I am buying some new gta rims, and I asked a mechanic how to take the tire off my current rims and put them on the new ones. he said I would need to go to a mechanic for a special machine. is this true? can I not do it myself?

 

With the work it involves to do it by hand, it is well worth the $20 a tire to have them changed..... then you get them balanced at the same time, which will help out a lot.

 

You wanna spend a few bucks or all week? Even if you manage to do it yourself, you still hafta take them in to be balanced.

And you hafta hope you don't scratch up the rim itself.

 

In the old says we used a car jack (small version of the off-road jeep style) ,with the square base on the edge of the tire,near the rim,and jack down using the car bumper. This breaks the tire loose from the rim. (car bumpers were higher then) Flip tire over and break loose the other side......Then use coated tire irons ( to protect the soft aluminum rim ) working one inner tire edge into the center of the rim ,and the other side off the rim......way too much hassle....

 

thanks guys...im going to firestone, its going to cost me $123.00

 

$123 to take 4 tires off and mount them on 4 new aluminum rims.....high speed spin ballance.....hmmm. maybe special glue on wheel weights?

 

what do you mean? is that a bad price?

 

well I figured it could run up to $20 each ....but I'm old and everything costs more these days....guess $30 each tire is OK

 

wait... $123 just to remove, re-mount, and balance 4 tires!? The local tire shop up the road from me charges me $18 to remove my back slicks and mount new ones.

 

A lot of the chain places REAM you on mounting and balancing now. They charge $15 to mount and $15 to balance, each. I luckily have access to a shop that lets me use their mounting and balancing machines myself, after hours.

But yeah, you can't do it yourself. Even with coated tire irons, on nice wheels, you will scratch them. The good tire mounting machines now (the euro type ones) do not contact the wheel at all during mounting and dismounting.