I had one of those HF "machines", and it worked reasonably well for changing the tires on my wire and regular Spitfire wheels. Given how frequently I got flats from defective inner tubes, it was a good investment.
But once I tried using it on a modern 16-inch alloy wheel, and it was totally unsuitable for that. Later I switched to stock steel wheels, and I haven't had to change a tire in 5 years or so. So during a de-cluttering, I reluctantly decided to get rid of it. BTW, you really need to have it bolted to the floor. I embedded threaded inserts in my garage floor, so I could bolt it in place and remove it when not in use. Doug --- On Tue, 8/18/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: [Spits] Small tire changer - > To: [email protected] > Cc: [email protected] > Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 3:05 PM > Its getting harder and harder to find > a shop that will change tires on > wire wheels, especially since I have to have tubes > installed. they are all > afraid of pinching the tube, or damaging the wire rim from > the force of the > machine, or they just don't want to deal with anything > smaller than 24 > inches...so, I was considering using one of Harbor Freights > small tire > changers. The tire in question is a 165/70 13 - Has anyone > used one of > these manual tire changing tools and if so, how well did it > work? I am not > too concerned with balancing the tire in question because I > will be using > it for the spare anyway. I was also thinking that > possibly a motorcycle > shop may be able to do the work since they regularly handle > wire wheels > with tubes. Anybody try that as well? I would > think that they might also > be able to balance it, although most of their wheels have a > different hub, > probably without a hole in it, so I'm not sure how they > balance motorcycle > wheels. _______________________________________________ Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html You are subscribed as [email protected] [email protected] http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/spitfires http://www.team.net/archive
