Discount Tire won't rotate cause of wheel spacers? What the hell.....

[Colemanfu]

I have been running Spyder Track spacers for the past 4 years, never an issue before when I went in for the free rotation so shocked today when the Manager broke the news. He refused to touch the rig cause of the wheel spacers? He did not know why the policy had never been enforced before but was making sure it is now.

Makes me wonder if they would sell and mount new tires ($800+) if someone was running spacers? No longer a Discount Tire fan and even less a fan of our overly PC society.

 

[skibama]

The manager at my Discount Tire tried the same thing on me last time I went in. I calmly explained to him that THEY put the tires on with no problems, and have been rotating them for the last 15000 miles. I told him that I had even asked the manager at the time I had the new tires put on if it would be a problem and he said nope. I had them make a notation in the computer that this was agreed upon ahead of time, and so far they've been okay with it.
If that doesn't work, try a different discount tire. They all seem to have different policies...or I guess just different enforcement of the policies.

 

[drmorbius]

I have been running Spyder Track spacers for the past 4 years, never an issue before when I went in for the free rotation so shocked today when the Manager broke the news. He refused to touch the rig cause of the wheel spacers? He did not know why the policy had never been enforced before but was making sure it is now.

Makes me wonder if they would sell and mount new tires ($800+) if someone was running spacers? No longer a Discount Tire fan and even less a fan of our overly PC society.

I bet they are afraid of broken studs due to the extra strain on them from having the wheel further out from the hub. Something must have happened that caused them to get gun shy.

 

[Awz]

This policy is likely due to wheel spacers being a safety inspection issue. I don't know about other states but in Utah, wheel spacers (except lug adapters) fail a safety inspection. A lot of the big chains won't work on them so they aren't at risk of being blamed for creating the safety violation.

Mike

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Lawsuits are what they fear and maybe have been burned by similar situations and if it's not OEM they sometimes don't touch it;be glad they still mount bigger than stock sizes unlike Costco.
I personally am not a fan of spacers since there have been known to cause issues but not enough to be a safety issue.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

This policy is likely due to wheel spacers being a safety inspection issue. I don't know about other states but in Utah, wheel spacers (except lug adapters) fail a safety inspection. A lot of the big chains won't work on them so they aren't at risk of being blamed for creating the safety violation.

Mike

I have always considered the Spidertrax "lug adapters". Am I wrong? We happen to use them to adapt Toyo 6-lug to Toyo 6-lug and take advantage of their thickness.

 

[brian2sun]

Did Discount mount them in the first place (I would guess since you have free rotation)? If so, they're already liable, so what difference does it make if they rotate them?

 

[jsmarine]

Discount will rotate your tires for free even if you didn't buy them there, and they will fix flats for free too! I always go to them because of this, even though I have never bought tires from them, I always get them off craigslist or something for really cheap.

Its good marketing on Discounts part, if they find a problem with your tires, guess what, you are already there with your car in the air! This is a good position for them to sell you a new tire if yours are unrepairable

Back on topic, I wouldn't touch the car either with spacers if I were the manager. Even if they did install them before, I would adhere to the policy now if I were the manager.

 

[brian2sun]

This rule IMO is another insight into why we are losing our common sense (and freedoms) in this society. If there's a tiny, remote little chance that something could possibly happen, than make sure you avoid any chance that it could ever happen and impose limitations on EVERYONE, right? I mean, People can choke on their food - so if lawyers had their way, we would all starve to death trying to avoid the possibility that one person may or may not choke. Then if they do, the lawyers can sue the cow, the farmer, and the homestead because it's their fault the dude choked, right? THAT is how stupid these regulations are! It's the owner's choice to run spacers or not, he should be the only one liable - or the company that made the spacer if it's defective (either in design or quality).

 

[BamBam]

I guess I just don't understand what following a corporate policy of not touching wheel spacers has to do with being "PC" or "politically correct". Are wheel spacers a hotbed political issue like race relations and immigration? Apparently I don't get out enough.

Call around and find a tire shop that will do it, and then promise to give them your business. Problem solved. If nobody else will do it, then maybe it isn't a Discount problem and is a safety issue (but I still am not grasping the political side of it apparently).

 

[brian2sun]

I think the PC comment was reffering to the castration of the American society and if one person out of a million has a problem, the other 999,999 have to suffer. Example: If one person shoots someone else in this country, the government and media go out of their way to protect the criminal/murderer and blame everything on the gun manufacturer and the "far too lenient" gun laws. While the murderer gets let free in 3-7 years to go out and kill again, we (the law abiding majority of the country) never get our rights back. Sure, it was the AK-47's fault - definitely not the murderer. Guns kill people just like pens write Pulitzer Prize winning novels, right? Ha!

One dumbass installed his spacers too loose, crashed his truck and now NONE of us can put spacers on our trucks without a legal issue.

 

[Slvr RnR]

I think the PC comment was reffering to the castration of the American society and if one person out of a million has a problem, the other 999,999 have to suffer. Example: If one person shoots someone else in this country, the government and media go out of their way to protect the criminal/murderer and blame everything on the gun manufacturer and the "far too lenient" gun laws. While the murderer gets let free in 3-7 years to go out and kill again, we (the law abiding majority of the country) never get our rights back. Sure, it was the AK-47's fault - definitely not the murderer. Guns kill people just like pens write Pulitzer Prize winning novels, right? Ha!

One dumbass installed his spacers too loose, crashed his truck and now NONE of us can put spacers on our trucks without a legal issue.

Ummm, I don't even know what to say to all that.

They just don't want to be held accountable for what COULD happen, but rarely does. They've probably battled a few frivolous lawsuits and decided F-it, we're not touching them.

