Is it worth buying a tire changer?

[docs302]

As many of you track rats do, I change out tires multiple times per season. Often I just flip them around to wear the other side evenly. This is costing me about $100 every time I remount them. Amazon has tire changing machines for under $1500. I have probably spent over half of that in the last two years and will be doing it twice more this year alone. So has anyone considered this or done it?

 

[TMSBOSS]

Yes I have. Add in the cost of a quality balancer before you make your decision.

 

[docs302]

Add in the cost of a quality balancer before you make your decision.

Since the cost to balance is relatively small compared to the removal and mounting I would probably just take them to the local shop for that. Plus, I can't fit both machines in my garage.....or I would probably just pull the trigger.

 

[VoodooBoss]

It's almost pointless to balance the wheels when the move on the wheel anyway. What I'd do for something like this is find a quality used one. When you finished with it resell it and recoup most if not all of your initial costs.

 

[Apex3V]

In the future I plan to have a changer and balancer inside a shop(Hopefully), having changed thousands of tires in the last year or two I cant really justify paying someone else to do it when I know how easy it really is as long as you have the right equipment. I would say that its worth it to pick up a tire changer used from craigslist or facebook and use that for a bit and then taking the wheels to discount tire for a rebalance since its free and they have nicer machines than any of us would have in a garage on a budget.