XPost: comp.mobile.android   
   From: spam@nospam.com   
      
   Michael Trew wrote:   
      
   >>> I'd love to have a machine to mount and balance my own tires.  I fix   
   >>> most things on cars myself, and there is a satisfaction to that   
   >>> (although it's also relevant to cheap/necessity for me).   
   >>   
   >> A static wheel balancer is pretty inexpensive but it's not really a good   
   >> idea to use one on tires that will be operated at high speed. A manual   
   >> tire changer is also pretty cheap, under $100. But by the time you pay   
   >> retail prices for the weights, and pay for the equipment cost, you'd be   
   >> able to pay for a lot of wheel balancing before you achieved a positive   
   >> ROI, and you would not have tires that are properly balanced after all   
   >> that. A dynamic wheel balancer is over $1000 for a very basic model from   
   >> China.   
   >   
   > I rarely drive over 60 MPH.  I've mounted little 12/13 inch Geo Metro   
   > wheels and just sent them without balancing at all before; so a cheap   
   > one would be good enough for most of my purposes.  I drive old beater   
   > cars, and I currently own 10 (or 11?) of them.   
   >   
   > When you say a "static" balancer, do you mean a bubble balancer?  I've   
   > seen some used shop equipment come up for sale on FB Marketplace and   
   > Craigslist before, still usually out of my preferred price range (cheap).   
      
   The problem that anyone who has never worked on cars has with the term   
   "dynamic balancing" is they fall prey to the fear-based marketing.   
      
   Just as with Apple marketing always aiming that people quaking in their   
   boots, so does tire & brake repair, replace, mount & repair marketing.   
      
   Dynamic balance is almost always not needed _if_... and the _if_ is what   
   matters, but luckily, the _if_ is (in my experience) almost all the time.   
      
   Needless to day, the _test_ for lack of dynamic balance is always free!   
      
   Just as I've (almost) never failed to solve computer issues, I've (almost)   
   never failed to solve car-repair issues (and my cars are _decades_ old!).   
      
   I've written tutorials for how to mount and balance your tires at home.   
      
   Out here, Harbor Freight sells a crappy tire dismount/mount tool which you   
   _must_ bolt to the ground, and then you remove the even crappier bead   
   breaker, and then it's an OK tool for tires up to around 18 inches.   
      
   Harbor Freight also sells a crappy bead breaker tool, which isn't designed   
   for larger tires, but which works for those bigger SUV tires if you put a   
   wooden board on it to "extend" its base as you step on the board to keep   
   the bead breaker from tipping backward on those larger diameter tires.   
      
   The Harbor Freight static balancer, which is also crappy, is just a bubble   
   balander so it doesn't matter as long as the wheel is placed centrally.   
      
   The only other tools needed to mount and balance your tires at home are   
   extra HF tire irons (for the larger SUV tires), vise grips (because the HF   
   3-foot-long round-bar tire iron twists in your hands on those larger   
   tires), a pair of dikes (to cut the old valve stem) and a valve core   
   removal twist driver (for removal & replacement of the valve cores).   
      
   It's helpful (but not required) to have a bead blaster, aka a bazooka.   
   --   
   Yes, you heard that right. Dynamic balance testing is _always_ free!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)