When "I" tourque my lug bolts (mine are bolts, yours are nuts), I use "an" extension bar so that the torque wrench doesn't contact the tire or fender well, but that's just a plain bar.
What is the magic ingredient in these colored torque extension bars? What do they "do"?
I used to have a Chrysler when I was a kid. Who knew that the one side was right handed threads, while the other side wasn't.
Broke three or four of the lug bolts off before I realized that. I was a stupid kid at the time.
As I just replied, I'm positive your tires were not installed properly.
However, I'm not saying they're going to fall off.
I'm just saying that they torque all lug nuts and lug bolts the same, not becuase they don't know there is a difference, but because most people don't check. Plus it takes them an extra minute to adjust.
Likewise, they put the same PSI into each tire, again, not because they don't know that various vehicles use different pressure, and mine uses different pressure per axle, but because they figure nobody is going to double check them. Plus, it takes them an extra minute to adjust.
Similarly, they don't mount the heavy spot (it's more complicated than a "heavy spot" but I'm just summarizing it as the heavy spot) in the correct location, simply because, again, nobody looks, and it takes them an extra minute to get it set right.
In addition, they don't always remove all the old weights, again, not because they don't know but because YOU don't know (especially if the old weights are plastered on the inside of the rim, as mine are).
Now, I'm pretty sure they *balance* the tires correctly, because that you would know about if it resulted in vibration at speed. But who knows how
*close* they bother to get the balance.
When you do the job yourself, *all* that you know because you do the job right. The only thing hard to do at home is the dynamic balance, but my test is simple, which is to take them in for dynamic balancing if my static balancing results in vibration.
So far, I haven't yet had to take my tires in for dynamic balancing, but I will when/if it comes to that.
Beer or no beer, I'm going to make an educated guess that your tires are NOT installed properly.
Now, I'm not saying the wheels are going to fall off, but I will say that they "probably" didn't look up the lugnut/lugbolt torque value for your vehicle (they often use the same for all vehicles).
They probably didn't look up the PSI for the tires (my sedan has different psi for the front versus the back, for example) since they often use the same PSI for all tires.
They probabaly didn't mount the heavy spot right, since they're lazy, and very few people would notice and they dynamically balance anyway so what do they care if it uses more weight than the minimum.
If you have BBS hubcaps, they probably pried them off instead of using a five-dollar hubcap wrench (which they don't even own).
They probably didn't clean the rims and remove *all* the old weights, since, again, it's so easy NOT to do it and the weights are on the inside anyway (at least in my alloy wheels they are).
And, they certainly didn't bother to put the best balanced and most round wheels on the front (mine are very soft wheels, for example, so they're always slightly out of round, no matter what). (Steel wheels would have less of a problem with normal distortion.)
I'm thinking at the moment that the soil idea, while the cheapest, is the least practical, as you're stating.
But, I am serious. I think, for example, I can just "stake" the pallet on the four sides to keep it from spinning. The pallent doesn't move up or down, since I'm standing on it. But it spins in a circle as I try to spin the bead on or off on the thicker taller SUV tires.
On thinner shorter car tires, standing on the pallet works just fine.
Intresting! I've seen those things in the store, I think, I never knew what they were for!
This is sort of what I am planning now, which is to anchor the pallet to the ground.
Drilling holes and sinking female threaded fittings is the best approach, I think, but that entails buying/renting an impact hammer for a one-time use of 4 holes.
I have a friend who is a trucker and we got an old semi truck brake drum out of the scrap steel bin. I bolted the tire changer to that and buried it outside. Nice and solid. Tell the wife it's some kind of fancy bird feeder if she complains. BTW, parts of those Harbor Freight changers can be bent, go easy on the tough tires. I have a bubble balancer and it does a pretty good job, plenty good enough for the way I drive. I like changing the tires... reminds me of the good old days when I worked at a gas station for my first job and we did them by hand. Those old 14 inch deep dish Chevy and Ford rims could be a challenge.
I thought about using/burying concrete pier blocks in the soil to act as mounting anchor points. Something like $7 each at Lowe’s/Home Depot. The kind of blocks used under Mobil homes. I drilled and used red-head mounting anchors in my garage flor, but unfortunately, a non-running car is parked over it, too much trouble to move it out and back and my driveway is concrete pavers that would pull out, so I thought about a concrete pad, but figured instead the concrete pier blocks might work.
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