Buying tires online?

[bobzilla]

I used TireRack at the dealership for over 10 years. Their customer service, selection and prices just can't be beat. Add in they are STILL family owned, located in Indiana its a no-brainer to me.

 

[nate77]

Home - Discount Tire Direct, or Buy Tires and Wheels Online. Free Shipping Available. | TireBuyer.com, but with tire buyer you have to have the tires shipped to an autherized installer to get free shipping. Discount tire direct delivers free to your home.

I just put 4 General Altimax Arctic snow tires on my wife's car mounted and balance for under $300 with tire buyer.

 

[IndyGunworks]

Home - Discount Tire Direct, or Buy Tires and Wheels Online. Free Shipping Available. | TireBuyer.com, but with tire buyer you have to have the tires shipped to an autherized installer to get free shipping. Discount tire direct delivers free to your home.

I just put 4 General Altimax Arctic snow tires on my wife's car mounted and balance for under $300 with tire buyer.

How does the mounting and balancing work from them? I doubt I will find four tires for my truck for that price.

 

[nate77]

We had them delivered for free to Tire Barn, then we paid them $55 for the mounting and balancing. I also forgot to mention that tire buyer charges sales tax in Indiana; discount tire direct doesn't, but on my tires it was still cheaper with tire buyer even with the tax.

 

[nate77]

Also yeah, truck tires will cost about twice as much depending on the size, I don't look forward to the day I have to put tires on my truck, but at least it will be a bit cheaper since I only have 17" wheels versus 18's or 20's.

 

[Fargo]

Those cheap balancers never work as good as one that actually spins the tire from past experience in my auto classes. I usually just eat the cost of going through the local tire shop which doesn't cost much more than buying online. They rotate, balance, and patch them for free for the life of the tire so the extra $50 every 3 years is worth it to me. This is coming from a guy who does everything else to his vehicles and has thousands stuck in automotive tools and scanners.

As a guy who once ran a commercial tire machine and balancer professionally, unless you have commercial equipment I just don't see it being worth the amount of time and frustration. Nevermind how dangerous tires can be and the cost should you tear the bead or bend a rim....

 

[Brandon]

I've bought tires for the M5 on ebay and craigslist. I've also bought tires for my F250 on ebay.

I've not had an issue. I do only look at adds that have several pictures of each tire showing there are no patches and shows the depth.
I will continue to do this for the foreseeable future. Tirebarn only charges a few bucks to put the tires on the rim and dispose of my old ones.

 

[17 squirrel]

why do I have to buy valve stems if the ones I have are not leaking?

Because they are made of rubber and if they are steel that still have rubber on the bottom through the wheel. And rubber dry rots and cracks and splits over time just like the sidewalk in your tire.
And if you bubble balance with the tool you are talking about. That tool was used for bias ply tires and the types of vehicles with no suspension or or suspensions from the middle 60's and older.
You will find out quickly that balancing your 150.00 radials will cup and wear horribly along with the newfound vibrations in the floor, seat and steering wheel of your truck..
You can mount them with a set of tire spoons , but its money well spent for many reasons to replace the valve stems and spin balance your tires.


This is what I did for two years in HS. I worked for then National tire. The second store Tom opened.
All we did was mount and balance tires.. Lots and.lots of tires. He bought Monarch bais ply whitewall blems by the tractor trailer load. And we mounted them by the trailer load.
If you buy that hand tire changer I'll tell you this, you will only do this with four tires on you truck ONE time.. And you will sell your half to your partner..
Alot of things in life you can't do better than the man that does it for a living.. And that's one of them.. I hand spooned more Michelin's with tubes on the old Peugeot's. Hand mounting tires is for young men.
Good luck..

 

[Super Bee]

Tire Rack is in Elkhart. If you were near Fort Wayne, I'd suggest Leo Tire.

This right here. A little over a year ago I bought a set of Goodyear Wranglers for my Yukon for $330.00, mounted, balanced and out the door. A friend of mine is a manager for Discount Tire here in town and they have no idea how he can sell his tires so cheap.

 

[mdemetz]

Tire Rack is in Elkhart. If you were near Fort Wayne, I'd suggest Leo Tire.

Tire Rack is on the West side of South Bend.

 

[bucktowner]

I have purchased my last few sets of tires online. Walmart charges $9/ea or so for the lifetime mount and balance/rotate. They don't care where you bought them.

For guys like me, who get their tires balanced and rotated every other oil change...it's the schizzle.

As a matter of fact, I took my 2015 F350 and paid them for the lifetime balance/rotate at 6000 miles. I'll get those tires rotated and balanced every 10k for the next 50 or 60k. It's the best way to keep them Michelin tires lasting the longest possible.

 

[ghuns]

I am just guessing that it was built into the price.... which is what I want to avoid. Not saying that's the case, but most business' don't stay in business doing things for "free"

Nope.

I bought tires, wheels and a set of lug nuts. They had a sale going that gave you $100 off any order over $400. I bought the tires and lug nuts in one transaction and the wheels in another to get the $100 off each order. It hit me after I ordered that it never asked what vehicle they were for, so how do they know what lug nuts to send? It was late on a Sunday night, so I decided to wait till Monday morning to worry about it. They called me at 8AM Monday morning and asked what vehicle they were for. The guy said, oh, I see you bought tires and wheels, would you like them mounted and balanced? I said how much, he said nothing. They will also heat cycle race car tires for free in case you need any.

I got 4 General Altimax Arctics, 4, 17x7 aluminum wheels, a set of lugs, mount/balance, and 3 years road hazard for $782. Oh, no sales tax either.

At Tire Rack, the same setup would have ran me $1093 with only 1 year of road hazard.

Don't get me wrong, I like Tire Rack. A couple years ago, we made a family road trip there with 3 cars that all needed tires. It felt like a vacation to Disney. Mostly because I dropped 2 grand in a single day.