Harbor Freight Tire Changer Question

[CajunRider]

Any of y'all use the Harbor Freight Tire Changer with Motorcycle Tire Adapter??  (Made by Pittsburgh)

They're on sale for half off and I'm thinking about getting it. 

Is it worth it?  Will I be able to change tires without marring powder coated rims? 

I've been using manual tire spoons for years... but I now have powder coated rims and am looking for something to make it easier without damaging the rims. 

[Flrider]

Friend of mine has the whole set up, bolted on the floor and all.
He has done about 6 or so changes with it and I did one of mine with his assistance.
A real struggle at some points and easy to get wheels scratched up.
My thinking is, I'll keep doing the walk in the shop with my wheel and tire in hand so they can do it, money well spent.

[Mr Whiskey]

Friend of mine had a Harbor & kept havin' to weld it back together.
Said save you pennies, buy a No-Mar & Mojo lever. Much better gear with lifetime warranty.
.02 worth.

[saddlesore]

I have one and like it. Did the spoons for years and busted my butt doing it.
I know a weld broke somewhere and I put a bolt thru it.
I have the no mar blocks and tire lever.  The no mar lever worked great for removing the tire but putting on I used another lever I had. (not the harbor freight one).
I took the no mar blocks off, something just didn't line up right.
That was the first time I used the no mar stuff.  I have a new tire coming and will give them another shot.  

OOPs  sorry,I have the Mo Jo Lever and blocks not the mo mar

[MarkT]

I have been using the HF changer for many years.  It has paid for itself many times over.  I like being able to change tires quickly for whatever reason.  No hassles with outfits who don't want to mount darkside or a tire you carry in. I have not bought the other aftermarket levers like the No-Mar or the Mojo lever.  Haven't needed them.  I do have other levers however.  Don't have those fancy levers and have nothing against them.  Wish I knew someone with one so I could check it out.

[Slvrvalk1]

I have had the Harbor Freight setup for many years and done many tires.  I have the Mojo tire lever.  I recently mounted a car tire on the back rim of my Gold Wing.  It is important to have some wood blocks to put in under the second bead as you are mounting it.  This pushes the bead down into the valley of the rim and makes it possible to get the entire bead over the edge of the rim.

[MarkT]

Here's Fred Harmon's instruction on using the HF changer on a Gold Wing rim.  Pretty good instruction.

http://www.pbase.com/fredharmon/tirechange

[CajunRider]

Here's Fred Harmon's instruction on using the HF changer on a Gold Wing rim.  Pretty good instruction.

http://www.pbase.com/fredharmon/tirechange

Those pictures explain a lot!  Thanks! 

One more question though... will it work with a coated rim?  I have a '14 with black rims.  Looks like I'd have to be VERY careful not to scratch them. 

[longrider]

I have had the HF changer with adapter for about a year and a half.  I don't know how any of you could change a tire at all with the setup.  I modified it and it works well.

[saddlesore]

This is one adaptation I did to keep the tire from turning.  The rod comes up between the (spokes)

[PAVALKER]

This is one adaptation I did to keep the tire from turning.  The rod comes up between the (spokes)

What all sizes does that little mod work with?  Or do you have different holes for diff sizes?

[saddlesore]

I have a 1999 Standard and that one hole works for front and back.  I did a couple of tires for a friends Goldwing too.
I've done some car and trailer tires too but they have a different system to hold them.

[Cyclejohn]

Any of y'all use the Harbor Freight Tire Changer with Motorcycle Tire Adapter?? 

Is it worth it?  Will I be able to change tires without marring powder coated rims? 
 

I do have the HF tire changer and have been using it for several years now (maybe 6 or 7) to change my tires and the tires of my friends. It was given to me as a birthday present by a friend whose daughter worked at HF and she got an additional 10% employee's discount on top of the already sale price. At the time, HF was not selling the motorcycle wheel adapter. I modified the basic platform myself to be able to change motorcycle tires. I also modified the center post with different sized inter-changeable bushings so that it would fit any size motorcycle wheel bearing. I modified the mount/demount bar that came with HF tire changer so that there would never be metal to metal contact. I ground and shaped both ends of the bar just like I wanted it to be and drilled and tapped both ends so that I could attach pieces of a $2 kitchen cutting board (plastic, nylon, teflon, whatever it's made of) with countersink screws, and I also attached nylon bushings (bought from Lowes for not a lot of money), with countersink screws, to act as no-slip achor points. A friend of mine that works for a cable company gave me some tubes of 3" shrink wrap and I used 2 of them on the main body of bar to prevent metal to metal contact.

I have changed tires on 3 sets of powdercoated motorcycle wheels with this setup and it does not leave any marks on the wheels, and it does not damage the powdercoat.

I use RU-GLYDE, that I bought from NAPA, as a lubricant when changing tires. It comes in a gallon jug, cost about $10, and even after all of the tire changes I have done I still have over half a gallon left.

Just for grins and giggles, I timed myself with a stopwatch demounting the old tire and mounting the new one on the wheel in the pic. It took 39 seconds. I'll take that any day over all of those tire changes that I did will spoons  .

 

[The emperor has no clothes]

Any of y'all use the Harbor Freight Tire Changer with Motorcycle Tire Adapter?? 