 

[bama16]

you have to understand where they are coming from, as previous post have state, liability is a huge issue, and adapters are widely known to fail. just because a mistake was made in the past, and was caught, doesn't mean it needs to be repeated. if somehow a wheel did come off while crusin 65 down the highway, where would blame be placed first?

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Let's say a spacer fails at 70mph on the highway and causes a big wreck involving other cars and maybe a couple of deaths and you instantly have a multi million dollar lawsuit and they go after the people installed the tires/rims with the spacers then it's a big deal to the tire place so eliminating that chance gives them peace of mind. Even if the owner claims responsibility for an accident (if he lived that is) and for the spacers the lawyers will still go after the big tire company since they have money.

It's not like spacers is a required part on the car and wasn't there when it left the factory so tire places reserve to be judgmental on what they will or won't install or work on.

It's the owner's and the lawyers that help these people sue big companies hence restrictions being in place. Look at most aspects of our lives and look at all the warning lables placed on everything from our car's visors to baby seats and that is to protect companies from people trying to blame them so they give out plenty of warnings or refuse certain services if you don't meet their standards.

 

[004Gunner]

Shopping around to get tires rotated for price is one thing, but to find a shop willing to do it because of spacers? It's absurd and of course it's because one too many people used a product against a manufacturer's specs, then sued because it failed. Playing it safe on account of legal liability and accidental death/serious injury has gotten to the extreme. Read this

Statistics are too often taken out of context. If you don't believe me then consider this: You have a child that likes to play at a friend's house where there is a pool. Your child also plays at a different friend's house where there are guns. What's the greater danger? Read this too Btw, Freakonomics is a very fun and interesting book. Highly recommended especially if you watch the news

 

[Awz]

I have always considered the Spidertrax "lug adapters". Am I wrong? We happen to use them to adapt Toyo 6-lug to Toyo 6-lug and take advantage of their thickness.

I looked at the spidertrax, (never seen them before) and they're labeled as "wheel spacers", so at least in Utah, they would fail a safety inspection. I have friends who work at the wal-mart tire and lube, they aren't allowed to touch them either, if they have wheel spacers.

A lug adapter would be for adapting the Toyota 6 lug, to fit a 5 lug wheel. Or something similar.

Mike

 

[brian2sun]

What about the thousands of people who are running non-hubcentric wheels with small backspacing? That's just as bad as spacers as far as having all the pressure on the lug nuts and risking the wheel beaking off the axle. But any tire shop will mount those no problem. Tires blow out everyday, but those lawsuits are acceptable risks? The way they pick and choose what is too dangerous and what is just the right amount of danger is dumbfounded and is often based off of hype or wrong info/stats.

How about the guy who chooses to run the spacers? Can no one take any responsibility for their own choices anymore? Everybody else is to blame except the one person who chose to buy them - even though they have detailed instructions and warnings that come with them about how to install properly with torque ratings and advice to use Locktite on the threads? Noboby threatened me with death if I didn't buy my spacers.

And if the spacers fail because of design, than it's the manufacturer that is/should be liable, just like Toyota is liable for all the recalls. That's just my opinion. Plenty of shops realize that spacers are safe if you mount them properly, and to them I take my hat off for not letting a gaggle of greasy lawyers dictate to them how they should run their biz.

 

[quicksilvr]

Fwiw, I agree with brian2sun. And I hate Discount Tire in general.

I used to have a pretty heavily modified car that was lowered. (Not the Neon in my sig, a different one). I took it to Discount Tire for an alignment. They "aligned it", and thankfully before I left the shop I looked at the spec sheet. They weren't even going to show it to me. So I look at it, and see that the camber is still positive in the front! (I asked for 1.5 deg negative) I was like what the heck guys? The manager comes out and tells me there is not enough adjustment in the cam bolts. I had to take his word for it at that point in time.



The fronts were very obviously positive cambered...you could tell me just looking at it. I went home, jacked the car up and started adjusting it myself. They had the cam bolts set exactly oppposite where they should have been. I got probably 2 whole degrees of negative camber on both sides. Went back to Discount Tire, told them they're a bunch of idiots and they've never get my business again, and they've giving me my money back for my "alignment".

Every single person that asks me a car question or whatever because I'm that guy that knows about cars....I tell them to never go to Discount Tire if they ask about tires/alignment/suspension.

 

[BamBam]

Shopping around to get tires rotated for price is one thing, but to find a shop willing to do it because of spacers? It's absurd and of course it's because one too many people used a product against a manufacturer's specs, then sued because it failed. Playing it safe on account of legal liability and accidental death/serious injury has gotten to the extreme. Read this

Statistics are too often taken out of context. If you don't believe me then consider this: You have a child that likes to play at a friend's house where there is a pool. Your child also plays at a different friend's house where there are guns. What's the greater danger? Read this too Btw, Freakonomics is a very fun and interesting book. Highly recommended especially if you watch the news

Are there quite a few long term studies about the wheel spacer epidemic and a massive amount of lawsuits because of it? I haven't seen any cases of it, and am hard pressed to find how people are making such a huge leap and connecting swimming pool accidents, gun deaths, and other things to a company refusing to do free tire rotations on modified vehicles. I guess I don't see the connection, but others are making quite a case here based on what exactly? A perceived threat to our right to space our wheels without having to pay for tire rotations? I'd hardly see that as a sign of the apocalypse or downfall of western civilization.

 

[brian2sun]

BamBam, no it's not the fall of western civilization, but the fear of getting sued in this country is out of control and really dictates the way we live nowadays - and it sucks. Maybe you are too young to remember I don't know, but far more people used to take responsibility for their own actions in this country and didn't try to search for a fall guy when it was their own damn fault. I say this because spacers are perfectly safe when they are installed correctly.