Lesson learned: tire shops won't mount tires to see if they fit

[band1t]

need help picking out the right tires for my 79 TA
17x8 front 17x9.5 rear
here is the thing the tire shop wont let me test fit tires on the rim and car
they say "once we put them on the rim you bought them"
even if i dont like how the way they fit

what do i do since i got one shot at this????

whats a good size to go with????

[Bill Howell]

Just curious, what do you do for a living?

[6'9"Witha69]

245/45 and 275/40. For most manufacturers those are identical sidewalls/heights. They are a perfect fit width wise on those rims as well. You could fit a 285/40 without any bulge on the 9.5, but not every company/line has that size. With the right BS they will fit no problems.

And ANY tire shop will say you mount em you bought em. A few have the Percys type tool where they can mock up a tire, but not most.

[Scarelane]

Do some measuring. Do some investigation on the internet Once the tires are mounted, they are yours.

[band1t]

I build electrical systems that starts planes and jets

[Bill Howell]

I build electrical systems that starts planes and jets

Would you mock one up in a customer's plane so they could test it and see if they really wanted it?

Sorry, my point is don't dis a tire company for not being willing to test fit tires for you, they are not in the business to let you try on their products. Too much work just to see how it looks or fits. Research is your friend and many here already know what works and don't, no need to call out a shop that is in business to make money.

Sorry for the rant.

[SLO_Z28]

Do some measuring. Do some investigation on the internet Once the tires are mounted, they are yours.


Not always true. I worked for Pep Boys and we would work with someone, unless the tires were special order. Same with working at sears, we would work with the customer. Wheels are a you mount them you bought them type thing, but done right you may never even know if a tire was previously mounted.

245/40 and 275/40 should be perfect for that size.

[band1t]

its cool but they didnt have to give me attitude
help is nice

any way found a neat program on Jegs.com
heres a link
http://www.autowaretech9.net/nextwheels/jegs_ec.htm

its a rim and tire program for all cars

[JRouche]

its cool but they didnt have to give me attitude
help is nice

Yeah, I agree. There is a way to let a guy new in the car world know that you cant just mount a tire on a rim and pull it off if he doesnt like it. Its not a shoe store is what I would say. Thats why sales was never my thing.

Some wheel and tire shops have salesmen, they are the go between with the walk in tire novice and the tire busting crew. You dont always want the tire busters talking directly to the public cause really, they dont have the skills to lead a guy by the hand and educate him about the tire business. Thats why they pay the salesmen more money, they have to deal with the people, not the easier tires :)

So like I said, its not a shoe store. No try on rubber to see if it fits. I dont want to buy your tires after you mounted them. I want new from the press.

Does it matter really? Hell no!! Tires can be wrapped around a rim and removed and it wont hurt it at all. But does it matter if a guy tries on some underwear and decides to not buy it and sell it to me? HELL yes. I wont buy it, same with tires.

When we go out to buy a new anything we want it new. Sure, the stores sell us returned items. We dont like it though. We want it NEW. So some things can be resold without our knowledge.

But thats where trust and tamper proof seals come into play.

With simple stuff like underwear or food the seal will be broken, I dont buy a broken sealed package of underwear or food.

With tires its not as easy. I cant tell if a tire is a remount unless Im out there in the bay watching. I have to go on trust. And the tire dealers of any quality will go with that. And how do I now there is that trust? Because NO tire wrapping shop out here will let you shop tires like shoes. So I know they are all new, unmounted tires.

Now there may be a few shops in town that wouldn't mind selling remounted tires (heck, even used tires presented as new). But why dont they want to let you shop tires? Heck, simple cost. They loose 12 bucks for every remount.

Yup!! I want virgin tires for my money, most folks do. JR

[Tony_SS]

Look up the tire specs then get out a tape measure and calculator and do some configuring.

Or chances are someone else has run that same setup.

Take some initiative and do some research instead of trying to schlep off on the guy selling tires.

[demon1515]

this, the best investment before buying wheels and tires!
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/76001201-1.jpg

[band1t]

Do some measuring. Do some investigation on the internet Once the tires are mounted, they are yours.
will do when it warms up
what size tire are you runnin cause I see your running the same centerline rim as me

[Scarelane]

will do when it warms up
what size tire are you runnin cause I see your running the same centerline rim as me

I'm running 235/40ZR18 on the front and 275/35ZR18 in the rear.

[icemanrd19]

im a store manager for national tire and battery. We can mount a tire to see if it fits but we cant mount a tire on a new rim and put the rim back in stock. Either way thats alot of work to mount tires on rims until you decide the right set. IM sure there are enough pictures and examples to figure out what you should go with

[Tony_SS]

this, the best investment before buying wheels and tires!
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/76001201-1.jpg

Its a waste of money.

[2timegoldtransam]

Hmm
This was quite a long time ago but I had some 17x9 mustang cobra r rims for my explorer.
took it to discount tireand they ordered me some 255/55/17 tires for it they installed them and they were to wide and rubbed on the sway bar when turning
They ordered me a set of 255/60/17's and let me drive on them for a few days until the new ones came in ,free of charge.

