I’m looking to a buy a tire machine and balancer for the home shop. Have you bought one lately? Brand? Pros/Cons? Source? Cost? I sometimes see used machines online for sale but rarely see anything that seems like a good deal. Often it’s a worn out machine and I’m not looking for a project. I want something to setup and start using right away. It will be used primarily for 13” - 18” wheels. I would really like something that would do as small as 10” and as large as 20” wheels. Thanks.
I have a set. I've beet getting Greg Smith for the past few years, decent stuff for the price but it's not Coats for sure. But for "light to medium duty" home use they work fine. In the past I've had used Coats stuff and it was heavier duty, but the previous owner (commercial) didn't take great care of it so it always had problems and it was cheaper to get a new Greg Smith unit than to have that one rebuilt. The Greg Smith stuff is not perfect and not what I'd call "industrial quality" but for home use it works great. Especially if you are the first owner and take time to maintain it. Despite the caveats, I'd highly recommend the Greg Smith stuff for home use. Or just come over and I'll do your mounting and balancing for you -Bob C. p.s. If you don't have a relatively high quantity of work (i.e. helping all of your friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.) then it's probably not worth the investment. I worked a a few tire chains in my younger days (Sears Auto, NTB) and when I finally quit I realized how much work I was doing for myself and family/friends, which is why I bought it. And I had so much knowledge & experience, I consider it a talent that I'm kinda obligated to use. But if you are only going to do 5-10 sets of tires per year, I'd say to just bring the work to someone else because the machines don't like to sit unused either.
I had a set I bought from gregg smith......had about 15 years....it kept up great through the uses of my general repair shop.....I used to service several car lots and change several thousand sets of tires on these machines.....the last few years the tire machine kept splitting air lines.....these were atlas machines.....we paid 1750 for the set when new, sold them for 750......balancer working, changer needing new air lines. I replaced with a set from Derek Weaver....the assist arm is on back order still, but have since changed about 4 sets on this equipment with no real faults..... The new stuff seems to have have better plastic plates to protect the rim and a stronger bead breaker.....I'm hoingbto have to bolt the new balancer down tjough.......its very light and wants to tip when tightening the tire to the spindle. https://www.derekweaver.com/rodders...r-wheel-balancer-assist-arm-triple-combo-1-a/ I looked at some of the cheaper sets out there and didn't like some of the options like bead blaster on a hose instead of down on the table????? I liked I could under the ppl on the phone. The shipping was fast and included in the price with great tracking It looks like the prices have gone up since I bought mine less than 60 days ago ny a few hundred bucks....
I have a Coats 4040 I bought at the Turkey Rod Run 10 years ago for $250 and a bubble balancer I got for $40. Just mounted and balanced new tires on my Turbo Trans Am.
I have a Ranger. It's OK, lacks some of the features of the commercial units. It's taken me a while to get the hang of it, but I'm getting there. I got tires of the tire shops spinning my wheels once and calling it good. I'm very OCD about tire balance. Figured I could do it better myself. At least I take more pride in my work, like cleaning the old adhesive off. Monetarily it was not a good investment, but for peace of mind, definitely.
This is very true for balancing. I might consider recommending only buying a balancer yourself, and bringing rims (off the car) to a local shop for mounting only. Tire changers take up real estate, require a decent compressor, and as long as there is no damage then pretty much any tire shop can do the mounting work. But like you, I'm particular about my balancing. But even then, don't forget that a balancer comes with other burdens like a supply of wheel weights for all the different wheels and so on. We probably do 50+ sets of tires per year so it makes sense for us to fully outfit ourselves, but if you are only doing it for a few sets of tires per year then it's probably a waste of space and money. When I used to work at "real" tire shops, I had customers who would specifically request me to do their work. Maybe an alternative would be to talk to the sales guy and ask for the "best" technician to do your work and tell him up front that you'll be tipping the technician, that way the technician will take the extra 1-2 minutes per tire and use the "fine" setting on the balancer. And paying an extra $5 per wheel is a lot cheaper than buying your own machinery. -BC
My dad has a coats 40-40 and that works good and petty compact. It's an older unit he got for under 500, and he has had a bubble balancer for 30 years or more. The 40-40 has a bead blaster to seat the tire. I have seen 20-20s for cheap but don't know exactly what the difference is.
Bosch had a good deal on light duty combo. I think it was 2500 for the pair.. this was 4-5 yrs ago. I solf a couple sets, no issues.
A lot of new balancers come with this feature, but I find the benefits to be minimal (and not worth the effort) in just about all cases. But there are definitely those occasional times when this extra effort goes a long way! -BC
Thanks again guys for all of your responses. I read them all and I think I looked at every new and used machine listed online. I finally decided to get a tire machine and balancer from DerekWeaver.com. I think the machines will handle anything I need and I'll post my thoughts after I use it all a few times.
Mine work great, much smoother than my older units ever were. I can't wait till I get to order the add on asset arm. My only issue is the balancer is much lighter than my other unit was and when putting the tire on it wants to tip. I need to figure exactly where I want it to stay and bolt it down
Exact same situation here, assist arm is out of stock and the balancer will need to be secured to the floor after I figure out exactly where I want to put it. I also want to get the adapter to balance lug centric wheels at some point too.
