Trailer hitch and tire change

[Andy Cserny]

Newbie Question: I have a 1330 2014 RT with 4200miles and rear tire neeeeds changing, I do all my own tire changes, balancing etc.., but the Spyder is a whole new world for me. I have a dealer installed OEM trailer hitch, how much of that trailer hitch needs to come off to change the rear tire? I could just start taking nuts and bolts off until the wheel fell of, but I would rather not reinvent the wheel and get advice from someone who knew. While in the same area I noticed that the drive belt was tightly up against the inside rim of the rear sprocket, is this normal, or should there be some space between rim and the belt?
thanks
Andy

[Chupaca]

you should be able to do the change only removing the bolt that goes through the axel. The axel has to come out. Lamont has a video showing dropping the lower shock bolt so wheel should come out easily then...

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Hi Andy, The Hitch comes off super easy but I don't think you need to remove it....Someone just posted a Video ( finless ? ) that's super ......remember to dis-connect the arm for the bag......and I snug up the adjuster bolts before loosening the axel......also removing the SHOCK bolt allows you to drop the wheel out ......there is more in the video...................the belt rim thing , you should be able to put a credit card between the belt and edge of the sprocket after everything is tight and straight..........Mine still wanders slightly but not by much...........good luck,..... Mike

[Andy Cserny]

Hi Andy, The Hitch comes off super easy but I don't think you need to remove it....Someone just posted a Video ( finless ? ) that's super ......remember to dis-connect the arm for the bag......and I snug up the adjuster bolts before loosening the axel......also removing the swing arm bolt allows you to drop the wheel out ......there is more in the video...................the belt rim thing , you should be able to put a credit card between the belt and edge of the sprocket after everything is tight and straight..........Mine still wanders slightly but not by much...........good luck,..... Mike

"Remember to disconnect the arm for the bag" What bag?? "removing the swingarm bolt" do you mean the very front bolt that holds the swingarm on the frame?? you cant possibly mean that!! are you talking about the bolt that holds the rear shock in place?? which would then allow the wheel to drop down farther.
Also, since the belt is misaligned on my bike right now, I will have to have access to the tension adjusters and the trailer hitch blocks access to the adjusting bolts. I checked the belt tension with a "Crickit", looks like about 190lbft. I am sure that will change once I adjust the alignment, what should the tension be, notwithstanding what the manual says? And I might add, after looking at it for the umpteenth time, the axle bolt cant come out as long as the trailer hitch is in place, or am I just missing the boat entirely??
Sincerely and humbly confused confused,
Andy

[Highwayman2013]

Finless just posted a video about this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWtb...detailpage#t=0

[billybovine]

Finless has a very good video covering removing and replacing the rear wheel. His video does not cover the hitch. The BRP hitch has to come off before doing anything else. The hitch side plates are held on with a bolt through the hollow axle. So the axle will not come out without the bolt out of the way first.

There are a couple things I do differently then what Finless does in his video. I do not remove the shock bolt. I mark the adjuster bolts with a sharpie marker and back off the adjuster bolts 4 turns. That gives you enough slack to rotate the tire and pull the belt off. The reason for this I don't like the swing arm hanging by the ABS sensor wire and I think it's faster. I also do not remove the hub from the rim. The tire places I have gone have not needed it removed. Now if you have to change out one of the bearings then take the hub off.

[Andy Cserny]

Finless has a very good video covering removing and replacing the rear wheel. His video does not cover the hitch. The BRP hitch has to come off before doing anything else. The hitch side plates are held on with a bolt through the hollow axle. So the axle will not come out without the bolt out of the way first.

There are a couple things I do differently then what Finless does in his video. I do not remove the shock bolt. I mark the adjuster bolts with a sharpie marker and back off the adjuster bolts 4 turns. That gives you enough slack to rotate the tire and pull the belt off. The reason for this I don't like the swing arm hanging by the ABS sensor wire and I think it's faster. I also do not remove the hub from the rim. The tire places I have gone have not needed it removed. Now if you have to change out one of the bearings then take the hub off.

