On Sun, 30 Apr 2023 15:19:32 -0700, Bob F wrote:
Absolutely. I drilled holes in a cement walkway out back. The original plan was to use bolts so that I could remove it at will. I never removed it and the red has weathered to a nice rosebush pink.
The Egyptians built the pyramids with a plumb bob I'm told. And maybe even bubble levels for all I know.
HF sells a lovely aluminum and steel tire sized bubble level. HF sells only the stick on weights though. So you have to buy clamp on weights online.
Never. Balance isn't a problem because you can cut the weights to size.
You lay them on the rim while you're balancing and move them around like checkers until you get just the right amount of weight in the right spots.
That's the sixty-four dollar question. Every brand can be different.
Here is the instruction for mounting for my Yokohama tires.
I never did it in a rush. I bring a coffee if it's in the morning. And a beer if it's later in the afternoon. I take my sweet time doing it.
However, if you were in a race, it shouldn't take you appreciably longer or shorter than it takes a tire shop to do it since you do the same steps.
You chock & lift the vehicle and place safety jack stands where needed. Remove the wheel & tire assembly & remove the schrader valve inside pin. Lubricate heavily with a spray bottle with a dab of dish soap in it. Break the 1st bead and then flip the tire & break the 2nd bead. Put the tire on the tire mounting stand & remove the 3rd (top) bead. Lift the tire into the drop center & remove the 4th (bottom) bead. Lift the tire off the stand and remove the tire valve from the rim. Inspect the rim and clean it up if needed & look for match mount marks. Usually they're long gone so just mount the red/yellow dots to the stem. Pop a new stem in (the better ones are all metal and as long as you like). Remove the schrader valve from the new valve stem. Throw the new tire onto the rim & lubricate lightly with a spray bottle. Set the 5th (bottom) bead by running the tire iron in a 360 degree circle. Set the 6th (top) bead the same way - but you might need extra tire irons. Attach a wide-open air gun rubberbanded open to the valve stem threads. Lift the lower bead into the drop center & lift the top bead to the rim. Fill with air until it pops. If necessary, grab the bazooka (1 out of 10). Once it pops into place, replace the valve stem schrader valve inside pin. Fill to 60 psi and spray soapy water checking the uniformity of the set. Drop it back to 30 psi (or whatever you want) and remove wheel from stand. Check that the static tire balancer bubble dot is in the center circle. Put the tire & wheel assembly gently on the static tire balancer. Place weights along the rim as needed & when satisfied, glue or crimp on. Flip the wheel and do the other side but usually it's already balanced. Place the wheel & tire on the vehicle & torque to the manufacturer specs. Take it for a test drive. You're not going to get vibration.
If you get vibration (you won't), then take it to Costco who will charge five dollars to balance any wheel/tire even one that they didn't do.
Not counting the test drive, it will take you as long as you want it to. The only hard beads are the 1st bead and the 6th bead. The rest are easy.
Maybe a half hour if that's all you do but normally I take my time while I have the wheels off. Normally I rotate them. And I check the brakes.
It's pretty safe that if that's all you did, and hour would be plenty. That's not counting the shower you'll want to take after blowing all the brake dust out and washing your clothes and putting all the tools away.
Anybody, even the first time they do it, can do it in an hour, although you'll find in the beginning you need to make some special tools that make your life easier (like a way to blow air into the tire to set the bead).
You need to know basic anatomy like where is the drop center for your rim.