DonaldSmith Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 My wide whites are 12 years old, so it's new tire time before I go any distance at any good speed. Two ideas are floating around: cheapie tires vs new wide whites, and do-it-yourself vs tire store. I think I’ve mostly talked myself out of doing it myself. I can get a Harbor Freight $50 manual tire changer, but I would still have to pay someone for tire disposal and wheel balancing. Sam’s charges $11 per tire for old tire removal and disposal and new tire mounting and balancing. Other places build these into the out-the-door price. Sam's wants $57 for a P205 75R 15 blackwall, plus the $11 for mounting, disposal, balancing, etc. With tax, that's about $288 for four, or $360 for five. That's really cheeeeep compared to new wide whites. On line, new wide whites are $150 to $250 each, plus shipping, and I would still have to have them mounted and balanced locally, and the old tires disposed of. Think a thousand bucks. (The wife is thinking Sam’s.) I also have to decide whether to get four new ones and keep the WWW spare, or get five new tires. Before I decide, I want to take a good look at the spare wheel, which has a rough finish (rusted? Welded?), and if I remember the PO telling me, the spare has a tube in it while the four tires on the road are truly tubeless. I'd like to remove the spare tire to inspect the wheel. I picked up a 24-inch tire iron from Harbor Freight, but that's only good after the bead is pushed off the rim. I cobbled up a press out of 2x4s, but the connections don't seem up to the strain. I remember in the distant past something about putting the wheel under the car and using a jack to use the weight of the car to push the bead off the rim. Anything to it? Any tricks for getting a tire off a rim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg g Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 If you can keep stuff lined up the foot of the jack will likely bust the bead. but why not just have the techs do it when you make the swap. and from my experience for the few bucks more, I would suggest going up to 215 75's 205 are too short. When i was running 205's the speedo was about 8 mph faster than actual speed. the 205 corrected that to near 0 varience. Plus it drops engine rpms at speed considerably. Plus with your Suburban, the weight/load rating is higher also. Jim yergan just got some 215's from pep boys for about 54 bucks each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Get the jack as close to the rim as possible. It does work. I did it a few times in the junkyard to buy rims without taking the tires with me. Otherwise try running the tire over with another vehicle. Same thing get as close to the rim as you can. Also before you try either remove the valve core from the stem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm's Coupe Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 I remember my grandfather breaking the bead as young Ed mentioned. However, I have a much easier way. Just take the wheel and tire to a small service shop (or gas station that still does work) and have them remove the tire. Will probably only cost you about two bucks a wheel. That's what I paid. Take the wheel home, clean it up, paint it. When you get the new tire, take it back to the same place and have them mount it. All done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Thats cheap all the places around here are 10 bucks on 10 bucks off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIPJOBXX Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 I would let your fingers go through the yellow pages for used tires outlets and give them a call to have them dismount the old tires, remount the new ones and have them balanced at the same time. I think around here Walmart will do tires for around 10 to 15 dollars each for the whole job. That's about 55 dollars for all the tires and you will not haft to worry about wrecking a rim or cutting a new expensive tire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm's Coupe Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Ed, it pays to go to the same gas station for about 30 years or so. You get to know the owner and his 3 sons that way, especially when you are filling up about 3 times a week. When I ask them to pull the tires off the wheels, I did tell them I would bring it back and have the Coker tires mounted and balanced later. If I remember right, they only charged me another $12 per tire to mount and balance them. That service station is now company owned quick mart station and the sons opened up a service garage about 3 miles away from the gas station. I have another service station I use to go to close by the house about once or twice a week for just as long. (Yes, I use to have to fill up almost everyday.) That station closed years ago and the original owner turned it into an 8 bay service garage. He also works on old cars. Owns a 52 Chevy Pickup that he's now restoring and his brother has a couple of 62 & 63 Ramblers. He's done a lot of service work for me over the years too. That's the shop that rebuilt my MC for me when I couldn't get it off my coupe in 95 too. He can do the same thing and about the same prices as the other guys. He still does work on my van and oil changes on my wife's car. My neighbor across the street gets good deals on work at another old time service garage that is just a few blocks from me. These three places are in addition to the friend who helped with the rebuild on my engine. I actually met him through my brother in law. Guess they've known each other since their high school days back in the early 60's. There is a tire shop next door to him, so could get it done there too pretty cheap. So.........you just have to find those places. They are still out there. And, if you give them other business, they are usually happy to do a little on old cars cheaper, especially if they know you. Anyway, even if it was $10 to remove the tire, I'd still let them do it. It's a lot easier that way and $10 isn't all that much to pay. Now, for the price I paid at $2 per tire, I did have to take the old tire back and dispose of it. But........that's free at the city dump for individuals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 We have free tire disposal here too. I just didn't want to drag those tires 100+ miles home from the junkyard just to drag them somewhere else to get rid of them. Plus it was nice to see the insides of the rims before buying them. Now if I'm at home doing something tire related I just use dads tire machine. I put a patch on my dakota tire in Jan for practically free. The shops get $25 for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioguy7 Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 I would suggest going up to 215 75's 205 are too short. When i was running 205's the speedo was about 8 mph faster than actual speed. the 205 corrected that to near 0 varience. Don't you mean the 215's correct that to near 0 varience? Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg g Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 Yep!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm's Coupe Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 We have free tire disposal here too. I just didn't want to drag those tires 100+ miles home from the junkyard just to drag them somewhere else to get rid of them. Plus it was nice to see the insides of the rims before buying them. Now if I'm at home doing something tire related I just use dads tire machine. I put a patch on my dakota tire in Jan for practically free. The shops get $25 for that. Ed, Don't blame you for not wanting to drag old tires home from a junk yard 100 miles away. I solve that by not going to junk yards that far from home. Come to think of it, I don't do junk yards even 0 miles away from home. I did junk yards as a kid. Had enough of stepping over dog dung, etc. then, so gave it up for Lent a long time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 I still love going to junkyards. In the case of my truck I was only 21-22 and needed 3 more 16in wheels to go back to stock and get rid of the ugly mags that were on my truck when I got it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm's Coupe Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 If you can keep stuff lined up the foot of the jack will likely bust the bead. but why not just have the techs do it when you make the swap. and from my experience for the few bucks more, I would suggest going up to 215 75's 205 are too short. When i was running 205's the speedo was about 8 mph faster than actual speed. the 205 corrected that to near 0 varience. Plus it drops engine rpms at speed considerably. Plus with your Suburban, the weight/load rating is higher also. Jim yergan just got some 215's from pep boys for about 54 bucks each. 205's x 75's are what the tire manufactures recommends as replacement for our tires. I would think the height would be high enough with those. Plus 215's are wider and would make the car harder to steer when parking, than the 205's would. Not trying to argue the point, just pointed it out. But.........if your speedo said you were going 8 MPH faster, that's not so bad. At least you wouldn't get a ticket that way unless you are going 15 miles over the speed limit. Plus then when you are only doing 62 MPH you can say you went 70 MPH because that's what the speedo said. :D Maybe that's how old Don C gets his car up to the speeds he goes on the highway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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