Thanks billybovine, I thought the axle bolt had to be hollow, now I know for sure. I will try getting the wheel off without removing the caliper pad? Will post how that works out. I did see the video by finless and thought it was very good. I change and balance my own tires and dont see why the hub has to come off, at least not at 4200 miles. I use a Harbor Freight tire changer, MoJo lever, tire irons and hope there is enough clearance for the hub. will see
thanks
Andy
Andy

[happyspyder2039]

Newbie Question: I have a 1330 2014 RT with 4200miles and rear tire neeeeds changing, I do all my own tire changes, balancing etc.., but the Spyder is a whole new world for me. I have a dealer installed OEM trailer hitch, how much of that trailer hitch needs to come off to change the rear tire? I could just start taking nuts and bolts off until the wheel fell of, but I would rather not reinvent the wheel and get advice from someone who knew. While in the same area I noticed that the drive belt was tightly up against the inside rim of the rear sprocket, is this normal, or should there be some space between rim and the belt?
thanks
Andy

4200 miles seems kinda low for changing of the tire. You might contact BRP about warranty coverage? I knew the 1st OEM tires on the 1330 got poor mileage but that amout is really low.

[Roadster Renovations]

What they were talking about is the ride sensor above the swing arm on the left is what you need to take loose. Very small and fragile and when you drop the swing arm down it can damage it. Hope that helped. I would use a Cricket to check belt tension and the belt deflection should be 2 mm off of the sprocket face. Small adjustments if you need the to adjust the belt. It is very easy to quickly get the tracking really screwed up. I do 1/8 of a turn at a time. You shouldn't have to adjust it just dropping the wheel if it's within spec. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
btw: Some guys swear by the ride balance compound. I pulled my tire and took a replacement tire to the dealer who swapped and balanced it for $25. Had to call them and set it up first. I put a car tire on my 14 RT. A Michelin HydroEdge. There are several very good brands out there. I had 6K on my OEM tire when it needed replaced. The Hydroedge now has 8K on it and looks brand new.

[Andy Cserny]

What they were talking about is the ride sensor above the swing arm on the left is what you need to take loose. Very small and fragile and when you drop the swing arm down it can damage it. Hope that helped. I would use a Cricket to check belt tension and the belt deflection should be 2 mm off of the sprocket face. Small adjustments if you need the to adjust the belt. It is very easy to quickly get the tracking really screwed up. I do 1/8 of a turn at a time. You shouldn't have to adjust it just dropping the wheel if it's within spec. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
btw: Some guys swear by the ride balance compound. I pulled my tire and took a replacement tire to the dealer who swapped and balanced it for $25. Had to call them and set it up first. I put a car tire on my 14 RT. A Michelin HydroEdge. There are several very good brands out there. I had 6K on my OEM tire when it needed replaced. The Hydroedge now has 8K on it and looks brand new.

Thanks for the heads up Doc Humphreys, will remove the ride sensor nut. I have tried Dynabeads, quit after awhile because of the mess and I balanced the tires anyway, used Centramatics and they worked quite well and I still balanced the tires. When I bought the RT the front tires were horribly out of balance, took it back to dealer who rebalanced them and they were still bad, paid $32 in Memephis to have the Goodyear store balance them- they were OK, but not really good, came home and balanced them myself with a Marc Parnes balancer they were smooth as glass.
Andy

[Bensonoid]

My rear tire is worn out also at 4200 mi. I got a Yokohama S drive to put on with my HF tire changer but haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe this weekend.

[bluestratos]

The rim is very wide, so balancing is a bid of a challange. I have the harbour freight tire ballance and it works if I leave the belt pully off. The bearings on the HF are garbage so I just replaced them with better quality ones and I hope ballancing will be easier this time. The chinese bearings have flats spots that prevent the wheel from finding the heavy spot.

[DrewNJ]

I know the rear wont fit on an car tire balancer. Anyone ever try to have a tire shop balance the rear with the rear wheel totally stripped down? No hub, bearings, etc etc. Seems like the hole would be plenty large enough without the bearings.

[Andy Cserny]

Well I did finally get the rear tire changed, quite a drama. The oem, dealer installed trailer hitch must have been beaten onto the swingarms with a sledge hammer. I ad to put the parking brake on, put a scissors jack between the trailer hitch and the rear tire and pry them apart while beating the swingarms with a deadblow hamer and inch by inch and blow by blow the hitch finally came off. I had to force the top and bottom of the hitch apart until they would finally slide onto the swingamrs. The right side of the axle bolt, where it supports the bearings had a greater diameter than the opposite side on the lleft- had to turn that thicker side down so it could be pushed in with some difficulty, all the way into the hub. The sliders were corroded and would barely slide, the washers on either side of the axle bolt were corroded and could slide only with difficulty, but mostly they just hung up and dug into the paint on the swingarms and adjusting the belt alignment was a joke until I cleaned up and polished and greased the sliders and ground off the paint ridges on the swingarm and greased them . In the end the belt alignment and tensioning went smoothly once all the parts were polished and greased. The axle now slides all the way through the hub with moderate force, the trailer hitch can be installed and removed without beating with a deadblow hammer and using a scissors jack. I was able to remove and install the tire without removing the hub, balancing the Kumho tire took a handful of lead weights. I balanced the rim , with hub in place, without the tire and it was way out of balance, the hub, rim and tire weighed 60 lbs. The belt is aligned OK, the belt tension is midrange at 220flbs and the belt vibration I had from 71 mph on was absent even at 90mph.
All in all it was a difficult process that should be a lot easier the next time.
PS changing the tire was peanuts compared to getting a Run Flat car tire on the rim of an 1800 Gold Wing.

