Mounting a portable/home tire changer?

[Oro_O]

I picked up a set of older Volvo "Perfo" wheels I intend to refinish and mount with summer tires. I wanted the tires dismounted before refinishing and decided to get one of the HF changers to do it myself, and have the tool/changer for the future.

OK, so what's the best way to mount it? I could easily drill the concrete and stick in anchors. But before I did that, I was wondering if anyone used like a freight pallet, or made a wooden brace, etc? That might be easier than drilling anchors if it worked well, and I can keep it out back in a covered area behind the garage when not in use. It would also allow me to set it up outdoors in nice weather instead of moving things out of the garage, which would be nice as both bays are usually full of bikes or projects currently being worked on. Wondering if someone had a clever solution here.

 

[supton]

I have a HF 4x8 utility trailer; I placed the changer into it, about middle, and popped 4 holes into the trailer deck, so I could 1/4x20 hardware to hold the changer down. 4” long screws? 3”? Don’t remember. Worked well enough—I would put a jackstand under the rear of the trailer, then raise the tongue up, that helped stabilize it enough.

I could see a pallet working ok.

Careful on those alloys. I’ve heard of using old cutting boards, the plastic ones, so as to prevent marring of the wheels with the bead breaker.

 

[Oro_O]

Careful on those alloys. I’ve heard of using old cutting boards, the plastic ones, so as to prevent marring of the wheels with the bead breaker.

Oh I like that idea. My dad has a full-size three-place MC trailer, with a wooden "bed" he made for it. That would be perfect.

Yeah, I'm not going to re-mount the tires myself for that reason. I'll use care getting them off, but then when I'm ready for new tires, I'm going to a dealership and not risking doing it myself. Plastic cutting boards are also a great idea for removal, I'll do that. Thanks for that tip, too.

 

[Trav]

That is one of the jobs I don't do, for the money it cost to have it done and properly balanced by a reputable installer its just not worth it.
I would have a shop remove the old one and toss them then take them and refinish them. JM2C

 

[AutoMechanic]

My friend mounted it directly to the floor. Works excellent you will be happy with it I’m sure.

 

[threeputtpar]

I tried mine on a larger pallet, like 5 foot by 3 foot so I could stand on the pallet while beating on the tire bar. All that happened was I slowly spun in a circle. Eventually got all 4 tires changes.

Bit the bullet and put 3 holes in my garage floor and mounted it the next time around. The vibrations from using the tire changer does loosen the bolts so check them after each tire changed.

 

[avacado11]

I mounted mine on a pallet, but it has to be a big one. Small one wouldn’t give you enough leverage to stand on and get the bead on. That was my first mistake. The HF tire changer will also eat up the finish on the rims and their tire balancer takes a lot of patience.

 

[Oro_O]

Good points. I may just drill anchors in the floor; just thought I'd fish for ideas. I can see the pallet not working well. Trailer's a good idea, but I have to schlep them up there and down. Besides the Volvo set, I have at least two complete sets of vintage 90s Audis wheels I need dismount, and want the tool for motorcycle tires, too.

I know it can wreck wheels so I'm going to use duckbills and blocks, and also I will not MOUNT tires on nicer alloy wheels, but for motorcycles, the small tractor, zero-turn, etc. all that my dad or I have, it will save a lot of time and money.

 

[Oro_O]

I thought I should follow up on this. I got a lot of good advice from the responses and it helped me decide and act. Valuable, even if I didn't follow any one person's specific advice - all voices welcome. I mounted the tool and dis-mounted the tires. I'm pretty pleased with it.

I decided to just lag-bolt it into a larger pallet. If that didn't work, I was prepared to do more. That worked just fine. What I learned is that if you are using too much force to move the pallet when bracing/standing on it, you are using the wrong technique. You need to make sure the bead is 100% broken on both sides beforehand. And if you are straining with the pry bar, back off and jam/bump it and then it pops. It took me a little while with one or two of them and then the next two were zip-zip. It took me like three hours to set it up, get one/two tires dismounted, make the drift, learn the technique. Then the next two took 15 minutes. Typical learning curve with new complex tools/techniques, but then once you have it, awesome.

I made a drift out of plywood and put a towel underneath it to prevent any damage to the wheel face. My goal was getting the tires off with no further damage to the wheels. Achieved. Darn well worth the $40 it cost. When the wheels are refinished, I'll let the dealership/tire shop mount the new tires.

I/we have a lot of older nice wheels which need old tires removed/recycled. This will be very valuable. There was a little bit of a learning curve with it, but now that I've spent an afternoon mounting/messing with it, it's going to be a valuable tool.

 

[zzyzzx]

I would also use the larger pallet to keep it out of the garage.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I have toyed around with getting one of these over the years. I've had pretty good luck just using some tire spoons and mounting / dismounting on the garage floor.

Mount it to a hitch with an extension bolted to one of the legs also seems to be popular.