Anyone change their own tires?

I typically do my own tire work. Call a tire shop and see what they’d give you for your old ones or sell them yourself. Sometimes you can get enough for them to where it’s not worth the hassle of putting them back on in the spring.

 

They don’t give you much for casings these days. And if they give you anything, they want name brands. My last set I sold each tire with some rubber left(don’t recall how much 32nds left) for $100.00 each. New set of Kelly’s KDA cost me just over $2400.00, minus the $800.00, I think I did pretty good. Now I’m due once again for a new set, this time I’m running those Kelly’s all the way down. My tire guy mentioned to me this week that Roadmaster(aka Cooper) is the best priced tire around right now with some really deep lug traction drive tire. He has seen some really good even wear on them. I run locally so I do a lot of twisting around the city at times. Will see want I end up doing.

 

Pomps in Illinois will give me $100 for each Michelin XZA 3 steer casings and $50 for General HD 660 drive casings. Combined with my carriers national discount,.. I can get new Micheline Steers for $400 tire (After discounts).

Just had all 10 replaced in Nov of last year. I'm at 86k mi on them now. Steers should make it to Nov 2018 no problem. Hoping the drives make it to 2019,.. so far so good.

Hurst

 

If casing is good, you could have them retreaded, I think $185 per tire through continental and they would make cheap spares to have for trailer tires or backup drives. I know most people don't like retreads, but if casing is good and you keep proper tire pressure, they are fine for spares.

I mount my own, don't trust shops. Make sure to buy a bucket of the packing grease in case you have trouble getting them to take air to seat the bead, if you don't have an air cannon. Also it greases them up good so that they seat properly. Never dry mount a tire. Also if they have a white, yellow, or other colored dot on them, that is for were the valve stem goes when mounting for best balance.

Make sure to clean the bead of the rim before mounting new tire. A round wire brush on a drill works great to get the old rubber off the rim.

Mount the new tires soon, as a lot of new tires need to have the first couple 32nds wore off for better handling, as the new tire will be slick on wet pavement for a time. You want to get that new rubber broke in. Especially if you buy a full 32/32nd drive lug. My continental HDL2DL's are that way and the first 15000 miles felt like driving on a spring mattress bc of lug flex. By the way loving them so far if anyone is thinking about buying them. I paid $425 a tire.

Well that's my 2 cents

 

I mount my own. Good $$$ savings there. Work smart letting the tools do the work and its not too bad otherwise you'll wear yourself down quick.

Agree with Lojack on retreads. Every time someone on here badmouths retreads they don't actually run them. Or if they did and had a failure it was squarely their own fault for running unknown casings and/or not maintaining them properly.

 

I do most my own tire work. I did all 8 drives one day. It took most of the day...... took two days to recover!
Them tire guys do it all day and make it look easy plus they're used to it. 4 is my daily limit.
I have a demount bar called the serpent. It works fairly well just make sure to use plenty of tire soap.

 

I did it in the oil fields, if you are a young man, have at it. I'll stick to my local tire shop. I would suggest getting a set of Crossfire tire equaliztion devices, you can get them on Amazon, like the old Cat Eyes. I have run those for a few years, and replaced one under warranty. They have been great in regards to tire wear and makes filling and monitoring the tires a breeze. On the steers, I have the tire shop high speed balance them, no Centermatics, just high speed balance and a good tire gauge.

Also, on the rear of your tractor, inspect the pin bushings and torque rod bushings on a regular basis. When those bushings start to go, so do your tires. Also, the wheel bearings in the drive axles should be re torqued every 200,000 or so miles. That too will keep your tires in good shape. I also have the shop perform a 3 axle alignment, and replace shocks yearly or every two years depending on your operation.

 

You can afford a 1" impact gun and air jack if you are doing your own tires. It will pay for itself quickly. Work smart, not hard

 

You don't need an air Jack. Little 12 ton does just fine.