Tyre Changers & Wheel Balancers

Choosing tyre changers and wheel balancers

Changer and balancer are bought as a pair and work as one. Both need to handle the same wheels, and getting either wrong shows up immediately — in job times, in the state of customers' alloys, and in what your fitters say about the machine after a fortnight.

Tyre changers

Three broad types. Swing-arm machines are simple and lowest cost, and fine for steel wheels and lower volumes. Tilt-back with a helper arm is the sensible default for most UK garages: the assist arm holds the bead while the turntable rotates, which handles modern alloys and low profiles without the cost of a fully leverless machine. Leverless and touchless machines remove the tyre iron entirely and keep the tool off the rim, which is what protects diamond-cut and polished finishes at volume.

Check clamping range — internal and external separately — bead breaker force, and the maximum wheel diameter and width. Buy above your current maximum; wheel sizes have risen steadily and a changer is a long-term purchase. Our tyre changer buying guide covers the specifications that matter.

Wheel balancers

Dynamic balancing is the everyday job for modern cars and vans: two planes, correcting both vertical and lateral forces. Static handles a single plane and is largely superseded for road cars. Road-force adds a loaded roller that simulates the road, revealing radial force variation and rim run-out that a spin balance cannot see — a diagnostic tool for vibration that survives a correct balance, rather than an everyday machine.

What actually determines accuracy is centring, shaft condition and repeatability, far more than the feature list. Spin the same wheel twice on any demonstration machine and see whether it gives you the same answer. See our guide to choosing a wheel balancer.

Practical points

Both need adequate compressed air, particularly if the changer has bead blasting, which draws a sharp burst of volume — see workshop power and air. Keep protective inserts in stock and replace them when worn: a single refurbished diamond-cut alloy can wipe out the saving on a cheaper machine, as our guide to protecting alloy wheels explains.