Do you change your own tires?

RollinOnRubber

Well-Known Member
Do you change your tires or do you have them installed by a shop?

Please vote, and if you could comment as to what type of driving you do such as long haul, regional/local.
 
I'm not muscling around a truck tire, I will let someone else mount it. Besides, I want it immediately put on a balancer to see if it is mounted correctly and/or if the tire may be bad before running it.
 
In the past, I have had them installed. I am not sure what I'll do with my drives this time around. I sure don't trust most tire techs for putting on tires.

The only ones I really get horribly fussy on is the steers.
 
In the past, I have had them installed. I am not sure what I'll do with my drives this time around. I sure don't trust most tire techs for putting on tires.

The only ones I really get horribly fussy on is the steers.

Agree on the steers, although as long as they are a good quality tire you shouldn't have a problem. Most people I know who install never do anything for balancing, I have yet to really hear issues.

Have you seen the videos of people that can change a tire in just a few minutes?
 
Agree on the steers, although as long as they are a good quality tire you shouldn't have a problem. Most people I know who install never do anything for balancing, I have yet to really hear issues.

Have you seen the videos of people that can change a tire in just a few minutes?

I have spun my steer rims empty. Run out was under 1/16". So I have a hard time justifying taking them off. When I ran up a set of Bridgestone R283's about 18 months ago, they were horrible first set-up. We had to bust one back down and I chewed out the tire tech for not lining up the paint dot with the valve stem. Yes, there is a right and wrong way to mount tires. Using just the liquid soap, it wouldn't set the bead correctly, but when we went to the slimy snot lube, then it set correctly and both of my tires had less than 1/16" runout when mounted.

Balancing, we had to use less than 1/4 oz weight on both steers. Enough so, the balancers I had were more than enough to cover the tires.

The first time he mounted them, he just tossed the tire on the rim and the paint dot was on the wrong side and off 135 or so degrees from the valve stem. It needed like 8 oz of weight according to the machine and the kid was in the process of putting all that weight on.

The shop supervisor came over and gave him some remedial training. There were 4 trucks in the parking lot that day the kid did on his own dime to make them right.

I have had seven 3-axle or 5-axle alignments done on my equipment. It wasn't until the last guy did it using the MD Alignment laser setup that it was done correctly and my issues were pretty well fixed.
MD Alignment Services, Inc.

At one time, about 30 years ago when I worked in the tire shops, I was one of those guys. Me and two others could knock out a semi of 18 tires in about an hour.

and we deserved every penny of a water break afterwards.
 

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