Topic: Tire Mounting at the track

Is there usually someone at the track that can mount tires? My first race is in April and I wanted to keep from ordering more wheels than I need.

1988 Escort GT
2017 CMP Spring Heroic Fix
2018 CMP Spring IOE

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

That varies from track to track, but I would not count on having that service available.
I think you need to state what track you are asking about?
Since you mention April I could guess Gingerman?

I have seen some teams in the past with a tire mounting machine but not at every race.
The track has some shops located nearby that can do that and of course there's a Walmart about 6 miles from the track.
Again what track?

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

If you are talking Inde in April, while they do have a tire machine they are pretty reluctant to change tires.  I would plan on having to go into town.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

We are running Southern Discomfort at Carolina Motorsports park.

1988 Escort GT
2017 CMP Spring Heroic Fix
2018 CMP Spring IOE

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

There is a garage in Kershaw I think that usually stays open and has changed tires in the past.  Usually, someone has a changer on their trailer at CMP.  Or go old school:  Sledge hammer and two tire tools!

Note:  Think cheese grater on tires when you think of CMP.  The track is worn, and you may be lucky to keep a set of tires on the car all day Saturday.  The faster you go, the worse the tires get chewed up. YMMV

#508 Team SOB
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

CMP was interesting. We had to go to town to do it. And luck have it locals were basically *not very nice people* cause it was about 1.5hrs before closing and friday.
we had to go far enough to get service done. Found a nice shop farthest way, about 12 miles away from track, past the main town. They did good service, about 3-4 technicians worked on swapping rubber around. They made it happen in good time too. Need to google them to find them again.

In Loudon, NH there is a shop about 3.5 miles north of the track. just down the road, super awesome shop and nice people.

It be nice to just contact shops in the area, see if they will be willing to stay open Saturdays to help crews around. If they only were able to advertise their services...

https://www.facebook.com/greatglobsofoil/
This car....Is said to have a will of it's Own. Twisting its own body in rage...It accelerates on.
1978 Opel/Buick Isuzu(C>B>C>B) , 1996 Nissan Maxima OnlyFans (B) , Sold 1996 Ford Probe GT(B),

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

When you say in town did you go north or south?

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

we gone south,
Horton tire Co was very very bad shop [2618 Broad St, Camden, SC 29020]
Then Camden Tire, we suspect Horton guy called them ahead of time. [1109 Wylie St, Camden, SC 29020]
Then we gone to Randy's tire and lube, and that place was awesome. [744 Dewitt Rd, Lugoff, SC 29078]

It was same town that had the party and parade. So worked out ok.
Also got a hair cut, and found another buick/opel by Isuzu to be racing down there.

https://www.facebook.com/greatglobsofoil/
This car....Is said to have a will of it's Own. Twisting its own body in rage...It accelerates on.
1978 Opel/Buick Isuzu(C>B>C>B) , 1996 Nissan Maxima OnlyFans (B) , Sold 1996 Ford Probe GT(B),

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

Good to know.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

10 (edited by Type44 2017-03-14 04:35 PM)

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

cheseroo wrote:

If you are talking Inde in April, while they do have a tire machine they are pretty reluctant to change tires.  I would plan on having to go into town.

I don't doubt the truth of what you're saying, at all, but that is a pretty strange attitude to have. I'd understand them not wanting to let ME mount tires and wreck their fancy gear, but track personnel?

"I need tires mounted, here is money. You know, to help offset the business investment in tire mounting equipment?"

"I'd rather we didn't do that"

Seems strange. If they don't have a machine, fine. If they wanna charge $50 a tire, that's their prerogative ( God knows, we have set some money on fire during the heat of a race weekend. Full tank of  110 octane at Sonoma? Fill ER UP, the other tanks are empty!) but we just don't want to? Weird.

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

I have used the HF $45 manual tire changer bolted to a sheet of OSB. It works. And it's good exercise.

Everybody grab your brooms, it's shenanigans!

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

I keep hearing from a lot of never taught to use anything but the fancy expensive machine type folks that you can't use that changer on Alloy wheels, only steel?

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

It works fine on alloy wheels, or at least mine did. The bar scrapes along the lip and scratches them up, which is probably why most people don't use it, but I never cared what my Lemons wheels looked like.

Everybody grab your brooms, it's shenanigans!

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

I'm thinking that the manual tire changers need a sticker detailing how the pain levels rises inversely to the wheel diameter.  I had to lay down for a while and then sit in the hot tub after manually changing the 12" Imp tires.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

I changed eight 15" tires one day with it. It was quite a workout. I have since bought a used Snap-On tire changer and relegated the manual tire changer to emergency use only. And by emergency, I mean that my tire changer is broken and no tire shops are open.

Everybody grab your brooms, it's shenanigans!

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

cheseroo wrote:

I'm thinking that the manual tire changers need a sticker detailing how the pain levels rises inversely to the wheel diameter.  I had to lay down for a while and then sit in the hot tub after manually changing the 12" Imp tires.

You may need to look at some better spoons and lube.

