling bottle, but there's a LOT of tapping and jiggling to stop them bottle-necking in the tube. Work on about 10-15min per tyre, and it's a lot easier with the wheel off.

I bought a kit from the US - much, much cheaper than the UK, even with postage - with enough beads for two sets of normal-size tyres. But of course they only came with one set of the filtered valve stems - so I need to either find a source for a second, or decide what'll happen if I run it with the normal stems.

[scotlandtim]

swisstoni said:

Why stop at tyres?
What a pain it is to keep visiting petrol stations just to top up a bit of liquid.

Tank submerged in the garden, buy in bulk, little vintage petrol pump on top. Brilliant!

You mock - I spent many years living on Sanday (One of the outer lying Orkney islands) and this is common practice there - get the tank filled up a couple of times a year when the tanker's over. Saves a fortune as the only pump on the island was last seen selling at £1.75 per litre and regularly runs out for weeks at a time!

Sanday:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Sanday/@59.248...

[TooMany2cvs]

swisstoni said:

Why stop at tyres?
What a pain it is to keep visiting petrol stations just to top up a bit of liquid.

Tank submerged in the garden, buy in bulk...

<looks out window at 1,200l LPG tank>
<thinks about neighbour's big diesel tank>

[swisstoni]

TooMany2cvs said:

swisstoni said:

Why stop at tyres?
What a pain it is to keep visiting petrol stations just to top up a bit of liquid.

Tank submerged in the garden, buy in bulk...

<looks out window at 1,200l LPG tank>
<thinks about neighbour's big diesel tank>

Got any plans for Bonfire Night?

[PaulJC84]

I think for some cars I would just get cross climate tyres or another set of rims if I was needing to swap tyres on multiple cars.

[gnc]

tyre fitters by me charge £10 to change a tyre. thats why i have a manual tyre fitting machine ( tight wad ) good excercise. fitted / changed around 20 tyres so far,over around 5 years and non of them balanced, no problem upto 80 mph.

[Welshbeef]

gnc said:

tyre fitters by me charge £10 to change a tyre. thats why i have a manual tyre fitting machine ( tight wad ) good excercise. fitted / changed around 20 tyres so far,over around 5 years and non of them balanced, no problem upto 80 mph.

5 years 20 tyres?

1 set a year do you do high miles or is it a drift machine?/low quality rubber to wear out so quickly

[jon-]

Having changed a few tyres myself in the past, a nice soft 205/55 R16 should be no problem on those things.

When you look at taking a low profile stiff sidewalled tyre in the larger sizes, you're likely to struggle!

[kurwa]

swisstoni said:

Why stop at tyres?
What a pain it is to keep visiting petrol stations just to top up a bit of liquid.

Tank submerged in the garden, buy in bulk, little vintage petrol pump on top. Brilliant!

2 problems, I don't have the space, and it has experiation date, and 3rd- I don't think it's that expensive.


Anyway... how did they changed tyres years ago when there were no fancy machines?
I get it that you are a pussy and could't imagine doing such thing yourself...



btw the fancy machines comes up for sale in ebay rather cheap, £200-£300 for an used machine, chip in with few friends and you can all swap however much tyres each wants. The problem is they are damn huge so need a place to store them. Those manual tools are rather tiny and takes up no space.

Edited by kurwa on Thursday 3rd November 13:42

[Welshbeef]

kurwa said:

2 problems, I don't have the space, and it has experiation date, and 3rd- I don't think it's that expensive.


Anyway... how did they changed tyres years ago when there were no fancy machines?
I get it that you are a pussy and could't imagine doing such thing yourself...



btw the fancy machines comes up for sale in ebay rather cheap, £200-£300 for an used machine, chip in with few friends and you can all swap however much tyres each wants. The problem is they are damn huge so need a place to store them. Those manual tools are rather tiny and takes up no space.

Edited by kurwa on Thursday 3rd November 13:42

£200-300!!!

Honestly what is the point you probably burn a set of tyres everr 3-4 years. It would take you a lifetime to get any sort of payback.

[simonh9]

kurwa said:

swisstoni said:

Why stop at tyres?
What a pain it is to keep visiting petrol stations just to top up a bit of liquid.

