Scott,
I used to be intimidated by all tires thinking it was some special skill, rather its actually quite simple. About 25 years ago, on a new motorcycle, after a 10 day trip out to your part of the country I arrived back home with near slick tires. Took off and to local dealer for tires, picked up with 1 of the rims cracked by the machine and told " You brought it in here that way". I did get a new rim out of the fiasco, but soon after bought all the tools to handle ANY tire myself, even having my own computer spin balancer.
I much prefer to spend a 1/2 day in my shop, doing my thing, on my time, maybe a cold beer or two, and sweat to accomplish a goal I know was done right. How many times has one spent hours at a tire shop, you leave and you have a slight shimmy/shake. You take it right back, "ok sir we'll have to balance them again, take a seat".....no thanks.
Your right the bigger the tire, the simpler it seems to be other than the grunt of the heavier item. Back brace/kidney belt a must, But they also make some pretty slick tools to help handle the weight. As for the beads, I have used them for about 30 years on Bikes and trailers, but prefer to use my spin Balancer. However, on the RV its either the beads or devices like centronics that are basically beads in a tube. Supposeldy every tire known to man has a heavy spot, the beads are slung outward at opposite of that spot and create balance. I does work and does so great.
At the moment I have no idea do I have beads in my Michelins, or do I maybe luckily have centronics. Prior owner did not have a clue as during his ownership the tires I have were on when they bought and they never had any issues. As I was able to get 2, 20t air jacks on sale at HF this past weekend for $99 each, I plan to one day soon pull a front tire and see if the centronics things might be on mine. If not I know it has beads. Even though I often recover my old beads using a vacuum pump and large bleeder jar I built, I would plan to buy a large tub of them as its much less than the individual packets. That and I still have 9 rolling things I keep and balance my own, using beads on occasion.
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