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Let's talk tires ( again!)

Bowkills

Well-Known Member
2,577
85
Nw oh
Wifes due for a set. Ive never looked at a bill to see what tire shops charge with labor fees. Does it save you any money just taking wheel and tire in or are they making that money selling the tire? Id mess taking them off if itd save me 35 dollars or so.
 

Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,396
191
Ross County
Wifes due for a set. Ive never looked at a bill to see what tire shops charge with labor fees. Does it save you any money just taking wheel and tire in or are they making that money selling the tire? Id mess taking them off if itd save me 35 dollars or so.

Yes & yes - Over the years, I've established pretty good contacts/resources to deal with flat tires, torn tires, messed up rims, broken wheels or anything of the like, especially or specifically if I'm in a pinch. The local ma & pa tire shops, I have found that I save big time, and sometimes lucky enough to either pick up business through them or future savings business with them. I currently still conduct business with two that are approximately within an hour of me, which they are worth the extra miles because I always save time and money in the long run.

So, it all depends and I hope this makes some kind of sense. Good luck and hate to see your troubles, but we've all been there I would think.
 
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giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
I've never seen a separate charge for them being on the vehicle. I have got them swapped out faster because they often have something taking up a bay, but have time to do a mount and balance, just not the space.
 

Bowkills

Well-Known Member
2,577
85
Nw oh
Yes & yes - Over the years, I've established pretty good contacts/resources to deal with flat tires, torn tires, messed up rims, broken wheels or anything of the like, especially or specifically if I'm in a pinch. The local ma & pa tire shops, I have found that I save big time, and sometimes lucky enough to either pick up business through them or future savings business with them. I currently still conduct business with two that are approximately within an hour of me, which they are worth the extra miles because I always save time and money in the long run.

So, it all depends and I hope this makes some kind of sense. Good luck and hate to see your troubles, but we've all been there I would think.
I have no troubles. My local tire guy passed away that i was fine paying extra for his service. The few shops left around that arent national chains are linked and have formed a big buisness with multiple shops/locations. Im good keeping the extra dollars in my pocket vs theirs.
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,396
191
Ross County
Yes & yes - Over the years, I've established pretty good contacts/resources to deal with flat tires, torn tires, messed up rims, broken wheels or anything of the like, especially or specifically if I'm in a pinch. The local ma & pa tire shops, I have found that I save big time, and sometimes lucky enough to either pick up business through them or future savings business with them. I currently still conduct business with two that are approximately within an hour of me, which they are worth the extra miles because I always save time and money in the long run.

So, it all depends and I hope this makes some kind of sense. Good luck and hate to see your troubles, but we've all been there I would think.

I'll add: a little more information here to hopefully further my meaning or why I responded.

Sorry if this seems long. I honestly didn't mean for it to be 😊

I can probably produce within the hour umpteen past invoices of all kinds of tire repair work, both for commercial heavy duty trailers and/or utility vehicle suspension type works that I had done for both businesses of mine over the years, both as a lawncare owner/operator & as an independent contractor that traveled our beautiful country often to conduct my jobs at nearly all major American cities. No longer running the full blown lawncare operation today, however I still dabble in some that kind of work from time to time occasionally, just like all the timber work that I've been doing this year and well into the next at the other farm.

I've done both, nation chains and local privately owned business/companies, such as Sears, Tire Discounter and I believe another big one that I can't quite think of right off the top of my head. I should have business accounts with them still I believe. It's been seven years now since I sold the lawncare business,

All I can say is, there is a privately owned tire repair shop in downtown Circleville, right there on Court St,, but you have to take the alleyway to get to them. Those poor wonderful people were a Godsent more than a few times for me.

I'll give you just one example, I prebought brand new tires on sale someplace, can't remember where exactly, but I have the invoice, for both my F350 and 17" tandem trailer for that truck. It was a spectacular deal during one of my travels, that I do recall, and I grabbed them. I had an appointment with the Circleville tire shop towards the end of a work business day to have them to unmount/remount, spin balance, replace all valve stems and that was it. No alignment needed nor did I have the time. That was also during a hot summer evening too, in 2014 I think. They did all 8 tires and wheels for me.

Anyhow, because we got behind throughout that day of mowing or whatever, I got to their shop pretty late, sometime during their last hour. They all suck around and got the job done and didn't give me much grief over it whatsoever. In fact, that experience brought them more good business later on down the road.

Look at that, you brought more tidbits out me ☺️
 
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P8riot

Active Member
944
39
Carbon, In
I've never seen a separate charge for them being on the vehicle. I have got them swapped out faster because they often have something taking up a bay, but have time to do a mount and balance, just not the space.
This! Plus some moron on the super thumper isn't torquing them to 200 ft/lbs. I had my wife's Mitsubishi Outlander done because I couldn't do it myself. Got the vehicle home and checked the torque. My torque wrench was still clicking at 175 ft/lbs. The vehicle calls for 80. I called them and told them to make a note. If any studs broke they were repairing it. They swore up and down they don't use impact guns, it was some kid on a long handle wrench. Yeah right.
 

Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,396
191
Ross County
This! Plus some moron on the super thumper isn't torquing them to 200 ft/lbs. I had my wife's Mitsubishi Outlander done because I couldn't do it myself. Got the vehicle home and checked the torque. My torque wrench was still clicking at 175 ft/lbs. The vehicle calls for 80. I called them and told them to make a note. If any studs broke they were repairing it. They swore up and down they don't use impact guns, it was some kid on a long handle wrench. Yeah right.

