gillbot Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 First off, no pics. Sorry.... With that said, I was just sitting here being a bit bored, googling trying to find a tire shop open on Sunday to get my Jeep tires mounted and balanced. After reading this thread and letting my boredom get the best of me I thought, well I better at least go clean out my truck and get the tires and wheels loaded up for tomorrow and get them done. Now typically people around here want to charge between $40 and $100 for a simple mount and balance on four tires. They charge more if they have to remove them from the vehicle and even more if they have to remove a tire from the wheel and replace it with another. Lucky for me, my wheels are bare and the tires are fresh off a Jeep Rubicon with maybe 50 miles on it so all I need to do is combine the two! I go out to the garage, grab a wheel and it hit me. I remember as a kid helping my friends dad "walk on" a HUGE tractor tire. This thing was like 6 foot in diameter so he had me stand in one spot while he walked his way around the tire until it popped on the wheel. With the wheel still in my hand I decided what the hell, I'll try and mount one just to see if I can. I set the wheel down face up on a old piece of plywood, put in a new valve stem and soaped up the bead area of the tire. Now, as long as you get the tire into the mounting grove as seen in the center of this wheel it should go right on. http://p.globalsources.com/IMAGES/PDT/B1060201486/Truck-Wheel-Rims.jpg You typically don't need tools, well at least with decent sized tires that have enough sidewall. So sure enough, the bottom bead went on easy as pie and the top bead nearly as easy as long as you make sure you get the bead into that grove on the wheel. Just work the bead around the wheel pressing down till the tire pops on. Hit them with air until the bead pops, then fill to the proper pressure. I went ahead and mounted all four, aired them up and tossed them into the back of the truck. Now I'm half tempted to buy the Harbor Freight bubble balancer just to try my luck there too! I've neveer had tires just balanced before so I'm hoping I can find a shop that will do that for like $10 or so since they won't have to do much of anything except put them on the machine and stick on a bit of weight. If it weren't for the cost of the balancer and weights, I'd probably just do that myself too. I just don't expect to get enough use out of the balancer and weights to justify the cost against the maybe $10-20 I hope to pay for a simple balance. /flame suit on for being cheap /waits for the "so what" and rest of the flaming posts typical of CR (I'll continue to pat myself on the back for doing the work myself though, so 0 fucks given. This was more for those curious as to if it's possible and what it may take.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kawboy1647545515 Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 Congrats and great job. I used to do my own for normal cars and bikes but I've gotten lazy in my old age. Last set I did for my SUV wouldn't sit right on the bubble balancer (used successfully for many years) so I had to pay to have them rebalanced at $20. I used to use a simple spin balance tool on my bike tires and had them over 200 mph with no issues. When I did the tires on the Vette I didn't even try due to the profile. Local dealer did m&b for $10 each including disposing of old tires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 I mount them myself all the time because I'm cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cordell Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 The only reason anybody struggles with most tire mounting is because they forget the basics of getting the tire into the bead relief. If the kids busting tires in most tire shops would have to do a few sets without the machine they'd have a much easier time mounting tires. Congrats on being smarter then most $8 an hour tire shop employees. If it were me I would've just put tire balancing powder in the tire when I mounted it. For larger tires and such I prefer this type of product over weights. Just a simple search here is one company that makes it http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 The only reason anybody struggles with most tire mounting is because they forget the basics of getting the tire into the bead relief. If the kids busting tires in most tire shops would have to do a few sets without the machine they'd have a much easier time mounting tires. Congrats on being smarter then most $8 an hour tire shop employees. If it were me I would've just put tire balancing powder in the tire when I mounted it. For larger tires and such I prefer this type of product over weights. Just a simple search here is one company that makes it http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.php I've read about the balance beads and such, thought about it but decided not to bother. I may still buy some weights and the balancer just because, but for the cost I'm hoping to pay $10 to get em all balanced. We'll see though. Yeah, most people don't realize that is what the recess is the rim for and I honestly knew but didn't realize they would go on THAT easy without tools. I feel somewhat ripped off for all the tires I've paid to have mounted in the past. Yes, I am THAT CHEAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustlestiltskin Posted October 20, 2013 Report Share Posted October 20, 2013 Mounting tires out of boredom. LOL fuck that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted October 21, 2013 Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 I've used steel BB's in several sets of larger tires for balancing, works fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 I'm supposed to be taking it easy, just got my aircast off monday. http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/203/tno5.jpg Tore up my achillies tendon pretty bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted October 21, 2013 Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 http://i.qkme.me/3eyn.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstmg8 Posted October 21, 2013 Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 Okay, has anyone tried these balancing beads?? How about high performance or high speed? Interested........ Op, what about removing existing tires? Shaun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 Okay, has anyone tried these balancing beads?? How about high performance or high speed? Interested........ Op, what about removing existing tires? Shaun The link in the OP covers that. As long as you break the bead off the wheel all the way around, they should come off. It should be somewhat easy but you might need to persuade them with a prybar or big screwdriver. It might not be as easy to get the bead to stay in the relief with the tire coming off as it is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillbot Posted October 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 Got em balanced for $20, all mounted up and ready to go! http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/593/36et.jpg http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/19/xo2q.jpg http://imageshack.us/scaled/medium/585/tme2.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn89 Posted October 25, 2013 Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 I do my own all the time. In fact when I worked at haydocy as a parts driver there tire guy wanted to have a bad rim sent to grisom tire to have the tire taken off because for whatever reason he couldn't do it. So I said f that give me a tire bar and some gear oil and get out of the way. Took tire off of old rim and put it on the new one........walking away feeling like a boss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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