Changing your own Tyres- Seriously Considering this..

[Ryko]

Its a legal requirement to have winter tyres here in Serbia. I have my winter tyres on a set of 16inch steelies and save my 17inch alloys for better weather.

Much more convenient solution than destroying an alloy wheel while trying to change a tyre with an ebay toy.

[simonh9]

C70R said:

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?

Lol. I have 6-7 cars, chop and change quite a few each year and like decent tyres (as well as having a couple of cars on winters)

[Prizam]

I am very tempted.

Idiots round here destroy alloys and cannot balance the tire anyway.

[h0b0]

C70R said:

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?

Agreed. My tyres get changed when the oil level gets checked.....At the service.

[AlexIT]

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!

Pah... that's no fun!

you should bury a couple of dinosaurs, some plants, add water and wait until you get the good stuff from the pump

[Welshbeef]

simonh9 said:

C70R said:

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?

Lol. I have 6-7 cars, chop and change quite a few each year and like decent tyres (as well as having a couple of cars on winters)

But that's even more of a reason why they should last far longer time wise I mean you don't do average miles in each car do you lease you'd be driving what 91,000 a year.

[HustleRussell]

simonh9 said:

Lol. I have 6-7 cars, chop and change quite a few each year and like decent tyres (as well as having a couple of cars on winters)

So you're discerning about the type of tyres you buy but you don't want them to be perfectly balanced.

[rob0r]

I bought a 3 phase tyre machine for £250, worth every penny. I haven't found a need for balancing yet. I drift and do track days in multiple cars.

[Welshbeef]

rob0r said:

I bought a 3 phase tyre machine for £250, worth every penny. I haven't found a need for balancing yet. I drift and do track days in multiple cars.

You are somehow buying perfectly balanced tyre rubber off the shelf? really? Where can I get some.

[rog007]

kurwa said:

We have 4 cars in family which need tyre swapping all the time summer/winter.. , I just hate to visit garages and try to do most of the stuff myself as I always feel ripped off by high prices and not good worksmanship...who doesn't i know I know . But swapping tyres is one thing I thought I couldn't do myself just because I don't have the machines, and I'm always frustrated as fuk when they charge me £40 to swap 4 tyres which takes them 15mins and I have to waste half a day to schedule changing them/get them done etc. just sick of this tyre changing rip off.

Untill I found there is a manual tyre changer and balancer,
changer- £35
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tyre-Changer-Wheel-Mount...

balancer- £52
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Portable-Wheel-Tyre-Bala...

checked few yt videos& it looks piss easy.
Watcha say guys?

Crikey! You'll be having us changing our own wiper blades next!

[C70R]

Welshbeef said:

simonh9 said:

C70R said:

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?

Lol. I have 6-7 cars, chop and change quite a few each year and like decent tyres (as well as having a couple of cars on winters)

But that's even more of a reason why they should last far longer time wise I mean you don't do average miles in each car do you lease you'd be driving what 91,000 a year.

Precisely what confused me. I could see why someone might buy a tyre-fitting machine for the sake of faffing/fiddling, but surely there can't be any logical justification for it?

[CAPP0]

OP, if you're in any doubt as to whether you should DIY or not, pop round to mate who has something lie an offroad motorbike, change a tyre for him then come back and tell us if you'd like to be doing that 4 times over with tyres which will be a lot stiffer and harder to change.

Also, haven't read the whole thread but have you factored in the cost of a compressor big enough (i.e. with sufficient airflow, not pressure) to pop the beads back on?

[VonSenger]

I had one of these. Forget it, not worth the hassle. I used it once then got rid. I do however have a similar one for my bike to fit slicks. Its easier to use due to the tyres being easier to fit and i do more of it, i.e its paid for itself tenfold.

[Slow]

It's a fking pain. Having worked at a 4x4 course we used to fit tyres ourselves. A big tool which had a metal bar in a large collar with handles which you lifted up and slammed down repeatedly all the way round the tyre (well half way and jump on the rest of the tyre). That was just to break the bead, now get 2 lever bars and slowly lift the edge up and over. Repeat again for the other side of the tyre. Putting back on is the reverse other than breaking the bead. To inflate just a large compressor worked OR light gas inside the tyre. Balancing didn't matter as the car would never go over 15-20mph.

I pay to have maybe 15 tyres a year changed, I swap around cars and winter tyres etc. Will never do them by hand again (only large profile tyres are possible really), would buy a machine if a old one popped up for cheap though.

One tyre was so stuck we tried 2 land rovers driven onto either side of the tyre and it just crushed. Ended up grinding the fker off, made one hell of a smell.

[S0 What]

kurwa said:

We have 4 cars in family which need tyre swapping all the time summer/winter.. , I just hate to visit garages and try to do most of the stuff myself as I always feel ripped off by high prices and not good worksmanship...who doesn't i know I know . But swapping tyres is one thing I thought I couldn't do myself just because I don't have the machines, and I'm always frustrated as fuk when they charge me £40 to swap 4 tyres which takes them 15mins and I have to waste half a day to schedule changing them/get them done etc. just sick of this tyre changing rip off.

Untill I found there is a manual tyre changer and balancer,
changer- £35
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tyre-Changer-Wheel-Mount...

balancer- £52
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Portable-Wheel-Tyre-Bala...

checked few yt videos& it looks piss easy.
Watcha say guys?

That tyre changer will bend/disintigrate on any tyre that's been on for more and a few days, the balencer is old school and will do an ok job on a totaly straight wheel but wont balence side to side to take into account kerbing dings or slightly out of true wheels or worn/tracked tyres.
Simply put either get them done at a tyre shop or get decent equipment, your better off buying 2nd hand decent stuff, i have a hand tyre remover, made in the 50's and it's still a royal PITA compaired to a air powered changer.

[caelite]

simonh9 said:

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

Back when I worked in a garage just after leaving school this was genuinely my biggest fear. That and angle grinder discs shattering.

[spaximus]

I worked for National tyres for some years and that manual changer will work, but. On steel wheels of narrow section they are fine but on a wide alloy wheel breaking beads is not easy. I have seen beads so badly stuck that when have had to have them under air pressure and use a truck breaker as well.

It is very easy if it is not bolted down right, to tear a bead on the tyre as you need it firm to be able to use the bar as well as keeping the tyre in the well. The wider they are the harder they are to do.
With plenty of lube and muscle anything is possible, even just using tyre levers to do it.

As for the balancing, again you can get decent results, but on wider wheels the ideal is to balance both sides at speed, you cannot do that and even if the wheel is not shaking, any out of balance is wearing parts as they take up the vibration.

If you have room look at secondhand proper machines and then take them to have a proper balance.

[CAPP0]

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.

There's your cost/benefit analysis right there, the poster above has saved himself a whopping 11p per day over the past 5 years, before you factor in the purchase of the necessary kit, which probably puts him in negative equity!

[finishing touch]

There is one advantage that I can see.

At least fitting yourself you could put the paint dots in the right place.
That's something the "pro" tyre fitters can't seem to do.

[Rich_W]

finishing touch said:

There is one advantage that I can see.

At least fitting yourself you could put the paint dots in the right place.
That's something the "pro" tyre fitters can't seem to do.

If you buy a half decent tyre. that dot doesn't really represent an extra 10kgs in that one area. Most tyres tolerances are far far smaller!

I've rarely bothered to line up the DOT. Mainly cause it makes no difference at all once the wheel has been dynamically balanced.