Fire Tablet - Google APK

I bought one of the $39 amazon fire tablets (5th gen) and am trying to download google play APK files to side-load apps onto the fire since they block google play store.

I tried this method: http://thefiretablet.com/posts/install-free-google-play-store-app-on-kindle-fire-without-rooting/

But cannot actually download the APK files from the google play store ... it just times out. I tried getting it from APK mirror sites but still no luck.

Anyone have experience sideloading apps onto a fire tablet without rooting?

we also bought the $39 fire kindle deal, but I don't think we have tried that.  We tend to use amazon all the time so the need hasn't arisen.

Why don't you want to root it?

Fear of bricking ... oh wait it was only $39. I dont know; i actually like the UI of the tablet. Will rooting remove all of that?

It's VERY difficult to actually brick a device these days.  You'd have a better chance at that if you were actually going to to modify the ROM (i.e. the Android OS) itself.  Rooting an Android-based device is essentially giving yourself admin rights.  The GUI doesn't change at all.  Ultimately you are changing a permissive register from a 0 to a 1.  Not much can go wrong during that.  That being said, some hardware vendors (i.e. mostly cell providers) indicate in their T&C's that rooting a device voids your warranty.  Which really irritates me because if one owns the device, they should be allowed to do whatever they like with it.  Though, at $39, I wouldn't be concerned with a warranty.  And generally speaking, it's usually not too difficult to "un-root" a device if their were warranty concerns.

Okay ... this worked without the root.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-glxYTY8O8&feature=youtu.be

Now I have the play store and still the amazon UI.

Sweet