I just purchased and used the Harbor Freight Portable Tire Changer and wanted to give my review and steps followed for others who want to take an old tire off and put a new one in the comfort of your own garage.

My motorcycle is a 1989 Harley-Davidson Electraglide Ultra Classic that I just picked up a month ago. I will review the steps I used to get the wheel off and back on in another post (it's a pretty involved process... dang!)

I called my local shop and they were asking $250 to install a new rear tire and grease the rear bearings not including the price of the tire. I had ordered my tire a Dunlop D402 online and I wanted to learn to do the job myself anyway so I went to my local Harbor Freight store to see what they had that would help me affordably do it myself.

I am self taught working on stuff and have a very limited tool set of low grade tools (wish I had better stuff but oh well I make do with what I have.) So if I can do this anyone can probably.

The tire changing unit I purchased cost me $39.99 plus tax. I didn't use any coupons but it was a sale weekend at the store so it might have been selling at a discount. They run deals at Harbor Freight online all the time and have the most affordable Fedex shipping I've ever seen anywhere before for stuff that is heavy ($6.99 to anywhere in the USA I believe).

It did not indicate on the box if you could use it for motorcycle tires so I took a chance there. It comes in a box and needs to be assembled and is painted a bright shade of red. If you want a part code just post here and I'll get it for you. It takes about 30 minutes to assemble it at a casual pace. The unit I bought apparently had not been drilled out properly so I ended up drilling one new hole for the base to mount with a pilot hole and the took it out with a step bit.

They suggest you mount the unit to a wood pallet or to your concrete floor for use. I went with a pallet. You need to get your own mounting hardware for this. I just grabbed a pallet from behind my work (most industrial parks have pallets laying around and I grabbed the smallest one I could find with quality looking wood that would not splinter under stress). You just drill in to the pallet through the holes in the unit then put in the hardware (I used a combo cheap carriage bolts, flat washers, locking washer, and nuts and lag bolts on my setup). This worked fine and I will include a video of it later today.

The way that you use the unit is a 3-step process.
So I will rate each step individually.
Step 1) Break the tire bead from the wheel
Step 2) Remove the old tire from the wheel
Step 3) Install the new tire to the the wheel

Step 1
First you use the bead breaking mechanism to break the tire bead from the rim of the wheel. It has 3 different height adjustments with a bolt and pin for easy adjustment. For my tire change I had to lower it to it's lowest adjustment point for maximum movement range and leverage to break the bead loose. I have never in my life changed a street motorcycle tire myself (motocross tires yes)... so keep this in mind as a give me review. I just broke the bead off by hitting the tire in 4 places at 12, 3, 6, & 9 o'clock on both sides of the tire.

So as a bead breaker I give this unit 3 out of 5 stars.

It works great but having to set it up on a pallet or drill it into something is not very convenient in my opinion. Also there is no way to keep the handle out of the way other that holding it up when you are making a adjustments to the tire position. This was kind of annoying too.

Step 2
Next you put the tire on the top of unit and it is designed to have the top unscrew off, thread the tire on through the hub, and then screw the top back on to secure it so that when you pry on the rubber to get it off the wheel stays in place. Also you are supposed to use the spindle to create a leverage point for the included 3 foot long pry bar to rotate around so you can more easily get the tire on and off the wheel. Well this is the big problem with this unit. It is designed for a car or truck hub diameter and a motorcycle tire hub is too narrow to fit on the spindle of the unit... ****.

So here's what I did. Since I was determined to change my tire myself. I removed the wheel bearing seals and bearings (needed to grease them anyway) place the tire on the top of the spindle and then I inserted my rear axel from the bike in through wheel hub into the unit to hold it. This did not lock the tire down mind you and also did not provide a pivot point for the pry bar.

I took some Lemon Pledge and sprayed it all around the rubber where it meets the rim then went to work pulling it off the rim. I also used a metal "wonder bar" which is basically a 1.5 foot long pry bar to help hold the bead off as I worked along around the rim. It worked fine and I had the tire off quickly and easily. The included pry bar is also painted a bright red and the paint comes off easily. It left some red paint on my mag wheels that came off easily with a rag. If you have like super nice chrome rims I probably wouldn't use this device at all for fear of messing up your rims.

1 out of 5 stars here because it does not fit a motorcycle. Apparently Harbor Freight used to sell a motorcycle adapter kit for this reason. But they don't sell it anymore from what I could find.

Note: I don't believe it would be necessary to remove your seals and bearings to use the unit with the method I described. It just will get the tire on the spindle and inch or two more for you.

Step 3
Putting the new tire back on the wheel starts out with the same setup for me. I put the wheel on the top of the spindle and then put in my rear axel to loosely secure it while I worked it on. Again I used lots of Lemon Pledge which is really the secret to helping things go smoothly. I again used the included red pry bar and my own metal "Wonder Bar". I was able to work the tire on in no time at all without any cursing... a victory.

