I just bought one of these last month to handle a bunch of tire/rim
swaps I wanted done. My observations.....
You need to bolt it down VERY securely. I initially tried to bolt it to
a plank and to then park my Jeep on it to hold it in place and that
really didn't work well. I'll end up bolting it down to the concrete
floor in my workshop, but in the meantime (until I figure out WHERE I
want it installed), I bolted it through the 2x10 planking in my 5x8
utility trailer and that worked ok.
The arms which attach the "bead breaker" need to be reinforced. On the
first tire I tried to break down, the arms folded up. I replaced them
with angle iron to eliminate the weakness and haven't had problems
since. If your tires have been on the rims for ages, you may have a
hard time breaking the bead. I had to resort to the old "high-lift
jack" standby to break the bead on some trailer tires that had been on
the rims for 20 years (based on tire manufacture date stamp).
Be sure to lube the tires up. I bought some tire lube, but based on
comments in a thread on this list several years ago, dish soap
works....as does armor-all.
Peeling the tires off steel rims works quite easily. I removed
235/75x15s as well as 33x12.50x15 tires from my Jeep rims without a
problem. Installation is a bit more difficult to get the iron to
properly feed the tire bead around the rim. 235/75s weren't too bad,
but brand new 33x12.50 Goodyear MT/Rs resulted in quite a workout
(again...use lube here!).
Overall, I'm happy with the machine....am glad I bought it...and for the
price vs the intended use, I consider it to be good value. Just don't
expect to use it on any rim that you want to look nice!
Steve Dillen
Maple Ridge, BC
Jim Stone wrote:
> I currently have 9 wheels with trash tires taking up space in my garage.
> Someday I'll get around to selling the ones I don't want, but for now I'd like
> to get rid of the tires and store the wheels in less space. I can take them
> all to a tire place, but as I recall, they get about $10/wheel for removing
> tires, plus the fee for recycling them. For $50, I'm thinking about buying an
> HF tire changer
> (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34542) and
> doing the work myself. I can then easily take them to the recycling center,
> although I don't know if there is a consumer charge for turning them in.
>
> Has anyone ever used one of these or one like it? Is it more trouble than its
> worth?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jim
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