air compressor and tire machine psi requirements

[Garett]

Opinions and suggestions please, very frustrated with this. I've been fighting with this used hunter tc3500, It's completely run by shop air, no electric at all.

There is no side shovel on it, It uses rollers to squeeze rotating tire to break bead. After rebuilding the air over hydraulic pump twice and changing out the air only rams and air control valves, the hydraulics are now good. The quick air cylinders do not hold, then I relocated the tire machine to the other side of the shop, drilled through the wall of my compressor room and hooked it right up to my 60 gallon/135 psi max compressor... still not enough strength in the air rams. I have now come to the conclusion I don't have enough shop air pressure. Of course I also noticed on the machine it says 150 psi, do not exceed 220 psi. Damn that's high!

Now for the questions, my 135 psi compressor was putting out 125, I adjusted the cut out to give me 135. How high would you safely take this? I'm guessing 135 is for the pump not tank? I will T in another 20 gallon tank today to see if it helps. Any other suggestions for getting enough pressure? Or time for higher psi rated compressor ($1500) or get another tire machine(probably).

 

[larry_g]

Does the tire machine have an internal pressure regulator?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Garett]

Does the tire machine have an internal pressure regulator?

lg
no neat sig line

It does, with a gauge. If I turn the table and squeeze it dips under 100psi. If I let the compressor air up, and don't touch the air robbing turntable. If I just squeeze the tire, the hydraulics overcome the air cylinders that end up spreading apart. Hard to put into words, you'd get it if you saw it.

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

I just read the operation manual online and it states 'Operating Pressure 145 PSI'. I would say that you need more compressor. I would suggest a 2 stage pump that will give you 175 PSI and at least an 80 gal. receiver (120 gal. preferred)

Remember that setting your pressure switch to cut-out @ 135 only gives you 135 at that point, from there out, your pressure is dropping until it reaches cut-in pressure which is probably 80 PSI I would guess.

 

[yodasfro]

I have a tc3250 and yes they require a lot of air mine needs at least 12-14cfm @ 145psi. I am looking into getting new bigger compressor for it right now. Yours may require more with the bead rollers. Try emailing https://equipmentcity.net/ and see what they say.

 

[Garett]

Thanks guys, I knew i'd get some info here.

This compressor is less than a year old, I'd hate to upgrade already.

For today at least I tried a mechanical lock, I macgyver'd some tires but it's not right. I ordered some air valves from amazon, I'll put them inline with push/pull rams and see if they will hold it.

 

[Rod B]

I have an older TC3700 that I'm using in my home shop, it has an electric table, the arms (like yours, I suspect) as well as the side shovel.

I was never able to break a bead with the rotating table and arms, with one exception. I was able to do that with of the tires from my F150 truck, which have very flimsy side walls. Even then it was not as good as the shovel.

During my tests, I had the pressure running around 120 PSI.

Also, of note... I recently changed my compressor and I had a hell of a time seating the bead on the truck tires with bead seat blaster (if that is what it's called). I realized my new compressor was set at 110 PSI and my old one was 120 PSI. Once I set my compressor at 120, it was able to seat the beads OK with the blaster (but still not ideal).

After reading your post with the issues you are having, I think that I may also need more PSI to get the beat seat blaster working better. However, I may not bother, as it's workable the way it is, and I only need that with the floppy truck tires.

Cheers,
Rod

P.S. I was able to pick up this machine for $300 on Kijiji (Canadian equivalent to craigslist, I think). It had a broken bead shovel arm that required some welding. I also had to replace some of the internal components at a cost of about $100. Apparently it was a machine that the shop used as a spare, but they ran into it with a client car and the guy just wanted it out of the shop! Anyhow, I had an older COATS machine (probably 20-30 years old) that I found from kijiji for around $600, and the bead shovel was awesome on that machine. Maybe you could find an older machine with the shovel for cheaper than replacing the compressor??

 

[Garett]

I have an older TC3700 that I'm using in my home shop, it has an electric table, the arms (like yours, I suspect) as well as the side shovel.

I was never able to break a bead with the rotating table and arms, with one exception. I was able to do that with of the tires from my F150 truck, which have very flimsy side walls. Even then it was not as good as the shovel.

During my tests, I had the pressure running around 120 PSI.

Also, of note... I recently changed my compressor and I had a hell of a time seating the bead on the truck tires with bead seat blaster (if that is what it's called). I realized my new compressor was set at 110 PSI and my old one was 120 PSI. Once I set my compressor at 120, it was able to seat the beads OK with the blaster (but still not ideal).

After reading your post with the issues you are having, I think that I may also need more PSI to get the beat seat blaster working better. However, I may not bother, as it's workable the way it is, and I only need that with the floppy truck tires.

Cheers,
Rod

P.S. I was able to pick up this machine for $300 on Kijiji (Canadian equivalent to craigslist, I think). It had a broken bead shovel arm that required some welding. I also had to replace some of the internal components at a cost of about $100. Apparently it was a machine that the shop used as a spare, but they ran into it with a client car and the guy just wanted it out of the shop! Anyhow, I had an older COATS machine (probably 20-30 years old) that I found from kijiji for around $600, and the bead shovel was awesome on that machine. Maybe you could find an older machine with the shovel for cheaper than replacing the compressor??

You did good at $300. I'm also in Canada, I traded some storage for mine.

As far as the original problem, I had my service rep buddies out to have a look, again! We tried another command valve, same issue. He suggested to lube the quick travel ram sliders, amazingly it worked. I suppose the thin film of 50w oil added at the zerk fitting to the slider block holds it better than the thick lithium grease I applied directly to the sliders. Unbelievable.

I hope this helps somebody down the road when they google this problem. I know I searched and searched, I never saw this as a solution.