On Sun, 06 May 2012 11:57:40 -0400, Usual suspect
wrote:

On Sun, 6 May 2012 04:56:25 -0700 (PDT), stryped
wrote:

. You can
actually order tires online but not sure if it is a huge cost savings
compared to wal mart or not.

I will not buy a new tire sight unseen from anybody. Some years ago I
was part of an electrical crew that wired a new tire dealership. It
took a couple of truck loads of new tires to fill his racks. The
tires were unloaded and put in the racks by a temporarily hired crew
of laborers. He found out later that the distributor had sent him all
of his inventory of returned new tires. They looked new but were
almost impossible to balance. The correct way to receive a shipment
tires is to examine every one for take off marks and refuse delivery.

Methinks this guy was pushing a Little Too Hard for a really deep
discount on that big order, and the warehouse decided to teach him a
lesson. Big question being was this the only warehouse in the region?
If they literally were the only game in town you have to do it their
way, or don't deal with them at all...

That trick would NOT work here in Los Angeles, there are several big
tire warehouses in the region competing with each other for price and
delivery, and if one won't deal with you the others certainly will.

And it also proves that you really need to get a decent dynamic
balancer, because you might be able to get the bubble balanced on a
static balancer but a dynamic balance issue (one side heavier) like
all those Return To Vendor tires had would drive you nuts.

Even an old Dynamic balance machine like a buddy has with the
markings almost totally worn off the faceplate would be plenty. When
it tells you to put 10 ounces on the outside and another 10 ounces
180-degrees off on the inside edge, there's a problem with the tire...

But if all you are mounting the tires on is plain steel car and truck
rims, you really don't need the fancy and expensive"Touchless" tire
changers - an old Coats 20-20 would be fine.

-- Bruce --