While I don’t exactly enjoy spending money on tire purchases, at least I feel like I’m getting something for what I’m spending. Paying a shop between $100 and $120 to mount and balance each set of tires? That just frustrates me! Considering how often many of us racers need race tires mounted and balanced, this becomes expensive quickly. There’s got to be a better way.
Tire Mounting:
I first looked into manual tire mounting machines such as the Roger Kraus System which retails for $565 plus shipping. My online searches didn’t produce any used units available and from what I saw when used ones do go on sale, they go quickly and tend to hold their value. I spoke with the company for a bit and it sounded like it might work. My concern is that the Hoosier tires I use are even a challenge to the experienced guys who work at tire shops. (I put a 225 wide tire on a 6″ wide rim.) When talking with them about this concern, they said that it does take some time to get the technique down. If you’ve read any of our garage adventure articles, you’ll quickly realize that maybe this isn’t the ideal solution for us. I know what you maybe thinking – I wish they tried it and captured the mayhem on video!
Then I began looking at pneumatic tire mounting machines. I found a used one from a shop that had closed down, but later realized that this was quite an old model and while okay for steel rims, there’s a high probability it would damage my race wheels. This would totally defeat my goal of saving money, therefore I ended up opting to pass on it. The 
better models quickly jumped in price. I estimated that would cost around $1,200 for a decent used machine. Then on top of that, it requires that you have an air compressor capable of 150 psi or more. The air compressor I currently have probably wouldn’t be adequate which means yet another expense. I attempted to justify purchasing the larger air compressor because it is something that I’d like to have, but that goes against my current goal of saving money for track time.
Evaluating the tire mounting decision further: The average price I’ve found to mount a tire is $10 each. Even to reach a cost break even on the manual machine, we’re looking at a minimum total of 60 tires (shipping costs for me would be more, but that’s close enough for this purpose). That’s a lot of tire mounting. Then factoring in time and potential frustration, it is hard to justify purchasing a tire mounting machine. With most race tires having a stiff sidewall, mounting them can be challenging even for guys in the industry who are experienced and have quality equipment.
Tire Balancing:
There still was the potential opportunity to save money on tire balancing. Again based on the averages I see, tire balancing averaged $15 – $20 per tire for the shops I frequent. It quickly became evident that purchasing a dynamic balancing machine (spin balancing) like tire shops utilize would be too expensive (over $1,000). I then learned about static balancers which are also referred to as “bubble balancers”. As with most topics researched on the web, you’ll find quite a bit of conflicting information about using this type of balancing machine. A downside of the static balancing method is it can still result in the wheels having dynamic imbalance. Dynamic Imbalance occurs when there is unequal weight on one or both sides of the wheel assembly’s lateral center line, which then results in side-to-side wobble or wheel shimmy. At the same time, this was the method used for many years before the better dynamic balancing machines were available. I was able to find a static balancing machine on sale for $60 at HarborFreight (currently it is $69). It was also necessary to purchase a package of wheel weights, but they were on sale for only $4 which included 12 strips. For an investment of less than $75, balancing a set of rims would almost cover this expense. Why not give it a try?
That weekend I was in need of having a set of tires mounted and balanced. I brought the tires to the shop, had them mounted and walked away with a bill of $40. Not bad considering how much of a struggle it can be to mount race tires. Now for the balancing act. Admittedly I was a bit nervous about balancing them, but the process turned out to be fairly simple and quick to complete. I informed Kai about my purchasing this machine and he wasn’t quite enthusiastic with my saying “this method should work.” Instead of getting “Dave, that’s a brilliant idea!” I quickly received a reply message of “dude, you know our track record with these types of things, right?”
Well don’t worry Kai, we’ll first give this a try with your Civic rims and tires. <grin>
Depending on how lucky I get, it typically takes less than 5 minutes to balance each rim. Like most things, the more experience one gets the faster this process becomes.
I’ve now used the static balancing machine successfully to balance multiple sets of race tires / rims. When out on the track I have not noticed any imbalance in the wheels. The first time out I was almost expecting the steering wheel to shake. Is there any imbalance? Quite possibly but even when inspecting the tires after a session, there’s often a fair amount of rubber stuck to the wheel anyway which also causes it to be out of perfect balance. If I were racing a ultra fast formula car, I doubt that I’d attempt to use this method but it works great for the majority of cars we race. It was absolutely a worthwhile investment for me.
What are your thoughts? Will you give one of these a try? Or will you still prefer to have a shop mount and balance your race tires and rims?
Note: I still will have a tire shop use a dynamic balancing machine for my street cars especially because they require balancing so infrequently.
