Harbor Freight / No-Mar Conundrum

I have the Harbor Freight with motorcycle add-on, MoJo Lever and Marc Parnes balancer. Probably $300 invested, already paid for long ago. I did some mods to prevent scratching. I used a Teflon cutting board and cut strips. Anyone interested I can post some pix.
Plus, if rims are scratched, I did it! Brother in law had front & rear tires put on his Wee at local shop, black rims, had paint missing all over! :( He didn't make them pay/fix, cause a kid did it and he was concerned the kid would pay from his own pay check.
I've changed about 12 tires on mine so far. I run a CT, run-flat only, on the rear. I have not attempted the run-flat on the HF. Local shop charges me $10 for mounting the run-flat and I do the balance.
Long story short, this is not a bad investment for my needs.
 
I have the same setup as Uncle Phil. Have a Marc Parnes balancer. It has probably changed 25 sets between me and my sons. I've had it about 5-6 years. My only complaint is the bead breaking. The older I get the more the bead breaking part gets to my back. The rest of the changing isn't that bad.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
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Description says manual mount/demount. Only the clamps and the bead breaker are air operated?
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Andrew - That had me puzzled also. It has a 'foot' that looks like it comes down for removing the tire but I don't know. Might be worth pinging them and asking the question. Air would be a lot better than hand. :D
 
I have been mulling over the same thing. Will be watching for any info that will help me make up my mind.
 
I changed the HF. cut over 6 inches of the base. lowered the machine so I can just push the BS tires with nomar lube on the first bead on. The HF was to tall from new to tackle this. Filed an ground the rim holding edges on the 3 rim clamp areas. Used 3m auto glue applied rubber strips to area. Rim does not slip. Made my own tire mounting bar. Looks & works like mojoe bar.
Cut & welded the bead brake on the HF.
Rims scratched =U bet they are. But, I have on 2 trips changed tires with spoons. Used a picnic table leg to brake the tire bread.
I will take a picture of my HF. Also, I do not used that attachment to hold center bar. Just bar.
Just buy the No-Mar. Money saved. X saved trying to make the HF work right for U.
Just the clamp area alone is worth the price of the No-Mar. The bead breaker is a bonus.
 
If the price of the no-mar is putting you off go with the cycle hill that they make. Cheaper and still does the job with the same tools. Just over $400 delivered Linky
I have this model and it works fine. The only additions I have are I did get some of the nomar spoons to work the harder tires on. Only really had to use them in cold weather when the tires were cold.

In the notes on the website they encourage you to upgrade to the more expensive model due to problems with rotor damage when breaking the beads. Simple fix I use is 2 2x4 pieces under the tire to elevate the rotors off the floor. Saves the $200 upgrade.
 
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TOS said:
I have the Harbor Freight with motorcycle add-on, MoJo Lever and Marc Parnes balancer. Probably $300 invested, already paid for long ago. I did some mods to prevent scratching. I used a Teflon cutting board and cut strips. Anyone interested I can post some pix.
Plus, if rims are scratched, I did it! Brother in law had front & rear tires put on his Wee at local shop, black rims, had paint missing all over! :( He didn't make them pay/fix, cause a kid did it and he was concerned the kid would pay from his own pay check.
I've changed about 12 tires on mine so far. I run a CT, run-flat only, on the rear. I have not attempted the run-flat on the HF. Local shop charges me $10 for mounting the run-flat and I do the balance.
Long story short, this is not a bad investment for my needs.
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I have the same setup and have done way over a hundred MC tires with it. The MoJo bar (modeled after the excellent Wicko bar) is far superior to the NoMar bar IMHO. I like the NoMar machine itself and the cam locking setup, but I do not like what it costs. The old model HF changer (modeled after a Wicko changer) with MoJo blocks serves me well. Like others on here, the nylon strap through the spokes to keep the wheel from turning is a trick I figured out years ago. The bar that comes with the HF changer is OK for the bead breaker and the steel rims on your old trailer, but forget it for your MC wheels.

Also - if there is any question about the age of the rubber valve stem, I change it. I change mine every two years as I have seen more than one rider stranded with dry rotted rubber stems.
 
schlep1967 said:
Just over $400 delivered
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That's the problem- it is not $400.00 for me unfortunately. In the U.S. it is $365.00 + $45.00 shipping to a U.S. location= $410.00 total. Same machine from the same U.S. place sent to Canada is $210.00 for shipping= $$575.00 total. If I order it from the Canadian distributor it is $560.00 total but with no charge at all for shipping. This leads me to believe that the Canadian distributor handles the processing but it is being shipped from the same U.S. manufacturers' location and they are just including the shipping in the price. Either way it is $575.00. If the HF does the job acceptably well for $100.00 plus a little more invested for some upgrades and modifications that leaves me cash to buy the balancer, the actual tires and the gas to wear them out. This is why I am trying to find out about the HF from you guys.
 
I don't know if you have Craigslist but if you do keep checking, they show up there occasionally. I bought a Coats 220 off Craigslist. It isn't the prettiest (been repainted, badly) but fully functional and an awesome machine. I can't remember for sure but think it was $200-300. I have seen Nomar and HF on there too.
 
Skunkape said:
I don't know if you have Craigslist but if you do keep checking
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Only used I found listed so far have all been in California. They don't seem to come up for sale used very often at all. For what they were asking in their ads I would just buy it new anyway. People have funny ideas of what something used is worth- if you are going to ask within $100.00 of what a brand new one is I am going to buy brand new!
 
Why not just look for a spare wheel(s) on an auction site? Put new rubber on it and hold for a trip. Swap the tire/wheel assembly for your trip and swap back to the used tire/wheel when you get back, to use the remaining tire tread.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
That's the problem- it is not $400.00 for me unfortunately. In the U.S. it is $365.00 + $45.00 shipping to a U.S. location= $410.00 total. Same machine from the same U.S. place sent to Canada is $210.00 for shipping= $$575.00 total. If I order it from the Canadian distributor it is $560.00 total but with no charge at all for shipping. This leads me to believe that the Canadian distributor handles the processing but it is being shipped from the same U.S. manufacturers' location and they are just including the shipping in the price. Either way it is $575.00. If the HF does the job acceptably well for $100.00 plus a little more invested for some upgrades and modifications that leaves me cash to buy the balancer, the actual tires and the gas to wear them out. This is why I am trying to find out about the HF from you guys.
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So what you need is someone in upstate New York you can have it shipped to. Day trip across the border to get it.
 
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