The cheap Harbor Freight style manual tire changer and bubble balancer does work. I bought mine at Tractor Supply, but the design is identical.
I needed new tires for the old Rodeo, when I saw a closeout sale from Pep-Boys that discounted these P225/75R15 M&S radials for $45 each. --- sold!!! So today it was time to mount and balance these new shoes, and while the wheels were off I decided to paint the rims with a new coat of gloss black. -- Not bad for a morning's work.
Since I really don't trust the local gas monkey's to mount and balance my tires, a few years ago I bought a manual tire changer and bubble balancer. Cheap tools --yes, but they get the job done.
The changer is anchored into some railroad ties on my garden walkway with some 3" lag bolts -- it doesn't move.
The balancer is set up and centered on the garage floor
To use the tool it's pretty simple -- there are tons of vids on YouTube explaining how.
With all the tires dismounted, it was time to spray some Gloss Black Valspar Implement enamel. The wheels are a bit beat up, but at least this new paint will clean them up a bit and keep the rust away for a few more years.
Two hours drying time in the hot sun was sufficient to get them cured and then it was just a matter of mounting the new tires. I installed new valve stems and used lots of dish soap and water to lube the beads. After that, the tires installed on the rim without effort.
Here's a hint about blasting the bead: when seating the bead on a new tire, I remove the valve stem core and then take my air hose quick connect coupling and push it over the open valve stem. With this method you get mountains of air since the valve core in not in the way, and the quick connect delivers full line pressure and air volume to the tire. The bead will quickly inflate and seat with a loud "pop". After that I remove the quick connect, install the valve stem, and use an air chuck to inflate to the required pressure.
Balancing is pretty straight forward -- center the bubble, cradle the tire on the cone, and then look at the direction the bubble is leaning; it's that direction that new weight must be added to re-center the bubble. In my case, I always try to split the weight between the front and rear of the rim -- so if 1.5 oz. will center the bubble, I put .75 oz. on each side of the rim.
First one done -
The others were just as easy. Total time to mount, balance, prep, paint, and reinstall all four tires -- five hours, but it took two hours to wait for the paint to dry. So this is basically a 2-1/2 -3 hour job.
Done -- the Rodeo has new shoes, and the wheels look cleaned up for summer.