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I'm looking to buy a truing stand. Is the Park TS-8 Home good enough? Or should I pay double the price and get the Park TS-2.2 Pro. I have some experience truing wheels, but never on a nice stand. I was using my makeshift home made stand which consists of an old fork and calipers constructed from u-brakes that are bolted on to the fork. Obviously anything would be huge step up from my current method, but I wonder if the Pro is really that much better?

I only need to true bmx wheels (20in) and I used to run 48 spokes so they would stay true for a long time. However, I recently switched to 36 spokes and I find they need a lot more attention.

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  • I don't thing we need a tag for truing just yet. There are only 2 questions I could find that it would apply to.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 23:23
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    @neilfein: I can see removing a tag if it's misleading or there's a better choice, but this question is about truing stands and there's no telling how many more truing-related questions may show up in the future.
    – darkcanuck
    Commented Sep 10, 2010 at 6:49
  • @darkcanuck: You may be right, one truing question has appeared since I posted that last night.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Sep 10, 2010 at 19:41
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    Park links now: Pro parktool.com/product/… and Home parktool.com/product/home-mechanic-wheel-truing-stand-TS-8
    – Мסž
    Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 22:25

3 Answers 3

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The TS-2 is what I use and I quite like it.

3 of them are 17 years old and we just purchased a brand new one. Of course everyone likes the older ones ... hah.

Anyways, in my opinion you do not NEED to buy the more expensive one. If you are truing 10+ wheels a day, yes you need it (in my opinion). For home mechanic work, the TS-8 is just fine.

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  • cool, thanks for the input. Is the ts-2 more efficient because you don't have to flip the wheel?
    – dotjoe
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 23:03
  • yeah, it would drive me mental if I had to flip the wheels. But, again, that is from doing many a day. It really comes down to are you willing to pay that bit more. It is a lifetime tool.
    – tplunket
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 23:50
  • True, and I do like to invest in quality tools.
    – dotjoe
    Commented Sep 10, 2010 at 15:55
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The cheaper one will probably work reasonably well, but (crucial point) you'll need to use a dishing tool with it. With reasonably careful adjustment, a TS-2 can substitute for a dishing tool most of the time (i.e., anytime the dishing isn't really critical). You need a dishing tool to adjust the stand, but you only rarely need to use it otherwise.

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I think that the more expensive one would be worth it in the long run. The home one looks like it's made from a much lighter material so would be more likely to get damaged in the house (moving....). If you end up buying the home one twice because of damage the pro one would have survived then you didn't really save any money.

It's also much easier to work with two calipers (one per rim side) than a single one. I'd find it pretty annoying to constantly flip the wheel over to check the other side of the rim.

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  • yeah, that's what I was thinking...too much wheel flipping and also the piece that slides for the axle doesn't look very sturdy.
    – dotjoe
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 23:47
  • It may be fine but you'd have to be more careful with it.
    – curtismchale
    Commented Sep 10, 2010 at 15:36

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