how well does this work?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34542

 

have you ever changed a bike tire with tire irons

 

yup... i also used t owork in a tire shop... well 2 differnt companies actually wheel works and america's... so i do know little tips and tricks.. but those were actual machines..... not this portable one

 

hey thats a good idea!! i always thought those machines would be WAY outa my price range...anybody have any more info on it?

I go through 2 rear tires a week on my rx7...it'd be nice if i didnt have to pay the extra fee to get my tires mounted on the rim every time!

 

WTF?

Andreas

 

I thought about getting one so I could swap out motorcycle tires. But then you still need to buy a balancer. Plus I hear that the tire irons that come with this really scratch up the rims.

 

I have one and it works great. As mentioned above, it will scratch your rims. One of these days I'm going to weld some wheel studs in to help secure the wheel more securely. Another thing I plan on doing is welding up a mount/bracket that will slip into my reciever hitch.

 

I have one of those and it also works well. I use it on my stock steel rims and on my alloy beadlocks. If you are careful it doesn't scratch things up much at all. Big help is to buy a bottle of tire bead lubricant.

 

my b-i-l has one similar to that, the bead breaker is pretty flimsy. beef it up with some sort of cross bracing and it should be ok. it will make you sweat using it! the bead lube is a great idea also.

lee

 

RX7...fast burn outs, drift, donuts, racing. goes through tires FAST

 

waht part of the bead breaker needs cross bracing?

 

the narrow side bars, just weld a front and back in place to close it in and it will be much sturdier.

lee

 

well i bought one today... dont have it setup yet... but will work on it sometime this week... you know pics are coming

 

having opened it all up, i can tell its clamping is very primitive... time to make some upgrades probably going to drill some holes in the plate and set it up to be able to accept some wheel studs and lugnuts.....

 

I find mine clamps the wheel in surprisingly well. The one pin goes up through a lug bolt hole and the spin down piece in the center holds the wheel from spinning off the pin. I drilled 4 holes in the concrete on my back patio and hammered in some anchors and bolt the base down good and snug.

 

the clamp works, fine, i jsut dont liek it much... i am going to drill some holes and put lugnuts and studs in it... the base seems fine for me.... none of the bolts are tightened yet, jsut finger tightened, hasnt even put pressure on the lock washers yet and i dismounted a 205/70/14, the spare my truck came with..... i used no lube, its an old tire and i did not rip the bead...... it did get red paint on my rim edge, but so what, if it doesnt get used, its not worth having and htis goes for anything, including trucks if you dont need a truck, get a car....

 

Just get beadlocks and you can change your own tires anywhere w/o special tools. BFG's are incredibly well balanced. We mounted a set of 35x12.5x17 BFG muds on our Tacoma and drove down to Baja w/o balancing them, they drove and wore fine even at freeway speeds.

 

that is not an option, beadlocks are not street legal and my truck is primarily driven on the street

 

here are my mods with an explanation of what i did and why.... let me know what you think... the paint used was chrome colored as its all i had.... and with newly exposed bare metal, i didnt want it to rust......

a lot of you guys said the arms are weak, so i welded in a 1/16" plate on one side to link the arms together... washers were also added to minimize slack and the possibility of deflection by directing the force where it should be going




i thought the locating peg was too long.....so i cut it shorter



i then decided the peg left too much movement in the wheel.... so i added a (special) stud -- it's a bolt but will explain in a minute



here is explaining my (special) stud ... its a bolt, the tire changer is set up to use the extra bolt for a 5 on 4.5" rim along with the locating peg.... however... the bolt can unscrew and retract for use with any pattern rim by jsut using the locating pin

 

FWIW I don't know of a single person to get a ticket for beadlocks. Another option is the Hutchinson 2-piece rims that are both inner and outer beadlocks and are DOT legal.