[buickfunnycar.com]

Short answer...255/45's and 285/40's would be my suggestion.

[band1t]

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
here is a pic of the rim in the rear STOCK ride height

[JRouche]

Its a waste of money. https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/03/wheelmock-1.jpg

Not a waste of money. Tire mocking tools work, why a waste of money?

One can be made for little money and REALLY they do work for mocking up a tire and wheel (including wheel offsets) when the wheel and tire is not available to mount up.

I made a quicky one from scrap in the garage and it really helped me to figure out what wheels I could fit, what offset I needed and what size tire I could use. The wires are the tire dimensions, and tire rack has most of the tire dimensions on their site.

To get more info on tire sizes go to the manufacture of the tire you are considering. They should have up to date tire dimensions for the tire you want.

I dont think the wheel and tire mock up tools are a bad thing, it works.

Here is what I made to mock the wheels and tires up. JR

I forget but I think this was a 7" wide wheel (15" in diameter). And the sidewall height and width was made from the specs off of tire racks specs for a tire I was looking at.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/01/2154517-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/01/17incher-1.jpg

And this one was for a 16.5" wide wheel (24" diameter) to show the max amount of wheel this tool could copy. And the tire shape and size is endless because its formed with the wire (thats not shown).

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/02/165wide24inchestall-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/08/center-1.jpg

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

oh man post like this make me laugh..

[Tony_SS]

Waste of time and money. lol

This should help:

http://www.rimsntires.com/specs.jsp

[monteboy84]

If you already have the wheels, a sheet of tagboard and a pair of scissors is your friend, no need to buy or build a fancy wheel fitment tool if you've already bought your wheels...

-matt

[mc84_zz4]

x 2 on The wheels are yours once you mount any tire on them.
Several tire shops, including Discount, will swap out tires, of course, you pay for mounting/balancing again, but it's about $25 per tire anyway, so if you mount one or 2 and decide to swap it's not big $.

[billetvic]

I would probably try to find some old used tires of that size and mock those up to get a better idea...Most tire shops sale used tires.

[DEIGuy38]

Short answer...255/45's and 285/40's would be my suggestion.

I'd listen to MuscleCarJohn he changes rims and tires about as often as he changes his underwear :rotfl: and his cars always look good.

[68Formula]

I'd listen to MuscleCarJohn he changes rims and tires about as often as he changes his underwear :rotfl:

Yeah, but that's not saying much! (J/K. Sorry, couldn't resist).

[buickfunnycar.com]

yeah, but that's not saying much! (j/k. Sorry, couldn't resist).

lol...

[JRouche]

Waste of time and money. lol

This should help:

http://www.rimsntires.com/specs.jsp

Really? Im guessing that is directed to me. And you are correct. It would be a waste of time and money just to find out what tire will fit.

I made it to determine what wheel would fit with the tightest of clearances. It just happens to work for tires also.

As for the waste of time. I dont think any time spent making something is a waste of time. Thats what I do, I make "things". But I am retired. And at 45 years old I have to spend my time doing something or Ill just get old watching TV.

And as far as it being a waste of money. Not really. I made mine from scrap steel that was removed from a local steel yard. Not really a trash bin. Its their cutoff bin that will be sold at pennies on the dollar. So I pay 17-24 cents a pound and remove it from the bin.

A part like this prolly cost $2.50-3.00 in steel and a few cents or a buck in electrical costs. And a day of retired time in the shop having fun.

A waste? Not in my life. Now for some it might be.

But all I do is screw around in the garage messin with the car or making "things". Could be on the CNC mills or lathes. The welding bench. Or just cutting and bolting something together. I LOVE IT!!!! I couldnt be happier. A waste for me would be going to work for someone else :) JR

[Tony_SS]

JR, sorry, no that was not directed at you... the waste of time I referred to was buying and using it, having to suspend and preload the suspension then use that device seems like a waste of resources - IMHO.

YOu did a fine job putting that together...


A waste for me would be going to work for someone else :) JR

Amen to that!

[JRouche]

Oh, oops :hammer:. Thanks. I was a lil rude :). JR

[Tony_SS]

no you weren't.

[twosaturns]

I worked at home depot one summer and saw people do the most selfish things, like open a bag of contractor garbage bags to feel the thickness, then buy a CLOSED box! (or just stealing one or two bags out of the box instead of buying the box) .we had so many returned chainsaw chains from people buying what they THOUGHT was right and wasn't; we may as well have thrown them away because no one likes buying a returned item.
when I worked at a bicycle shop, people would try on shoes to figure out the correct size and then mail order them, but that's another story...

[Tony_SS]

I'm about the take tires and wheels down to the local tire shop to have them mounted, balanced and installed.. and I'd like an alignment. I know they'll give me trouble, but I've bought plenty of tires from them and frankly, 1) they aren't a Falken dealer and 2) I didn't fell like paying $100+ dollars in sales tax. BUT I'm still happy to pay for their service and I"m a loyal customer to them because they do offer great service.

[trapin]

On an unrelated note....Scarelane, we simply MUST see more of that beautiful beast in your signature.