Tank submerged in the garden, buy in bulk, little vintage petrol pump on top. Brilliant!

2 problems, I don't have the space, and it has experiation date, and 3rd- I don't think it's that expensive.


Anyway... how did they changed tyres years ago when there were no fancy machines?
I get it that you are a pussy and could't imagine doing such thing yourself...



btw the fancy machines comes up for sale in ebay rather cheap, £200-£300 for an used machine, chip in with few friends and you can all swap however much tyres each wants. The problem is they are damn huge so need a place to store them. Those manual tools are rather tiny and takes up no space.

Edited by kurwa on Thursday 3rd November 13:42

BTW, You will need to bolt it down somewhere. I just bolted it to a pallet which I can slide around

[jamieduff1981]

Welshbeef said:

kurwa said:

2 problems, I don't have the space, and it has experiation date, and 3rd- I don't think it's that expensive.


Anyway... how did they changed tyres years ago when there were no fancy machines?
I get it that you are a pussy and could't imagine doing such thing yourself...



btw the fancy machines comes up for sale in ebay rather cheap, £200-£300 for an used machine, chip in with few friends and you can all swap however much tyres each wants. The problem is they are damn huge so need a place to store them. Those manual tools are rather tiny and takes up no space.

Edited by kurwa on Thursday 3rd November 13:42

£200-300!!!

Honestly what is the point you probably burn a set of tyres everr 3-4 years. It would take you a lifetime to get any sort of payback.

I appreciate the sentiment but I don't think I've ever had 3-4 years out of tyres!

[HustleRussell]

kurwa said:

2 problems, I don't have the space, and it has experiation date, and 3rd- I don't think it's that expensive.


Anyway... how did they changed tyres years ago when there were no fancy machines?
I get it that you are a pussy and could't imagine doing such thing yourself...



btw the fancy machines comes up for sale in ebay rather cheap, £200-£300 for an used machine, chip in with few friends and you can all swap however much tyres each wants. The problem is they are damn huge so need a place to store them. Those manual tools are rather tiny and takes up no space.

What tyre size do you want to change?

Anyway, you crack on. Personally I think lifes too short as it is and I value my knuckles and nose.

[C70R]

simonh9 said:

I can do all my tyre swaps

Who the f*ck are you people who are constantly swapping tyres around, sufficient to necessitate buying a bloody machine?

[Fastpedeller]

I can see the balancer may work - someone (ok a prof tyre fitter) used one years ago on mine and they worked great. The tyre remover however??? I can see it's an easy way to wreck your prized alloys. Peeps may have used this sort of tool years ago (on steel wheels) but on alloys? I certainly wouldn't like to try.

[TooMany2cvs]

Fastpedeller said:

I can see the balancer may work - someone (ok a prof tyre fitter) used one years ago on mine and they worked great. The tyre remover however??? I can see it's an easy way to wreck your prized alloys. Peeps may have used this sort of tool years ago (on steel wheels) but on alloys? I certainly wouldn't like to try.

About the only real functional difference between that manual tyre changer and a proper semi-auto pneumatic/electric one is that the pro ones rotate the wheel, and the work's all done for you; while the manual one has you walking round and putting the muscle in yourself. They do the actual fitting and removing in pretty much the same way - by pushing one side down into the well and pulling the opposite bead up and over the rim. It's not pretty to watch...

[simonh9]

HustleRussell said:

kurwa said:

2 problems, I don't have the space, and it has experiation date, and 3rd- I don't think it's that expensive.


Anyway... how did they changed tyres years ago when there were no fancy machines?
I get it that you are a pussy and could't imagine doing such thing yourself...



btw the fancy machines comes up for sale in ebay rather cheap, £200-£300 for an used machine, chip in with few friends and you can all swap however much tyres each wants. The problem is they are damn huge so need a place to store them. Those manual tools are rather tiny and takes up no space.

What tyre size do you want to change?

Anyway, you crack on. Personally I think lifes too short as it is and I value my knuckles and nose.

Yes, it is generally advisable not to put your fingers, nose or other appendages between the tyre and rim when seating the bead