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Mechanic Risks His Life with Cheap Tools to Help Harbor Freight Shoppers

Here’s a good example of one tire maintenance/repair tool that you are really better off avoiding…and pay a garage to do the job for you.
Don't Buy This HF Tool Warns Mechanic

A Job I Hated the Most

When I was a kid back on the farm, one of the most-hated jobs I had to do was when my old man decided I needed to switch out the tires on our old Chevy truck. Hated, because if there was a hard way for me to do a job, my old man had a knack for doing things on the cheap and tasking me with the wrong tool.

Scotty Tire Replacement Demo Memory

That was one of many painful memories that I had not revisited for many years until today after watching another infamous Scotty Kilmer YouTube channel episode where Scotty does a Show and Tell of physically changing the tire on a rim by taking the old tire off and putting a new tire on…using Harbor Freight tools.

Related article: New Harbor Freight Impact Wrench Torque Test Will Change Your Mind About Harbor Freight Tools

Back in the day on the farm, I had to do it with a heavy sledgehammer and a set of 4 tire irons that I suspect were probably old leaf springs at one time. After letting the air out of a tire, the sledgehammer was wailed on the sides of a tire until the bead broke free between the rubber and the rim. Then, the tire flipped over, and the process repeated until the rim and tire were no longer mated.

Then the fun part began.

The next step was to insert a tire iron between the rim and the rubber and pry the tire above the rim and insert a second iron along the opening gap to hold the gap open so it would not fall back into the rim…or the iron flipping up and whacking you on the chin.

This continued in a stepwise manner working around the wheel until the rubber was now completely above the rim on one side.

Then the real fun began.

The final step of tire removal was to leave the tire as it was and reach inside the tire to the lower rim and begin a similar prying/separation process until the tire came free of the rim.

Putting a new tire on the rim was just as much fun in reverse, but I think you get the picture.

Scotty Shows Off His Harbor Freight Tire Tool

In case you cannot see what the problem was doing it the old farm school way, the problem lay in that those old tires were unforgiving and unyielding. In short, not only was it painful hard work, but it was also…tiring.

The smarter way of doing the same job is using a tire changing machine with a hydraulic arm assembly to let physics do the work for you.

In Scotty’s case, however, he decided to risk life and limb by doing it the next best thing to the old farm school way by using a relatively inexpensive manual tire changer sold by Harbor Freight.

Can it really be done? Watch the video and see for yourself as 70-year-old Scotty demonstrates the advisability of buying and using this tool from Harbor Freight.

Never Buy This From Harbor Freight (Almost Broke My Hand)

For more Scotty-related tool reviews, here are two useful ones for your consideration:

Timothy Boyer is a Torque News automotive reporter based in Cincinnati. Experienced with early car restorations, he regularly restores older vehicles with engine modifications for improved performance. Follow Tim on Twitter at @TimBoyerWrites for daily new and used vehicle news.

COMING UP NEXT: Mechanic Buys the Worst Truck Ever Lesson to Shoppers

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