Mussl Kar

I'm looking at Ranger tire changers and balancers. Nearest good place for me to get tires swapped is 30 min each way and I have to drop them off and pick them up. Not only that but I need to mount a different tire or put the car on jacks. Other thinking is that it would make it very easy to turn the tires on the rim for better life.
Any thoughts of this or another brand?

kurt M

IIRC Ranger is Bend-Pak in house brand. From the ones I have seen in use Ranger is not bad at all and for home use will last something just under 1,000 years. Coats is the standard in changers, bullet proof and easy to get parts and service. The 3050 is a good machine for the $. Get the electric one over the air powered one if you have power. Coats machines are also not hard to find used and easy to recondition. Any part can be purchased. Some brands are hard to get parts for.
The outcome of the work is 90% from the guy using the changer. Not hard even for track tires once you have the hang of it. If you don't have any experence in mounting and balancing tires I recomend you get an old rim and tire and learn on it before tearing up some $$$ wheels and tires the night before a race.

Balancers. The Coats 700 is a great bang for the buck simple to use balancer. You can do simple spin and dynamic balance with it and it has a small footprint so it won't hog up the shop. I found that standard spin balance works well for track tires. Unlike the changer the balancers are easy to master by reading and following the instructions.

ltc

Have you looked at the Eagle stuff
http://www.eagleequip.com/page/EE/PR...GLO502-GLO1030

http://www.eagleequip.com/page/EE/CTGY/WS

931guru

If you don't want to spend $$$, check ebay for used items. I bought a Snapon electronic wheel balancer for $500 about 10 years ago. It works perfectly, runs on 110 vAC or 12 vDC, and is light enough to carry in the trailer.

Larry Herman

Advice from a guy who has his own equipment - do not buy a tire changer that does not have a power arm with a roller. It makes it 10 times easier to mount slicks and other tire with really stiff, small sidewalls because you can use it to hold the bead down in the drop center. I can pop on a Hoosier 285/30x18 on a 10" wheel in seconds with my machine.



You can just see the roller in-between the helper arms.

ltc

Larry,
Believe it or not, they make similar machines for kart tires....

http://www.out2win.com/catalog/semel.html
http://www.italiankart.com/articoli/...t=267&catart=6

(No, I don't have one....I went with this....much easier to transport and surprisingly quicker than the electric machine http://www.karttiremachine.ch/ )

Larry Herman

They are so cute. Little baby tire machines!

kurt M

Larry I have a 3050 which is non assisted rim clamp machine. For very low profile tires I use 4 tennis ***** linked on a cable. Stuff them in around the rim to hold the bead in the drop and they pop out as the shoe comes around. Easypeasy. There is a pro made version of the tennis ***** or wood blocks on a cabe trick too.

Mounting tires is an art I am only starting to learn well.

Larry Herman

Sounds like a good work-around. I used to use those little cresent shaped plastic thingies (that Hunter makes) that now just collect dust. With the roller, after I mount the back side of the tire, I just angle the bead across the shoe, and hold it just below the drop center with the roller. I then use a mounting bar in front of the shoe to hold the bead down as the tire rotates. It takes one revolution and I can pop the tire on. Once you get the hang of it, it is that easy.

Mussl Kar

Currently looking at the 23AS or the 950 AT with 1200 combos. Both look like they can do the job.


http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/...mbos_s/428.htm

Larry Herman

The problem that I have with both of those machines is that the service arms are on the left side which puts them before the shoe (in a rotational sense) instead of after it. You want the arms on the right side after the shoe so that you can work with the part of the tire that has been mounted (or unmounted) by the shoe.

ZSA Motorsport

just stumbled on this thread. quick followup question:

which coats unit would you recommend as the best bang for the buck? which unit do you use? what would you get if you had a mid level budget for a changer? which bendpak , if any, would you recommend as well??

kurt M

Coats 3050E Easy to find used, bullet proof and there are tons of them around so parts are and will always be easy to get. This might not be the case for off name machines.

ZSA Motorsport

thx bro. i googled that 3050E, couldnt find anything. looked at the coats website, http://www.ammcoats.com/products_tire.aspx?id=107, couldnt find it either, though maybe its an oldermodel.
any ideas??

ZSA Motorsport

Found the Coats. its 5030E i believe.
Does it have a power arm with a roller? i cant tell. doesnt look like it does.
whats your take on it? ill be mounting slicks on a cup car andon the boxster