I give it 1 out of 5 stars again because it doesn't fit properly.

My first impulse was to take it back for a full refund (60 days cash back with receipt). However, it did the job... just not in the intended way. And if nothing else it is a great bead breaker. Those alone can cost $40-$60 dollars. I will probably mod it to work properly for motorcycle tire changes and keep it now.

Video review coming later.

Thanks for reading.

 

That is an insane amount of money.
Check your local indys.
There is one around here that if you bring the tire it is about $30 to change the tube and tire.
If you ride in then it is about $50.

 

50 bucks for an on the bike tire change is unheard of around here. 30-40 off the bike, 2 hours for the rear, 1 for the front...65-85 per hour and I would not let any of them near my bike with a tool in their hand...

Ds

 

OP, thanks for the review

 

OP: Props for doing your own work.

$250 labor for a tire change (on the rear), and bearing re-pack is way too much. Even on a bagger, I can't see where this would take more than 1.5 hours. Problem is, the stealerships will get people to pay that. Not everyone works on their own bike.

In addition, I'd NEVER have anyone pack my bearings other than myself. One time. One time, I had a dealership install tires and pack the bearings. After that, I take the wheels off the bike, they remove/install/balance the tires, and I clean/pack the bearings.

On a side note: My son's sporty snapped the drive belt last week. The Stealership wanted $225 for a replacement belt. No idea what they wanted to install it. The local Indy wanted $200 labor + $50 tow to put a belt on. I got one online for $147 delivered. Luckily he snapped it in his driveway, so we'll be installing the new one this coming weekend. Sporty FSM seems to indicate that this is a fairly simple 'fix'.

 

Thanks for the review. Great write up. Your more dedicated to doing it yourself than me.

With everything considered you should have been more certain it would fit your cycle rim before attempting to change it on this device. You made it work, kudos. But you'll have to agree it took a lot more effort to jury rig it.

My local HD mounted my rear tire, greased the bearings and changed the worn brake pads (which is typical whenever replacing tires) for a little over $200 including pads, plus the cost of my tire. I was considering removing the rear wheel and dropping it off. The charge to mount would have been $50 off the bike, or for another $50 they would do the whole job. Bought the tire for a real good price so paying to have it mounted would have been around $250 altogether just for the tire. As it was I had about $350 into it for everything.

It was a no-brainer when it came to the amount of effort involved taking it off and putting it on, along with being certain it's adjusted correctly including belt tension.

Drove it in and I spent about an hour and half checking out bikes, getting to know the staff and walking to a nearby restaurant for a quick lunch while waiting for it. Would have taken that much time to take it off, then run it to them. And as a take off it would have waited for several other tire changes of "take off" others dropped off. They had the skill set and the parts to do this job better than me. Even owning a floor jack I still didn't want to tackle this.

I'm a "tight-wad" and typically do everything I can in the way of taking care of my own maintenance and repairs. I also know that my hands aren't what they used to be. Personally, straining them while exerting a large amount of energy using the tools needed to change a tire is too damaging for me.

One question ... Are you aware there is a marking on the tire that aligns with the valve stem? From the factory they locate the light spot and mark it to aid in it being (closer to) balanced.

 

I have a no mar changer. Way more money than the HF unit, but so much better. Does everything from 12" to 20". Clamps the rim so you don't have to screw with the bearings if you dont want to. (Sealed bearings on dirt bikes, etc.) The only thing most folks forget about DIYing their tires is you need to have a way to balance them. ( I do. )

 

I made a balancer from some materials I had laying around and I will post a video of that too.

 

Great post!

Changed my own rear tire on my 88 Electra Glide last summer using only hand tools, so I know what a job it can be. I think the hardest part was breaking the bead from the old tire. Couldn't find a reasonably priced bead breaker so I wound up using a huge C clamp from Harbor Freight and a couple small blocks of wood to distribute the load on both sides. It didn't work all that well so I may try to get a real bead breaker next time.

Taking the tire off and putting on the new one wasn't too bad as I recall, I'll watch your vid when you post it to see if the tire changer you bought looks like it's worth it for motorlcycles.

I'm facing the same job again soon and not really looking forward to it. But I'm also tired of having to pay someone to replace tires on my bikes. I live in Florida and I go through a lot of tires because my bikes are my sole transportation and I ride for fun too.

BTW, what did you use to set the bead on the new tire? I used what I call "The Ice Road Truckers Method" (Saturated the rim with carb cleaner and lit it with a long lighter, just like I've seen them do on the show). Scary as hell but it works. Hey it doesn't say don't try this at home on the show does it?

I tried a bunch of different ways and couldn't get it to set. When I tried the above it worked like a charm. Didn't even lose any hair on my arms.

And anyone else? How do you set the beads on your tires if you do them yourselves?