Problems mounting tires on lawn tractors, ZTs and such.

Texasmark · Aug 2, 2018

rhunt said:
Been down this road before, went to Harbor Freight, purchased their small tire changer thing for less than $40 bucks and the problem goes away. One of their better tools. Bob

Mr. Bob sir, you're #1 on my hit parade. First thing this AM I called HF and they had 4 in stock. Made a special trip to town. Got it home, looked it over for familiarization, read through the instructions, mounted the tire, fooled around a bit and in a flash that sucker was mounted.

When I think of all the sweat and busted knuckles and cussing and all I went through, not knowing about this little sucker.........

Thanks ever so much for the tip.

Mark

Ford850 · Aug 3, 2018

I've had the HF mini tire changer for several years and have used it much more than I planned. A while back, my brother was complaining about changing a small garden cart tire, saying he fought with the first one for hours to get a new tire mounted and he was putting off changing the second one. I told him to bring it over and I'd change it for him. He popped in with it one Saturday and said he was busy and couldn't stay to help with it, but I said it would only take a minute. He laughed and said I didn't understand how tough these little rims could be. Out to the barn we went, and in a few minutes it was mounted and fully inflated. He was in shock!

I love that little changer.

DJ54 · Aug 3, 2018

I bought a gallon of Ru-Glyde at Napa, I know it has been 20 years ago, and still have half of it left. Good stuff, makes the tire bead nice & slippery. I also have a narrow, thin set of tire tools, designed for the old split rims I got at an auction years ago. Perfect for the small tires, and allows to take baby bites going around the rim.

Most times, with my wider rims, the tires don't want to expand out of the lip the bead rides on. I'll take my dead blow hammer, and bump the tire in the middle of the tread, while turning it. Sets it right out on the lip where intended. No removing of the valve core, to get a higher flow of air into the rim, or using a strap to get it to pop out.

I just changed out 3, of the 4 original front tires on my 2, '88 model 310-8 Wheel Horse tractors Dad bought new. The other one was replaced several years ago. If these last as long as the originals, tire changing will be someone else's problem..!!

rhunt · Aug 6, 2018

Texasmark, you are welcome. With that tool it makes changing small tires easy. Bob

Mace Canute · Aug 7, 2018

Many years ago a friend asked me if I would change the tires on an old Honda Odyssey ATV he had so I agreed to. "How hard could it possibly be?" The front tires were 20x7-8 and the rears were 22x11-8. (I looked it up!

) They wouldn't fit on my manual tire changer (which works quite well on full sized vehicle tires) so I ended up setting the rims on a short piece of pipe on the bed of my 20T hydraulic press and with a protective plate on top I put just enough pressure on them to hold them in place while I did the R&R with prybars. If I had to do it again I'd go buy one of those small tire changers before i attempted it! More tools!!! :licking: :laughing:

Texasmark · Aug 10, 2018

Mace Canute said:
Many years ago a friend asked me if I would change the tires on an old Honda Odyssey ATV he had so I agreed to. "How hard could it possibly be?" The front tires were 20x7-8 and the rears were 22x11-8. (I looked it up! ) They wouldn't fit on my manual tire changer (which works quite well on full sized vehicle tires) so I ended up setting the rims on a short piece of pipe on the bed of my 20T hydraulic press and with a protective plate on top I put just enough pressure on them to hold them in place while I did the R&R with prybars. If I had to do it again I'd go buy one of those small tire changers before i attempted it! More tools!!! :licking: :laughing:

My sweetie keeps telling me "tools make the job". No truer words were ever spoken and she encourages me to have the right tools.....what goes around comes around......she has the tools to do her jobs around the place too....I see to that. Fair is fair.

2manyrocks · Nov 1, 2018

Which one of the HF tire changers are you guys talking about for changing mower tires? The full size manual Manual Tire Changer or the mini-tire changer? Mini-Tire Changer

RjCorazza · Dec 8, 2018

2manyrocks said:
Which one of the HF tire changers are you guys talking about for changing mower tires? The full size manual Manual Tire Changer or the mini-tire changer? Mini-Tire Changer

They are referring to the Mini.
I have one, and it works great. For the actual tires in question (and likely most small tires) I use several small C clamps to clamp on the rim keeping what I got when installing the tire.

dnw64 · Dec 8, 2018

rhunt said:
Texasmark, you are welcome. With that tool it makes changing small tires easy. Bob

I will try and remember this tip if I decide to change out my ZT tires. Thanks for the tip, and those who followed up with positive reviews.

One thing I thought of when looking at it is, it has to be mounted, and I would use it rarely enough that I'd want it anywhere permanent. I foresee making a base that it can be bolted to so you can move it around. Something big enough that you can stand on it to hold the whole thing in place while you're working on it, but not so big that it's ungainly to find a place for it. What have you folks done?