The wheels keep turning

It’s probably safe to say there is a tire shop or two along your route, in addition to the full-service shops. Whatever the case, at least some of your customers regularly perform tire and wheel services. Being a successful distributor demands the capacity to serve your customers’ needs and supply the tooling and equipment that they use every day.

When it comes to tire and wheel servicing tools and equipment, you stock the impact wrenches, the torque wrenches, and the TPMS tools. but there are opportunities to go beyond the essentials and make available tools and equipment that shops and their technicians may not have; tools and equipment that can make their jobs easier, save them time, and establish a more efficient tire and wheel service procedure.

Cognizant strategizing

Before arriving to a tire shop, it pays to have certain tools in mind to bring to the attention of the technicians. Dennis Loduha, a Mac Tools distributor in Wisconsin, says that he stays conscientious to the tool and equipment needs of a tire shop.

“Digital tire gauges,” Loduha says. “Those are a big deal. Make sure every tech has one of those.”

The Midwest is particularly sensitive to tire and wheel servicing, with harsh winters and drastically varying road conditions throughout the year. Late fall and the start of winter, the impending snow-covered roads bring many vehicles into the shop for new tires, rotations, and inflations – some drivers go as far as having aggressively treaded winter-only tires installed. Spring brings another flood of customers to the shop who finally realized they need new tires after slipping and sliding all season, those needing another rotation, and those putting their all-season or summer tires back on.

“I know I have to get ready for the fall season because at the first snowfall, everybody is replacing tires,” Loduha says. “I also look for the burned-out tire machines the technician complains about [no longer operating properly].”

Staying in sync with this seasonal flux is important for tool distributors to capitalize on the demands in tire and wheel servicing that shops will see.

Understanding when shops will be performing a higher volume of tire and wheel services is critical. Not only can you present to these shops with new items and sale items, but you can position yourself to sell products that they will need and benefit from having in their hands at the time they need them the most. Bundling opportunities arise as shops looking to gear up for the tire servicing season may need various items.

Supplying the demand

When providing the tools and equipment for tire and wheel servicing, it may help to think of different aspects of what that service could entail and realize each stage that may require the use of a different tool or piece of equipment. Understanding common issues that technicians deal with in those services may also reveal needs for tooling.

A common issue that technicians run into is the removal of aged chrome cap lug nuts. Chrome cap lug nuts eventually swell, split, and crack, changing from their original size. The socket used for the original size becomes too small to remove the lug nut, and the next size up is too large to securely latch on.

One popular solution is half-size sockets. CTA Manufacturing Corp. offers the 5-pc Flip Socket Set, No. 1463, which features half metric sizes. Each individual socket has two hex sizes, and the kit also includes a 1/2” drive extension. It all comes in a blow molded case for storage, which also serves as a display on the tool truck. CTA offers the half size sockets individually, so should a technician need a particular half size and not the full set, there is flexibility in providing such an option.

Rust and corrosion are ever prevalent when it comes to wheels. Technicians will have to clean away excess rust from the rim, and the hub after removing a wheel from a vehicle. Products such as the Mueller-Kueps Wheel Hub Grinder Type 1 with 1/2" Drive, No. 433 500, can help with this common occurrence. The 433 500 can be used with an impact wrench to grind away rust and corrosion buildup on stud-less hub faces.

“It is really easy for the mechanic to use because they have the impact wrench in their hands already after having removed the tire,” says Andre Van Lagen, national sales manager, North America, Mueller-Kueps. “They can click this tool on and clean the hub in seconds.”

The tool has an abrasive material on a replaceable disk (No. 433 501), which Van Lagen says lasts to clean around 400 hubs, or in other words, about 100 cars.

“[The tools are] time savers and they save a lot of lead [weights] as well,” Van Lagen says.

Should a technician balance a wheel without cleaning the rim’s center hole, they may have an improper mount on the balancer, which could result in a need for more lead weights to achieve a balanced tire. The Inner Rim Cleaner serves to aid in a more accurate balance, and when used in tandem with the Wheel Hub Grinder Type 1 with 1/2" Drive, ensures a proper and clean mount when the wheel is installed on the vehicle.

Special considerations

Another factor to consider when it comes to tire and wheel servicing is the differences in tools and equipment needed to service European vehicles or heavy duty wheel ends.