Thanks for all the suggestions,
Andy

[Bensonoid]

I got mine mounted and back on the yesterday. I still have to do belt tension today. I also checked balance of wheel w/o tire and mounted light side of tire to heavy side of rim and only needed 1/4 oz. to balance. I had to peel off a couple oz. of weights from factory install.

[Highwayman2013]

Glad you got it done Andy, now you are experienced! I guess they had a sledgehammer mechanic put that together.

[cognaccruiser]

I got mine mounted and back on the yesterday. I still have to do belt tension today. I also checked balance of wheel w/o tire and mounted light side of tire to heavy side of rim and only needed 1/4 oz. to balance. I had to peel off a couple oz. of weights from factory install.

I am curious how you guys are balancing your wheels yourselves. Getting a wheel balanced where I am is a pain in the butt.

Also curious when you say the light side of the tire with the heavy side of the rim. That made me think that you flipped the tire around to match them but aren't these tires uni-directional or are you using one that isn't?

Thanks, Gary

[Andy Cserny]

I am curious how you guys are balancing your wheels yourselves. Getting a wheel balanced where I am is a pain in the butt.

Also curious when you say the light side of the tire with the heavy side of the rim. That made me think that you flipped the tire around to match them but aren't these tires uni-directional or are you using one that isn't?

Thanks, Gary

I wondered about the "light side of the tire" I didnt know there were two sides to a tire, although some tires have a yellow or red dot to denote the lightest portion of a tire and theoretically the dot should line up with the valve stem which theoreticalloy should be the heaviest portion of the rim- however I have balanced numerous rims and they were all out of balance and the valve stem was never the lightest nor the heaviest part of the rim.
I suspect that if only 1/4 ounce of lead was used to get the tire balanced, then it was a lucky coincidence or the tire and rim were unusually well built .
I use a Mark Parnes balancing kit http://www.advdesigns.com/unwhbafbmwf8.html Its easy to use, but often takes some patience to get it right and takes lots of trial and error. I use blue masking tape to tape the weights to the rim, sometimes having to cut the weights into halves or even smaller pieces to get it as "right" as possible. Once balanced I attach the weights to the rim with double sided tape [3M makes the best].The SSteel rod that comes with the Mark Parnes kit is too short to accommodate the 225 Spyder rear wheel plus hub and rotor, so I had to get a much longer rod. For it to work properly, the rod has to fit exactly into the bearings in the balancing kit, should be SSteel and can be hard to find one. Also the arms supporting the two bearings should be exactly the same height and screwed to a flat 3/4 inch plywood to eliminate any binding effect on the bearings.
I paid $32 US dollars to have the front wheels balanced by the GoodYear store in Memphis by their new whizzbang computerized state of the art balancing machine and the tires still vibrated. When I got home to Southern Illinois I rebalanced them myself with the Marc Parnes thing and they are smooth as glass. This is purely anecdotal and I am sure GoodYear can do a better job than I can under my back yard shade tree and that my front tires run smoother is just my imagination.
Andy

[Roadster Renovations]

Glad you got it fixed!

[Bensonoid]

I used a harbor freight balancer and the yellow dot on the tire is the light side. My rim was also not heavy at the valve stem. The tire is mounted in the right direction, it's just that the heavy part of the rim is matched to the light part of the tire.

[cognaccruiser]

I used a harbor freight balancer and the yellow dot on the tire is the light side. My rim was also not heavy at the valve stem. The tire is mounted in the right direction, it's just that the heavy part of the rim is matched to the light part of the tire.

Thanks for the explanation.

Gary

[Don in E Texas]

...but I just had to comment on the original posters information about his 8 year trip on their boat! There is a great story here for sure. Love to meet this gentleman and his wife - oh - good luck on the tire change.


Don

[Cruzr Joe]

4200 miles seems kinda low for changing of the tire. You might contact BRP about warranty coverage? I knew the 1st OEM tires on the 1330 got poor mileage but that amout is really low.

4200 miles is (was) the average life span on the 2014 RT rear tires until they changed them.

Cruzr Joe