Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Tire recommendations?

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Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 08-02-2010, 10:07 AM:

Right now I have Mastercraft 225/40R18. I'm not changing the size, just want to know about different brands. When I bought the last set, they were $175 each. Now I search online and they are a hell of alot cheaper. If I buy them online my mechanic says he can't put them on because of the wheel size. Has anyone ever bought tires online and taken them to a tire store to have them installed?
If I buy them locally, no-one stocks them, they would have to order them. Every shop has said it is an odd size.

Thanks, Rick

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-02-2010, 10:20 AM:

quote: Richard Hamilton
If I buy them online my mechanic says he can't put them on because of the wheel size.

That doesn't make any sense. If you get your hands on the same exact tire and size that he'd be getting you, he shouldn't have any trouble putting it on the wheel regardless of where you got it. Now it may be that the ones available online aren't the right size, but I don't see why that'd necessarily be the case.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 08-02-2010, 10:48 AM:

Chris,
He's not a tire shop, and he said his tire changing machine wouldn't handle my wheel size. When I first asked him about it he said sure, then remembered my wheels, and said he wouldn't be able to do it because of the size. Plus I won't be buying the tires from him. And yes, I'm buying the right size.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 08-02-2010, 10:58 AM:

Yep. I've bought tires and had them mounted to my rims. I had it done at my local Hibdons Tire Plus (Tires Plus is a national chain). I've also bought my auto parts and had a local mechanic shop install them. In both cases they only guarantee their workmanship and not the parts installed for obvious reasons.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 08-02-2010, 11:26 AM:

Remember, maximum listed pressure yields best mileage for gas & tire. Louis

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-02-2010, 01:32 PM:

quote: Louis Bornwasser
Remember, maximum listed pressure yields best mileage for gas & tire. Louis

Inflating tires way beyond the car maker's recommendation can be playing with fire. SUVs and other tall-heavy vehicles can be more prone to handling problems if you run at too high pressure and I suspect if you had a rollover or something and they found out you were running way higher tire pressure than recommended, they could partially blame you as the vehicle operator. You can also cause abnormal tire wear issues. Beware. Might be better to stay close to official recommendation, maybe a few pounds over but if the car says 32 and the tire says it can go to 45, you probably don't really want to go to 45.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 08-02-2010, 04:02 PM:

quote: Richard Hamilton
just want to know about different brands

Anyone have any preferances? Mine are rated at a little over 100 mph. Which is fine for me, I usually only drive it around town. They're also directional.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-02-2010, 04:26 PM:

Mastercraft's are a bit of a pricey tire for I also own a set of Mastercraft Strategy's - 205/55R16's - for my Plymouth Laser - that set me almost $500.00 bucks for them. But the treadwear is like 550, which gives me 80k miles plus on the wear factor.

In all due actuality, you have to look at the wear factor numbers - the lower number meaning the less mileage where the compound is lesser but the tire is more 'stickier' on the road, while the high number gets you the high mileage since it's a more high compound tire, but the tradeoff is the less 'stickiness' and higher price.

quote: Richard Hamilton
I have Mastercraft 225/40R18

..which is performance rated for you definitely got WIDE meats mounted on a large rim, but with very little shoulders, thus giving far less tire flex (and harsher ride) than if you had 60 or 70 size tires. But, you got stability up the ying-yang with wide tires.

You also may not have the wear factor with all of that rubber on the road, for that's major friction right there being created.

But, since you do DD (daily driver) most of the time and no 'clorox burnouts' at every light, you should be okey with those.

BUT, keep them MEATS rotated and alignments done since you got a lot of wide rubber on the road that will wear off quickly if anything goes out of alignment.

Have to remember that the tire is like a tuna fish can on it's side-if things are aligned it will roll straight, but if you knock off an edge of that can, it suddenly turns into a cone and wants to roll towards the small diameter of that can.

Wider tires are like a soup can on it's side-why you have to really keep the alignments true, for that wider can easily go to a cone if alignments are not kept up and that really raises havoc with control.

Check with European makes (France, Germany, Italy) of this size of tire since these countries really love their cars and the 'love of the road' and go out all the way to make the best.

Good luck-Monte

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-02-2010, 08:00 PM:

Look at TireRack.com
They will even match you with tire installers in your area.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 08-05-2010, 01:39 PM:

Looks like the average is about $200. My best friend who is the sales manager at the local BMW dealership made a few calls, and the best they could do was $800 for the set of four mounted, balanced, all the things that come with it. Hankooks.

Posted by Robert Minichino (Member # 3495) on 08-05-2010, 03:27 PM:

That sounds about right, but possibly a tad high. I just paid $150 a corner online for Falken Ziex ZE-912 in 245/45R18, and then another $25 each to the local tire shop for mounting and balancing.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 08-18-2010, 10:21 AM:

Well, I got the tires yesterday at a local tire shop, I think they have about 8-10 shops in the tri-state. Total cost was $480.

It does seem to have a harsher ride. I haven't checked the pressure yet.

These tires which is a goodyear product, put on my wheels on my 97 BMW 318IS which looks just like this. , except my steering wheel is on the correct side of the car [Big Grin]

. I'll try to get a picture posted.

Thanks for the comments [beer]

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-19-2010, 01:38 PM:

I ended up getting 4 Yokohama Avid S4s for my Infiniti G35 from DisocuntTireDirect for 540 with no shipping or taxes charged.
Tire Rack and Discount Tire.com had them for around 650-680(if you include shipping, tax).
But if you order from Discount Tire's sister site, DiscountTireDIRECT.com, they offer a better deal because they do not charge you for shipping and tax. I got the same set of tires for 552(including 12 for TPMS kit). Then I get to cash in 40 via mail in rebate.
My local installer mounted and road load force balanced(usually you get charged extra for special balancing) them all for a great price of 75. Total out the door. 585. That's 200 less than if they used the sister site to install the tires at one of their local shops. Received in 2 days.

Forget the infiniti dealers. Inferior tires sold for higher prices.

Of course, it goes without saying, that you won't get these kind of savings for every tire model. I just got lucky on this one.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 08-19-2010, 01:51 PM:

I just bought a set of Michelins from tirerack.com. The interesting thing is Tirerack's price including shipping was virtually identical to Costco's price for the exact same tire. Without shipping, tirerack was significantly cheaper. But Costco didn't have them in stock and had no ETA.

The best wheel balancer is supposedly the Hunter GSP9700. At least that's what Tirerack uses when they ship wheel and tire packages. It does the "Road Force" thing, in addition to regular dynamic balancing. Most of the Les Schwab tire stores around here have it (but not all).

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 09-13-2010, 02:02 PM:

Finally got around to taking a picture of my car. I'm debating on selling it. Any takers?? [Wink]

I'm thinking an old full size bronco or jeep would be just fine for me. Something I don't have to wash every other day and detail once a month.