Mount trailer tires yourself at home?

Lynnmor wrote:

hugemoth wrote:
The $39 tire machine I bought from Harbor Freight many years ago has saved me many hundreds of dollars over the years. I haven't paid a tire shop to mount tires for about 20 years. For balancing trailer tires I mount the wheel/tire on the hub then find the heavy spot and add weight to the opposite inside until it rotates without stopping in the same position every time.

I do the same. When balancing the tires that way, do it when servicing the wheel bearings. Clean the bearings completely and apply some light oil. Don't install the seal and make sure there is no brake drag and it spins completely free. Mark the wheel and stud to insure it will be always replaced in the same position. You can actually get the balance of the assembly much better that the tire shop with their fancy balance machines that only balance the tire and may not locate the wheel exactly the same as your hub.

I now use an old refurbished on the vehicle balancer. I do find it humorous whenever the balance issue is discussed, because few are ever checked and few are balanced as well as the crude methods mentioned above.

That’s a great story if you have literally the entire day to “mount and balance “ a set of tires.
How’s that work on your truck or car?
Your time must be worth a lot less than most to go through all that trouble.

And fwiw, balancing to the hub is an act of diminishing returns or more accurately futility.
Aside from the moment of inertia being considerably less due to the small hub/ brake diameter compared to the much larger diameter tire, it becomes useless once you rotate tires unless you re balance each rotation.