Anyone use the HF portable tire changer?

[MudTJ]

i'm looking at getting the portable tire changer from harbor freight cause i'm sick of using crow bars, has anyone used one before? Is it worth a shit?

[houlster]

Probably the best $35 I've spent at HF. Used it to mount a set of 37" MTRs. It works surprisingly well, but like all HF stuff, you could improve it. The spoon could use a little re-inforcement, and the thing that spins down to lock the wheel in place is a cross piece. It works fine for steel wheels, but can be hard on alloy ones. A cone would be much better. But yeah, worth it. I dis-mounted 4 old tires and mounted the MTR's in about an hour or so and the first one took about twice as long as the last one.

I've got a series of pics here:
http://www.houlster.com/tires/images

Look at the xxx1190 to xxx1208 range of pics.

--Dan

[MudTJ]

well its $70 now, i wish it was only 35. Anyways i think i'm gonna get it, thanks

[androbus]

Originally Posted by MudTJ

i'm looking at getting the portable tire changer from harbor freight cause i'm sick of using crow bars, has anyone used one before? Is it worth a shit?

only if you bolt it down!!

if not is is a waste

[4Runnerdude]

Just wait a week or two, those things are always on sale at HF for $35 - $40.

[MudTJ]

i would wait but i need the tires mounted now, ive got the 20% off cupon that expires today so i'm just gonna go ahead and get it

[TheRipper]

My dad has one bolted to a 4x4 piece of plywood works great.

[budget76]

Gonna ressurect this thread from the dead. Looking into picking up a tire changer, dad and I can't stand $100 to get a set mounted and balanced around here

So, does this mar/scrape the rim at all? Would it work on lo-profile tires as well as the truck. It'd be used on his 33's, but I need it for my BMW's 215 45's. My rims aren't exactly cheap though, so I don't want something that'd ruin/curb rash them.

thanks guys

[GRMhick]

I have one. It has 2" receiver tube welded to the bottom, and there is matching 2.5x2.5 tube cemented into the shop floor. Its broken 3-4 times, and has just been welded back together.

The bead breaker is worthless. Otherwise one of the best investments I've made in tools. It probably has 20+ sets of tires mounted with it.

It works well for steel wheels, but the bar rubs against the wheel when mounting/dismounting tires. I also wouldn't want to try doing any low profile tires with it. Those are hard enough with a tire machine in a shop!

[budget76]

Hmm, thanks for the input. Got me second-guessing the decision now. It'd be doing way more car/low-profile tires than truck tires sadly. Guess it's time to search more.

anyone done a set of regular car tires on it?

[ChiScouter]

I bought one around 10 years ago primarily to use on small implement tires. I had nothing but trouble, pretty much every part of it broke and and had to be rebuilt. The tire iron was too soft and just bent and I just had to buy a better quality one. It has the thickest plastic like powercoating stuff on it which is a pita to remove for welding and stinks like a mutherfawker when welding it. I would recommend looking at gemplers or northern tool to see if they make a better quality model. Id also check craigslist if you have room for a professional model. I have seen professional stuff that would be reasonable to buy if I had room for it.

[budget76]

Chi, thanks for the input. We've been looking into a pro model, but we really don't have the room. Then we've got to find room for the balancer too. Looks like it might be on hold until the summer until we can expand the garage slightly

[tfdcruiser]

Man to me this tool is a no brainer, it has definitely paid for itself ten or twenty times over for me. I have mounted low profile tires on aluminum expensive wheels with it. You need to to pad the areas that will be touching the wheel with lots of soft rags and I use a piece of heavy leather between the mounting/demounting bar. Also use a spray bottle with very sopy water to lube the beads both mounting and dismounting. I don't balance most of my tires especially the bigger truck ones. I just mount them up and run them and then if there is a vibration problem I will get that tire/wheel spin balanced but for me 9 out of ten times the wheels run just fine. The bead breaker works well too but HF also makes another specific bead breaker that I bought and like too. I am not a tool snob at all though and don't mind taking a chance on HF knowing I might have to weld/modify it down the road. For instance on wheels with big center section just cut out a circular steel plate and clamp it down with the center screw as normal.

[crewchief888]

ive got one of them from HF too, it works most of the time, but theres been times ive ended up cutting off old junk tires anyway. ive mounted 33's and 35's with mine and it beads trying to bust beads with a tire hammer.

[hydrogeo]

I just bought one and am really happy with it. Yeah, it's cheap but what do you want for less than $50 bucks. It really needs to be bolted down to be worth anything. Here is a how-to video I thought was helpful:

YouTube - Harbor Freight tire changer Part 1