Tired of paying the dealer, change your own tires

[RetiredJake]

Well, did the front wheel this morning and took some pictures along the way.

After removal of the wheel, remove the valve stem core and put the tire on the bead breaker.

As you can see, I moved the pivot point after the rear wheel trial. This was an improvement as the angle worked better and I have more leverage.

After bead breaking, the tire is mounted on the changer.

Take care to make sure the rim is properaly captured in the mounts.

Add some lube to the tire/rim interface to smooth removal.

The demount end of the bar has falts on it. This allows easier insertion of the bar. It is the rotated 90 degrees so the lips catch the rim and tire bead.

Walk the demount bar around the rim twice for each side of the tire and it is off.

This is a good time to clean the rim. I like to use Turtle Wax Bug & Tar Remover. If cleans like the dickens and contains a wax. Leaves them nice and shiny.

Now, put the empty rim on the balancer, as Hoople suggested, and find the heavy spot on the rim.

 

[amckay63]

Where did you get the tire changing tool?

 

[RetiredJake]

Where did you get the tire changing tool?

The tire changer is from Harbor Freight. I welded it to some 2" tubing so it would mount in my hitch receiver. I added Mojo Blocks so the rims would not be scratched, and bought a Mount-Demount bar from No-Mar. The Bead Breaker is my own design, incorporating features I liked from many different units. The bar from No-Mar comes with a DVD that explains a lot of the steps for changing the tires, but you still have a learning curve, but it's not very steep.

RichardS, thanks for the kind words. This is a small repayment for all of the help I have found on this site.