Tire mounting can be an expensive cost for your vehicle and if you live in a climate where you may change from summer to winter tires the mounting and balancing costs can be quite expensive twice a year. Whether you’re a serious racer, off-roader, or a DIY enthusiast you may save time and money by mounting your own car or truck tires. Below we list our favorite Auto Tire Installation tools and their uses.
- Rim Clamp Tire Mounting Machine- The Eastwood Tire Changer offers the ability to quickly and easily mount and dismount tires on most any steel or alloy wheels without damage. Cost effective machines are ideal for the avid home hobbyist, race shop or small business. These machines grab the outer rim and hold it in place while you swing the upper arm in place to lock the tire bead in place. With a little practice you can get very quick at mounting and dismounting. These machines usually have a dismounting function or “bead breaker” built into them and work with just shop air and 120V input power.
- Tire Balancer- Tire balancers come in many shapes and sizes. Older balancers just worked off of a rotating table and a bubble level, but with cars traveling at higher speeds an electronic balancer is needed. The Eastwood Electronic Wheel Balancer brings the convenience and economy of a professional, high precision tire and wheel balancer to the well-equipped DIY or race shop. Digital display and quick setup allows quick balancing and guidance for applying clip-on or stick-on weights to a variety of wheel types, sizes and materials.
- Tire Bead Seating Tool- Setting the bead on many tires is as simple as just airing the tire up with the inflator included on the tire machine. But there are many tires that won’t inflate that easily as the sidewalls are too tall or the tires is deformed from being stacked at the tire distributor. A pneumatic bead setting tank allows you to pressurize the tank quickly and “blast” the tire with the pressurized air to expand the sidewalls and seat the tire beads on the rim. Once the beads seat you can simply air the tires up as normal.
- Tire Mounting Lube– When mounting a tire you want the bead to slip over the rim and into the bead seat with little restriction. Lubricating the tire bead edges is very important to avoid ripping the bead of the tire and potentially damaging the tire. No matter what method you’re using to mount a new tire you should use a tire lube.
- Tire Valve Puller / Installer- Installing a new valve stem is a good practice when changing tires. It can be difficult to remove or install valve stems as they are pressed/seated into the rim tightly. Simply thread this tool onto the valve stem cap threads and install a screw driver or bar for leverage under the tool and pry down on the tool. It will quickly peel the old valve out. To install the new stem simply push it through the rim hole and thread the tool on and pull up until the stem seats in the rim.