Tire changer

Has the joystick on your truck tire changer stopped responding in one direction — no movement to the left, or the arm no longer lifts? In most cases all you need is to replace the microswitch in the tire changer joystick, not to buy the complete control module. The difference in cost is dramatic: a new joystick for an tire changer costs even 100€ gross, while a single microswitch costs a few euros. Below we explain what is actually inside the joystick, how to work out in five minutes which part has failed, and what to look for when ordering a replacement.

According to our sales statistics, the bead breaker is the part that fails most often on tire changers. No surprise there - it is a large, wide pneumatic cylinder in which enormous forces are at work and through which a great deal of compressed air flows. The good news is that repairing the bead breaker cylinder on a tire changer is simple and in most cases comes down to replacing the seals on the piston and piston rod, or swapping out the quick exhaust valve. In this article we show you how to recognize the fault, where exactly the seals sit, and what to replace so the bead breaker regains its full force.

The question "where are tire changers manufactured" seems simple – after all, the machine carries the logo of a well-known, often Italian brand. The reality is quite different: the vast majority of budget passenger-car tire changers sold in Europe are made in China today – including many machines offered under European brand names. In this article, we show where genuine European production has survived, how to identify the real country of origin of your machine from the nameplate and the CE Declaration of Conformity, and – most importantly for your wallet – why spare parts for tire changers of different brands are often interchangeable.