Help me design mobile car tire rig

[gsr46r]

Hey all,

I did all this training and spent money to get my cdl and found myself back in square 1- missing the freedom of running my own business

I do mobile tire changes and repairs for tractor trailers. Y’all helped me choose a compressor a while back. Here’s a photo for reference


Anyway, I get tons of calls.. “uh, I know it’s late but I need a tire for my Camry.” It absolutely kills me to turn down business but I finally hate my day job enough to run my truck.

Here’s the goal-
-Install car emergency car tires (this is like 911 for ppl who drive on a tire and ruin it without a spare)

-offer my services in upscale areas. I can drive to someone’s office and put fresh rubber on a Porsche

-would need wheel balancing machine for this

I need suggestions for tools and getting a rig setup for this. A truck driver recommended I use a utility trailer. When I was doing well, I bought a 8x12 utility trailer which made moving the tires easier.

If I were to attach a wheel balance machine and mounting machine to the utility trailer, I would worry about theft which makes me wonder if I want an enclosed trailer.

Also my service truck is showing its age. I love the truck to death, but it’s got the crappy 47rh trans and is tiring to drive after a while.

With tire setup on the trailer, I could hook up to my newer truck which would also make my business more presentable

Please let me know ideas for equipment (wheel balance machine, mounting, generator, etc)

If you have any ideas for add ons let me know as well.

I’m not cheap when it comes to buying tools and having a new project will motivate me to work my day job and become independent one day

 

[bwringer]

You'd definitely need an enclosed trailer; the machines really should be out of the weather.

What will you do for "emergency" inventory? There's a lot more variety in car tire sizes and consumers and modern cars are very picky. A lot of cars will throw a TCS or TPMS code if one tire is slightly different. Dunno... that sounds like a bit of a nightmare. And Mr. Camry McCheapo will pitch a real ***** over the price you'll need to charge to get out of bed. You're going to have trouble with chargebacks, etc. for these jokers.

The idea of changing high-end car tires on-site seems pretty interesting, especially if you can become a preferred installer for TireRack.com and simpletire.com. That way, you can plan ahead, etc.

However, owners of these cars are PSYCHOTICALLY picky, so be ready for that. Presentation and service are everything. You'll need to show up in a shiny new rig (that truck wouldn't be admitted through the gates in some neighborhoods), with a nice sharp clean jumpsuit, nice haircut, fresh shave, maybe a bow tie, shiny tools, a high-end touchless mounting machine, etc. Literal white gloves would not be a bad idea, and I hope you like being watched. NOT using impact tools is a big requirement for many of these folks. Everything clean, clean, clean. Maybe you could find an "in" with the local car clubs, be there for their track days, etc.

This is what Ferrari owners expect; a surgically clean, spacious shop, uniforms, etc. I mean, these are mechanics working in white shirts, FFS... crazy.

 

[General Geoff]

^^what @bwringer said. High end car service demands fastidious attention to detail and appearance. Optics are just as important as the actual work being done. And of course, not a scratch or scuff or fingerprint left on the client's vehicle.

 

[gsr46r]

You'd definitely need an enclosed trailer; the machines really should be out of the weather.

What will you do for "emergency" inventory? There's a lot more variety in car tire sizes and consumers and modern cars are very picky. A lot of cars will throw a TCS or TPMS code if one tire is slightly different. Dunno... that sounds like a bit of a nightmare. And Mr. Camry McCheapo will pitch a real ***** over the price you'll need to charge to get out of bed. You're going to have trouble with chargebacks, etc. for these jokers.

The idea of changing high-end car tires on-site seems pretty interesting, especially if you can become a preferred installer for TireRack.com and simpletire.com. That way, you can plan ahead, etc.

However, owners of these cars are PSYCHOTICALLY picky, so be ready for that. Presentation and service are everything. You'll need to show up in a shiny new rig (that truck wouldn't be admitted through the gates in some neighborhoods), with a nice sharp clean jumpsuit, nice haircut, fresh shave, maybe a bow tie, shiny tools, a high-end touchless mounting machine, etc. Literal white gloves would not be a bad idea, and I hope you like being watched. NOT using impact tools is a big requirement for many of these folks. Everything clean, clean, clean. Maybe you could find an "in" with the local car clubs, be there for their track days, etc.

This is what Ferrari owners expect; a surgically clean, spacious shop, uniforms, etc. I mean, these are mechanics working in white shirts, FFS... crazy.

Bro I laughed out loud at the Camry and pickup truck. I notice I never get stopped in my 2020 truck either.

Thank you for the sites- I’m gonna look into the tire rack installer sites. That would be a good source of revenue

I know truck drivers pretty well but don’t know much about the luxury market. It would be a big learning curve for me. I imagine Ferrari owners wouldn’t like getting lube and grease all over their wheels either

I gotta figure out the market for the luxury people more. It would be an add on to the truck tire service. I don’t wanna reinvent the wheel though- I’ve learned to focus on a single are for service jobs

 

[KnurledNut]

Trying to do semi repair AND luxury/exotic repair doesnt seem like a good idea to me.
Since your already doing commercial, how about adding OHV/AG/construction instead?

