Hi,
Anyone changed a set of tyres without taking them to a tyre fitter?
How easy is it to get the tyres off (Hard I bet as Kart tyres were bad enough!)?
How can you balance a wheel at home?
Thoughts anyone?
It's not worth the bother and you would struggle getting the tyre off the rim with out the special tools, not a cost effective idea IMO.
I've done motorbike tyres before, which are bad enoughn(really bad on a cold day).
All I can say is it's worth the fiver or so per wheel to get it done at a tyre place in about 15 mins.
I don't think a modern car tyre could be done easily DIY, if it can it would take a long time and you'd probably make a mess of the rims.
I do mine on a tyre post all the time, takes a bit of care when doing alloys. Balancing I don't bother with usually, put them on try it, if
there's no vibration then fine if there is then I get them balanced. I would guess at less than 20% get balanced.
I'm sure somebody will be along soon to tell me that I'm doing untold damage to my wheel bearings and balljoints but my van and car have
probably done around 100,000 miles combined in the last 3 years and neither has needed wheel bearings or ball joints.
Davie
[Edited on 26/1/11 by daviep]
Davie, you'll be doing untold damage to your wheel bearings and ball-joints!
did mine myself when i got charged 15+ vat per wheel last time
This is how i do it (thats me in the photos)
http://bristolkitcarclub.co.uk/smf2/index.php?topic=204.0
ive just taken 4 tyres off the rims to just take to the scrap yard and yes it is hard work and would fear damaging rims, if you only planning on
fitting one set time you buy tyre levers etc might not be worth it.
to try get a good price phone round first and might get cheaper if you can leave the rims with them to fill a quiet time during the day
In an emergency in the past (split spare tyre on my trailer and just about to set off on a 250 mile drive for a ferry, which I didn't want to
chance without a spare) I've removed one the old fashioned way - put the wheel on the floor, have an assistant stand on one edge and drive a car
onto the other edge. With the assistant bouncing the car wing up and down, the bead breaks free. As they were scruffy steel wheels and the tyre was no
good, I wasn't worried about possible damage.
A passerby did comment that he hadn't seen anyone do that for a very long time.
Ive done Land Rover 750x16s before.....
I wouldnt even to think about doing to an alloy what I did to a steely. Breaking the bead takes several goes to get it all.
Then 2 tyre levers and a heavy Lada adjuster, pop lever under broken bead and hit lots with heavy Lada adjuster, after 15 minutes the first one will
be off - only three more alloys to trash....
Ok in an emergency in the outback (we dont have any) , otherwise get a machine to do it 
Tried it once on a 13" minilite... nearly gave myself a hernia (oh, and failed!).
We laid a plank on the tyre up to the bead and drove a car onto the plank to break the bead then out with the levers. It was a long time ago and I wouldn't fancy it on new low profile tyres.
When I was a boy I helped my Dad repair puntures in car and van tyres at his garage in the late 1960's . I learnt a lot of new words I
hadn't heard before. All carried out by hand then, I even have some wacky looking tool for breaking the bead about here somewhere still.
That was on crossply tyres with aspect ratio of about 90 I suspect.
There is no way I would want to attempt to get modern low profile tyres off the rims, steel or alloy.
Like someone esle has said if you can leave them with an independent tyre fitter over a day it shouldn't cost much. Remember disposal of the old
tyre is relatively costly now either for the fitter or personally.
tyre disposal is free in leeds, along with all other domestic waste 
On a similar theme of ridiculously difficult task, i managed to change a 180kg lintel over a window with one ladder, one prop, and no lifting
equiptment! Damn. Took 4 hours to get it up to the right height!
quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
tyre disposal is free in leeds, along with all other domestic waste
On a similar theme of ridiculously difficult task, i managed to change a 180kg lintel over a window with one ladder, one prop, and no lifting equiptment! Damn. Took 4 hours to get it up to the right height!
I've seen people doing wagon ones by hand.. With levers the length of a short person..
I bought a manual tyre changer and bar as I was getting through tyres on autosolos.
Some tyres are a real sod to get off, and the changer has a bead breaker attachment (manual, not hydraulic) which bent and I have since reinforced.
Needs straightening again now though.
The manual bar looks as if it could easily cause damage to alloy wheels, but I think tyre levers would do the trick, especially if wrapped in gaffer
tape or similar. Hard work though!
My changer has paid for itself through savings on tyres for thecars I run, plus a few mates have used it to swap tyres around and so on. I also bought
one of the spirit level balancers, but as noted some tyres seem to need no weights at all, others I can never get right. They go on the back.....
Hot tip is to get some tyre paste, makes it much easier
Can I watch while you do them , I could do with a good laugh. I wouldn't even attempt to remove a tyre yhese days without a decent tyre changer .