Bought a tire changer/balancer combo, should pay for itself in a few years
 

I figured it was time, since me and my fiance own 7 cars and I've been getting more serious with the autocross. Like many of you guys I have a great go-to guy that can change/flip tires for me, but working around both of our schedules can be tough.

I went with the Mayflower line (Chinese) that you'll find on eBay. I got the better unit with the extra arm for run-flat tires, which is what you need for our low profile tires. I swear they just jacked their prices since I bought mine a few weeks ago:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-5-HP-Auto...IAAOSwJ7RYVu9u

I paid $2349 or something and then an additional $100 for residential delivery and $60 for lift-gate service.

The instructions SUCK and are written in Engrish. "Danger of EXPLORATION!" which means danger of explosion! It arrived in 3 boxes and I just broke down the boxes and slid each section onto wheel dollies and moved them around pretty easy.

I'd post pics but don't know where to host them. What do you guys use?

I think this is a great idea. I’ve been tempted to do the same, but I don’t have the space in my garage. I have bought a bubble balancer, which is great if you lose a wheel weight and don’t feel like going to a tire shop.

I got the tire changer all set up yesterday. It doesn't take up as much space as you'd think. The entire unit is probably around 600lbs. It comes in 3 main pieces. The base itself is probably 350~ish. I'm sure I could assemble a wooden base with caster wheels and be able to move the machine around quite easily if I wanted to. If you get a unit without the extra left-hand arm the weight would probably be 400 or so, and it's roughly 3' x 3' square.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sav1OYuNMX0

Yeah so, it won't work on real wide rims, with super stiff sidewall tires. UGH, I'm a little pissed to say the least. Basically it will need the main horizontal arm moved up about 3-4" for it to work with 11.5" wheels, and 315~ish tires. Otherwise the tire just pushes against the arm and you're unable to get the bead over the rim, because the tire will not compress at all.

Sorry to hear this. It was tempting at first read of your initial post.

I go to a local shop who uses the Hunter Revolution “touch less” mounting machine and the Hunter Elite road-force balancer. Have never been disappointed.

I can figure out a solution to raise the main bar up about 4" to allow for wide rims with stiff tires. I'll have to draw up some sort of spacer and have a shop weld it up for me.