Triple-A-Tire Service did this and posted some good videos of different jobs on YT.
https://www.youtube.com/@TripleATireService/videos

 

[Zewnten]

Why not do semi tires? Guy I know did smaller equipment and semi tires for bigger dirt working companies. Drove around in a 3/4 contractors van with an engine driven air compressor and some basic tools. Kept a small conex on good customers sites filled with tires only he had the key to. Would show up once a week or for a call and make sure the trucks tires were in good shape. For custom stuff like getting foam filled tires on a telehandler he had a trailer to carry them on.

 

[joel_400]

BeadBuster XB-452 (BB7) | BeadBuster

SKU: BB7 Automotive Tire Bead Breaker FREE SHIPPING! For use on: Passenger Vehicles: Cars & Trucks ATV's, UTV's (aka. Side x Side's) Motorcycles: Street & Dirt, Scooters Race Cars (ie. Sprint, Dirt Track) Trucks, 4x4's, Jeeps Trailers Lawn Mowers, Garden Tractors Go Karts, 1/4 Midgets...

beadbuster.com

Best tool I've invested in for at home/mobile tire repair/replacement. Absolutely sweet! Well worth the money! And very portable. I know it's not the answer to all of your questions, but a very good answer to one of them. I've sold many of these for this company by letting coworkers and buddies use mine! Once they use it, they have to have one!
Joel

 

[bwringer]

Just a thought, but there is also a market for mobile motorcycle tire changes.

That said, there is a STEEP learning curve involved with getting motorcycle wheels off and on safely. (The tire changing and balancing part is pretty straightforward.) If you are not already familiar with working on a wide variety of motorcycles, it's really easy to screw this up with potentially disastrous results. Lost spacers, damaged wheel bearings and speedo drives, and issues with the brake components are quite common. And there are some specialized tools and adapters you'll need, especially for Euro bikes like BMW and Ducati.

I do know there are people who do a bit of business doing "carry in" motorcycle tire changes. The owner brings in the tires and the wheels, and they do the change and balancing. This isn't going to make anyone rich, though...

There's also a steep learning curve with high-end cars, too -- as just one example, many fancy-schmancy suspension systems require being placed in "jack mode" before raising the car, and the arcane procedures for this are widely varied and obfuscated. If you don't do it exactly right, it can mean a very expensive trip on a flatbed to a brand dealer for an elaborate recalibration procedure.

 

[dmparksa]

I'm not in the industry and I'm just a weekend DIYer, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

I think the emergency tire changes are going to be a logistical nightmare unless you've got access to a warehouse full of different sizes of tires 24/7. Or you want to foot the bill to build up that warehouse and inventory of tires. A possible idea might be to work at a local tire shop for a few months, figure out the most common 5-10 sizes in your area and stock those around the house.

Something else I thought of that you could do is to have loaner donuts of varying sizes for most common vehicles in your area, and partner with a local tire shop or two for the customers to drop off the loaner donuts at those locations or pick them up after a tire change. If they're driving through town and won't be staying, you could sell them the donut so they can be on their way until daytime and they can get in for a tire change 100-150 miles down the road in the morning.

Probably still a logistical headache as you go chasing after your loaners, but probably better than keeping a large stock of tires.

 

[djbmw]

As others have said - the world of standard light and medium duty tires is quite different than 'high performance" tires and even more different from tractor trailer tires. Tire service is ONLY lucrative if you're selling tires and other repair services. Offering tire mounting & balancing on it's own is not very profitable in a competitive market. Having said that, here are my thoughts on your three bullet items:

-Install car emergency car tires (this is like 911 for ppl who drive on a tire and ruin it without a spare)

If these are tires that you supply then you will need to partner with a tire retailer or wholesaler. These tires can be new or used.. but your partnership will need to be strong enough that you have a key to the warehouse to gain access in the middle of the night or during off-hours.​

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Failing a partnership, you will need to stock a set of tires in the most common sizes (top 4 common sizes for 15", for 16", for 17", etc.). That's a lot of inventory and capital for 'emergency' situations.​

-offer my services in upscale areas. I can drive to someone’s office and put fresh rubber on a Porsche

If you're installing rubber on high end cars/expensive rims, you will need a "touchless" tire machine with bead assist. These are usually 2x to 3x the cost of a basic machine. The Chinese ones are decent though and I would give them a serious consideration. Make sure to keep in mind what type of power and air requirements they have.​

-would need wheel balancing machine for this

Any relatively new balancing machine would work fine.. just make sure it has the rim range for the types of wheels you'll be working on. The majority of machines need 110 volts at 5 amps or so. You will need to find your local supplier for wheel weight, mounting paste, etc.​