Just mounted & static balanced my 30th tire in about five years - saving over $400

Arlen G. Holder · 2019-04-29T08:48:59+00:00

UPDATE:Today I mounted & static balanced my 30th tire in about five years, whereeach time I do this easy job, I learn new tricks to make it even easier.For example, the "drop center" trick that Clare taught me was, by far, themost critical trick of all. And, this time, I learned that it's a bad idealeaving the packing tape on the tires as it makes it harder to seat thebead if the beads are bent inward versus pushed out a bit.While I've done all sizes from 15" wheels to 17" wheels, these 15" P225/75Optimo H724 tires have thick sidewalls that make it a bit more difficultthan the 99V passenger car tires to break the 1st bead and seat the 6thbead.One mistake I made was to leave the packing tape still on the tires whilethey waited for me to find my "round tuit", where the pinching in of thebeads made seating the tire problematic for the few seconds that it takesto pop the bead into place.I had to ask a second person to help pull up the upper bead with one handand a knee while I pushed up from below with two hands, where another trickI learned long ago was to adapt an airgun to screw into the Schrader valveso that filling it with air during the bead-seating process is essentiallyhands free.This mountain eats up everyone's tires, which _never_ get the claimedmileage (not even close) but I can't use the warranty because I can't provethat I do all the work myself.Cost savings at $20/tire = $600 minus about $200 for tools = $400 to date, but the real value is the satisfaction of being able to do it myself.Here are some photos, just so you see what it looks like.o This SUV needs to be taken in for a front-end alignment: o Breaking the 1st bead takes a couple of minutes: o The outside edge of the front tires wears too much: o TREADWEAR is said to be 500 (but it won't get that): o The tire valves are about 1-1/2 inch long (.453): o I replaced the valves with all-metal valves: o This home-made adaptor works great to seat the beads: o Leaving the packing tape on was a bad...

Apr 29, 2019 134 Replies

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Veaceslav Patic 3 years ago

I just got my tires for my BMW X6 2022 for summer from

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very satisfied with their service and options. I would recommend to anyone!

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