My very own tire mounting and balancing..

[earlyapex]

So after Reno last weekend Tony and I where thinking about how much we go through tires, tire changing, flipping our RA1's, balancing, etc.

So Tony suggested a crazy idea... buying the equipment to do it ourselves.

I thought he was nuts, the machines must cost like $10,000.

So I had some downtime today and looked up pricing and found this:

http://eagleequip.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=620-011&Category_Code=TC&Product_Count=1

$2698 for a package of tire mounter and balancing machine, with free shipping as well, which is great on things that weigh 400lbs each. :shock:

Hell of alot cheaper than I thought.

Does anyone have experience in tire mounting and balancing machines? Are these piles of crap? Or perfect for a do-it-yourselfer?

Are we crazy to be even thinking about doing this?

[MarkSAE]

How can you be sure the balancer is calibrated? I'm pretty sure there's a maintenance schedule for that type of equipment, so that should add to the initial cost.

How must does each mounting/balancing cost anyway?

[egui42]

I mount tires and balance tires all day everyday at Costco. I think the one in that picture is what you call a standard, a lot quicker way to mount tires, but harder to do low profiles on with stiff sidewalls. The balancer should be calibrated when they install it, and their should be a manual on how to calibrate it yourself. Does this deal come with the weights? You should get 1/4 oz tape weights, cause I'm sure you dont want to use steel weights on your nice wheels.

The more you do tires the easier it is and you learn tricks to make installs better, so you might want to learn how to mount tires on something other than your nice wheels for practice.

My .02 cents!!!


Any other info pm me.

[ZK]

Geez, to make that purchase worthwhile you will need to mount and balance a LOT of tires.

[dohcvtec]

I'll donate $20 each time you let me use it! :)

[cokofellah]

Are we crazy to be even thinking about doing this?

YES, you guys are CRAZY!...which is GOOD!....hahaha!!

Serious race teams bring their own equipment to the track...and balance their tires each time the car hits the track....so you're on the right track.

cheers for one of the better ideas I've heard in a long time!!! 8)

*make it happen

[mtsevovii]

i used to balance and mount tires too. but mounting low profile and nice wheels will be a challenge unless you know what you are doing. otherwise there will be dents and scratches. but if you know what youre doing, id say go for it!! haha. also if you have the $$.

and weights too. ive got taped weight on my rims, but ive noticed alot of the USDM cars with nice rims have clamp weights on the outside... looks terrible.

[Evo442]

Geez, to make that purchase worthwhile you will need to mount and balance a LOT of tires.

Maybe not that crazy an idea...

Lets say you go through 4 sets of track tires in a season. If you run a lot of negative camber, I've been told that you can get more wear out of your tires if you swap them on the rims half way through their life.

I pay $70 to mount and balance 4 tires at a local shop. 8 x $70 = $560 per season, plus the convenience of doing it in your own garage. Go in with a buddy and this is paid for in 2.5 yrs.

Maybe I'll look for one used.

Even more interesting to me (on the website from earlyapex) was the lifts. Not as expensive as I thought they'd be.

[chrisw]

If you have the shop space to place the machines, go for it.

[crctslt]

Yes you guys are crazy, but not for this. I say buy a good used one, say half the price or so. This could actually pan out.

[smack]

^^^ exactly. there is alway some shop closing down and just selling the machines to help pay off bank.
the owner of a machine shop i used to work for way back when use to get a paper that had all the
auctions listed for the month of all the machine shops that where going under and dumping there shit.

you might be able to pick up something on the cheap.

and for those worrying about scratching up wheels, if you're just doing track wheels you really don't care about scratches.
you really just want them straight

[wilson1]

That's a nice piece to have around!

[vtluu]

That's a nice piece to have around!
... says the man with the lift in his garage that he's used just once. :P Wilson, why don't you buy one, and we can come over and use it in exchange for beer? :buds:

[white power]

Make sure you have a good compressor also to run the machine & so you can put alot of air into the stem directly without the stem-core for seating stubborn sidewalls. (done thousands of tires in my past 'career' at Discount and Sears) :lol:

If you have the means, DO IT! That would be awesome to only have to goto tire place for supplies. You could fix your own flats any time of the week!

[GokuSSJ4]

nice ! i wish i had the $$$ and space ...

[panem]

So after Reno last weekend Tony and I where thinking about how much we go through tires, tire changing, flipping our RA1's, balancing, etc.

So Tony suggested a crazy idea... buying the equipment to do it ourselves.

I thought he was nuts, the machines must cost like $10,000.

So I had some downtime today and looked up pricing and found this:

http://eagleequip.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=620-011&Category_Code=TC&Product_Count=1

$2698 for a package of tire mounter and balancing machine, with free shipping as well, which is great on things that weigh 400lbs each. :shock:

Hell of alot cheaper than I thought.

Does anyone have experience in tire mounting and balancing machines? Are these piles of crap? Or perfect for a do-it-yourselfer?

Are we crazy to be even thinking about doing this?

those are good machines right there. its the ones i use at wyotech.

[island414]

I think that that is a brilliant idea.