Topic: Cost of Tire Changeover

[prufrock]

Well, I just got back from ol' Kal-Tire and got an unpleasant surprise.

The cost of changing over tires has sure jumped!

Last Spring it was $104 + taxes to swap them out.

Today it was $128 + a new TPM surcharge + taxes.

Grand total? $190! 

Don't ask me why they are charging $10 a tire because of the pressure monitoring system when they didn't last year. (Yes, I was told upfront about the surcharge, so I am not complaining)

It's to the point where the yearly changes will almost pay for some nice alloy rims and the extra TPM I'd have to buy.

So, what's everyone else paying this fine fall/winter?

Please, no snide remarks like, "Well, I do it myself." Put an air wrench in my hand and someone's losing an eye. 

[mmret]

I paid a guy in Ogdensburg $20 (Canadian dollars) to both receive my tire shipment from Tirerack and put the new tires on my car.

Pretty sure he overtorqued the wheels though.

[ktm525]

Stop the madness. Buy some cheapie wheels and do it yourself (and you don't need an airwrench, a 1/2 socket will do nicely). For close to $200 you will pay for the wheels in one year (two changes).

[ovr50]

In the past number of years, I have always bought the extra set of wheels, usually alloys, but steelies are OK, had the tires mounted/balanced and then it's easy - either do it yourself with a decent floor jack and torque wrench.

I have got lazy this year and tire shop changed both vehicles over for me, price was $35 per vehicle BUT they charge in the Fall to put the snows on, and charge zero in the Spring to take them off. That's KP Tire here.

Tearing tires on/off rims and rebalancing every year, particularily with TPMs now, is expensive and can damage tires or wheels or the TPM system.

[Snowman]

My $20 floor jack and $15 12 volt compressor has paid for themselves 10 times over.

[RunsinLight]

I paid $90 at the dealship today for an oil change and mounting 4 winter tires on my same rims I had my summers on.

[dr_spock]

I've been doing it myself for several years now.   I had separate set of rims to prevent wear and tear on the tire beads.    I think originally I paid $15-20 per tire to mount and balance on the rims. 

Items required, I bought the tools on sale from Canadian Tire.

$30 floor jack and jack stand
$60 torque wrench
$10 socket
$15 tire wrench
wheel blocks - old bricks (free with the house)
car owner's manual for proper torque value
key for alloy lock nuts or bolts (if you have locks)
work gloves (if you don't want to dry your hands)

2-3 hours of my time to do 2 cars. 

Every season the thought of paying someone else to do the work crosses my mind.  Then I remember a bad experience with over-torqued lugs that were a bugger to take off after getting a flat. 

I've done enough changes myself to cover the costs of the tools.  I am not sure about the alloys wheels yet.  My cars came with steelies and I bought alloys when I got enough money for them. 

[Snowman]

I've been doing it myself for several years now.   I had separate set of rims to prevent wear and tear on the tire beads.    I think originally I paid $15-20 per tire to mount and balance on the rims. 

Items required, I bought the tools on sale from Canadian Tire.

$30 floor jack and jack stand
$60 torque wrench
$10 socket
$15 tire wrench
wheel blocks - old bricks (free with the house)
car owner's manual for proper torque value
key for alloy lock nuts or bolts (if you have locks)
work gloves (if you don't want to dry your hands)

2-3 hours of my time to do 2 cars. 

Every season the thought of paying someone else to do the work crosses my mind.  Then I remember a bad experience with over-torqued lugs that were a bugger to take off after getting a flat. 

I've done enough changes myself to cover the costs of the tools.  I am not sure about the alloys wheels yet.  My cars came with steelies and I bought alloys when I got enough money for them. 

  Air compressor

[safristi]

..Ah REO Speedwagon required...................

[mmret]

My $20 floor jack and $15 12 volt compressor has paid for themselves 10 times over.

A $15 12V compressor can drive an impact wrench?

[Snowman]

My $20 floor jack and $15 12 volt compressor has paid for themselves 10 times over.

A $15 12V compressor can drive an impact wrench?

The compressor is to inflate the tire to the proper pressure. I torque my tires on by hand so no impact required. If someone is using an impact they are not doing it right.

[mmret]

Ah ok, I made a link from this:

Every season the thought of paying someone else to do the work crosses my mind.  Then I remember a bad experience with over-torqued lugs that were a bugger to take off after getting a flat.  Sad

[Snowman]

Ah ok, I made a link from this:

Every season the thought of paying someone else to do the work crosses my mind.  Then I remember a bad experience with over-torqued lugs that were a bugger to take off after getting a flat.  Sad

Yep. The loser working at the big name tire retail outlet making $8/hr. is totally amused putting on your wheels with the impact set on kill.

[mmret]

Ah ok, I made a link from this:

Every season the thought of paying someone else to do the work crosses my mind.  Then I remember a bad experience with over-torqued lugs that were a bugger to take off after getting a flat.  Sad

Yep. The loser working at the big name tire retail outlet making $8/hr. is totally amused putting on your wheels with the impact set on kill.

In a twist of fate, tomorrow I'm using $8/hr guy with the impact wrench to reverse this process, then a torque wrench return trip.

[Careener]

$10 per tire to have them mounted/balanced at Sam's Club.. don't laugh, they have awesome balancing machines. If all you want is a swap of tires on rims it's $5 each.


One of the questions an insurance adjuster asked me after an accident was whether I changed tires myself and that was on a new car with factory mounted wheels still on it.


_{Yay finally 1000 posts!}

[Trainman]

Bought the tires at Tirecraft and includes free rotations, so if they are mounted on separate winter/summer rims as ours are, the changeover is free as it counts as a rotation.

Pays for the winter rims in 3-4 years.  And no charge for the tire pressure monitoring system on the Sienna (the Pathfinder does not have it).

[Winklovic]

I torque my tires on by hand so no impact required.

My, what big, strong hands you have.   

[aquadorhj]

I paid the dealer $95 plus tax to swap my winters to all season this last spring.  it was $80 when i put on winters in the fall previous year.   

I'm gonna do it myself this time. 

[tpl]

My $20 floor jack and $15 12 volt compressor has paid for themselves 10 times over.

A $15 12V compressor can drive an impact wrench?

The compressor is to inflate the tire to the proper pressure. I torque my tires on by hand so no impact required. If someone is using an impact they are not doing it right.

I agree    I have the same sort of kit and it takes about an hour for the two cars.    There is no substitute for ones own compressor and ones own accurate pressure gauge to keep the winters at the right pressure as the temp drops in late fall AND the summers just right for performance in the summer.

[mar1990]

One of the questions an insurance adjuster asked me after an accident was whether I changed tires myself and that was on a new car with factory mounted wheels still on it.

Was the accident wheel related