Bobtail4x4
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not quite that bad,
had to throw water on it,
had to throw water on it,
- Thread starter Kram
- Start date
They come up on Marketplace all the time. They are easy enough to convert from 3ph to 1ph. Don't buy one with bits missing or that doesn't work, very often a £2-300 machine could be something that was £2K when new and the bits can be obsolete or stupid money. If you want to do alloys then you need to be sure you can get the consumables like foot/head inserts.
I know so many people that are paying £25 per wheel to have tyres fitted, you only need a few a family cars to make it worthwhile. The reality is if you look after the machine you will never lose money on it so it's not dead money.
If you have the space and like working on your own cars then a tyre machine is a no brainer.
For me it's always been about convenience but the cost savings are growing rapidly in recent times. I'm on my second machine, changed many tyres with the first, sold it for 3 times what a paid and bought an upgraded machine. Next step for me is to find one with assist arms at sensible money
I know so many people that are paying £25 per wheel to have tyres fitted, you only need a few a family cars to make it worthwhile. The reality is if you look after the machine you will never lose money on it so it's not dead money.
If you have the space and like working on your own cars then a tyre machine is a no brainer.
For me it's always been about convenience but the cost savings are growing rapidly in recent times. I'm on my second machine, changed many tyres with the first, sold it for 3 times what a paid and bought an upgraded machine. Next step for me is to find one with assist arms at sensible money
Interesting one here: Manual, but with pneumatic bead breaker.
Nothing to do with me....
Nothing to do with me....
Erie Fred
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1. takes up too much room
2. is hard work using it.
Horses for courses isn't it! It seems to take up less room than a full electric machine, and is considerably less expensive. The worst bit I've found is the bead breaking - I had one similar before, but with a manual bead breaker, and got rid of it because it just didn't work well.
No, it's not going to be anywhere near as good as the machine you showed the other day - but it's probably £1000 cheaper.
Erie Fred
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Not when you factor in all the room you need to walk around it, when swinging the large tire tool up top, and then the bead breaker is on one side on the floor, need room to set the tire down there flat on the floor for the shovel to bear down on it.
And then it needs bolted down for you to push hard against it.
My electric machine is 12" wide and has wheels at the back along with a handle to tilt it back, and wheel it like a hand truck into a corner.
Some valid points there- but the big one - cost- is still rather different. Academic now anyway as I can see the OP has bought one similar, but without the pneumatics.
Erie Fred
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Oh boy Oh boy.
Save a nickel on initial purchase and cuss the whole time you own it for the problems I cited.
But hey, it was cheap.....
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I watched a "reel" on FB where they bought the bead breaker in and the complete front of the ally wheel snapped off, the title was "who's going to tell the customer" 
It would have been broken long before the bead breaker went near it.I watched a "reel" on FB where they bought the bead breaker in and the complete front of the ally wheel snapped off, the title was "who's going to tell the customer"
Some of the big alloys don't have that much metal around the well area, and it just takes a hit in the right place for the alloy to become two parts.
I've seen it once (on a Saab IIRC), where the driver claimed he only had a puncture.
When confronted with the dent in the inner part, he eventually admitted he'd noticed the flat, but had misjudged the entrance to the layby, and bounced over the kerb at a fair speed.
premmington
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I done the whole tyre fitting thing...
Steel wheels - segments of angle iron cut to shape - 7lb hammer to bead brake - tyre levers.
Hiab legs to break beads - well positioned short length of scaffold plank and drive over it to break bead - then tyre levers.
Open centre manual tyre post's you gotta use a tyre bar and walk around them..
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But we into - low profiles - run flats - big alloy wheels now....
Don't kid yourself - it a semi or auto tyre machine or nothing now....
Greeves246
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Back I the 1980s when I was a rep for Goodyear motorcycle tyres , one of the big national tyre fitters , ATS I think, fitted motorcycle tyres until one day a customer brought in a Laverda (?) with alloy wheels. The fitter never having come across alloy bike wheels before attacked with a little too much force, wrecking it. They replaced it and promptly stopped doing bikes.
qwakers
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- cornwall, united kingdom
i wouldn't be without mine.
totally worn out. loads of play in everything and loads of air leaks. have to finagle it to make the locks lock in properly.
but a full set of assist arms and it still does the job. cost me £50 at auction.
totally worn out. loads of play in everything and loads of air leaks. have to finagle it to make the locks lock in properly.
but a full set of assist arms and it still does the job. cost me £50 at auction.
My manual one is bolted down outside - currently has a spare garden waste bin upended over it. I only want it for trialling tyres and "repairs" a proper fitter wouldn't do. My field trialling tyres - one has a pretty big gaitor up one sidewall, with a reinforced rubber patch on the outside, using a tube. Put an enormous gash in the sidewall a couple of years ago. Seems to be lasting.
I do need to make the bead breaker a little more efficient - it's not failed yet, but it makes hard work of it. And trialling wheels with dings and dents in the rim tend to hand up on the bead - very easy to tear the bead putting it back on.
I do need to make the bead breaker a little more efficient - it's not failed yet, but it makes hard work of it. And trialling wheels with dings and dents in the rim tend to hand up on the bead - very easy to tear the bead putting it back on.
Kram
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Found in a swap and likely doesnt work...?
Kram
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A 2009 Mazda 6 does all I want, and without these issues. No interest in silly SUV rubbish. No small willy syndrome here..But we into - low profiles - run flats - big alloy wheels now....
Don't kid yourself - it a semi or auto tyre machine or nothing now....
