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I'm looking for opinions on buying a tire changer. I have a lot of tires with maybe a 1000 miles left on them but don't want to pay to have them put on for a weekend of riding.

There are a lot of changers on the market. I want one that will make the job of changing tires easier and is sturdy.

Any recommendations?

I've changed a lot of big truck tires, car tires, and motorbike tires. I've used machines for the car tires, and irons for the trucks and motorcycles.

What I've found is it's about leverage, soap, and positioning the tire and wheel. I use something like this...

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/44 ... =SLIsearch

Cheap, fast, and no big deal (don't forget to use soap) but now that I'm past the half century mark, those no mar changers sure look nice. Anything to keep from having to get down on the shop floor to change a tire is probably worth the money.

You didn't ask but it's likely to come up later in the thread...

I've balanced and not balanced a lot of sportbike, touring, and sorta knobbies all to find I really can't tell a difference at any speed. I haven't balanced my rear tire ever on the GS as I don't have the stuff to do it. The front is easy with a steel rod, and a couple of jack stands. I do line up the dot so I get the heavy side of the tire 180 degrees out from the heavy side of the wheel. Not all tires have those though.

No mar has a nice website, and I especially like this video. 500.00-600.00 would get a guy rolling. You could keep it at my house.

http://www.nomartirechanger.com/Article ... yPhoto/17/

Eddie - TKC's sidewalls make them a very easy tire to change. I'll be happy to help you set a tire changer.

I have the No-Mar balancer threaded rod & cones for single sided swing-arm wheels. Time consuming, but works well.

Chris,

I'm lazy and want more than just irons to change the tire.

Mike what set up would you recommend?

Heres a simple tire stand. http://pitposse.com/tirechanger.html

I wish I had experience with one.

Jeff K wrote:Heres a simple tire stand. http://pitposse.com/tirechanger.html

I wish I had experience with one.

This is what I use, and it works fine. Still don't like screwing with tires, but it beats paying the man.

I have one of these: http://www.harborfreight.com/motorcycle ... 60810.html

mounted to the optional stand. I probably wouldn't buy one again. The pain is that it really needs mounted to the floor if using the easy-mount bar. I put some mollies in my garage floor, but I typically don't want to take the time to put the changer in place for just one tire. A large garage would negate that issue. What really works is the tire changing bar that came with the car tire base on which it fits. Note that the big, u-shaped frame that holds the top of the axle bar is probably not needed.
http://www.harborfreight.com/portable-t ... 69686.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/cata ... _23500.jpg

The PitPosse item looks ok but you are using tire irons: http://pitposse.com/tirechanger.html


I would make my own; a franken-changer combo of both. And in fact I have one mounted on my trailer. (Of course last weekend I didn't take the parts or an extra tire and needed them. Doh!)

Mount a rod (or rod holder) vertically on some object that isn't going to move very easily. Like a trailer (I'm usually changing tires near the trailer, either at home or out in CO or UT. I mounted a pipe against the side rail and the axle rod slips into this. Flat surface to hold rim steady preferred.

Use a rod (threaded or smooth) that will fit through the axle hole on your rims. The rod needs to extend a foot or so above the rim. If threaded, then get a spin on nut like in the PitPosse model.

Put rim onto rod. You need to keep the rim from turning, but that can be accomplished with another rod through the spokes, a lightly tightened u-clamp, or a strap around some spokes and the trailer rail.

Use that HF tire changing bar to unmount / mount the tires. It hooks under the bead, then uses the mounting rod as a fulcrum. You simply rotate the bar around and it removes the bead. Lot of leverage. I imagine a similar bar is available by itself.

Does any of this make sense? I don't have a picture and really don't feel like taking a wheel off ...

Another idea I remember seeing at a moto shop years ago: a 20 or 30 gallon metal barrel, with a vertical rod mounted like on the HF moto changer, and the barrel filled with concrete. Rubber tubing on top lip of the barrel to protect the rims & spokes, heavy enough it didn't move.

In other words, make something like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtOUa2jNYvw[/youtube]

It sounds like having something that can slid into a 2 inch receiver on a truck would be a good sturdy base. Does any company make something like that?

ajayhawkfan wrote:It sounds like having something that can slid into a 2 inch receiver on a truck would be a good sturdy base. Does any company make something like that?

Yes. My No-Mar will do that.
http://www.nomartirechanger.com/