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Tire Machine
We are a new shop in a rural area. Most of our tires are light truck 4×4 16.17, & 18 inch mud tire 10 ply. Just starting out & for low investment I bought a cheap Chinese tire machine & balancer to get us going. The tire machine case started splitting out on the bead breaker, so we was able to trade it back in & upgrade to a professional model of the same brand. Within a year the turntable has slop in it that will gouge rims if your not careful. I know there are all kinds of brands & styles but we don’t need one that is made for low profile hands free, we need one more for truck, skidloader, ag flotation type tires. Should I look for 1 that we have or would I be better off buying Heavy duty truck tire machine & maybe it will save wear & tear on the Chinese brand? What are your thoughts & what do you use this is for the shops that deal in the same type of tires we do please.
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6 Replies
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We use a coats tire machine, can’t remember the exact model but it’s the same kind they’ve been making for eons. Picked this one up used last year for $1200.00. The nice thing is my coats guy will sell us the parts, so I can have my GS fix it when he has a little down time. They are very easy to repair.
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We have put together a list with links of the all the major tire equipment companies
Also, one of our sponsors offers tire equipment, Greg Smith Equipment -
this is just one small thing but I would find out of the lever that lifts the tire off the wheel has protective guards on it so it doesn’t dig into the wheel. many of the newer ‘car’ aluminum wheels the center area is so close to the wheel bead height the lever we have can dig into the wheel.
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I think that Hunter makes the best machines out there,I bought a used TC3500 and few years back and we have been getting great service out of it.
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We bought a TC 3500 years ago and it struggled for years. As we got the experience to do the low profile the low profiles got lower. About 3 years ago We bought a new Hawkeye target system Hunter alignment machine and wanted a few more years out of the TC 3500. One of the best investments we ever did was to add the articulating arm modification and the center post modification that made a secure grip on the wheel possible, instead of the tulip type grip. With those mods we were able to go another three years.
A year ago we finally decided to get a real professional tool and bought a Hunter Auto 34. Now we can actually take off 20 inch BMW runflats without busting our a$$es. Corghi makes a model that is just as capable but we had the Hunter Hawkeye and Roadforce Balancer and a great relationship with our service tech so we stuck with Hunter and did the Auto 34. They have since made an even more expensive model but the Auto 34 is still available and is a really good machine, fully capable of dealing with what is currently being installed on Corvettes, Porsches, BMWs and MBs.
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A few years back I found a mfr refurbished Ranger R23ST on EBay, they wanted almost $1900 but I made an offer for $1500 and they took it. Has been a good machine in my one man shop and will do most tires up to 22 in, Not bad for a 115 v unit. My compressor doesn’t put out high enough air pressure to make the bead seater work really well on 10 ply tires. You really want about 150 psi. This unit can be fitted with plastic duck head, and has two assist arms for low profile tires which is a big help. I did have to replace the solenoid dump valve for the bead seater just last week, and that appears to be due to water damage. All in all I have been happy with the machine, and really couldn’t beat the price. I would havedpreferred having a coats style lube bucket, but not a big deal
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