wally world tire fun

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delucat2

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Walmart tire adventure -

I just had 4 General Grabber STXs put on my 2003 4x4 v-8 and oh, what a ride!

Pulling away from being parked overnight at only 55-56 degrees, it feels like the right side tires have developed massive flat spots. The steering wheel shakes at 20 mph and the truck lopes along like a horse. It smooths out up till 60 pmh or so, then starts wobbling vigirously till 70.

I suspect that I have both and out of round tire and a balance issue. The drivers side feels solid, but the passenger side feels all messed up. I did see that the passeneger side was the last to be re-installed, so I'm a little suspicious that the kid putting them back on did not get the rim mated propery to the hub before he torqued the lug nuts. I bet they are on cattywompus. And unbalanced. I am going to pull one tonight and see if it is obviously not mated to the hub cleanly.

Oh what a ride.
 
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I once went to wally world tire center, and made the mistake of taking one of my Audis to have tires mounted/balanced. :mad:

For you, I hope it's something simple as you suggested.
 
Bad decision. Never buy anything from Wah Mart. Especially rubber items. Now, your little bit of money saved will cost you in time and headache. Sorry man.
 
Never cheap out on tires in my personal opinion.

Cheap tires are cheap for a reason, the rubber compound is often inferior and very very soft which results in very quick wear in and poor life expectancy. We've seen the cheapo Nexens our Sales department loves to use go bad in 20k and start to develop cupping and feather pretty quickly. The rubber also tends to become dry rotted quicker and honestly doesn't handle as well as more reputable brands. I personally would not cheap out on stuff like tires and brakes because thats what you depend on to stay in control of the vehicle and often cheap tire don't do well.

I wouldn't be surprised if the tires deformed as a result of sitting on the shelves, I have also personally seen cheap tires that are almost impossible to balance. I once had a General (coincidentally) on a used Camry that needed almost 5oz of weight to balance it on a factory rim with a factory balance adapter (the rim was perfectly fine, no dents, no repairs, no damage or out of round.)

I would get them to try and balance the tires for you, if that doesn't do it; I'd find out what their exchange/return policy is.
 
Check the age of the tire as well. Wally world is probably selling old "new" tires. The manufacture date will be on the side wall.
 
One should never shop at a retailer as despicable as walmart. But we all learn in our own ways, so let's hope you don't make the same mistake twice and let's see if you can get an acceptable solution.

You should be able to take the vehicle back in and let them inspect and make another attempt to correctly mount and balance your tires. You should make clear you are giving them one chance to make it correct or you want your money and your old tires back.

Then let them try with a new found purpose and vigor. Hopefully they can correct it, but if not, you will have to fight the good fight (use your smart words) and don't leave without quality tires or your money back in your hand.
 
I had an issue with a tire like that. From 55 mph to 65 mph it would wobble a little. Nothing bad, but I could not figure it out. Went back to the off road shop and had the tire balanced again. Drove out of the shop... same thing, turned around and went right back to the shop. Tried to balance the tire again. Finally the shop manager brought me into the shop and showed me the tire. It had a spot on the inside of the tire where the rubber was just not right. Almost like a lump in the sidewall. SO that could be the issue???

Curious to know.
 
WalMart employs a lot of people around here who would otherwise not have a job. For them, it would be public assistance if not for Sam. I also like their pricing - much more straight forward than many by me. At other places M&B can be another $140+. So though it might have its drawbacks, they do employ my neighbors, so I do support this store.

The tire bay is a sad area in this store... many of the guys and kids doing the work appear "challenged" in many ways. The Manager can't be there all the time to help them, and I would say that is what happened here. I found him Saturday morning and asked him to re-balance and supervise the guys. He saw that I had only driven 50 miles, and gathered the team - they stripped all the weights and re-balanced.

No issues.

This is all training, as their machines & tires are as good for the type of car that ends up in their shop as they need to be.

General is a good company, and I've had their tires on my trucks before go 50,000 miles with no issues. As far as Michelins and other 70 or 80,000 mile tires, unless you can put those kind of miles on your car in under 5 years, you're riding a time bomb. Ive had badly cracked Frog-tires in under 24 months. No bargain in my book. They obviously have issued with their rubber compounds.