Many European vehicles utilize lug bolts to mount wheels to the hub of the vehicle rather than hubs with studs and lug nuts. Lug bolts can be tricky to install if the wheel is not evenly aligned to the hub at the time of installation.

“A lot of those lug bolts will get damaged,” says Alberto Roldan, technical director at CTA Manufacturing Corp. “They get mangled … and tend to seize.”

A major selling point with this kit is that it can drill through a lock-key lug bolt. All too often, a vehicle with a locking lug key come into the shop and the vehicle’s owner does not know where the key is, or may not even have the key, to remove the bolt for service. The Lug Driller Kit can drill through that bolt and remove it to get the service done without a shop having to wait for a key delivery, or worse, turn away business to a dealership.

Heavy duty shops have different tire and wheel servicing procedures altogether and require different tools and equipment.

The first major difference is the removal of the tire and wheel combination from the vehicle. OTC, Bosch Automotive Service Solutions offers the 1,100-lb Capacity High-Lift Dual Wheel Dolly, No. 5105B. The hydraulic lift “helps the technician remove the wheel and tire combination from the vehicle and allows them to transport it elsewhere,” says Justin Fisette, senior product marketing manager for tools, equipment, and A/C, at OTC.

Whereas a technician can remove a passenger vehicle wheel, transport it through the shop by hand, and then utilize a machine to break and seat the tire bead, heavy duty tire and wheel service may require a dolly to remove the wheel, and the bead can be broken or seated manually.

OTC provides a range of tire spoons and tire service hammers for technicians that will be performing heavy duty tire service procedures.

“The tire spoons and tire service hammers are used to change those large tires out,” Fisette says. “The tire spoon allows the technician to get underneath that bead and [provides the ability to] peel the tire over the rim, and then during reinstallation, the ability to do the same.”

OTC’s line of tire spoons caters to varying needs for technicians, with different features available on different spoons. The Sliding Dual Tire Spoon, No. 5720, features a slide hammer mounted on the spoon to provide hammering on the tire bead. The Extending Tire Spoon, No. 5724, features a twist-lock construction, allowing the spoon to be extended to the necessary length for the job at hand. The Kick Start Double End Tire Spoon, No. 5735-42K, includes kick loops along the spoon to allow a technician to provide leverage and force by stepping down on the spoon to access tight bead locations.

OTC also offers the Tire Spoon and Pry Bar Rack, No. 5715, which can be hung on the end of a toolbox, providing a display piece on the truck in a high-traffic area.

The long handle provides leverage for the technician that needs to lift a heavy duty wheel, possibly weighing hundreds of pounds, off the ground and get it situated upright. The hammer can be used to break the bead and to assist in lifting the lip of the bead over the rim. And as with passenger vehicles, rust and corrosion are a constant issue when it comes to servicing wheel ends.

“Another benefit is sometimes it's difficult to pry [the wheel] away from the vehicle,” Fisette says. “Having that big striking hammer head and long handle allows [the technician] to pound on the rubber [of the tire] to knock loose any rust or corrosion [that caused the wheel to seize to the vehicle, in order] to get that tire off the vehicle.”

Organizing product displays

You can stock all the tools in the world, but sometimes availability isn’t enough – especially when introducing a technician to a tool they may not know exists or how they can reap its benefits.

“I have a huge display of all the electric tools … I put those in [the technicians’] hands, let them play with it,” Loduha says. “I have a tire inflator gauge right there too, for not only cars and pickups, [but also] different ones for semi-trucks and off-road equipment. Then I have it displayed so that when they walk in the door, its right there in their face.”

Loduha also displays valve stem tools and gloves in this section of the truck, keeping the tools and equipment needed for tire service centralized in one location.

Loduha advises maintaining fully charged batteries for the electric tools, which he says technicians are sure to pick up and test.

The wheels keep turning

Shops servicing tires and wheels have essential tooling needs; but there are tools available that can aid in their duties and provide much needed assistance in their services. As a tool distributor, you have the opportunity to fill the gaps in the technicians’ arsenal and provide solutions, problem solvers, time savers, and ultimately, money makers.

As the vehicles on the road today change, whether it be via electrification or through the addition of sensors and radars, one thing remains constant – the tire and wheel assembly. Tools and equipment used to service tires and wheels are here to stay and will remain in constant demand for the foreseeable future.