A less painful DIY wheel swap / tire rotate

[madgrey]

Have you hugged your AT wheels today? I decided during my last rotation I was done with lifting the wheels, especially the part where you sit while simultaneously lifting the wheel and trying to get the lug studs aligned. Not great for my back and knees. I was using the integrated bottle jack/jack stand method, which works well, but has a few things about it that gave me pause. First, you only get discrete levels of lift which make it a bit less flexible for using with a tire dolly (more on that later). Also, despite the 3 ton rating, the extension and jack felt like it was at the end of it's usable limit and during lift, it tended to shift/bend to a point it was marginally scary.

So, I went with a floor jack/tire dolly method this time. This was quite a bit easier. First, the floor jack is easier to setup because no precise positioning of the puck is needed, and only one puck is needed for both front and back rather than the stacked pucks I used in back before. This Daytona model is pretty awesome, a few pumps gets it high enough and the wheels keep it aligned during it's full range of lifting. The tire dolly is the best part because once positioned on the loosened tire, one click (lift) of the foot pump is enough to unload the wheel allowing it to come right off as you back up the dolly, then you can move the wheel and dolly out of the way and retrieve your replacement the same way.

The really cool part is positioning the new wheel. The dolly allows you to rotate the wheel to align with the studs and the fine height adjustment of the floor jack allows easy, precise alignment. A quick push up or down on the dolly lift mechanism can also be used.

The entire process went quick and I never had to lift any wheels off or into place.

The dolly is normally used for moving/positioning cars in a workshop (when 4 are used) but you can purchase these individually, and there are cheaper versions that probably work as well for this.

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[Killer95Stang]

That's a good idea... at about 80+ pounds per wheel and the combo of bad lifting positioning, they can be a pain. Yesterday I swapped from the 22's to the AT's and I felt it afterward.

 

[madgrey]

That's a good idea... at about 80+ pounds per wheel and the combo of bad lifting positioning, they can be a pain. Yesterday I swapped from the 22's to the AT's and I felt it afterward.

Yeah, I should probably wait until tomorrow to see how I really feel... but so far so good.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Ooh. More tools/toys to buy. And, yes, the factory jack should only be used in a pinch and for roadside use. I wouldn’t use any scissor jack on the regular.

Coincidentally, noticed yesterday Harbor Freight has a Halloween sale going and their 3-ton Badland jack is under $300 (with coupon).

 

[madgrey]

Ooh. More tools/toys to buy. And, yes, the factory jack should only be used in a pinch and for roadside use. I wouldn’t use any scissor jack on the regular.

Coincidentally, noticed yesterday Harbor Freight has a Halloween sale going and their 3-ton Badland jack is under $300 (with coupon).

My Craftsman aluminum floor jack that was 20+ years old finally died this summer. No replacement parts were available but no surprise there, but at the same time it was time for an upgrade anyway. I took advantage of the Harbor Freight sale to pick up the one pictured, seemed like most of them are on sale now.

 

[docwhiz]

Have you hugged your AT wheels today? I decided during my last rotation I was done with lifting the wheels, especially the part where you sit while simultaneously lifting the wheel and trying to get the lug studs aligned. Not great for my back and knees. I was using the integrated bottle jack/jack stand method, which works well, but has a few things about it that gave me pause. First, you only get discrete levels of lift which make it a bit less flexible for using with a tire dolly (more on that later). Also, despite the 3 ton rating, the extension and jack felt like it was at the end of it's usable limit and during lift, it tended to shift/bend to a point it was marginally scary.

So, I went with a floor jack/tire dolly method this time. This was quite a bit easier. First, the floor jack is easier to setup because no precise positioning of the puck is needed, and only one puck is needed for both front and back rather than the stacked pucks I used in back before. This Daytona model is pretty awesome, a few pumps gets it high enough and the wheels keep it aligned during it's full range of lifting. The tire dolly is the best part because once positioned on the loosened tire, one click (lift) of the foot pump is enough to unload the wheel allowing it to come right off as you back up the dolly, then you can move the wheel and dolly out of the way and retrieve your replacement the same way.

The really cool part is positioning the new wheel. The dolly allows you to rotate the wheel to align with the studs and the fine height adjustment of the floor jack allows easy, precise alignment. A quick push up or down on the dolly lift mechanism can also be used.

The entire process went quick and I never had to lift any wheels off or into place.

The dolly is normally used for moving/positioning cars in a workshop (when 4 are used) but you can purchase these individually, and there are cheaper versions that probably work as well for this.

Dolly is a great idea!

 

[madgrey]

Dolly is a great idea!

