TireSmoke.org

History of the machine

Pretty sure I got this pneumatic tire machine from BP in late 2018/early 2019. Prior to this machine I had a manual tire machine that I got from my grandparents place back in 2003. BP got it from Carlisle swap meet, and at some point decided he didn’t need it taking up space in his garage. I’ve been using it with absolutely 0 maintenance. It struggles with pushing beads off or on – particularly with short sidewall tires. Recently I was attempting to remove tires off some 18” steel wheels and I damaged the machine.

At that point I started thinking about replacing this machine with something that could handle bigger rims, and be a bit more forgiving on aluminum wheels. This opened a whole can of worms. The first item is air pressure – I wanted to understand what air pressure a tire machine would require. As it turns out many of them require 175 PSI. The next issue is do I get a new or used one, and what quality am I looking for. Cheap Chinese new machines can cost as little as $1000. A new Coats is going to be in $7000 range. I reviewed a machine in the $2k range and $3k range. I really want to avoid Chinese unknown quality stuff and am not yet ready to pull the trigger on that stuff. But all this digging helped me start understanding what was going on with the current machine.

Machine capabilities

The machine is a Coats 4050A. Best I can tell it was made in 1995. I’m not sure where I got this information but I’ve been under the impression the max rim size is 17”. It has never had any issues with rims up to 9.5” width.

I was only in this latest project that I learned the model number, and acquired owner manual. To my surprise it does not specify the range of rims that can fit on this machine. It did provide a lot of very helpful info – more on that coming up.

In practice I’ve used it for 15-17” rims. It works well on steel wheels. To work well on aluminum rims it needs plastic guards on the bead/debead lever or count on scratches, or in some cases, gouges in the outside edge of the rim.

Repairs and adjustments

The damage to the machine was on the brace that helps break the lower bead. It’s a two part and the lower part got caught on the rim and bent down a corner. To fix it I had to remove the side covers, remove this part from the machine, and do some straightening on the vice. I tried putting heat to it but still managed to crack the metal. A quick trip to Kurt’s shop and that was welded up and back in business. One big tidbit from the owner manual was how to adjust the lower debeader. Turns out that all those years of garage service it was out of adjustment. I was able to fabricate and add a shim to the mechanism to make the debeader clear the rim. The instructions said put a 15” rim on the machine and set it up with 1/8” clearance to the rim. It needed a 1/8” thick shim to meet this clearance. Also learned from the owner manual that this machine can help you seat a bead with a big blast of air from underneath, and it’s supposed to have an air hose so you can inflate a tire right on the machine. All this time I wondered what the second pedal was for. On this machine the pedal was not operating correctly as it had half slipped out of the machine. When I went to test the inflate function, I found a 1/8 and a 1/4 NPT fitting opening on the side of the machine that were open, and air was shooting out of them also. I capped them with appropriate plugs for now, and now it puts out a big blast of air in the lower bead area through several jets. I later ordered the correct air hose with a clip on attachment for the valve stem and installed it.

On the function side I learned the air pressure operating range for this machine is 110-175 PSI. A quick check of my compressor showed that the max air pressure was only 120 PSI. That is max pressure I’m sure the bottom end of the range is 90-95 PSI. I had to do some learning on how to adjust the pressure but now it shuts off at 135 PSI. The bad news is I can’t go much higher than that as my compressors air tank is rated at 140 PSI max.

As it turns out all four exterior side panels were bent. They all got some attention, working to straighten them so they would fit on the machine correctly. Most of it was hammer and dolly, some vice grips, some work in the vise. I don’t know what they did to this machine but at least one of the supporting brackets also required straightening. About 1/3 of the attaching hardware was wrong or missing so I fixed that as well.

Maintenance

I also learned from the manual that there is some periodic maintenance on two hydraulic cylinders in the machine. The larger one needs hydraulic fluid. The manual says to fill it to within 1 3/16” of the top of the cylinder. I put well over 600cc of hydraulic fluid in there and it still was not up to that spec, but I decided it had to be better off. The smaller one needs a little 5w30. When I hooked it back up after this and put it through a cycle, it spit out at least 1/3 of what I added through a breather hole in the plug at high pressure. It literally sprayed the wall that was over 3’ away. I guess the instructions were not quite right. I was super glad the breather hole was not pointed toward me.

