Tire Dolly's for Old Dudes

[aeromech]

Guys,
I did a brake job for a friend today and now I'm paying the price. My shoulder hurts from removing and replacing four wheel assemblies. I'm 60 and realize I just can't do it like before so I'm wondering if there's a tool I might use to make this easier on my old bones. When I worked for the airlines we used hydraulic tire dollys to do this because those wheel assemblies weighed 200 pounds or so. Got any ideas? TIA.
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[Alan Brase]

Membership at the "Y", maybe? If you find a good answer, let me know. I'm 68, and due to some stressful life situations, gained quite a few pounds over the last 6 years. Can you say "beached whale"?
So, I was able to buy a nice 2 post Rotary brand lift. The bad: My ceilings are a foot too short. Hopefully I will come up with a workaround for that.
And my weight is going down. 30 lb so far. And regular exercise.
But basically you use it or lose it.
Right now working on my 1956 single cab. That brings smiles quite often and makes the pain worthwhile.
Getting old and having pain from working on old car projects is better than the alternative.... not being able to.
Al
_________________
Al Brase
Projects: 67 sunroof bug, 67 Porsche 912 Targa, 70 Westy
Dec 1955 Single Cab pickup WANT 15" BUS RIMS dated 8/55, thru 12/55
To New owners: 1969 doublecab, 1971 Dormobile
Vanagons:
80 P27 Westy JUL 1979, 3rd oldest known US
83 1.6TD Vanagon, 87 Wolfie Westy daily driver, swap meet home

[Busstom]

Same problem for me, but lower back, and it's holding the wheels up to the drum on my '65 Beetle to start a lug bolt that has my 52 year old back whinin' (especially after pulling an engine). I was thinking about some home-brewed dolly of some sort, not sure about adjustable height, but even something that gets it close would help. I guess I could pick a particular setting on my jack stands to match heights, or just position it and then use the jack to zero in on the tire dolly height. Heck, now that I think about it, my $15 furniture dolly from HF would be a good start

And by the way, Al, I hope I'm still going at 68, I got a LOT of unfinished projects! (The '64 Bus in my avatar being one of them.)

[Wasted youth]

Juan

[Alan Brase]

[airschooled]

My foam mat has worked with me on over a hundred buses now, in more states that I can remember. I'm a young dude, but I can't stand kneeling on concrete for more than a few minutes. I like these when I have the chance to use them:

I'll lay on my back on concrete, but I'm going to be a picky peckerhead about working for someone else on my knees.

Robbie


EDIT: I'm going to leave my response there, because I think taking care of our bodies is important, but now I'm realizing that you wanted a dolly for the tire, not for you!

I've used these. They're a part because you have to jack up the car 4" off the ground to get the tire into the carrier.

If I were to buy one, it would be this, assuming I had the space:

_________________
Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[Abscate]

I'm not at the lift problem yet but I use a ratchet extension bar to hold the wheel up while I start the lugs, through the wheel and round part into the hub. Position the hub with hole at 12 o'clock

I'll think about a simple way to elevate the wheel , must be a solution here Gary. The langoliers come for all of us, take care of that Temple
_________________
.ssS!

[my59]

Harbor Freight MC jack for the tire on occasion.
Have been known to get one of my kids to put wheels back on.
I use the alignment pin that came in a Benz tool roll for those cars, and it does make life just a bit simpler.
_________________
my59: Well son, my grandfather died before I got to drive it, so does that answer your question?
our79: sunroof bus w/camper interior and 2.0 FI
Other:'12 Jetta, '77 Benz 300D, and a 74 MG Midget.

[lil-jinx]

We have a tool like this to remove wheel assemblies on semi trucks,a smaller version may solve your problem.
http://www.awdirect.com/truck-wheel-dolly-esco-70130/tire-service-tools/
_________________
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620186
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668799
1974 Bay Westfalia. she likes to be called Ethel.
1968 Dune Buggy
1974 parts bus
A smart man learns from his mistakes,a very smart man learns from other's mistakes.

[Busstom]

[Spike0180]

[aeromech]

This is what I'm considering. It's not made for what I have in mind but might work

One issue might be the need to keep the tire vertical on the fixture. At the airline ours used a chain for that.

Besides supporting the tire there's a need to be able to rotate it on rollers to line up the lugs. I'm not sure how well these Gojak rollers would work.
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[TDCTDI]

[sodbuster]

[lil-jinx]

A shovel also works,put the tip of the shovel under the tire and push down on the handle.
_________________
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620186
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668799
1974 Bay Westfalia. she likes to be called Ethel.
1968 Dune Buggy
1974 parts bus
A smart man learns from his mistakes,a very smart man learns from other's mistakes.

[aeromech]

Here's my decision. I'll be buying the Gojak 4520 on Amazon. Here's a customer review from Amazon.

Makes Tire Changing Easy
ByKeith460on April 10, 2016
I bought one of these and only needed one for my tire changing needs. I have a truck and Jeep with heavy tires that are cumbersome to take off and on for routine maintenance and tire rotation so I needed something to help me make the work easier. Mounting large heavy tires and rims is a workout and when the Go-Jack arrived, I put it to use immediately. Wow, what a difference it made! A job of rotating tires that use to take about an hour for me to do has just turned into a 15min. job and my arms aren't sore anymore. Bravo for a well made in USA product!. The cheaper version from Harbor Freight, Tractor Supply and others do not have the rollers with bearings that make it easy to turn the wheel for alignment onto the axle hubs. Its easy now and I don't need the extra effort to get wheels back on. See photos.

His pics from the review

So there you go. Maybe I'll come back here and give you guys my thoughts once I've used it a few times.

EDIT:
I actually bought it on eBay from Summit Racing. Free shipping and no tax it came to $227.97
_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[Tom Powell]

[oscarsnapkin]

We have this dolly at work for removing dual wheel assemblies off of trailers with open rims. However, this is what I do instead, and it would actually be a cheap solution to what Gary is looking for. Simply raise the vehicle, place a metal plate (lubed with some motor/gear oil) under the tire, raise lower vehicle until the tire is just barely off of the ground and slide the wheel on or off. This works great on trailers where you have the weight of two tires and wheels, the hub, and a gigantic brake drum, combined weighing a few hundred pounds, so it should work easily for a Bus wheel.
_________________
- 1977 CEI Sunroof Bus 2.0L F.I. Hydraulic Lifters
- 1973 Thing

"It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."

[Tcash]

[aeromech]

Tim,
That's a two man operation. We used something similar at USAir. Works good for raising the tire high enough to slide onto the axle. The dolly is one man. Adjust it to the correct height and it takes the weight of the wheel at which point one guy can easily slide a very heavy wheel off by himself and roll it to the side.

_________________
Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound