Ditching the Tire Shops, DIYer (1 Viewer)

[Dizzy]

I'm thinking about doing tires on steel wheels here at home. HF manual tire changer, HF bubble balance, clip-on spring weights. Is the tire lever powder coated as to not scratch steel wheels?

Is there an issue with a small shop compressor (like for a portable nailing gun) setting beads? Do I really want tons of volume quickly, necessitating pro equipment? I realize that I'll remove the valve from the stem and use a safety-nozzle for max volume. I'm not interested in a flammable technique.

How will I know which side of the wheel to place weights, axle side or hub cap side? Or, is the inside of the wheel for when the front gets kinda weighty?

Do I even need to balance? I lost a small to medium weight installed by a pro shop on my 215/75R15 on my FJ40 with factory steelies, and I would never have known by driving it. I'll also be mounting 195/75R14 for my other ride, so these aren't what you might think of as truck tires. Is there a tool needed for weight installation and removal?

Do I need dried compressed air, or can it be just New Mexico on a dry day?

There has to be a preferable soap, and its ideal concentration? I'm thinking about corrosion, and compatibility with the tire, valve stem, patches, etc. My guess is that I'm probably overthinking this one.

 

[bigredmachine]

I'm thinking about doing tires on steel wheels here at home. HF manual tire changer, HF bubble balance, clip-on spring weights. Is the tire lever powder coated as to not scratch steel wheels?

Is there an issue with a small shop compressor (like for a portable nailing gun) setting beads? Do I really want tons of volume quickly, necessitating pro equipment? I realize that I'll remove the valve from the stem and use a safety-nozzle for max volume. I'm not interested in a flammable technique.

How will I know which side of the wheel to place weights, axle side or hub cap side? Or, is the inside of the wheel for when the front gets kinda weighty?

Do I even need to balance? I lost a small to medium weight installed by a pro shop on my 215/75R15 on my FJ40 with factory steelies, and I would never have known by driving it. I'll also be mounting 195/75R14 for my other ride, so these aren't what you might think of as truck tires. Is there a tool needed for weight installation and removal?

Do I need dried compressed air, or can it be just New Mexico on a dry day?

There has to be a preferable soap, and its ideal concentration? I'm thinking about corrosion, and compatibility with the tire, valve stem, patches, etc. My guess is that I'm probably overthinking this one.

1. those should be fine but i do not have any experience with either of those personally, when we do tires by hand at the shop we use tire irons, spoons as needed and a maul to break the bead. the powder coating is just to make it look pretty.

2. you may depending on how difficult it is to seat the bead, you wont know untill you know. the flammable technique is perfectly acceptable and ive had to do it plenty of times with no adverse affects just keep a hose on hand.

3-4. both are kinda your call, if you decide to not even balance them then wheel weight placement is a mute point. if you balance you will want to have wheel weights on both sides of the rim as that will both static and dynamic balance the rim and tire assembly for best ride possible. you also have the option to balance using tire beads or bags, we use equal when doing truck tires

5 Reasons to Balance Tires - Tread Connection

When it comes to our cars, it can feel like we’re always looking for ways to save money. This often means avoiding or putting off services we know we shouldn’t. Among those services is balancing your tires. It turns out there are all kinds of reasons why you should balance your tires. In...

treadconnection.com

How Do I Know If My Tires Need to Be Balanced?

There’s no such thing as good vibrations when it comes to tires.

www.thedrive.com

Counteract Balancing Beads | Tire and Wheel Balancing Solutions

Equal Balancing Compound

Equal tire balancing compound. Balances for the life of the tire without adjustment. Easy to use and environmentally friendly.

www.mcgeecompany.com

5. only the finest imported air from the top of mt everest that has been blessed by monks/priest/shaman/religious leaders from every faith known to man will do

6. we use myers tire soap, but i would think that any soap would do. or you could try to find some kind of other tire lube for when your getting the beads on or off. as for concentration if it works it works, if not add more. i take a few chunks and mix it in a bucket no specific amount

 

[Mauser]

I change and repair all of my own tires. I use tire bars for mount/dismount.

I sometimes balance my tires, but not very often. Used to go to Sam's Club where they would balance for free while I shopped.

I usually don't have much trouble getting a tire to seat, but when I do I can almost always push the wheel and get it to seat. If that doesn't work I just glop on the tire soap.

The best lube in the world is Blackjack tire soap. It has corrosion inhibitors and rubber conditioners. Don't use dish soap. It will cause corrosion and make breaking the bead super hard the next time. I mix a little soap with water for dismount and use full strength for mounting.

 

[Dizzy]

Got a gallon of RuGlyde from NAPA - no way I'm using all of that in my life, but, whatever.

I must have spent an hour or more to just determine how to mount the tire changer without concrete anchors. I finally figured that I would use my HF engine crane base. I ran to the hardware store to get some 3/8" eye-bolts, they are held by the eye of the outside leg hitch pin. I thought that I was going to weld pipes in for U-bolts, but it wasn't necessary.

