I started tracking my daily driver S2000 last summer. I have discovered that flipping tires and mounting new ones gets expensive at tire shops. Is there a practical way to mount and balance tires yourself? If so, what equipment is needed?

 

I picked up a used mounting and balancing machine off craigslist for 1k back in 2008. Since I have more than paid for it. If I sell it, its worth 1k assuming you maintained it. Practice on old rims, but the trick is keeping the bead of the tire below the raised portion of wheel towards the lip, allowing the tire to stretch over the lip of the wheel. Watch videos and learn how you can get injured. A modern machine with plastic heads and an extra arm to hold the tire down is nice, but the plastic is more sensitive to stiffer tires/sidewalls. In general, Hankooks and BFGs are easy, Dunlops and Bridgestones not so much! Get it for convenience, nothing else.

 

I bought a nice hunter mounting machine from a gas station that was closing down back in 2008 when the economy tanked. Blow out price of $500 i think. Since then I've mounted 30+ sets of mine and my families tires. I bought a cheapie $80 balancer from Harbor Freight that is basically a stand with an air bubble gauge. Balancer works surprisingly well. Never had to re balance a tire. And that's at 100+ mph on track.

The stick on weights are surprisingly expensive. Get em in bulk from rockauto or amazon.

Remember it's not 100% free once you buy the equipment. It takes 45 min to get a set done and to me time is money. If you do a bunch or sets it a row it goes quicker, but that's rarely the case. Each time you do a set every few weeks, you have to come back and rethink what you are doing. It's a very methodical process and it's easy to get tired and skip a step or have a leaky bead out of carelessness.

I do the tires for my 2 s2000 race cars, my lemons team, my parents cars, my wife's lexus, etc. Do yourself a favor and don't tell you friends about it. They'll be lining up at your door for cheap tire changes and are quick to forget it's work!