DANNMAR DT-50/DB-70 Package With 1,400 PC Tape Wheel Weights

Dannmar DT-50 Tire Changer and DB-70 Wheel Balancer — With 1,400 Tape Wheel Weights

Most changer-and-balancer packages sell you the two machines and let you work out the rest. This one arrives with 1,400 pieces of tape wheel weights in the shipment, and that is not a throw-in — it is the piece that matches the balancer. The DB-70 has a tape weight feeder built into it, so the weights are dispensed and applied from the machine rather than fished out of a tray. Bundling the consumable with the tool that dispenses it means the bay is productive on day one instead of waiting on a first weights order.

Behind that, the pairing is conventional and sensible: a swing-arm changer for hands-on wheel service, and a dynamic balancer that reads a wheel and says what to stick where.

Will it fit your shop?

Both machines run on single-phase power. The DT-50 changer is specified at 110-VAC, 50-60 Hz, 1-Ph and the DB-70 balancer at 110-230 VAC, 50-60 Hz, 1-Ph, so neither needs a three-phase service — a real consideration in a leased unit or a home-based operation where bringing in three-phase is not on the table.

The changer also needs air. Its air requirement is listed at 110-175 PSI (8-10 BAR), which is a genuine shop compressor, not a pancake unit in the corner. Before ordering, check that your compressor can hold that pressure while the bead breaker and the Turbo-Blast bead seater are working, because a bead seater is a burst-demand device and a compressor that copes with air tools may still fall short. Both machines are quoted at less than 70 dB, which is quiet enough to hold a conversation next to.

Confirming power, air supply, floor space and the route into the building is the customer's responsibility. We are glad to talk it through before you order — that conversation is much cheaper than a delivery that cannot get through a doorway.

What the DT-50 does well

The changer's controls sit at the front and are laid out to be worked without looking down, which is what makes a machine fast in real use rather than in a demonstration. The body is rigid, the vertical shaft is hexagonal, and the horizontal outrigger support arm is hardened steel. That last detail deserves an explanation, because it is the one that pays for itself: when the mount and demount head is loaded, the whole arm assembly wants to flex, and any flex changes the gap between the head and the rim. On a steel wheel that is a nuisance. On an alloy wheel it is a scratch, and a scratched alloy is a customer conversation nobody wants. Taking the flex out of the arm is how a changer avoids marking wheels.

Behind that, the turntable is high-torque electric with dual pneumatic cylinders doing the clamping, and the bead breaking is pneumatic-blade. The gearbox is maintenance-free and the pneumatic cylinders are aluminium, running high-pressure polyurethane tubing. The package includes the working extras that otherwise get bought piecemeal in the first fortnight: an inflation gauge with an integrated air dump valve, an inflation restraint, an air regulator, an oiler and lubricator, a tool tray, a soap bucket and forged steel foot pedals. Motorcycle clamps are available as an option.

What the DB-70 does well

The balancer handles wheels up to 28 in. in diameter and spins them at 260 RPM on a serpentine poly-V belt drive. It offers six dynamic modes plus one static, and it starts automatically when the hood is lowered — a small thing that removes a button press from every single job and stops the machine spinning with the hood up.

Readout is by LED rolling wheel weight displays: the machine works out the weight required and shows both the amount and the position, so the technician is not translating a number into a clock position in their head. Accuracy is quoted at plus or minus 1 gram, with balancing increments of 0.25 or 0.01 ounce, and maximum tire weight is 150 lbs. (68 kg). A lever caliper brake with a foot pedal holds the wheel still while a weight is placed — again, unglamorous, and again the sort of thing that decides whether the job takes two minutes or four.

Four cones come with it, along with a truck cone and spacer ring adapter set, wheel calipers, a no-mar rear cone mount pressure cup, and a quick-release mount hub nut. Wheel width capacity runs 1.5 in. - 20 in. (38 mm - 508 mm) and diameter capacity 10 in. - 28 in. (254 mm - 711 mm).

Three figures to check before you order

Published figures differ in three places between the manufacturer's feature list and the manufacturer's specification table. Both sets of numbers are printed here, each attributed to its source, because on a purchase this size the right answer is to check rather than to trust a marketing bullet. If any of the three decides your purchase, ask us to confirm the figure in writing before you order.

• Internal rim clamping. The feature list says adjustable internal rim clamping capacity of 12 in. – 26 in. (305 mm - 660 mm). The specification table says internal 14 in. – 26 in. (356 mm - 660 mm), with external clamping of 12 in. – 24 in. (305 mm - 610 mm). The likeliest explanation is that the bullet blends the internal and external figures, but we cannot confirm that from the data we hold. If your work depends on the bottom of the internal range, confirm it with us first.
• Balancer cycle time. The description says results in about six seconds; the specification table says 7 seconds. Either way it is one spin, but the two numbers are not the same number.
• Maximum tire diameter. Both machines are quoted at 49 in., but the metric conversion is given as 1,245 mm for the changer and 1,247 mm for the balancer. A rounding difference in the source data rather than a real difference in capability, most likely — worth knowing if you are specifying against a metric requirement.

One more, minor: the changer's specification table lists tower design twice, once as rigid fixed with swing arm and once as fixed. This package is described throughout as the swing-arm configuration.

Perfect For

• Independent tire shops setting up a bay from scratch, where buying the changer, the balancer and the first run of weights as one line item removes three separate decisions.
• General repair shops currently sending tire work out. Both machines are single-phase, so the electrical side is usually a non-event.
• Fleet and municipal workshops, where the truck cone and spacer ring adapter set in the DB-70 kit matters as much as the car capability.
• Serious home and collector garages with the air supply to feed a real changer and a reason not to hand alloy wheels to a stranger.

Package at a glance

The full specification tables for both machines are further down this page, and they are the authority — this table is a summary.

Standards and approvals

No third-party listing or conformity marking is stated in the data we hold for either machine, so this page does not badge one. If your insurer, a franchise standard or a local inspection requires specific documentation for tire service equipment, ask us before ordering and we will request what exists from the manufacturer rather than let it surface after the pallet is on your floor.

Shipping and delivery

These are freight machines and they ship to the lower 48 states. You need a way to get them off the truck — a forklift, a dock, or several people and a plan — or you can choose to collect from the carrier's terminal instead. Residential delivery carries a fee. Freight is quoted live at checkout for your address rather than printed here, because carrier rates change.

Inspect the shipment before you sign, and write any damage on the bill of lading at the point of delivery. A clean signature makes a freight claim very hard to win afterwards.

Warranty

Covered by the manufacturer's warranty. No term length is printed here because the product data we hold does not state one — ask us and we will send the current document. If a machine develops a fault, raise the claim before anyone opens it up: stripping a gearbox or a control head to have a look is the most common way a claim that would have been paid gets refused.