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I have been eye balling that balancer for a bit. Thanks for posting the video. This is similar to the way I balance radio controlled car tires. I would be interested to see the results of a dynamic balance vs this balancer to see how close the weight total and distribution is. Do you think a close enough balance good enough for bearing life?
Even on long straights such as Watkins Glen, or the Summit Point main straight, I don’t feel any noticeable vibration. I honestly thought that I would especially since I wasn’t perfect with getting the bubble in the middle. If I had noticed much vibration, then I’d have some concerns with the bearings.
That’s a good idea to have it compared and something I can do over the next week or so.
Let us know what you find out Dave. I am thinking about getting one of these but am still a little apprehensive, especially since I have 17″ rims.
Another option is to find a friendly garage that might offer discounts for track enthusiasts. There’s a garage in the North Shore of Boston area that does mounting and balancing for $10 total each.
I can add a few notes based on my experience.
- I own a manual tire mounter from Harbor Freight that I still use. It only cost $60-$70, but I haven’t seen Harbor Freight offer this model recently (although I haven’t been looking), which is unfortunate.
- I have used the above unit for 8 years now (approx 3 sets mounted per year plus street car sets). The unit is solid, but the mounting bar cracks over time and I have had it welded twice. Still working though.
- The stiff race tires are definitely harder to mount than street tires, but anyone can pick up the tricks pretty quick. Now I am good enough that it isn’t that hard at all (I do need a second person though, just for holding spoons). I use V710′s, which people tell me actually have the stiffest sidewall of the DOT R’s.
- There are other alternatives for manual mounters. Many have much nicer mounting bars, which should protect nice rims much better. The biggest (and really only) downside to the Harbor Freight unit is the mounting bar is all metal (no poly tips) so the lip of the rims get scratched. Not enough to affect performance, but if you’re picky about looks it can be seen.
- I got the bubble balancer Harbor Freight unit, but have since stopped using it for the race tires. If I take the time to mount them correctly (mark on tire aligned with valve stem hole) they rarely needed balancing, and the ones that did needed less weight than rubber pickup. I have had no issues since I stopped balancing the race tires. I still balance all street car tires.
Thank you for sharing your experiences Jared. Do you find it very time consuming to use that system to dismount the mount the tires?
I personally use 225/50/14s on 6″ wide rims and see how much of a challenge experienced tire guys have using expensive machines. I can’t help but wonder if that’s pushing things too much for me to do it myself.
Not at all. I think I usually do 1 set (4 tires, dismount & mount, fill/seat) in 1 hour, including setup time (get the tools out of the garage, mount them on trailer, do job, put everything away).
I am still getting better, as the last set of V710′s (225/50R14) I did by myself. Still needed spoons, but found a way to hold them myself while pulling the mounting bar.
I bought a Krause machine about 5 yrs ago after looking in vain for a genuine oldtime manual machine like i’d used as a kid in a car delership shop
- i also have the harbor balancer, and a harbor manual bead breaker that i use for gently handling wire wheels and some reversed rims
the krause machine is very similar to old-time manual machine i used when i was a kid in a rural Iowa dealership, … I have it anchored to a large thick steel plate which is in turn anchored to the earth
the krause toolbar for removing-replacing is a bit klunky to use by comparison to the oldtime machines, but it does come with plastic pads to prevent damage to alloys
it makes economic sense cuz i live many miles from the tire shops, which are charging upwards of $20 per tire now, and i regularly to do a lot of my trailers, roller bodies, neighbors’ tires, etc as well as my own several drivers
i have used it successfully on everything from 13″ steelies to 10×18 porsche alloys, 10×15 wide-5′s and 16″ truck alloys & steelies, and those MG wires
– be sure to also get the krause larger center adaptor cones if you want to do big center wheels like an 8-lug truck,
and you will need a special adaptor for wide-5′s – both to balance and to use on the tire machine – that you can get on Samba.com
– before that i had an old Coats 1010 air machine which i sold for $200 – it did not have a tall enuf center rod to accomodate wide rims and deep dish or reverse type wheels
the harbor balancer is darn good, but doesn’ handle certain dynamic balance issues you might run into – for example – i have a set of miata alloys on which i’d remounted & static balanced a set of almost new takeoffs from a different car (tires from COSTCO) – so i ran em on the miata awhile, but had one “hopping” a bit around 65mph – so I took em to COSTCO for my free rebalance – they said they were “almost perfectly balanced” but after balancing on their dynamic machine, no more hopping
back in my dealership tire buster kid days we had nothing other than a bubble balancer
I sure hope that hardwood floor is level.
Yes, I checked with a level first.
Where can I buy the static wheel balancer?
where can I buy the static wheel balancer? thank