Do you let tire shops/service shops drive your vehicle?

[Nelsonmd]

Like I said before small shop is your best bet. There is a good chance at a small shop that you are going to deal with an owner, or partner or someone who's life is dramatically effected by the outcome of the business. There is also less of a chance that you will deal with a service writer that doesn't know ____ about a vehicle.

At your average tire store you are going to have someone driving and working on your vehicle that is very much new at mechanical work. When I started at Firestone (way back when) they show you a video and then hand you over to a bunch of bitter grumpy techs that don't want to show you anything. Don't forget they are making minimum wage, so even if they like cars they probably aren't excited about being there.

Thats who's done most of the tire work for me the last few years. $40-$50 a vehicle for four mount, balance and disposal. Sure they barely speak english, but I have yet to have a problem with them.

Dude, that is freaking awesome. My favorite part is that the words "Tire shop" are clearly just painted by hand directly on the wall.

 

[88xtraSR5]

The only people I trust and know can balnce tires right near me is whitaker tire in Concord N.C.. Whenever I have taken a vehicle somewhere else, there is weights all over. But at whitakers, hardly any weights are used and they ride smooth.

 

[twa318]

where did you take it?

I live downtown, just want to know where I should avoid

 

[LittleCaesar]

Damn, you are on some pricey real estate there twa318. Sullivan's Island ain't cheap to live on.

Good rich eye candy though on the beach during the summer.

Joe's Alignment is the spot though for alignments.

 

[Stick Figure]

Dude, that is freaking awesome. My favorite part is that the words "Tire shop" are clearly just painted by hand directly on the wall.

I wish you could see more in the pic, it just gets better as you pan out trust me. I give these guys credit though, they are there until 9pm at least.... I mean sure by that point there are more empty cans than full, but it saved me once when the g/f came home with a bubbled side wall on a Sunday night.

 

[inshore4runner]

johnny, why did you go to a tire shop 100 miles away? I've never had a problem with geralds on 17. as far as joes on 17, my buddy brought his chevy in there and his wheel was turned 90 degrees right when driving straight and they told him they couldnt fix it and when he got it back it was upside down when driving straight. never had any problems with geralds as long as weve been going there though....

 

[trailmix]

I dont let anyone drive my truck, heck i dont like my parents or gf taking my truck so some idiot at shop is definitely not getting behind the wheel. I take my tires and wheels in off the truck to have them done and do all the work to my truck at home. Only thing i dont is the alignment and i have a buddy at toyota who does it for me and is the only tech i trust to drive and work on my truck. The last time i had an alignment done at a franchise shop they were so off i couldnt tell if they had even worked on it. You might try making friends at the local toyota dealership cause it sure does pay off.

 

[cordrayj1]

bustin the bead and pourin in some airsoft beads.


ill let yall know how it goes. as far as reseating, shouldnt be an issue as long as all i do is break it big enough to pour em in i assume????????

 

[J-money$$$]

bustin the bead and pourin in some airsoft beads.


ill let yall know how it goes. as far as reseating, shouldnt be an issue as long as all i do is break it big enough to pour em in i assume????????

Its just like repairing a valve stem. I would use the high lift. Cram the base right up against the rim with the valve core out. and then use you friends bumper/ whatever and start jacking the truck up. the weight should push the tire right off in that small area. then pour the air soft pellets. USE THE SOLID ONES WITH NO VISIBLE SEAMS. and there are charts out there on how much to use, but i would say 5-6 oz per tire should work on a 33.

The deal with the pellets is it seems to be hit and miss with tires smaller than 35's. SOme people have it work some dont. and 35's and larger seem to work great with this method

The bead should go right back on. just use a good compressor. Co2 tanks work great for re seating the bead. If your using a slow compressor and are having problems try getting a ratchet strap and going around the tire and tighten it up. Ohh and make sure you rip all the weights off

Good luck. Im going to try the airsoft pellets on my new 315's, unless the tire shop that mounts them is only going to charge a couple bucks to balance.

 

[cordrayj1]

i have a big air compressor. that wont be an issue. would WALMART have the beads?

 

[J-money$$$]

i have a big air compressor. that wont be an issue. would WALMART have the beads?

