tmak26b

With tire mounting/balancing being so expensive, did anyone decide to buy a machine and do it themselves? I figure if I do 12 tire change, it would cost me over $240 for the job. Machine is about $1K, worth it?

samc

i picked up a tire machine and balancer about 3 years ago, it has more than paid for itself in race tires for myself, dad and a few other club members. street tires are just icing on the cake. i can flip those hoosiers on the rim and wear out both sides...

and i have to say i can do a better job of balancing than most shops did for my street wheels. it might be more work / sweaty-dirty job, but it seems like it is easier than dropping the race tires off at the shop, or dropping the car off for street tires, getting a ride to work, getting back to the shop before they close, etc. but that's just me.

when i bought my ccw wheels, i asked about a second set for race wheels - one for autox and one for track days. john said save my money and get a tire machine, and just use the one set of wheels. i figure if the guy selling the wheels says that, there must be some logic to it....

Oyishdog

I've thought about it, but now I just get new tires at NASA weekends when I can order them, show up to the track, have them mounted/balanced, and be done with it. The prices are actually better since you are not paying for shipping.


btw, which machine did you buy?

Bill Hetzel

For the $1k, you should be able to get a used machine and a balancer. I know someone who picked up both for that, made by Eagle. Both work great.
Another friend just got a Baer balancer at a government auction for $300.

Since I do a lot of 13 inch wheels, I bought a manual changer for $39. I can do 4 tires in 20 minutes with it. I don't think I'd want to do 18-19 tires with it though.

Skyking1992

I bought a used John Bean Machine (sold by snap on). I think I paid $800 for it. It does my c4 wheels fine. Not sure it would do run flats. I did a set of 11" wheels last week and found that 11" is about the max width the machine will do. I'm really glad i bought the machine. It's nice to be able to flip a set of tires on the rim and get one or two more weekends from a set of tires.

Jason

How much are yall paying for mount and balance?

BEZ06

My local Discount Tire is about 30 bucks per wheel.

I'd love to have machines if I could find them for mounting and also balancing for around a grand.

Can you find something that will work with C6Z runflats and wheels (19" diameter wheels that are 12" or 13" wide) for $1000??? I'll buy it if somebody knows where one is.

Bob

AU N EGL

4 tires. $44

$11 / tire


Not only that I bought 4 new tires for my truck. Same tire but $80 less then Sears with their BIG tire sale going on

If your in the Raleigh area, PM Ed or myself and we will let you know who it is

eogel

I go where Tom (AU N EGL) goes. He told me about them a year or so ago and I have gone there ever since.
Ed

RX7 KLR

I bought a used machine about three years ago. Worth it not to have some monkey screwing up your wheels, and the convenience of being able to change a tire any time you want. I can also get by with less wheels, I no longer need a set for rains as I can just mount them as needed.

Never bought a balancer, and have not balanced a street or race tire in years.

Tourmgr1

Discount Tire here is $15.00 for mounting and balance. It's another $8.00 to dismount I think.

Jason

Damn. Corvette tax.

Poor-sha

My saintly wife took my four new runflats and loose rims with the worn out tires to the local GY store to mount. She came home with a reciept for $186!

If I could figure out what to buy I'd definitely get a tire changer and balancer. It would pay for itself alone in not having to buy extra wheels for snow tires.

jabrun

I bought my own Coats tire machine and balancer about 8 years ago and never regretted it. You can balance to 1/10th oz. if you want to and put the weights on the inside and take your time and do a good job. Mine were used and cost less than 2k

tmak26b

Just need to scout ebay or craigslist i guess

fatbillybob

I got a hunter machine that works on air power. It is awesome but took some time to learn the tricks of tire mounting. Balance is not critical on race tires because they are so light relative to streets that they do not have as much inertia. You all know how the balance can change just picking up track rubber. You don't get that effect with streets as much because they are so heavy the pickup does not effect the balance as much. So i use a manual balancer and just make sure the wheel is properly spin balanced with the tire monkey balancing the wheel by entering the diameter and width of the wheel. If this in not done the spin balancer will default to static balance which is what you get when you use the cheapo 100 buck balancer.

samc

it was a few years ago, i looked for a used machine for a while and didn;t find anything that wasn't going to cost more than new with repairs / replace missing parts. lots of wore out balancers. ended up with a "falco" that i found on ebay but was actually sold by a company locally in brooksville. your basic rim clamp, seems to do 12" wheels OK (it's tight) and just did a set of run flats. got the balancer from greg smith equipment. looks like they have the same tire machine (different name) as well last time i looked. the only thing i might have done differently was i got a deal on the changer with the pneumatic arm - but it looks like the manual swing arm might do the 12" wide wheels better. might be worth measuring or asking for the measurements from the table to the undersize of the arm for both.

i usually don't balance the race rubber, but i have done enough street tires already that it was worth the purchase.

ZR1 MK

Worth it if you can find used machines for a good price locally. Shipping heavy items is a problem, some dont. Be careful, as many dont do 12" plus wide or 18" diameter wheels.
I do mine by hand. Its a bear that requires a few tricks, but gets easy in time. Dry mounted and bubble balanced.
Doing it myself means lower cost, no drop off & pickup, no excess moisture, no more going back because they didnt do it correct the first time and no more damaged wheels.
I bring the equipment to the track too. Saved me once so far.

Shrek

Hey guys,
I'm offering for sale my tire changer and balancer machines. I've been mounting and balancing my race rubber (315/35/17 on CCW 17 X 12) for almost 4 years with these machines, and no longer run enough to justify keeping them around. These machines came from a local auto repair shop and were not subjected to the abuses of a tire only shop.

Tire changer is a Corghi (A 9212 TI) operates via 100% compressed air, no electricity required.
Tire/Wheel balancer is a Coats (1001) operates via 220V single phase. (2 partial boxes of stick on weights included)
Both machines ready to go to work with all accessories included. You can do a search online for specs.

I'm selling as a package deal for $1700.00 (may trade for interesting firearms)

If interested please PM or email 2manyvettes@mchsi.com

Thanks,
Jeff