Changing and balancing your own tires

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Biggkidd

Biggkidd

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
May 13, 2021
Messages
1,988
A good set of tire bars and a bubble balancer is almost a must for preppers especially those who live a long way from places that carry tires and do the work. Keeping your old takeoffs is also a good idea. Had we not had a set I took off my F250 then my daughter would be in a world of hurt right now as she had a flat this morning that wasn't repairable and the spare didn't want to hold air either. So I was able to swap a couple on the rims for her.
 
Biggkidd said:
A good set of tire bars and a bubble balancer is almost a must for preppers especially those who live a long way from places that carry tires and do the work. Keeping your old takeoffs is also a good idea. Had we not had a set I took off my F250 then my daughter would be in a world of hurt right now as she had a flat this morning that wasn't repairable and the spare didn't want to hold air either. So I was able to swap a couple on the rims for her.
Click to expand...
I just ordered a set of spoons and valve stem replacement kit for the lawn tractor today.

Ben
 
in the usa harbor freight has some BIG cheap tire irons.
Also they sell a air blast tank.....used to seat up tubeless tires. either that or stock some tubes to get old tires to seat up on a rim. I have multiple plug kits for nails in the tires and I too keep my take offs.
A simple spray bottle with soapy water works for finding small holes in your tires.
Just a note, if you use 15 inch tires and your little mail trucks use 15 inch try to score some of those take off tires. Very thick sidewals and just generally a tough tire. they fit right on my old 1996 toyota pickup.
 
I also bought my tire irons from HF many moons ago. We use to call those cheater tanks. I've made a few with a 1-1.5 inch ball valve and regular air tanks and compressor tanks for people in the past. Seems I made one from a old propane tank once too. Bet I've made a half dozen over the years yet I don't have one! lmao!!!!!!!!!!
 
Just used the bubble balancer ($67) and hammer / plier weight tool ($15) I ordered off amazon. Better made than expected.

My daughter just called and said her truck rides / drives much MUCH better now.
 
Probably a good idea to get some tire repair tools. I have a couple air compressors and repair kits, but no way to balance tires. Everything except my truck has aluminum wheels. I keep new tires on all of our vehicles so we seldom get flats.
Last year I borrowed a stock trailer from a friend to haul some cows to the auction and had 3 flats. I gave him 4 of my old tires and rims for using his trailer. These old tires had probably 70% tread left.
 
Mountain trapper said:
Probably a good idea to get some tire repair tools. I have a couple air compressors and repair kits, but no way to balance tires. Everything except my truck has aluminum wheels. I keep new tires on all of our vehicles so we seldom get flats.
Last year I borrowed a stock trailer from a friend to haul some cows to the auction and had 3 flats. I gave him 4 of my old tires and rims for using his trailer. These old tires had probably 70% tread left.
Click to expand...
Aluminum wheels are what I balanced this morning. No sweat. Problem is changing tires with bars or tire irons in they DO MAR the surface. Personally for us it's function over form!
 
Biggkidd said:
My daughter just called and said her truck rides / drives much MUCH better now.
Click to expand...

I can imagine! Driving around on a flat tire can be so tedious.

I was thinking of buying a spare set of inexpensive rims and just keeping our snow tires mounted permanently. Tire shops charge you a pretty good amount to swap snow and regular tires twice a year. I may look into the tire irons and balancer you mentioned. See how that compares in cost to spare rims. It's not like storing tires takes up any less room if they are or aren't on rims, so extra rims would be handy, just maybe too expensive. I haven't priced rims in decades. Tire irons and a balancer may be the way to go.
 
lonewolf said:
20 mile round trip for me to another small town, dont go there very often.
Click to expand...
same here in pretty much any direction it's about 20 miles to another small town that may or may not be helpful depending on whatever.
 
most places I go are 23 miles in any direction, small places, no big cities-rural area.
 
All the 20 mile towns around here are 1000-2500 people. Our town has ONE stop light most have two. lol One grocery store one drug store and a couple gas stations along with a post office and a couple other independent businesses. Plus one to three restaurants per.
 
our town has no traffic lights and the only CCTV is inside the corner store, a post office counter inside the newsagents-we lost the actual post office before covid, the bakers and the butchers long before that, one small filling station, a fish and chip shop, a shop selling pottery and a very small deli. 2 pubs/taverns, no restaurants.
 
Just learned to mount and dismount tires by hand a few years ago (another grateful YouTube learning). Here's some basic tips for the next beginner:

1) if you're really straining or wishing your spoons had longer leverage, you're doing it wrong. Slow down and think. Make sure you're working from the right side and using the wheel recess as it's intended.

2) if you tried every gorilla force you can think of and still can't break the bead, add about five to eight psi to the tire. Counterintuitive but works!

3) keep in mind form over force and use plenty of snoop?
 
My first experience changing tires by hand was doing simi truck tires and large off road equipment. When you start of there everything else is gravy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top