[kube-system]

Two tire irons and a static balancer are about $100 at harbor freight, which is the same price my dealership charges to mount and balance 4 tires.

I’ve tried it. It’s a lot of work, but it can be done without expensive tools.

[mikestew]

I used to be a professional auto mechanic. I know how to swap tires on a rim. I know how to do it without scratching the fuck out of your nice alloys (which you, dear inexperienced reader, are guaranteed to do the first few times you try it). I know why you need to get the bead into the recess of the rim lest you struggle mightily to get the new tire on. I've changed motorcycle tires by the side of the road with nothing but a couple of tire irons.

I also know that "a lot of work" doesn't even begin to describe it if I'm doing it on my garage floor with tire irons. If you're low on money and without other options, by all means, give it a go. But if $100 isn't the difference between your kids eating or not, save yourself a fuck-ton of grief (as well as half a Saturday) and just go get those new skins put on at a shop where they have big air-driven machines that will spoon those things on in mere seconds. Back in my pro days, myself and a helper timed ourselves from the time the car pulled into the bay until it hit the ground with four new tires: nine minutes. I probably can't get a single wheel off my car from a cold start in nine minutes.

So, yeah, it can be done. But you don't want to do it.

[kube-system]

I just think of it as getting paid $100 to go to the gym. And I get to exercise the more colorful parts of my vocabulary. :)

Those days are probably behind me though.

[mikestew]

Well, you nailed the two primary reasons I don't do it anymore. :-) It is a workout for sure, and I would curse a blue streak the whole time.

OTOH, it's a handy skill to have when you're in the Yukon by the side of the road with an unpluggable tire, and 100 miles from civilization.

[bombcar]

Yeah wheels are one of those things that the big machine helps a ton. I’ll gladly pay to have that done, even if I’ll replace the starter myself.

[oneplane]

The problem with 'a lot of work' is that people price that as $0 while it actually isn't "free", unless you are prohibited from doing meaningful work for others or yourself, which most people aren't. So if the cost for some low-quality tools is the same as having it done with high-quality tools but saving you time and effort, it doesn't make sense to try to mass-market the low quality option.

This is also what is probably at the core of all this right to repair stuff: there are definitely some anti-consumer practises but in reality people might be too busy with other things to fiddle around with their products when someone else could be doing it instead (or they might simply prefer it and shift any blame and quality control to a third party while they are at it).

Even for really simplistic things like changing a light bulb in a car people just can't seem to be bothered.