Thinking About Replacing Tires At Home

The real trick to new tires is the balancing once the new ones treads are on. My brother ordered a set of tires off the web for his Honda and then when they were delivered marched down to the local tire dealer and paid them to mount and balance. Still cheaper and done right.

(Smartass sarcastic modes OFF, I swear!)

Dood -- *online*??? As in "I'm going to pay shipping charges for tires" ???

That's likely 'cause to do it without killing yourself in the process, either literally (from a flying tire iron or exploding tire) or figuratively (physically wearing yourself out) it takes some tools and know how. People hesitate to give you directions for a procedure that can put you in the hospital.

Buy them at WalMart, let them mount and balance them for you. There's no way it can cost you substantially more than your shipping costs & risk to life and limb.

Yeah, do it all the time. Love the free shipping deal when its available. Take them down to the local tire shop; check around and you'll find someone to mount and balance the whole set for less than $50. You can't buy the tools necessary to safely do the job for that price, and they'll dispose of your old carcasses too.

The mail order tire stores will ship the tires to a dealer they have an agreement with to install the tires. You can find this information on the tire store's web site. I've ordered several sets of tires from Tire Rack and have had them sent to installers on their list and to installers not on their list. Of course, you would have to have an agreement in place to ship to an installer not on the tire store's list.

As far as price goes, I've almost always found the online prices to be better than the walk in stores. You have to pay shipping, but do not have to pay sales tax. I did get a store to match the Tire Rack price, but they didn't have the tires in stock, so I had to pay shipping and sales tax. If they had had the tires in stock, I would have had to pay only sales tax plus the matching price. Still, it was a good deal.

Check tirerack.com.

David

They make non powered tools for that, you just need to use a lot more muscle and lots of slippery gooh so that you don't damage the tires when you mount them. Don't know if you can save money or not by the time you buy the tools and then find out that your vehicle needs dynamically balanced tires. If you have a good nationwide or area wide outfit like Les Schwab in the northwest, you get free flat repair, free rebalancing, free rotation, minor cost for road hazard insurance, and no effort.

ya gotta be kidding us, right?

(please see last paragraph for my true comment... otherwise, please read full post for tire removal/installation)

The tuff-est part of removing a tire is whats called "breaking the bead"... that's where the tire meets the rim/wheel. With the wheel off of the car,and laying down flat on its side, downward force has to be pressed on the tire near the rim (bead). There are TWO beads per tire, inboard and outboard. I give you my best wishes! Do you see where I'm going with this? NO? --- okay

After that you'll need help. Insert a prybar between the rim and tire and pull the tire over the rim. A SECOND prybar will be needed to do the same. One person holds the first prybar as the second person whales on the first prybar with a big ole' hammer and 'works' it all the way around the rim. Your gonna have to do this 8 times. (4wheels X 2 beads=8) Do you see where I'm going with this? NO?-- okay...

You should replace the valve stems because they're cheap insurance for leakage. There's a special tool that 'threads' onto the valve stem that pulls the old stem out, and installs it the same way. It cost about

NOW is the time you've been waiting for... installing the new tires. I'm not sure of your vehicles age, but sometimes cleaning the rim where the bead of the tire meets the rim is good insurance too... use a stiff wire brush. Clean it all the way around (4 rims x 2beads = 8) There is also a chemical called "bead sealer" that will help insure the bond between tire and rim.

Installation is about the same as removal. Two people, two pry-bars, big hammer... BUT WAIT!... you're going to need some rubber lubricate... liquid soap will work just fine. Spread it all around the new tires bead. There's usually a small dot on the outside of the tire... sometimes red, yellow or white. Align that 'dot' with the the valve stem. Good luck and my best wishes! Do you see where I'm going with this? NO? -- okay

Assuming you now have your new tires installed on the rims, without totally destroying them, how are you going to inflate them? I have seen rock-crawlers and artic guys inflate tires by spraying starter-fluid inbetween the bead and rim, and then "flicking-there-Bic"

--BOOM!-- (I didn't say this .... Don't try this at home kids, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, I guess). Do you see where I'm going with this? NO? --- okay

Then you have to balance the wheel assembly. Again my best wishes. There IS a special tool that rest on a pendulum, with a bubble gauge much like a carpenters' level. You place your wheel assembly on-top of the balancer, and then 'tack' wheel weight onto the side that the 'air bubble' is on... it cost a few hundred (US) dollars and is VERY primitive. Do you se where I'm going with this? NO? -- okay

With all of the modern technology present today... paying an automotive technician fifty- bucks to mount and balance your wheels is very, very cheap!

