Advice on mounting tires

[wdoland]

Just broke down and bought a set of 4 Diamond Back M5 tires. Is there anything I need to know about keeping the white walls clean while mounting. Do they put them face down, should I tape over the WW, can any good tire company to it?

It's a lot of money to just let Jethro down at "Tires-R-Us" get his hands on.

Thanks, Wayne

[58prostreet]

When I got my new wide whites I left the blue on as somewhat of a  protective film. I would recommend this, except I would advise you to take a damp cloth and remove the blue on the bead that goes under the steel rim. I did not do this and after they were mounted I cleaned them, but under the rim is still there and when you drive the blue streaks out on the white. This eventually stopped, but took a while. I also told the tire guy to please be careful with the white and I stayed and watched him. They came out fine.

Bob

[JBNeal]

Ya might want to get the tires mounted when business is slow so they can take their time...if you can swing it, bring them one wheel at a time instead of the whole car. It'll take longer but the technicians might do a better job on the tire and ya won't have to worry about any damage from left hand thread torqueing

[Don Coatney]

Would be wise for you to search this forum and other on line sources to fully understand the correct way to mount and align tires to the rim per the markings on the tires. Dirty white walls may be the least of the complications you encounter.

[wdoland]

I would imagine that most tire shops would know where to put the red/yellow dot on the rim. 

[Don Coatney]

I would imagine that most tire shops would know where to put the red/yellow dot on the rim. 

Do a survey of all the recently mounted tires at your favorite tire shop and report the results.

[JBNeal]

I worked at a Firestone dealer when I was in college and management did not care where the marks lined up, just get the customers out the door asap was their mantra.  I got barked at on a few occasions cuz I would get caught rotating the tire on the rim to line up the mark to the valve stem, or as my manager called it, "lollygagging"...when my naïve self would try to explain what I was doing, I would get the DGAF corporate motivation and just slap the rest of the tires on the rims...this is why I tell people to go to tire stores when they are not busy, cuz management will not be cracking the whip on techs to just get the cars out the doors.  Back at the Firestone, we had a customer with a cherry Formula Firebird and a sweet Bonneville SSE that he would bring in to get serviced, always on Sunday mornings before noon, and he would request that I do the work, probably cuz I'd be the only one not hungover and I tried to do a good job.  So choose wisely...

[greg g]

with or without inner tubes?  Do any of your rims have the slightly oval valve holes?

[austinsailor]

They make stems for those. Brass stem with a brass nut.

[wdoland]

Not using inner tubes and the valve stems are round. I'll be there to make sure they use the red dots and I'll post in a few weeks when they are delivered and put on the car.