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Costco started mounting outside tires, probably the only place I'll go from now on. I think the cost for a mount and balance was like $12 or $15 a tire.
After working my way through a half-dozen places in town, I found a RNR Tires dealer with great mounting and balance equipment. I invited the manager to a day at the track at Daytona and took him for a ride. Now I just tip the shop guys $10 a tire and everybody's happy. I give them my DE shirts every month or so.
A couple of months ago, I offered to put the franchise logo on my car. He contacted the regional office, and they sent me a nice vinyl graphic. I then sent them some pictures from Sebring with the logo and it got kicked up the management chain. Last week, they asked if I'd be in a national commercial this spring. They're going to shoot it at the 48 Hours.
They now mount and balance all my wheels for free and are supplying my tires at their cost. It all comes down to establishing a relationship on a local level. They have pictures of my car on their walls. I stop by once a month to hang out.
If you don't mind sharing, what types of negative experiences brought you to this conclusion?
I've heard a lot of stories where the wheel balancing at tire chains is nonsense.
All 4 of my wheels were bent. Tire places will just stick some weights on, and sen d you on your way. If your situation is perfect, the chain might be ok, but if you have ANY sort of issue, you want to be at a real wheel place with Hunter Road Force balance and legit wheel straightening. Not just band aid balancing. Once I did this, I had friends take cars to the same place. The wheel shop identified the problems that the tire chains just skipped right over. For the marginal increase in cost, you get a whole different level of service. I will never set foot in a tire chain again in my life, not b/c they're bad, but b/c specialty shops are that good.
The best deal is to head into a major local tire retailer. I negotiated Toyo RR's for far less than any dealer listed, I let them know how many sets I use per year, and they were all over it. I now have some buddies doing the same. I also have them include mounting and balancing. I'm saving $$$. Put it this way, pull up the price on your tires before shipping/tax, then imagine you get them for less WITH Shipping/Tax/Mounting/Balancing included. They now can even take Toyo Bucks. I found there is a lot of "wiggle" room on the Toyo RR's. Before negotiating, This site has some good deals on Toyo's a few times a year also. They have a rebate on 4 Toyo tires right now with free shipping. This includes the RR and alike Race tires. http://www.tiresdirect.net/Default.aspx
I have a local Discount Tire store that treats me well, but I still watch them. Given the relationship has been established, I don't have to watch them quite as close. Since most people buy tires every four years or so, being in the shop 4-5 times a year gets noticed. Another pro-tip: Tipping works. For track wheels the cost to mount and balance is $10 each, so 40 bucks. $10 to $20 to the guys breaking and mounting the tires goes a long way to keeping them careful and they really seem to appreciate it. That said, all Discount Tire stores are individually managed and some are definitely better than others, so YMMV clearly applies. Plus it also helps that I don't care about the appearance of my track wheels. Over the years I've had them ruin center caps, scrape up rims I did care about, and one even dismounted a tire on a reverse drop center rim the wrong way - this was an expensive BBS three piece rim. Ended up tearing a stainless steel trim ring off in the process which luckily I was replacing anyway but if it had been a "good" wheel it would have been a freaking mess. However, the store I'm using now is good enough. A long time ago I had a tire installer I really trusted. It was so nice just to get tires mounted without the drama. I paid more for him and it was worth it, but alas, he got an offer he couldn't refuse on his shop and closed up. -Mike
Thanks Mike will check it out after I get back from Sebring next week.
After working my way through a half-dozen places in town, I found a RNR Tires dealer with great mounting and balance equipment. I invited the manager to a day at the track at Daytona and took him for a ride. Now I just tip the shop guys $10 a tire and everybody's happy. I give them my DE shirts every month or so. A couple of months ago, I offered to put the franchise logo on my car. He contacted the regional office, and they sent me a nice vinyl graphic. I then sent them some pictures from Sebring with the logo and it got kicked up the management chain. Last week, they asked if I'd be in a national commercial this spring. They're going to shoot it at the 48 Hours. They now mount and balance all my wheels for free and are supplying my tires at their cost. It all comes down to establishing a relationship on a local level. They have pictures of my car on their walls. I stop by once a month to hang out.
01-04-2017, 08:35 PM
Another pro-tip: Tipping works. For track wheels the cost to mount and balance is $10 each, so 40 bucks. $10 to $20 to the guys breaking and mounting the tires goes a long way to keeping them careful and they really seem to appreciate it. That said, all Discount Tire stores are individually managed and some are definitely better than others, so YMMV clearly applies. Plus it also helps that I don't care about the appearance of my track wheels. Over the years I've had them ruin center caps, scrape up rims I did care about, and one even dismounted a tire on a reverse drop center rim the wrong way - this was an expensive BBS three piece rim. Ended up tearing a stainless steel trim ring off in the process which luckily I was replacing anyway but if it had been a "good" wheel it would have been a freaking mess. However, the store I'm using now is good enough. A long time ago I had a tire installer I really trusted. It was so nice just to get tires mounted without the drama. I paid more for him and it was worth it, but alas, he got an offer he couldn't refuse on his shop and closed up. -Mike