I had to go to three different places to find someone to mount and balance my new rear tires.(295-35-18) I went to Wal-Mart first because they do them for $11 each and i figured i could watch them so they didnt screw anything up, but they couldnt do them because they are too low profile and they would possibly mess up the rim.

Next i went to the local Firestone shop and again the guy said he wouldnt touch them because they are on 18's and are 35s. They said the last time they tried was on a Cobra and it took 4 guys to do it? They were going to charge me 47.50 For everything. Keep in mind this is for two tires mount and balance.

Finally i had to go to Strope's Speed Shop (which im sure you guys have heard of...) to get them put on. My invoice read like this:

Mount 35 Series Tire two---24.00
Balance tire/wheel with stick on wts, two---31.90
dispose of old tire, two ---6.00
shop supplies----2.79
tax--3.88
TOTAL---68.57

I cant help but feel like i got ripped off? What are you guys paying for this? Where do you go? The dealership has got to be cheaper then this, right? Give me your view on this. What the heck, $70 to mount two tires?

 

Luckily I have a friend that works at Belle Tire. He dismounted all my old tires and mounted and balanced my 295/35R18 for $40. I could watch them do it also. They were able to do it without scratching my new rims.

Brian

 

Damn, i need to find someone like that to hook me up

 

I paid like $10 a wheel at Discount.

 

18" wheels require a quality machine and a tech who knows what he is doing. Discount Tire typically has the equipment and know how to do it.

 

Wow, i have never paid more than $10 for mounting, and usually an extra $5 for balancing with stick ons. Thats canadian too. I used to work at a tire shop, fee was $10on/$10off.

 

The lowest profile I have ever changed was a 40 serise. Thats was hard enough. a 35 is not easy espeicly on an 18. Trust me it's hard. When the arm comes around it wan't to pull the other side back around teh bead or it will pinch it off and rip a nice gash in the bead. Thats why it takes 3 or 4 people to pry down on the bead to get it low enough that the machine will continue on. There are REALLY good machines out there for this but not everyone has them or can use them.

 

anyone who knows what their doing can mount a 18-19" 30 series tire by themselves with the same amount of effort required to mount a 65 seriers 15" tire

whereever you go to get tires mounted i would spend a couple minutes observing the guys working to find out who the badass is (every store has one) and dont be afraid to ask him to do it for you

 

I didn't know it was such a difficult thing to do. The guy at Discount mounted my 305/35/18's in no time. Like they mentioned above maybe it's the machines they use???

 

You went to where? WAL-MART I own a shop and we fix Wal-Mart problems almost daily. Here just a while back we had to actually cut an American Racing rim off a car that Wal-Mart screwed up. After we cut it off, I sent one of my guys from our location in the Des Moines, Iowa area to Omaha, Nebraska to the American Racing warehouse to pickup a new rim. Wal-Mart paid for all of this, our labor and time cutting the rim off, the time involved to drive from Des Moines to Omaha and back plus mileage and the new rim plus mount/balance/valve stem, etc.

Here a while back we had a pickup truck come in. He had just bought new tires at Wal-Mart and was experiencing a vibration. Went back to Wal-Mart and they told him he needed an alignment and sent him to us. ON BOTH SIDES OF HIS STEEL RIMS he had solid wheel weights. We literally filled a shoe box full of wheel weights that we pulled off of all 4 of his wheels (with him watching us) and rebalanced his wheels/tires. He had no wheel/tire that required more than 2 oz. of weight.

We live in a world that you get what you pay for. If you expect to get quality work, expect to pay for it. If you want to get by cheap, expect to get sub-standard work and the risk of getting something really screwed up ! !

Had you brought your two wheels to my shop to have this work done, you would have paid $65 to $70 just as you had quoted in your post.

As someone said above, inquire at the shop. You will find that each shop has one or two guys that do this type of work and know what they are doing.

Such is the case in my shop. I have three guys that I will even let touch custom wheels. It isn't easy no matter what some of the guys in this thread have said. SOMETIMES with lower profile tires it does take two or three guys to get the tire on the rim without damaging the rim. My guys know what they are doing, take their time and have pride in their work. I sell lots of custom rims and there is a reason for that.

 

I was apprehensive about going to walmart.
I only went there because i knew it was cheap and mounting two tires isnt exactly rocket science. I its a pretty standard operation and would be basically the same no matter where you go. Next time im calling aroud to find one of these $10 a wheel places you guys are talking about. Im not getting raped anymore paying $70 to mount two tires.

If you took an average of customers that go their for simple things like this i bet it would be about a 90% satisifaction rate. If they were that awful word would get out and no-one would go there. I not going there to have anything major done to my car, just tires..

As far as getting what you pay for, i agree that is very true but there is a point where you have to realize that in certain cases what you are getting isnt special or unique and therefore shouldnt cost more. There isnt a justification for the extra cost for the same procedure. If discount tire can do it for $10, you should do the same. I dont mean to be rude but you should be happy there isnt one next door to your shop or im sure they would give you problems.