Is it worth it?  Will I be able to change tires without marring powder coated rims? 
 

I do have the HF tire changer and have been using it for several years now (maybe 6 or 7) to change my tires and the tires of my friends. It was given to me as a birthday present by a friend whose daughter worked at HF and she got an additional 10% employee's discount on top of the already sale price. At the time, HF was not selling the motorcycle wheel adapter. I modified the basic platform myself to be able to change motorcycle tires. I also modified the center post with different sized inter-changeable bushings so that it would fit any size motorcycle wheel bearing. I modified the mount/demount bar that came with HF tire changer so that there would never be metal to metal contact. I ground and shaped both ends of the bar just like I wanted it to be and drilled and tapped both ends so that I could attach pieces of a $2 kitchen cutting board (plastic, nylon, teflon, whatever it's made of) with countersink screws, and I also attached nylon bushings (bought from Lowes for not a lot of money), with countersink screws, to act as no-slip achor points. A friend of mine that works for a cable company gave me some tubes of 3" shrink wrap and I used 2 of them on the main body of bar to prevent metal to metal contact.

I have changed tires on 3 sets of powdercoated motorcycle wheels with this setup and it does not leave any marks on the wheels, and it does not damage the powdercoat.

I use RU-GLYDE, that I bought from NAPA, as a lubricant when changing tires. It comes in a gallon jug, cost about $10, and even after all of the tire changes I have done I still have over half a gallon left.

Just for grins and giggles, I timed myself with a stopwatch demounting the old tire and mounting the new one on the wheel in the pic. It took 39 seconds. I'll take that any day over all of those tire changes that I did will spoons  .

 

I like your bar. Any chance you could post some close ups of the end work you did ?

[Cyclejohn]

Any chance you could post some close ups of the end work you did ?

Hey Meathead,

The friend that borrowed my tire changer (a couple of months ago) lives about 100 miles away and he is supposed to be riding down after work this coming Friday. I will call him and get him to strap the bar on the back of the bike and bring it with him. I will snap some pics of the bar ends and post them up next Monday. I hope that is soon enough because we will be riding in the mountains most of the weekend.

John

[The emperor has no clothes]

Any chance you could post some close ups of the end work you did ?

Hey Meathead,

The friend that borrowed my tire changer (a couple of months ago) lives about 100 miles away and he is supposed to be riding down after work this coming Friday. I will call him and get him to strap the bar on the back of the bike and bring it with him. I will snap some pics of the bar ends and post them up next Monday. I hope that is soon enough because we will be riding in the mountains most of the weekend.

John

Oh yeah that's fine. I've still got 8-10 k before my next tire change. Your bar looks a lot easier than my 3 tire iron method. No need to hurry. TIA 

[CajunRider]

I like your bar. Any chance you could post some close ups of the end work you did ?

That was my next question... thank you for asking for me.    

And thank you John for answering!   

[Cyclejohn]

Hey Meathead and CajunRider,

Here are the pics that I said I would post.

You will notice that the demount end of the bar has a slight backward cant to it. You will also notice that the mount end has a slight forward cant to it. The diameter of the bar and the center post combines causes an offset from centerline of around 1 3/4". The backward cant on the demount end and the forward cant on the mount end compensates for that and allows the bar to remain flat and stable on the rim as you apply pressure to it. It took me a few days to get it "just right" and that would be the reason you see so many drilled holes on the ends.

John

[Cyclejohn]

Continued,

[imghttp://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa357/cyclejohn/DSCF0215.jpg]http://[/img]

[Cyclejohn]

Continued,

[The emperor has no clothes]

Thanks for posting that. That looks like some good work you did. I going to try to ride on your coat tails and copy it.  Thanks again.

[wiggydotcom]

Good on you, CycleJohn for the ingenuity on the bar mods. Nothing wrong with that at all.

For those who don't have the tools, wherewithal, etc. the mojolever and mojoblocks really does work great. I've changed all my own tires going back to my first Interstate in 01 with the Harbor Freight tire changer and motorcycle adapter. I did struggle with the first few until I bought the mojolever and blocks.

I'm going to post the link only because this thread is about doing it an easier way and not scratching rims.  These products, that I both use, help accomplish that.

Here is a link to the mojoblocks:
http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoblocks.htm

Here is the link to the mojolever:
http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoweb.htm

There are videos on the page and also a link to Fred Harmon's review of the mojolever.

And Cookiedough's mod of using steel rod to hold the tire in place is a good one. With the nylon mojoblocks, the tire tends to want to turn on the nylon while putting side torque on the lever. Remember to add a piece of hose over the rod to keep from scratching the rim with the threaded rod.

[OldFatGuy]

My hats off to you guys that change your own tires...  I had the HF setup and struggled mightily.  I then bought the No-Mar setup and still struggled.  I lived close to the no-mar guys and they even came to my house and gave me a lesson and changed my goldwing tires for me.  I still struggled.  I got it done, but not without a lot of cussing and sweating.  After several sets of tires, I finally gave up and decided I should save my cussing and high blood pressure for other things.  I wish I coulda figured out what I was doing wrong, but I never did.  Had both setups bolted down to the floor and still fought it.  Like I said, my hats off to you!