Change own tire ?

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When I worked at the local shell station changing oil as a young lad about 5 year ago, I watched a fellow employee air a customers tire to a little over 90psi looking for a small leak. The tire didnt explode for some reason.

I always changed my own tires by hand (up until I got my very first new set put on the other day for $25 bucks mounted and spin balanced). No special tools, I could do all 4 in about an hour and a half. And the best thing for the beads is plenty of lubrication, Whatever kind you prefer.
 
plenty of lube is definitely the key. I like to use the cheapy brand of dishsoap, (the pink kind your mother told you not to use). Dish soap will not degrade the rubber on the tire like an oil based lube will.
 
quote:

Originally posted by GreeCguy:
Still do my own tires. I made a bead breaker a few years ago and that helps a bunch. Till that time, I would hammer them off with a hand sledge and a pry bar. It takes time and you have to be careful cuz you can loose a few teeth if that bar gets away from you. Putting a tire on the rim is a breeze with a hammer and a little liquid dish soap.

Hitting a tire with anything is asking for a damaged tire. It will eventually catch up with you...
 
quote:

Originally posted by CapriRacer:
I would not recommend anyone try to dismount and mount their own tires without the proper equipment and proper training.

Aside from the equipment needed to make the job SOOOO much easier, there is some amount of danger involved which can be minimized by following established procedures. There have been cases where a poorly trained person overinflated a tire and it exploded, killing him. I don't want that to happen to anyone at BITOG.


so changing a tire with a wood-splitter, pry bars and a can of ether isn't a proper way?
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my grandpa has been changing tires this way for years...........but he knows what he's doing
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It took a while, but I did some research on motorcycle tires and what the upper limit should be to seat the beads. The answer I got was 3.5 bar (51 psi) This was from a European source. They also said the same thing I did about if the beads don't seat at that pressure - dismount and find out what the problem is.

So the guy who was using 80 psi.... yup, idiots and small children are watched over!

My advice about not mounting tires if you don't have the proper equipment and the proper training comes from a couple of incidences where supposedly trained people were killed by tire explosions simply because they didn't follow established procedures.

Even trained people need a refresher every once in a while, because they'll forget, plus these things do change as lessons are learned.

For example: When inflating a tire past 50 psi, does anyone use a cage or a remote inflator? This is one of the lessons that was learned - the hard way.

Hope this helps.
 
I grew up changing tires by hand and I would not do it if I had a dollor in my pocket. Worked in a scrap yard for years and separated the tires from the #1 steel wheel and even with a new modern tire machine some of the rubber was a big headache. Some tires are nice and others you tear the tire half apart trying to work with it.
Why? I would not fight with a tire again if I did not have to. I dont want the headache. Pay the man with the proper tools and a thousand tires behind his belt. To each thier own.
Just my opinion after maybe a couple few thousand tires.
The air issue is this:
100 pounds of pressure per square inch is not really that much if you are considering lets say 10 inches of surface area-100times 10 = 1000 pounds of thrust.
Now take a 15 inch tire and say there is over 1000 square inches of surface area inside the tire for the 100 psi of air pressure to push on. Remember- 100Pounds for EVERY 1 SQUARE INCH
This is 1000 times 100 pounds = 100,000 pounds of thrust.
I read of a guy on board ship that was bored with how fast a pump moved oil from the first deck to the second deck so he rigged 120 psi air pressure line to the 210 liter oil drum and pressurized it. He did not calculate the potential thrust of the contraption and the autorities took pieces of hi............
Enough said. He did not survive.
If you want to learn to do tires then get trained by a professionl with peoper equiptment.
At the very least, Goggle "tire expolsions" and do research and see if it is worth the few extra bucks. Personally, I perfer cliff climbing if I want a risk in my life.
 
These are the directions from harbor freight for their manual changer. They aren't much but they're what the original poster asked for.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/manuals.taf?f=form&ItemID=34542

Information is power. He didn't ask people to tell him not to do something. Everyone mounts a tire the first time.

I have this harbor freight changer, and have mounted one tire with it (I love tools!
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) and I went into the job respecting the power of the tire, compressed air, and all those long heavy metal levers.

Here's a write-up I did when I got mine in the mail. Incidentally the changer is on sale for $35 now. It's always "on sale" but $35 is a better price than average.

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=44;t=000359#000000

A tire bead, as others have said, is a flap of rubber inside the sidewall parallel to the tread surface. Its goal is to slide over a similarly wide part of the wheel rim then stick with the force of the surface tension of the bead lube and the air pressure pushing against it. When you first stretch a tire over a wheel the beads will not be seated, it takes a bunch of air all at once to get that done.

The bead WILL be sort of flapping against the wheel, and leaking air. Various tweaking of the tire will seal random leaks until they're all sealed at one coincidental time. Then, bang, the air you've been putting in will be trapped better and the other bead should seat shortly thereafter.

Also the sidewalls will jump out, the tire could jump off the ground, and you'd lose a finger if it were between the sidewall and outer rim. So be careful out there.
 
quote:

Originally posted by eljefino:
These are the directions from harbor freight for their manual changer. They aren't much but they're what the original poster asked for.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/manuals.taf?f=form&ItemID=34542

Information is power. He didn't ask people to tell him not to do something. Everyone mounts a tire the first time.

..........


This is kind of what I've been preaching. Nowhere in this document does it mention lubrication of the bead and rim or what to watch out for when mounting a tire. And more importantly, it doesn't mention the 40 psi limit for seating beads. People get killed exceeding these limits.

End of sermon!
 
It is wierd that HF's lawyers allow such a skinny instruction manual ship to US addresses with such a dangerous machine. I myself had been hoping for more. No supplements or danger stickers were included with my unit either.
 
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