How to get a few more miles out of your tires.
06-12-2003, 06:46 AM
#41
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Here in Roy,Utah Discount Tire will do 2 wheels for less than $20.
People are asking if it's worth the cost. Let's do the math... 2 rear SO2's are $350 mounted and balanced(where I live). If you get 15K miles(what I got on my last set) then that costs 2.3 cents per mile. If it costs $20 to flip your tires then you need to be able to get another 860 miles out of your tires for it to be cost effective. Otherwise don't waste the money and just buy new tires. Although, my rears wore even so I find this to be more cost effective on the fronts where we have the -1 degree of camber.
People are asking if it's worth the cost. Let's do the math... 2 rear SO2's are $350 mounted and balanced(where I live). If you get 15K miles(what I got on my last set) then that costs 2.3 cents per mile. If it costs $20 to flip your tires then you need to be able to get another 860 miles out of your tires for it to be cost effective. Otherwise don't waste the money and just buy new tires. Although, my rears wore even so I find this to be more cost effective on the fronts where we have the -1 degree of camber.
12-09-2005, 12:24 AM
#43
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xviper, I know you are more in tune with your car than most.
For others doing this, be careful. Handling characteristics might change with a reversed contact patch, especially as the tire meets the limit of adhesion. Also, water channeling gets worse as the tread wears down.
I rode my fronts for 36,000 miles and two sets of rears for 18K each. The fronts were showing cord. Towards the end I would not take the car out of the garage in the rain. The rubber seems to get more firm as you get down to the last of it so adhesion is not as good as it otherwise would be as a dry slick.
Many people have wrecked their cars with cold or worn tires, and especially with worn tires in the rain.
All you veterans know this, but for the newer owners we often get rashes of "I hit a puddle and spun my car" posts. If you choose to drive with worn tires, take it down about ten notches, be very conscious of weight and balance especially on wet roads, and give yourself extra stopping distance. It can be done, but you have to become a conservative driver for a while.
For others doing this, be careful. Handling characteristics might change with a reversed contact patch, especially as the tire meets the limit of adhesion. Also, water channeling gets worse as the tread wears down.
I rode my fronts for 36,000 miles and two sets of rears for 18K each. The fronts were showing cord. Towards the end I would not take the car out of the garage in the rain. The rubber seems to get more firm as you get down to the last of it so adhesion is not as good as it otherwise would be as a dry slick.
Many people have wrecked their cars with cold or worn tires, and especially with worn tires in the rain.
All you veterans know this, but for the newer owners we often get rashes of "I hit a puddle and spun my car" posts. If you choose to drive with worn tires, take it down about ten notches, be very conscious of weight and balance especially on wet roads, and give yourself extra stopping distance. It can be done, but you have to become a conservative driver for a while.
12-09-2005, 06:32 AM
#44
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I recently bought new rears and had them installed. At the same time I asked for a 4 wheel alignment because one of my front tires was wearing a little uneven on the inside. Because of this I told them that I wanted the front tires flipped so the worn tread would then be on the outside. The guy told me that it was a waste of money and once a tire starts to wear unevenly it will continue to do so. My common sense tells me that he's incorrect, but he seemed pretty adamant about it and unwilling to "waste" the time. Having gotten the idea from this forum I knew it wasn't an uncommon practice, but he shot the idea down.
12-09-2005, 07:32 AM
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I agree guys. It's my money and if I'm willing to pay for it then he should be willing to do it. For the record, it wasn't at Wal-mart. It was a place called Pope-Davis Tire. They actually have a nice shop, and do good work. Oh well. Maybe I'll find another place.
12-09-2005, 10:22 AM
#49
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Having tires mounted has really become a frustrating process for me... I'm wondering what type of luck the rest of you have had. The first time I had tires mounted they (Goodyear service shop) left some pretty deep scratches on a couple of my rims. Long story short, after some arguing with them they reluctantly "buffed" out the scratches, which were too deep to effectively buff out, and left dull spots on the rims.
Needless to say I went elsewhere for the second set of tires. This place claimed to be great with mounting and told me the first shop scratched the rims because they were too cheap to buy a good mounting system. Having earned my trust I left my car with them. The result was another deep scratch on one of my rims and a couple of spots where the clearcoat has chipped off near where the tire meets the rim. What gives?
This latest place is halfway decent, but they were unwilling to flip the tires for me. Just curious if other people are seeing this kind of damage after having tires mounted.
Needless to say I went elsewhere for the second set of tires. This place claimed to be great with mounting and told me the first shop scratched the rims because they were too cheap to buy a good mounting system. Having earned my trust I left my car with them. The result was another deep scratch on one of my rims and a couple of spots where the clearcoat has chipped off near where the tire meets the rim. What gives?
This latest place is halfway decent, but they were unwilling to flip the tires for me. Just curious if other people are seeing this kind of damage after having tires mounted.
12-09-2005, 11:41 AM
#50
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Originally Posted by LATEOTT,Dec 9 2005, 01:24 AM
... Handling characteristics might change with a reversed contact patch
I flipped my rear tires just before half life. The original tread depth was 10/32", when it wear down to 6/32" I flipped them.