Detail

At this point I’m probably way too invested in this project, but the entire time I can see this machine is filthy. Spent some time cleaning heavy caked on crap off the frame, hoses, tank and other internal parts. I’m not pressure washing or degreasing internals just cleaning them off with a scraper.

I also wanted to straighten the operators side panel, as it was interfering with the pedal operation. As I was working on that panel I decided to clean the side panels. These I tried some Windex but the grime just laughed more or less so I upgraded to Purple Power. With that stuff and a brush I cleaned a LOT of grime off the side panels. The other side panel had been painted, and it turns out the Purple Power was able to remove most of that paint as well, uncovering the original Coats decal. Now that I’ve gotten this far into the rabbit hole, I cleaned up the end panels and the top with the same cleaning treatment.
What’s next

With these repairs I was able to successfully dismount 18” tires off steel wheels. The extra air pressure helped but I was probably around 115 psi and it was slow.

I would like to get a compressor with a 200 PSI tank, though it seems all 60 gallon tank compressors max out at 175 PSI or lower. I’m guessing my compressor and motor could support 175 PSI I just need a tank that can do it. There are small tank compressors that can do 225 PSI (for pneumatic nailers) but the volume output is below what is recommended for the tire machine.

In the meantime I’m also deciding whether I’m going to upgrade to a center clamp tire machine that can do much larger rims, and the current machine can keep doing its job.

Rabbit hole indeed! It does look way better. It also shows how tough these machines are as it was probably never maintained since it's in-service date back in '95ish. I'm sure it did not have an easy life before I got it.

-BP

Here is what will be my first attempt at more air pressure

It's a DeWalt DXCM271 - made in 2021. Got it cheap since it would only build limited air pressure. New this is around $700 I paid $90. I was hoping pressure regulator was the problem, but turns out it has a bad seal in the compressor part. It's an oil-less machine and the "ring" is not metal its some type of flexible material and part of it just came off. Dewalt does not sell replacement components for the compressor part - it's all one unit. There is a kit with the rod, cylinder, piston and ring for about $60. I'm looking for a cheaper alternative to do this test so I have some replacement parts on the way.

The unit says 200 PSI on it, but the tank is rated for 225 PSI. The regulator looks to be limited to 150 PSI - will cross that bridge once the bad ring is replaced. I can replace the regulator easy enough.

The Coats wants more volume than this compressor is capable of making. I suspect this is to support the air blaster function. Either way this will be an inexpensive way to find out. If the pressure really helps and I just need more horsepower I will look into upgrading the compressor/motor later.
I like my other Dewalt tools, but based on the amount of bad press about their compressors (which they don't make, nor do they seem to handle any of the warranty claims) I would hesitate to buy a new one from them.

I did a couple tire changes on 18" wheels and the machine did not damage the wheels. I put in a bit of extra effort to make sure the wheel was well tightened onto the machine. It dismounted both beads pretty well, and mounted the back bead easily. The machine does struggle with the top bead though. It also pushes the lower bead up really far, which actually kinked the tread of the tire. This just makes getting the thing to bead seat more of a hassle since I had to dismount the wheel from the machine and bounce that part on the ground to get it to pop out. Should have taken a pic.

I've turned the air pressure up almost as much as I dare, but the bottom end of the range is 110 PSI which is bare minimum for the machine. I also think the larger the rim the less leverage the unit has on the bead making it even more challenging to adequately stretch the bead.

For the high pressure DeWalt, I mixed up part #s somehow and the first ring was too small. The next attempt is a kit for a D55146 and D55167 - its a very similar style unit to what I have. It has 2 7/8" bore similar to this unit. This one has the ring, the bore and the gaskets.

I also took the opportunity to use the air hose attached to the machine. It does some kind of pulse when putting in the air and its a much slower fill rate than air hose straight from the compressor. There are two NPT ports on the machine with no explanation. I guessed to use the top one, so I think I'll switch to the lower and see if its any better.