I tried to find a set of Korean tires to try them, any brand.. Nothing worked out. I did put a set of 65,000 mile Hankooks on my mom's Mazda CX9. Way cheper than the sucky Bridgestones that only went 25,000 miles.

Ive used really cheap tires from pep boys before (made by Cooper) and they were great on a sucky little ford escort, but for a noisy little economy car, they were fine.

Not everyone needs a $200 tire.
 
Glad it was a simple fix.

delucat2 said:
WalMart employs a lot of people around here who would otherwise not have a job. For them, it would be public assistance if not for Sam.
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I agree but it's probably WalMart & public assistance of some sort. Not trying to argue the point but WalMart has changed a lot since Sam Walton ran it.
 
CXS said:
I agree but it's probably WalMart & public assistance of some sort. Not trying to argue the point but WalMart has changed a lot since Sam Walton ran it.
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Yes, it has. When Walmart opened in my town exactly 30 years ago this month, they only had stores in 15 states and Sam himself visited and thanked the town for the new store. They had "Buy American" signs hanging in the store as soon as you walked in. I'll never forget it. People were friendly and they had what we needed for a fair price. We all came to love Walmart.

But after he died his family after him went ruthless with their business practices and started down this path they have come to today whereby they have gone from that small town retailer to a giant that has literally changed our economy.

Having said that, the people who work there are not forced to do so. Therefore, any talk about how much they are paid is irrelevant. If they are not happy with their pay, they can go elsewhere.

The tires sold at Walmart are not cheap junk, they are just one-off items made specifically for Walmart so that nobody can price-match them. It's a business game they play. The Goodyear Authority is built on the exact same carcass as the Duratrac, Kelly Safari TSR, and Fierce Attitude MT. Exact same tire with different tread pattern. This makes it to where nobody can say they've got the same tire Walmart has and eliminates any competitive shopping. But you can rest assured it's the same quality as all of Goodyear's other tires. They can't afford to run a totally separate factory just for Walmart. Same goes for General Tires.
 
WXman said:
Having said that, the people who work there are not forced to do so. Therefore, any talk about how much they are paid is irrelevant. If they are not happy with their pay, they can go elsewhere.

The tires sold at Walmart are not cheap junk, they are just one-off items made specifically for Walmart so that nobody can price-match them. It's a business game they play. The Goodyear Authority is built on the exact same carcass as the Duratrac, Kelly Safari TSR, and Fierce Attitude MT. Exact same tire with different tread pattern. This makes it to where nobody can say they've got the same tire Walmart has and eliminates any competitive shopping. But you can rest assured it's the same quality as all of Goodyear's other tires. They can't afford to run a totally separate factory just for Walmart. Same goes for General Tires.
Click to expand...

That is 100% correct. The tires are just as hard and made with the same compounds.

Bad service can happen anywhere. Walmart is no exception. Dealers are just as bad and in some cases worse because they don't do tires every day. A good friend of mine is a master tech at a Chevy dealer. He can't balance a tire to save his life.
 
My point is that many of the "techs" would never survive at COSTCO or a higher end sales & service oriented shop. They can get the job done, but they are slow and they do make mistakes. I tolerate this, but I know many who would not. It is in many ways a last resort full service employer. These folks can get benefits. They aren't great, but they are there.

Lesson learned... if you do choose to shop here, you probably need to watch the guys do their thing on your rig...and if they look like they are struggling, ask the manager to step in. I re torque when I get home, none of them know how to use a T wrench, and the T sticks seem to have fallen out of favor.



Crappy service happens anywhere... my neighbors Mercedes once sounded funny and felt anemic after coming back from service at the dealer... I opened the air cleaner and found a shop rag sucked into the entrance of the throttle body, under a brand new air filter.
 
I try not to shop at Walmart, but every now and then it's the most convenient place to get frozen veggies on the way home.

I do wish they'd pay their employees better. Really chaps my hide that there are people in this country working full time jobs that still have to get welfare benefits because their employers pay them so little.

Makes me feel like my taxes aren't subsidizing them, they're subsidizing Walmart's (McDonalds, etc.) profits. Nothing against them making a profit, but I don't like the fact they do it with government subsidies for their employees.

Walmart knows the people in the small towns need those jobs, they're "happy to have a job" and if they don't like it, they are easily replacable. Maybe those people can go for the American dream, open their own tire business and compete with Walmart. ha!
 
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