I had a real good one happen too where one of my trucks wheels after picking it up at one of the more reputable tire company's and nearly one of my wheels completely fell off while flying to a bit late crucial doctors appointment. Once I was able to stop the pickup, which just so happen to be the parking lot of the medical place I had to be at, very first opportunity, my drive side front steel wheel stud holes, all eight of them, were completely wore out twice their size at least , two studs broke off and shared off in half.

I made my appointment on time barely. I called the next day the company that actual did suspension work, but do all kinds of tire stuff too, and told them what happened. They paid for it all and repaired everything perfectly. Honestly, that experience nearly killed the wife and I on I270 in Westerville during rush hour about six years ago roughly. I guarantee the wife will never forget that day because she thought the truck was coming completely apart while going down the highway moving right along.

They forgot or missed and did not togue down that wheel,
 
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hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
40,270
288
Ohio
So for our SRW F350 I bought some take off steel rims with new Goodyear tires. I don't remember the exact model. Adventure AT or something. Kevlar embedded tires. Supposed to be pretty durable and showed good reviews in snow. My opinions of them in the snow? Not overly impressed. They were okay, but not BFG AT KO2s in the snow.

So it was also time to buy tires for our F250. I talked to tire guy and was going to try to cheap out. I talked to a buddy who plows with the Michelins and he said they suck for plowing. Came on his truck new and he can't wait for the to wear out. The BFG were $30-50/higher than the cheaper tires. I need to trust the tire. Getting stuck or burning extra time and fuel spinning was enough for me to spend the extra couple hundred. Plus I expect to overload the truck. I've already added helper springs. I need to trust the tire won't blow out. We shall see how these hold up compared to the one on our F350. Maybe with a different driver we will get more miles out of them. It will be an interesting comparison.
 

Bowkills

Well-Known Member
2,577
85
Nw oh
So for our SRW F350 I bought some take off steel rims with new Goodyear tires. I don't remember the exact model. Adventure AT or something. Kevlar embedded tires. Supposed to be pretty durable and showed good reviews in snow. My opinions of them in the snow? Not overly impressed. They were okay, but not BFG AT KO2s in the snow.

So it was also time to buy tires for our F250. I talked to tire guy and was going to try to cheap out. I talked to a buddy who plows with the Michelins and he said they suck for plowing. Came on his truck new and he can't wait for the to wear out. The BFG were $30-50/higher than the cheaper tires. I need to trust the tire. Getting stuck or burning extra time and fuel spinning was enough for me to spend the extra couple hundred. Plus I expect to overload the truck. I've already added helper springs. I need to trust the tire won't blow out. We shall see how these hold up compared to the one on our F350. Maybe with a different driver we will get more miles out of them. It will be an interesting comparison.
Single tire or dual? How many tons will u add? Just curious.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
40,270
288
Ohio
Single. Not sure how many tons I'll add. I have an aluminum dump insert going in the bed but it is only 600lbs. It will lift 5000 or 6000 pounds but I will use the f550 for those loads. Probably a couple yards of mulch at a time.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,962
177
Ohio
I'm buying tires and aluminum wheels (to replace the OEM steel wheels that are rusted to hell now after 8 years). Need some opinions. I've read through this entire thread and did not glean enough discernable information to help me. I've had Michelin tires on all of my Toyota trucks for the last 10 years, and they ride nice, but never last as many miles as they should and are very mediocre in performance in the tiny bit of off road driving I do. Since I inherited a cherry 2015 Honda CRV with only 16k miles on it, I'll be driving my truck less, and mostly for hunting, firewood and stuff that actually requires a truck. I'm after a little more aggressive all season, all terrain tire this time. 255 70 R18 is the OEM size on my Tundra and what I'll be staying with.

Top three I'm looking hard at are Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S, BFG Trail-Terrain T/A, and Yokohama Geolander A/T GO15. Falken Wildpeak A/T3 and Goodyear Wrangler All Terrain Adventure w/kevlar are not out of the running.

I have Falken tires on my E150 work van, and they have been a great tire. I had Yokes on my Super Duty and they were very good, too. I have zero experience with any of the others I'm considering. I'm rather an idiot when it comes to tires and wheels, besides, which makes these choices even more painful than the cost. Whatever pro's and con's you all can provide will be much appreciated.
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
58,813
288
North Carolina
I’ve only had experience with the coopers, my brother also runs them on his F-150. We both liked them. And have run them on fords and chevy‘s. Like you we got them mainly for hunting and the amount of off roading associated with it. I’ve got the Michelin tires on my tundra as well. Don’t leave the road much these days so they still work for me.
 
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P8riot

Active Member
944
39
Carbon, In
I would definitely add weight of the tire in your decision as well. If you care about ride quality and gas mileage. Rotational mass plays a critical role in those. I had BFG KO2 on my truck for many miles. They were very heavy and my 2013 F150 rode fairly rough. I switched to Michelin defenders mainly because the BFGs were old and I was going to be trailering across the country and didnt want to risk a blowout. The Michelins are lighter. I did notice lack of power while entering highways at on ramps with the BFG that I got back with the lighter Michelins. It could never find the right gear it seemed. I can't remember the exact weight savings but it was double digits I think.
 
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