Howabout Balance? Bubble good enough for racing or do you take them to get fancy balanced?

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

17 (edited by Guildenstern 2017-03-16 07:52 PM)

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

Also, couldn't you put the "Floating" head from a power unit on a bering on the center shaft and use that? Or is it a massive amount of torque to turn those?

Edit: Never mind, there are non Marring bars you can buy that don't scratch anything.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

Lube is good. I keep a spray bottle with soapy water handy, even for my pneumatic machine.

Balancing might be a challenge. I have no idea how accurate a bubble balancer is. I bought a used Coats balancer for my garage, but that's not real portable.

Everybody grab your brooms, it's shenanigans!

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

rmcdaniels wrote:

Lube is good. I keep a spray bottle with soapy water handy, even for my pneumatic machine.

Balancing might be a challenge. I have no idea how accurate a bubble balancer is. I bought a used Coats balancer for my garage, but that's not real portable.

Why would you balance your race tires?

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

I also practice the ancient art of manual tire changing.  15" alloy wheels, works great as long as you don't mind a few nicks on the wheels.

Harbor freight tire machine thingy - I ONLY use this to break the bead before removing the tire.  Line up straight and go slow & steady because it's not hard to bend the machine.  I've also seen people rig up attachments to truck bumpers/trailer hitches, etc.  That would make for a more stable & portable setup.  You need considerable leverage/force to break the bead.  On the HF machine, you can bolt it down, but you only need a stack of wheels or another person to stand on it while breaking the beads.

Once the bead is broken, I use 3 tire irons (1 big one, 2 small ones).  Start with the big iron, then work your way around with the small one.  Most important parts are using lube & taking small "bites" each time with the irons.

This has saved me a ridiculous amount of money over the years.  Especially because my car kills the tires' outer shoulder, and I'm constantly needing to flip the tire on the wheel to even out the wear.

I never balance them (removed all previous wheel weights).  I line up the yellow dot on the sidewall (lightest point of tire) with the valve stem, but not sure if that even matters.  Never had an issue with vibration or anything.

I'll be at INDE if anyone wants a demo haha.

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

OnkelUdo wrote:
rmcdaniels wrote:

Lube is good. I keep a spray bottle with soapy water handy, even for my pneumatic machine.

Balancing might be a challenge. I have no idea how accurate a bubble balancer is. I bought a used Coats balancer for my garage, but that's not real portable.

Why would you balance your race tires?

Why not? I find most speeds are right around 50 or so....... opps, sorry I forgot you usually don't get moving that fast. wink

It Ain't My Fault

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

kakarot1232001 wrote:

we gone south,
Horton tire Co was very very bad shop [2618 Broad St, Camden, SC 29020]
Then Camden Tire, we suspect Horton guy called them ahead of time. [1109 Wylie St, Camden, SC 29020]
Then we gone to Randy's tire and lube, and that place was awesome. [744 Dewitt Rd, Lugoff, SC 29078]

It was same town that had the party and parade. So worked out ok.
Also got a hair cut, and found another buick/opel by Isuzu to be racing down there.

Curious as to why did you chose to go to Camden or Lugoff when Kershaw was so much closer?  There a couple of shops in Kershaw also open on Saturdays, but I don't recall the name.  We have a few tires mounted there when we were in a bad spot, but we try to bring at least 4 news ones and 2 used to every race.

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

HAZE33 wrote:

Harbor freight tire machine thingy - I ONLY use this to break the bead before removing the tire..

I recently found the trailer jack is amazingly efficient for this task.

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

VKZ24 wrote:
kakarot1232001 wrote:

we gone south,
Horton tire Co was very very bad shop [2618 Broad St, Camden, SC 29020]
Then Camden Tire, we suspect Horton guy called them ahead of time. [1109 Wylie St, Camden, SC 29020]
Then we gone to Randy's tire and lube, and that place was awesome. [744 Dewitt Rd, Lugoff, SC 29078]

It was same town that had the party and parade. So worked out ok.
Also got a hair cut, and found another buick/opel by Isuzu to be racing down there.

Curious as to why did you chose to go to Camden or Lugoff when Kershaw was so much closer?  There a couple of shops in Kershaw also open on Saturdays, but I don't recall the name.  We have a few tires mounted there when we were in a bad spot, but we try to bring at least 4 news ones and 2 used to every race.

the parade is in Camden. If I remember right.

Balancing important to reduce wear on all the spinny and meety parts.

https://www.facebook.com/greatglobsofoil/
This car....Is said to have a will of it's Own. Twisting its own body in rage...It accelerates on.
1978 Opel/Buick Isuzu(C>B>C>B) , 1996 Nissan Maxima OnlyFans (B) , Sold 1996 Ford Probe GT(B),

Re: Tire Mounting at the track

kakarot1232001 wrote:

[Balancing important to reduce wear on all the spinny and meety parts.

Not as much as you think.  also, if you run alloys, check your weights after each race.  Bet you a case of my favorite beer within two races MAX at least one has shed some or all of them.