So, I was able to remove my 720 spare from a good wheel (gonna paint it), to a (practice) junkyard wheel that has minor blow-out damage (wish I would have known that before I bought it, oh, well, I made an extra 150 miles for another wheel and harvested a spare/trail starter too). The whole tire mounting process was super easy. The directions didn't mention removing the spring weights before starting, oops, lost some paint on that one. Now, on to tire shopping, finding plugs for the inside and figuring out balancing. I'm thinking Hankook Kinergy ST 195/75R14, harvesting a bunch of steel-rim weights from the local scrap yard, and fabbing a tool for weight removal.

If I get a machine shop to make an aluminum insert for the Toyota 15" Land Cruiser wheels, I might get away with a bubble balance for both rigs? But, the Land Cruiser wheels (and the extra Toyota 6-lug, 14" pickup wheels that came with the Nissan) are bigger than the (max) 4" diameter bubble balancers that I seem to find advertised.

Maybe mounting them to the front (unlocked) hub for balancing?

 

[Mauser]

Getting the lead clip on wheel weights is getting harder and harder around here. The big tire shops send them off for "recycling" and the smaller shops usually already have someone they save them for. They make some pretty decent bullets.

 

[bigredmachine]

harvesting a bunch of steel-rim weights from the local scrap yard, and fabbing a tool for weight removal

go to a metal recycler and just buy a bucket of weights, thats what we do at work every now and then. and just you r luck someone already fabed up a tool to remove the wheel weights Amazon.com : wheel weight hammer - https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wheel+weight+hammer&ref=nb_sb_noss. or take a flathead screwdriver, grind it down to a point and you can try to pry off the weights that way. you can buy the weights on amazon, steel wheels will need a p style clip, p weights can also be listed as micro weights

 

[Dizzy]

For like $.87, I got two-lbs of junkyard weights, from a pile in a 50-gallon oil drum. Many weren't removed well, so they are a bit distorted, and I won't use them. Some were plated, some were zinc, some were iron. I bought a $2.99 pair of pliers and modified them to grab the weights with the tire pushed in. Rockauto, and O'Reilley sell weights for cheap. I'll just get their weights, probably zinc, to keep things green, and ammo cheap.

I noticed that the FJ40's balancing weights don't have the round circle on the clip, more of a triangle. They don't fit to the profile of the steel wheel that well either. Did the major-chain-installer give me weights destined to be tossed to oncoming vehicle's windshield? Where is the source that I can decode these things?

The HF bubble balancer isn't that sensitive (like one-half ounce is not much difference), and its results are only somewhat repeatable (within about 90 degrees). However, it jives with how the wheel sits relative to horizontal. However, the biggest thing is getting the steel wheel relative to center, as the wheel surfaces are not that well manufactured. The Land Cruiser wheel (which can fit on the advertised 4" max size balancer), has a rough corner that fits on the tapered portion of the balancer, so the question is should I smooth the burr that exists a bit more on one side (new OEM wheel)? Years of working on a lathe informs me that it isn't possible to chuck up a round piece the same way twice, regardless of how well it was machined. That is why a machinist would talk about, 'datum reference,' or just, 'datum.' Basically, it is how the dimensions were laid out on the drawing, and the tolerances they call for, so the various machined surfaces need to respect that, and it is the operators job to know what is being called for, because it is easy to loose a center, and an axis of rotation. That said, I feel that without using the six lugs to center the wheel (like it is on the automobile), that I imagine that balancing (both dynamic, and static) is super precise, but probably its accuracy is more snake oil than we would like to think that it is.

I just received the tires at my doorstep. Let me tell you if they shake on the highway, after I get them mounted.

 

[pb4ugo]

Thru thr yrs, I've mounted a lot of tires without a tire changer. Ive used tire spoons, crow bars, large screw drivers and whatever, to do it. I found it more difficult to break the bead and remove the tire from the rim. On installation, I usually just push the tire on the rim, the second bead is a little more difficult to push on. I usually just use soapy water on the bead, you just need something that is slippery. After watching a video of guy using an hf tire tool, I may buy one and try it, so ill be following this thread. Using a tool that keeps the rim stationary and off the ground is key. It was obvious in the video the guy didn't know what he was doing and was successful with little effort. I find your comment on a tire stores using cheap wheel weights that fly off the rim funny considering your willingness to use used wheel weights. I was taught never to use used weights for that very reason. You dont need a big compressor to seat a bead. Ive seated beads with the rim
on or off the vehicle. Ive used a compressor as small as the arb compressor while on the trail. You just need a valve core removal tool and a ratchet strap. A clip on air chuck is helpfull too.

 

[bigredmachine]

Where is the source that I can decode these things?

theres a rim lip gauge that will tell you what style weights you need, since its a steel wheel it should be a "p" style weight and they usually have a black lable as the weights are also color coded to the style weight.

That said, I feel that without using the six lugs to center the wheel (like it is on the automobile), that I imagine that balancing (both dynamic, and static) is super precise, but probably its accuracy is more snake oil than we would like to think that it is.

use a centering cone in the hub bore, personally ive never had any sort of luck with the lug adaptors to balance tires and would never recommend to use it. you can clean the burr out of the hub bore but i wouldnt expect that to make a difference