Harbor Freight Tire Changer No-Mar Mod

Anyone who owns one knows how much the rim clamps on a Harbor Freight tire changer will tear up a rim if some sort of rim protectors are not in place.

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Nothing a Sawsall won’t fix

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Cut & grind… rinse and repeat two more times… FWIW, I wasn’t being too fastidious in my work, paint, or prep… it is after all a HF tire changer not a Ferrari!

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Well, I bought some No-Mar Posi-Clamp Spools (AC-StdSpool $12), 3 flat head bolts, 9 nuts & split ring lock washers from my local Dickey Bub’s (stainless $7), and used some flat steel to modify the set-up to give better clamping force and more rim friendly results.

BTW- turns out that No-Mar, a company I’ve heard so much about on VFRD is a couple of towns over from me… could’ve rode over and picked it up if the web site had given me that option.

I drilled mounting holes for my spools and plates and tried to counter sink the plates so my fasteners would be less exposed to contacting the rim… didn’t have a proper countersink so I made do with a larger tapered bit to give enough sink to keep ‘em out of the way…

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Everything painted to protect exposed steel & prepped for assembly…

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Assembled clamps

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Modded HF Tire Changer…

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… I hope it works…

Looks like they will work fine. Nice job. I bought the nylon ones that someone was selling a couple years ago that just bolt on top of the stock wheel stops. They definitely take the worry out of tire changing. I hope you picked up the yellow 3rd hand thingy they sell at No-Mar, unless you already had one. Those things are da bomb!! You can only have mine when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. :beer:

FJ12Ryder

Looks like they will work fine. Nice job. I bought the nylon ones that someone was selling a couple years ago that just bolt on top of the stock wheel stops. They definitely take the worry out of tire changing. I hope you picked up the yellow 3rd hand thingy they sell at No-Mar, unless you already had one. Those things are da bomb!! You can only have mine when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. :beer:

I did pick up the third hand YellowThing Tire Tool... I wondered about it and it looked like it would be useful; thanks for the feedback on it's functionality; I'm looking forward to using it, along with the 16" SpoonBar I picked up from No-Mar, to mount my new Angel GTs

The worst part that I've had with changing tires at home is trying to keep from chasing the tire around the rim when mounting it. The 3rd hand thingy stops that behavior. You put it on and that tire doesn't move. I love it. I use a Coats mount/dismount bar with my HF setup.

Just mounted a set of Angel GTs myself about a month ago. All I can say is get them nice and warm, they have some of the stiffest sidewalls I've had the pleasure of mounting. I will say that the beads seated really quick, only got to about 25 psi or so and they popped right up.

Can't tell you about handling on the VFR since they are on the 599, but I really like them. I think they communicate a bit better than the Michelins on the VFR. Can't say anything about wet traction, haven't been out in the rain on the 599 since they were mounted.

I have the nylon thingies on my HF changer....no worries with that simple mod.

Great idea, and nice job! I'm fortunate enough to have a NoMar changer and find the yellow thingy and their mount/dismount bar to be indispensable.

Well done young man!

gloryracing

Well done young man!

Thanks Pops!

Funny as that is what my son calls me. He however is much better looking than you.

gloryracing

Funny as that is what my son calls me. He however is much better looking than you.

however, I'm sure he must take after his mother...

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Not at all pertinent to this thread..... but when I was in college I dated a girl from Arnold. When I would visit her in the summer we would drive up to Times Beach and look at all the vacant houses and streets through the fence. It was eerie. I heard the whole town is gone now and is a state park.

I may get motivated and modify my HF changer like you did. Right now I just have sliced up shampoo bottles lining the jaws. That seems to work OK for me, but your modification looks a little cleaner.

Nice job. My set up is pretty midevel in comparison. Lets just say I use a lot of swear words to change my tires.

Here's an old thread that shows the nylon "Mojoblocks" for the HF changer: http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php/topic/47328-adding-mojo-blocks-and-no-mar-bar-to-hf-tire-changer/

They do work very well, and you won't scratch a rim.

Lee 2002

Not at all pertinent to this thread..... but when I was in college I dated a girl from Arnold. When I would visit her in the summer we would drive up to Times Beach and look at all the vacant houses and streets through the fence. It was eerie. I heard the whole town is gone now and is a state park.

I may get motivated and modify my HF changer like you did. Right now I just have sliced up shampoo bottles lining the jaws. That seems to work OK for me, but your modification looks a little cleaner.

It is Route 66 State Park now... the incinerator they built onsite to burn the town and the top 12" of soil was imploded and buried...it is a hill in the middle of the park now... no sign of the town anymore

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FJ12Ryder

Here's an old thread that shows the nylon "Mojoblocks" for the HF changer: http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php/topic/47328-adding-mojo-blocks-and-no-mar-bar-to-hf-tire-changer/

They do work very well, and you won't scratch a rim.

I did somehting like this, but I stole one of my wife's white cutting board and cut it up. stacked 3 pieces together with middle one cut shorter so formed a "c"