Yes labor mount and balance. Lots of bolts!
So today I decided to bite the bullet and get some KO2s and finally mount the beadlock rings that have been sitting in my garage for a few months. Since most tire places won't touch them, the day looked like this:
Purchase tires at Discount Tire, after discussing thier willingness to work with me. Three hour wait, so this should give me time to get the tires off and remove trim rings. Clock is ticking.
Clear workspace in garage (everything is packed in right and organized for parking the vehicles, but creating working space requires a lot of juggling).
Get truck in the air. Important note here... The truck is longer than the garage space I have to work in, so the door must remain open. This means whatever happens, wheels HAVE to be back on truck at end of the day.
Realize my existing jack stands are insufficient height. Lower truck back to terra firma.
Source new 6 ton jack stands.
Get truck BACK in the air.
Realize my floor jack is insufficient height without extended Jack pad. I'm committed at this point, so I'm just going to have to jack front control arm up slightly for each of the front wheels to account for droop.
Remove wheels.
Remove trim rings. Curse as I bust knuckles with those stupid star cap screws.
Load all four wheels into back of Jeep. Holy **** these things are heavy!
Arrive at Discount Tire right as my number comes up, so they are able to almost immediately start removing old tires, and half mounting new ones. I need to be back before 4:30pm if I want to get them balanced today, otherwise I have to wait until Monday. Clock, once again, is ticking.
An hour later, I'm back at the house with half mounted tires to muscle out of the back of the Jeep. Now these damn things are both heavy AND awkward!
Mount beadlock rings. Those three words in no way, shape or form truly convey the amount of effort actually required here. Three different torque sequences, and my large torque wrench is clearly not working for the 11 foot lb setting, it's probably 30 years old. Fortunately I have a newer 3/8" I can use. As expected, despite being as careful as possible, anti-seize gets EVERYWHERE.
I have three hours to mount four beadlock rings. I can totally do this!
Realize I totally can't do this at 4:30. Two more still to go.
Get about half way thru the first torque sequence on the third wheel and realize I misaligned the ring by one bolt, so my valve stem is not accessible. Loosen all bolts and rotate counter clockwise. Tire and ring are mated at this point, so rotating involves pickup up tire along with ring. Fortunately, this works out surprisingly well.
Pause for dinner and liquid refreshment.
Stumble back out to garage to mount final beadlock ring. I've finally become an expert, and get it completely done in about 20 minutes.
Mount all tires back on truck, do the Jack shuffle for the front control arms.
Lower truck, once more, to terra firma.
Torque lug nuts to 150 ft lbs.
Admire *******' new look! Too dark for pics.
Test drive. No hint of unbalanced wheels until 74 MPH. Acceptable for the rest of the weekend.
By now, it's 9:00 pm. Go inside, shower, acquire pain relief for my aching back, check phone for first time today.
So you know what? $672 ain't sounding too bad!
Well I check the manual and I was surprised to read This is an eight hour job..wait 8 hours for the Battery management system to relearn the battery… how annoying.
I guess it’s an 8 hour and 5 minute job
