HF tire changer

[gregs]

I have been working on modding my HF tire changer and finally got around to building a duck head arm to improve the mount / dismount. It potentially works great so far until I encountered a older(hard & stiff) lower profile tire I removed and installed for testing purposes. Want to work out the bugs before I screw up new tires. I was having a lot of problems keeping the wheel located in the center so the duckhead stayed at the same location 360 degrees. Also the wheel wanted to slip and loosen up and it finally broke the pin off that goes thru one of the lug holes. I found that there is a cone available to keep it centered and found a print on thingieverse for one. So I printed one for testing purposes and it solved that problem. But I still need to figure out how to keep the wheel from turning and what to do about the pin that broke loose. I saw some people used a bolt in place of the pin, however the bolt would still need to slide in the slot for different lug patterns while keeping the wheel centered. I thought about laying out the typical lug patterns (4.25 thru 5) on the plate and and drilling one hole for each opposite the pin to be used in combination with the original floating pin. Maybe weld a nut underneath so you dont have to hold it when tightening the bolt. Also thought to just use another bolt and nut in place of the pin. Might have to cut the bracket off underneath because I dont think there is enough room for the nut, but it would follow the slot. Any other ideas?

 

[whateg01]

I've leaned into mine pretty heavily over the years on some tires and haven't damaged the anti-rotation pin. How hard were you pulling on it?

 

[gregs]

Not that hard I thought. Seems like a known problem for the pin to break at it’s weld and fall out.

 

[Wolley]

Mine broke the pin and the hold down spacer pretty quick. I drilled 4 holes for the wheels I was working on. The pure chineseium drilled very easily and I will drill more if needed.

 

[whateg01]

Mine is probably close to 20 years old. Maybe they don't make them like they used to.

 

[gregs]

Mine is at least 15 years old. Bought it and the motorcycle adapter. Used the motorcycle part a few times and never got around to really bolting it down until now.

 

[driftpin]

Anyone use a receiver hitch mount for the base, for either car/truck tires, or the motorcycle adapter?

 

[whateg01]

Anyone use a receiver hitch mount for the base, for either car/truck tires, or the motorcycle adapter?

I have plans to make one so I don't have to keep it bolted down.