Yeah i was over at wallmart buying shotgun shells the other day and saw the .20 arisoft pellets and they were the solid ones. I think it was $16 for 5000 which is enough to for any set of 4 tires up to probably 37s

 

[cordrayj1]

Its just like repairing a valve stem. I would use the high lift. Cram the base right up against the rim with the valve core out. and then use you friends bumper/ whatever and start jacking the truck up. the weight should push the tire right off in that small area. then pour the air soft pellets. USE THE SOLID ONES WITH NO VISIBLE SEAMS. and there are charts out there on how much to use, but i would say 5-6 oz per tire should work on a 33.

The deal with the pellets is it seems to be hit and miss with tires smaller than 35's. SOme people have it work some dont. and 35's and larger seem to work great with this method

The bead should go right back on. just use a good compressor. Co2 tanks work great for re seating the bead. If your using a slow compressor and are having problems try getting a ratchet strap and going around the tire and tighten it up. Ohh and make sure you rip all the weights off

Good luck. Im going to try the airsoft pellets on my new 315's, unless the tire shop that mounts them is only going to charge a couple bucks to balance.

i did that a week or two ago. the f-in thing shakes less. which pisses me off even more.

 

[cordrayj1]

johnny, why did you go to a tire shop 100 miles away? I've never had a problem with geralds on 17. as far as joes on 17, my buddy brought his chevy in there and his wheel was turned 90 degrees right when driving straight and they told him they couldnt fix it and when he got it back it was upside down when driving straight. never had any problems with geralds as long as weve been going there though....

geralds doesnt have the most awesome tire balancer. im friends with the guy who manages all the stores....

 

[J-money$$$]

i did that a week or two ago. the f-in thing shakes less. which pisses me off even more.

Sounds like the normal deal anymore. Hey at least you dont have about 25 oz of weight on one tire like lovely americas tire did to one of my poor km2s. Lets just say if a 33 takes that much its probably not a round tire. or just a re**** behind the balancing machine

 

[shadow247]

It all depends on what I'm having done. I don't have much of a choice but to pay someone to mount my tires tomorrow, since I don't have access to a shop right now. I really try to do all my own work, but if I don't have the tools or time I won't hesitate to pay someone to work on it. Luckily I can do almost everything to these trucks in my driveway.

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

.. old thread.

I had an exhaust shop fix a leak, the guy couldn't handle my clutch at all. First he stalls it after backing out the parking spot, revs it WAY too high and burns the **** out of the clutch trying to go around to the back. He finally makes it to the back where you have to make a 3 point turn to get into the shop.

Let's just say that the shop owner asked me what that burning smell was when it was finally up on the rack. I told him that it was my clutch that your employee just burnt up.

 

[T4R2014]

I'm not fond of someone else driving it but it gets on my nerves when it isn't me working on it. They just aren't as gentle and careful as I would be. I need a garage full of tools someday.

 

[zooroadbaja]

I remember back in high school when i worked at jiffy lube, my coworker drove a customers car into the bay, but then I also saw two customers do the same thing haha

 

[shootmymime]

Personally ive done hundreds of tires. big/small/fattys and low pros. not my most fav part of the job.

working at a shop for 4 years or so, being the young guy i was the one to do the tires. let me tell you, there are so many things that can go wrong when changing tires. bent rims, fat lugs, no dots on the new tires from the factory, dirt, setting up the balancer for your tires, (one little mis-measurement can F. everything up) and so on.
i dont know if it would be beneficial to share any tips with you guys since it sounds like you dont do your own tires. but one thing if you are having problems with balancing is to take it to a shop that has a road force balancer. (do some research about this type of balancing) we couldn't get the F350 tires done so we sent it to another local shop that had a RFB and he got them done. much better!

here is a picture of our set up for tires. notice all the wheel weights in the color containers, lots of vehicles have different lips on the rims that take different weights, the most common are "MC" style wright. i cant remember what we use on out 4runners. might be AW.

but anyways check out the RFB tire machines.

 

[white_n_slow]

They're not going to hurt anything driving your truck with an aussie, except maybe take a few extra microns off the rear tires. I don't take my truck to the shop, but I have no qualms letting anyone drive my truck. Hell, I even let my stepdaughter who barely knows stick take it out on snow days.