JPS

Where do you like and trust in or near NYC? Not worth paying my Porsche shop price for swapping on the BMw.

nile13

Costco. If buying new Bridgestones or BFGs (Michelins too, but I don't buy those). Absolutely seriously.

JPS

Sorry. I meant just for mounting / swapping and not scratching rims.

nile13

Oh, for that I just find a friendly local race shop or someone I race with who ha a machine in the basement and do it myself. Can't help with a shop near NYC, but can in Boston.

RudyP

I haven’t lived in NYC in years but Jake Freedman at Freedman Tire was my go to guy. A bit outside the city in Nj so might not be perfect for you.

ilko

Fort Lee Tire.

FGL28

THIS Seriously. Costco is a great place to do tires.

pp000830

It has to do with their tire mounting equipment on hand, just go to the shop and look at their tire mounting station. If you see plastic contact points on the machine for bead mounting and un mounting you are good to go. If you see older equipment with metal parts you will need to look further. Also just tell the service guy who is writing up your ticket your concerns about poor handling and wheel scuffs and have him make note of it on the service ticket. This should do the trick. Generally the least skilled technician mounts and dismounts tires so to focus his efforts you can always have a quick discussion with the guy who is going to do the work.

JPS

Yes, I could do that myself. And Costco/WalMart work great outside of NYC. I'm not a member of Costco, and Walmart near NYC...well the service is less than stellar.

So I'm asking others who have already looked around.

Fort Lee is one, it seems.

pp000830

I think COSTCO memberships are $35 may be worth the trip, besides then you can go inside buy some really good steaks to take home.

nile13

Costco membership is $60. And, of course, it's useless for swapping tires. They don't touch tires not bought from them.

While we are at it... equipment. Yeah... no. It's not about equipment. It's about specific people changing tires. Or, in case of Costco, it's about policies and procedures and their enforcement, of which they do a surprisingly good job. And a good insurance/good will on top of that. No, it's not equipment. I can bet I can screw up your rims with plastic, rubber or unicorn fur rollers, your choice.

_snowbird_

I bought my RE-71R’s from Costco too. But next time I’ll just buy the rubber and have my shop mount them.

I’m sure each Costco is different, but at my local one the equipment was really out dated, and they used a pry bar against the face of my rim to get the tire bead over the lip. They laid a cruddy rag on the rim face to avoid scratching it with the pry bar.

Better shops have mounting equipment that never touches the lip or face of the wheel. And the nitrogen fill was more like a nitrogen top-up. They use air to seat the bead, then give it a quick spritz of nitrogen at the end.

Good prices. Bad service.

nile13

I've always found nitrogen fill to be an absolute gimmick.

Other than that, I'm surprised by the old equipment. No Costco expert, but the two I've dealt with had a pretty modern and clean shop. When they were putting my RE-71Rs on they went around and hand-torqued the lug nuts with a torque wrench... twice. When I asked why, they said it's procedure. Surprising, cause they were pretty busy and still followed the procedure.

JPS

Hence my original post.

JasonAndreas

Call Corghi USA and ask them for the nearest shop with an Artiglio Master. It will not scratch your rims and at least in my case, it was substantially cheaper than the only other safe place to have tires changed (the porsche dealer that had equipment to mount tires for the CGT and 918).