Not only that but if you have any problems with the tires you can go to any WalMart store for an adjustment. I replaced the tires on my Jeep, which I tow behind my motorhome, in California. One of the tires went bad in North Carolina on a trip. Went to the nearest WalMart store and they replaced the tire and charged me $1.95. I didn't even have the invoice with me. All the information is in their computer.

Don in Tracy, Calif.

Yep. I use Schwabbies and have since they opened a local shop. For the services you get I will pay the little extra over on-line and avoid all the hassles. They have even fixed flats for me on tires I never bought from them. Just changed PU winter tires last year as they were -way- down. They checked the puter and gave a rebate for warranty on them.

Harry K

My problem with Walmart is the local one didn't carry some of the tire brand/models I wanted

Can Walmart order ANY tire you want if they don't normally carry it?

Have you ever changed a bicycle or motorcycle tire by hand? If you don't mind hard, frustrating work and busting a few knuckles, it is possible to remove & mount a car tire using only a set of tire irons and something to hold the rim, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to. And you would still need to have the wheels balanced afterwards, though you could use soemthing like "EQUALS" instead of conventional wheel weights. For the $10 or whatever a tire dealer charges for mounting & balancing, it's really not worth doing it yourself, unless you have access to the same equipment a tire shop has. I wouldn't be so sure you could get a better price online, either, especially after shipping & handling is added.

This is Turtle.

You just picked a money saver ideal that calls for a lot of work and very little savings. You would have to have a lot of tire trouble to justify doing it yourself. Also if you do it yourself you will not spin balance your tires and that alone will get you to change a bunch of tires with low mileage on them. My local tire place competes with any internet tire places as most do. They charge $5.00 to pull tire and break it down and fix leaks, $7.50 to put on any new or old tires and spin balance it , and $235.00 put on 4 Cooper Truck tires R-225-16" / 6 ply , spin balanced and put on. Car tires are cheaper with 4 Cooper R-185-14" 4 ply , spin balanced and put on for $145.00.

To get the quality of the spin balancing and machine installation with no rips in the tires will get you for about $2,000.00.

TURTLE

An out of balance tire will wear unevenly besides causing a vibration throughout the car at certain speeds.

What is Schwabbies?

Im starting to get like you..... i.e. start buying tires from same place I have them installed vs buying online and having the shipped to me then hauling them to installer.

In the past....Ive bought several sets of tires from Tire Rack and had them installed locally.

But the last set i bought I just printed off what tire rack wanted for the and took to local dealer and asked if he would match the price if I bought from him.

He agreed so i bought a set thru him and had him install them.

There are a lot of repairs the average person can do by themselves and save a lot of money, but mounting tires sure isn't one of them. Plus, even if you mount them, which is a bitch, you can't spin balance them. If you buy them online, Tirerack has a list of installers throughout the US that they will drop ship them to and they will install them for a reasonable fee.

Chet is right-on-the-money!

What are you gonna do if you screw-up your tires when installing them?

Please pay a tire company to install your tires.... they have insurance, and proper equipment. If you screw-up your new tires, you have to eat it.

Regards, Dave

Geez. You have a hangup about what brands of tire you put on your car? Never mind. Pay your shipping charges and break your neck trying to mount them on the rims. You deserve it, idiot.

well, actually yes. my car requires z rated ones, and when i to in to buy racing tires, walmart doesn't carry them. so yes, the question as to whether walmart will order the racing tires i need and just mount/balance them is pertinent in some cases.

See if you have a Tire Kingdom in your area or close by They claim to be able to get any tire at the cheapest price.