Thanks! There's some products out there that are pretty specific to the task of making it easier to remove a wheel, but they suffer from various issues: Not easily adjustable once wheel is mounted on dolly, which helps avoid having to make large adjustments to the jack height, and second, they didn't fully address lifting of the wheel off the ground. Also, some need way too much clearance under the wheel, something that's difficult to get with a vehicle that is already "off-road" tall.

The on-demand adustability is helpful for swapping different diameter tires (I went from OE 22s to 20s).

These go-jacks (and others, like Sunex 7708) are really easy to use. I should mention that fine adjustments in lifting the wheel with the dolly help to completely avoid having to lower the jack, which is something you want to avoid. I only had to make minor upward adjustments in the jack.

 

[Steve A.]

Ooh. More tools/toys to buy. And, yes, the factory jack should only be used in a pinch and for roadside use. I wouldn’t use any scissor jack on the regular.

Coincidentally, noticed yesterday Harbor Freight has a Halloween sale going and their 3-ton Badland jack is under $300 (with coupon).

A couple Sundays ago when I was rotating my R1S 22" wheels, I picked up this 3.5 ton floor jack w/ 30" lift from AutoZone to go w/ my 30+ year old Nascar 3.5 ton floor jack : Duralast Gold 3 1/2 Ton Professional Foldable Garage Jack.

Not sure why it's $30 cheaper than the following 3 ton jack that only has a 19" lift other than the 44 lbs weight difference since it's aluminum: Duralast Gold 3 Ton Aluminium Floor Jack.

 

[madgrey]

A couple Sundays ago when I was rotating my R1S 22" wheels, I picked up this 3.5 ton floor jack w/ 30" lift from AutoZone to go w/ my 30+ year old Nascar 3.5 ton floor jack : Duralast Gold 3 1/2 Ton Professional Foldable Garage Jack.

Not sure why it's $30 cheaper than the following 3 ton jack that only has a 19" lift other than the 44 lbs weight difference since it's aluminum: Duralast Gold 3 Ton Aluminium Floor Jack.

Yeah, all else equal, the aluminum jacks are more expensive than steel. I would have gone with aluminum if I could have found similar specs. The long reach/low profile jacks in aluminum tend to top out at 3000 lbs or so which would be fine for my other cars but not for the Rivian.

 

[madgrey]

One other thing: Don't forget to mark the wheel location so you can do your cross/rotate next time around!

 

[Steve A.]

Yeah, all else equal, the aluminum jacks are more expensive than steel. I would have gone with aluminum if I could have found similar specs. The long reach/low profile jacks in aluminum tend to top out at 3000 lbs or so which would be fine for my other cars but not for the Rivian.

Well, the 3.5 ton steel jack is definitely heavy (104 lbs) but it lives on my garage floor w/ my 30+ year old 3.5 ton steel jack, so weight was definitely not a deciding factor as compared to the 30" lift vs 19" lift for the lesser 3 ton aluminum jack.

Plus, my wife was already busting my balls for spending $400+ to DIY rotate my tires instead of getting Firestone down the road to do it for $40, so in this case at least, cheaper/more functional was better. ;-)

 

[Jumpjack]

I don't have a Rivian yet - slated for this year but am in a Quad/Dual drive decision paralysis.. but I do have a very similar dolly (usually used in a set of 4 for moving cars around) and can attest that it's super helpful for moving wheels into place when changing.
I use the height adjustment on my floor jack and then spin the wheel on the dolly to line up with the studs.
It's been great for the 17" wheels on a Subaru Forester, it's going to be even better on the larger and heavier Rivian wheels.

 

[TDB]

A question for you more experienced tire rotators- once you jack up vehicle on jack puck and remove a tire how do you remove the second tire to rotate in its position? Do you need two jacks? Jack stands? Where do you put them since the pucks are relatively small?

 

[madgrey]

A question for you more experienced tire rotators- once you jack up vehicle on jack puck and remove a tire how do you remove the second tire to rotate in its position? Do you need two jacks? Jack stands? Where do you put them since the pucks are relatively small?

I'm always either:
Rotating my five 22s
OR
swapping 22s <=> 20s

In both scenarios, I have at least one "extra" wheel so I don't have to go through jack-gymnastics of any kind. I just lift one corner at a time and remove the wheel and put on the new one.

Doing a 4 tire rotation on AWD/non-directional is painful. I'd probably use rearward cross and lift one side first (one jack, two stands) and swap wheels front to back, then the other side and do the same, then the entire rear and swap the wheels.

 

[Steve A.]

A question for you more experienced tire rotators- once you jack up vehicle on jack puck and remove a tire how do you remove the second tire to rotate in its position? Do you need two jacks? Jack stands? Where do you put them since the pucks are relatively small?

2 jacks + 2 pucks. Otherwise, you have to unscrew underbody sections to expose other jack points

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