...are Kumho V700s hard to mount. I have been mounting my own tires for over a year now and I was getting all confident that tire mounting was my bitch. Heh.

It took two of us, two crowbars, and half a 40 oz. can of WD40 to mount these suckers... Not to mention it took over an hour and a half when 4 street tires take about 30 minutes.

They're a bitch to do but I'm still not sure it'd be better to get someone else to do them... at least not the local yahoos at Sears, etc.

Andy - who has a sore back and a couple of bandages...

 

What size tire on what width rim?

 

At the local tire shop it took them 45 min to do all four of my tires with all the machines - course this included balancing time.
Do you have your own machine or are you doing this with hand tools?

Please tell me how do you mount your own tires ?

 

THAT bad? wow... My Nitto 555s were the most difficult tires I've had to have mounted. Striper John's in Richmond tried for 5 hours and managed to get 1 tire fully mounted, and one on the rim but not on the bead. Another tire shop put 3 guys on it, it took them 3 hours to bead 1 tire and finish mounting the other 2. Those were 205/45/16. My 215/40/16 Kumho 712s were done no problem, as were my 205/55/14 Victoracers. (i THINK they were 55s anyways) Those were for my Integra on 16x7 and stock steels which I think are what, 14x5.5 or 6? My 225/50/16 Ecsta V700s were put on 6.5" wide wheels no problem. Though, these were all done by machine, but the Kumhos all went on with the least amount of difficulty. That might just be saying another thing about Nitto though.

 

V700's are seriously hard to mount. I have a friend that mounts his own. Takes 2 people to do it in a reasonable amount of time. He says they're harder to mount than any other current R tires.

Of course, if you have cool, and expensive, Hunter machines available, then it's a whole helluva lot quicker.

Warren

 

I didn't.

They are 195 55 Victoracers mounted on a 14 x 5.5 rim. One of the benefits of working next to a military base, is you get access to the auto shop. And their crappy 1975-vintage tire mounters.

THANK GOD I don't care about scratching up my rims... I can't imagine trying to do that with some nice alloys. OR, for that matter, a 225 on a 5.5 rim *cough*Chiles*cough*. Maybe Hoosiers are easier...

Andy

 

>>They are 195 55 Victoracers mounted on a 14 x 5.5 rim<<

I thought you were talking about the Ecsta V700's. A friend of mine just bought a set, and the tire shop thrashed two of his Diamond Racing rims trying to install them. They (grudgingly) paid for it, but refused to ever mount Ecsta V700's or work on Diamond wheels again. I've had three sets of race tires mounted to my Diamond Wheels by these same guys. Now I'll have to go somewhere else I guess. I was so excited at the prospect of getting 235/45/13 race rubber for a *decent* price. But now I'm getting pretty nervous about these new Khumos.

 

Agreed. I also mount most of my own race tires. I struggled with 205/50-15 V700's on '94 Integra wheels. The wheel was most of the problem due to its design. There's a large "lip" extending almost to the rim center that you have to press the tire beneath in order to get enough room for the rest of the tire to fold around the rim bead.

 

Hoosier 225/45/15 on a 15x7 wheel isn't easy either. But not as hard as you're talking about.
As far as the Kumhos go, a local Kaufmann tire had to buy Renee a tire last year because they ripped it trying to get it mounted. Needless to say, they won't mount race tires anymore.

Old BFG R1s were the hardest I've ever dealt with. They had some *** serious sidewalls on them.

 

Oh that was YOU guys. A bunch of Kauhfmann places have opened up around here and they wouldn't mount mine either. Thanks.

 

I'm grateful that I live so close to Gran Turismo East... now I'm just waiting to get some serious tires and wheels so I can capitalize on their expertise...

 

Yes.. they are quite stiff. It took me a couple of 40oz too.. .....After I got home from the tire mounting shop.

 

When they are open, Gran Turismo East is the best place to get this done. When it is 3 o'clock on a Saturday, though, and an autocross is on sunday, you are so seriously SOL that it isn't funny.
Chris-who has had to drive around the east side for over 4 hours to find someone to mount a single R tire...

 

Wow, I had some 205/60-13 V700s mounted on 13x5 rims twice, and they never bitched. I'm surprised!!! That's an 8 inch wide tread width pinched on a 5 inch rim, crazy!

 

Great...New Kumhos AND Evolution school. Now you, Keath, and the Franks are REALLY looking to drop the hammer this year. Maybe I should go back to HS with the trusty Civic? Anyway, I saw the Evolution school roster. Did you guys learn a lot? The next NASA event should be quite a battle in old ES/new GS!