Has anyone bought or built a duck head adapter for use on there manual HF style manual tire changer? Wondering how well it works and if it made a big difference on removing and installing the tire vs the standard bar or other spoons. Also how well does the bead breaker work as this is usually the hardest part for me? I inherited one of the HF units but haven't tried using it yet. I need something that I can use to change one set of car/truck tires a year along with trailer tires and any repairs. Plan on bolting it down with some anchors that will allow me to remove it when not in use.
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*update* Manual Tire Changer Duck Head Conversion *update*
- Thread starter gregs
- Start date
joshmodelskidoo
Well-known member
Look uo hf tire changer on YouTube. Sixtyfiveford has a few different ones on that
tjansson
Well-known member
The tire bar thing that comes with the harbor freight changer will scratch your rims. You can mitigate the scratching by greasing the rim and/or polishing the bar, but it will still happen. If it's just a steel rim on a work truck then whatever... The duck head conversion for the HF changers look sweet. I got rid of my HF changer but if I got another one I would totally do the duckhead conversion. Another option would be to try a better bar like a no-mar motorcycle tire bar.
The bead breaker worked for me, some old tires will be more difficult.
Are you going to balance them yourself? FYI i've had poor results with bubble balancers. In my experience you need a balance machine for a civilized road going vehicle.
The bead breaker worked for me, some old tires will be more difficult.
Are you going to balance them yourself? FYI i've had poor results with bubble balancers. In my experience you need a balance machine for a civilized road going vehicle.
You can get booties for the bead bars. ALso get rid of the chinesium bead lift bars. They will bend.
SPend $100 for the hunter curved forged bar, and a coates nylon booty for it. I use a normal electric/pneumatic tire changer at home and no bar takes the abuse that the hunter deals with. Low pro run flats are no match for it (but a damn workout for me).
And yes, unless you are dealing with 15" steelies on a slow speed classic, a real balancer will be needed for anything 55 series and under.
If its german, will need road force balancing.
SPend $100 for the hunter curved forged bar, and a coates nylon booty for it. I use a normal electric/pneumatic tire changer at home and no bar takes the abuse that the hunter deals with. Low pro run flats are no match for it (but a damn workout for me).
And yes, unless you are dealing with 15" steelies on a slow speed classic, a real balancer will be needed for anything 55 series and under.
If its german, will need road force balancing.
The tire bar thing that comes with the harbor freight changer will scratch your rims. You can mitigate the scratching by greasing the rim and/or polishing the bar, but it will still happen. If it's just a steel rim on a work truck then whatever... The duck head conversion for the HF changers look sweet. I got rid of my HF changer but if I got another one I would totally do the duckhead conversion. Another option would be to try a better bar like a no-mar motorcycle tire bar.
The bead breaker worked for me, some old tires will be more difficult.
Are you going to balance them yourself? FYI i've had poor results with bubble balancers. In my experience you need a balance machine for a civilized road going vehicle.
I have another thread going on a wheel balancer I bought that I am getting fixed. So that will take care of the balance portion. Looking at the duck head conversion it seems simple enough to built. Already scrounged up most of the steel I need. Thinking I will be $50-60 in it.
Finally getting around to building this and need to order the actual “duck head “ part. There are several different kinds. There are a couple different all plastic ones. And there is a all metal one that has replaceable plastic inserts. Anybody have experience with the different ones and how the work and how long they last?