Can you teach me more about lug bolts & related tire tools?

rbowman > wrote:

> I use the HF sockets and wrenches in my bike toolkits. If the kit gets
> ripped off I can replace it for about $50 and they get the job done.
> Other HF purchases haven't worked as well. When it comes to HF, the
> fewer moving parts the better.

I agree with you that the HF quality isn't always the best, but, it's "good
enough" for some jobs, where, I can tell you that the tire-changing tools
are OK for the number of tires we will be doing in our lifetimes.

I would gladly buy a wrench set for the emergency kit of my car from HF,
but I wouldn't use it as my primary set of wrenches (almost all of which
are Craftsman, which is middle-of-the-line stuff, IMHO).

The thing I have to stress about the HF tire mounter is that you can only
use the bead breaker attachment on easy tires such as a Japanese import
economy car, where it works ok on my European sport sedan, but it fails
miserably (it literally bends) on the SUV tires.

The other thing I stress about the HF mounter is that you must bolt it
down. You can get away with not bolting it down, but it's just not worth
the trouble that causes, compared to the slight issue of drilling four bolt
holes and popping in the inserts. I just leave mine in but you can unbolt
it in a couple of minutes if you want to store it collapsed.

As for the bed breaking tool, it too has a slight problem with SUV tires,
but all tires smaller are no contest. The SUV tires are too big for the
base, so they flip up, which in one of the videos you see a guy not
realizing that. The solution is simple, which is to put a board on the
base, which prevents the wheel from popping up on the side opposite where
you're trying to break the bead. With that simple addition, it works fine
for SUV tires.

I have no complaints with the static balance tool. I think it's a bit
pricey for what it is (it's just a cone-shaped bubble balance) but it's all
aluminum and it stores easily and certainly is easy to use so it does the
job.