Anyone mounting/balancing their own tires?

[ASSFROW]

Can't get a decent price/the tires I want locally and shops either won't mount or charge a fortune for tires I supply.

I picked up a Harbor Freight manual tire mount and ordered a duck adapter and bubble balancer from Amazon. After watching a bunch of YouTube vids it looks fairly easy to do. Back in the day I worked at a motorcycle shop and we manually mounted all our tires and static drop balanced them all. I trusted my life at 160+ many times on tires I mounted and balanced, so I guess we'll see about the Jeep.

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[Barney392]

Can't get a decent price/the tires I want locally and shops either won't mount or charge a fortune for tires I supply.

I picked up a Harbor Freight manual tire mount and ordered a duck adapter and bubble balancer from Amazon. After watching a bunch of YouTube vids it looks fairly easy to do. Back in the day I worked at a motorcycle shop and we manually mounted all our tires and static drop balanced them all. I trusted my life at 160+ many times on tires I mounted and balanced, so I guess we'll see about the Jeep.

Do you have a Discount Tire (Americas Tire) in your area? I always had great service with them. Also great prices.

 

[JJ_WA]

@Discount Tire is a forum sponsor, too. Consider checking with them for assistance in finding a DT to help with your tires,.

 

[ASSFROW]

Do you have a Discount Tire (Americas Tire) in your area? I always had great service with them. Also great prices.

Unfortunately no. Closest one is about 2 hours away. I've ordered tires mounted on wheels from DTD for my JK and 2 F150s in the past. Mounted, balanced and delivered to my door they were less than I could get just tires + mounted and balanced locally. Now that it's tire rack it would be a little more to go that route, but I want to keep my stock wheels anyway. I have 5 Falken RT101s in 35x11.50x17 on the way for a little over $1600 delivered from SimpleTire. Everyone else was $2000.

 

[D00KEY]

Yes.

 

[AlgUSF]

+1 for @Discount Tire, they are amazing. I bought some wheels off of a forum member and nobody in town would mount my 6 month old OEM tires on them. Discount Tire didn't blink an eye, mounted and balanced 5 tires for around $120.

 

[azjl#3]

you wanna play, you gotta pay. You don't wanna drive 4 hours round trip, i get that, plus you'd need a trailer. But home bubble balance is sort of 1800's tech. You need a road force balance or you will know it.

 

[Jmos4]

Hi,

Have you tried balancing beads, just a pain to load the tires with sensors but have them in several vehicles either little complaints.

Regards,
Jim

 

[ASSFROW]

Yes.

Is there a middle finger emoji anywhere?

Care to expand? What did you use, how difficult was it, etc.

 

[D00KEY]

Is there a middle finger emoji anywhere?

Care to expand? What did you use, how difficult was it, etc.

You've already got the right idea. The biggest issue you'll have is getting the heavy side of the tire opposite the heavy side of the wheel. Then use stick on weights at the rims edge to bring it back into parallel with the ground and run to town.

 

[Zandcwhite]

I 2nd the balance bead idea. Easier, especially since you can dump them in before seating the bead. Automatically self rebalncing if you tear a lug off road. No weights that can get knocked off. They are a pain if trying to add to a vehicle with tpms sensors through the valve stem, but you can skip that altogether since you're doing your own mounting.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I dismounted and remounted all 5 of my tires with a couple Harbor Fright tire irons and my jack, to install the Apex Rapid Deflator Valves. I couldn't get the beads seated, so I learned the starter fluid method. Pretty tame really. Big laugh moment when I attempt to hit the tire to make an air gap to let the flame ignite the vapor inside the tire...I miss and hit the rim.

Tire irons are easy to use even on the big 37s. If you are worried about scratching the wheels, find some rubber coated tire irons. I'm almost 70 and have a bad back, shoulders and neck. I'm sure anyone that's fit can do it. It's really not hard at all.

 

[Bayrat]

In my younger days, I mounted, balanced, patched etc, all with a manual tire changer bolted to the floor. My back can no longer take that lifting, however, I'll bet you'd be surprised at how easy it generally is.

 

[ASSFROW]

Thanks everyone,

Tires mounted and installed. It was pretty physical, but not difficult. Each one was faster and easier as it went along and I figured things out. I broke the tube for the bead breaker almost right away, so I used a floor jack to break the beads. I won't be paying for tire install anymore, at least until my body can't do the work, but at 54 it just felt like a good workout.

 

[Old Dogger]

@Discount Tire is a forum sponsor, too. Consider checking with them for assistance in finding a DT to help with your tires,.

Agree with the above! Also have them Road Force Balanced.

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