I'm ****, I admit it. I should mention, in almost five years and 44,000 miles, they are only the third facility (once each) to ever drive the truck. I had incredibly high standards for a place to install new tires and they stood up to my expectations with one small exception. I gave them a long list of caveats to follow, including 65 PSI in all, rubber/metal combo valve stems, new date coded tires (within the last 6 months), white letters out, and all wheels torqued to >140 ft-lbs. All this while also honoring a competitor's price too!

I was really lucky, they just got these tires in on a truck from the warehouse the other day. All four have the same DOT number and the date code is 4511, so the 45th week of 2011 is roughly early November. I'm a happy camper



Shortly after arrival in staging position. Hubcaps and OEM Ford bullet nose valve stem caps removed by me upon arrival. Arrived approximately 14:00 with vehicle, but it had been in the queue since approximately 13:00. I made sure it was nice and clean for them and I specifically made a point of not shining the old tires...



It was finally pulled into the bay at around 16:30. Despite their worries about it fitting on this particular lift due to the length and weight, they made this one work. As you can tell, it was a busy day for them. There were six vehicles ahead of me at 15:00. I put 44,250 miles on the old set of Bridgestone Dueler REVO LT265/75/R16E, but I suspect they had a total between 48-50,000 miles on them with the previous owner's use too and were almost completely used up. They were incredibly noisy for the second half of their lives too.



Removing the rims to dismount old tires and install new. Note the alignment tech on the right. He had just finished staring at the "Wishing for a 7.3 Powerstroke Diesel" badge on the door for over a minute and having a very impressed/jealous look on his face...



It was a little uneasy for me to watch this, because it was rocking back and forth some while up in the air.



Hard to see, but they were mounting the tires here. I've taken such good care of them and since they have no corrosion on the face whatsoever, the bead area also had no corrosion. They just had to wipe them off and start mounting the new. Michelin LTX M/S2 LT265/75/R16E. My only complaint here is that they only inflated them to between 55.0 and 55.5 PSI instead of the 65 PSI as requested by me and added to the work order. I have to inflate these up yet as well as clean the spot on the rim where the old weights were, but it's too cold outside tonight to do that this evening.



They had to mount special 8-lug adapters to them in order to balance. Had to install with an impact.



Here, the tech is executing computer balancing for all four tire/wheel combos. I was very impressed here. They not only balanced each one to perfection (.000 on both sides of each wheel), the tech also scrubbed off the blue coating from the white lettering.



The new Michelins finally installed!



Moving over for a free included alignment check. Alignment checked out just fine and required no further work.



Finally done, just after 18:00. After they pulled it up, I reinstalled the center caps and exchanged the plain valve stem caps with the Ford OEM ones. These tires just look amazing and are so quiet! I know Belle was glad to get rid of me since I was constantly asking questions and wanting to go out in the shop (which required an escort).

The tire tag:



Jon

 

Nice, It looked like it was sitting a bit back on the lift.

 

nice to see that I'm not the only **** retentive person when it comes to tires. My local Firestone hates my guts because I watch them like a hawk and often go out into the shop (yes, I bring eye protection and earplugs and sign a waiver) to make sure they don't screw up

 

I carry some OSHA goggles in my center console (had them from a job I had in high school), so I put them in my pocket when I went in. I asked if I could go out and watch over them (as I pulled out my goggles and showed them to him), but he told me I could go out but he had to go with me...

Oh well, I stared at all of them through the window and most of the work was done close to the window, so I didn't really miss out on too much.

 

I like that you take pride in your purchase and want it done the way YOU want. It does look like the truck is a little far back on the hoist, but it made it out OK. As for the blue letters, I have not seen many reputable shops that leave the blue on, unless the white letters are left facing in. Nice post, reps sent.

 

So how much did the tires set you back? I've been searching for another set of Michelin's myself, best I found was around $1,050 installed.

 

That's about as good as you'll find. I shopped around too with the places I had to work with. Tire Rack is by far the cheapest per tire, but then you'll easily exceed the competition with paying someone for installation. The two big players by us are Belle Tire and Discount Tire. Belle and Discount are pretty competitive, and Discount was higher by only a few dollars. I personally like this Belle store from a previous experience with my dad's T-bird, so I was pretty much set on going there regardless. I did find a pretty cheap price from Sears, in fact I think it came in just under $1k mounted and out the door, but it had no flat protection/rotation allowance, etc. Three months of flat protection was optional and like an extra $50. Belle said they do compete with others and he agreed to research Sears and somehow came up with a 1012.76 number. He agreed to match that, so I was happy to save even that little bit, plus I now have lifetime rotations, flat repair, etc. Not that I'll ever use them for rotations, but it's nice to have the flat repair option.

 

Thanks!

I agree about the blue letters. I haven't seen many on the road with the blue left, but I didn't know what they'd do. That Blazer in the foreground in some of the pictures got the white letters in and they didn't clean them off on there.

 

After letting my 4 kids drive whatever vehicles I have had over the years, I guess I don't bat an eye at some monkey at a shop driving one of my vehicles a little here or there. My oldest is 26, so I have been throuroughly desensitized by now.

Just wait till the 16 yr old needs something to drive.



BTW, I have the same tires on my EX, very happy with them so far. Also have the same on my Chevy pickup.

 

Nobody drives my EX, it's a written rule!

 

Same here, no valet!

 

After 160K I do not think anybody is going to hurt my truck anymore. Desensitized I guess.

I had all of the hail dents and various dings pulled out of the hood and front fender last week

 

I feel the same way about wayward scratches...

 

A slight hijack, but my 15 yo asked me recently, "what car are you getting when I turn 16, I;m getting the Beast right?" My reply, "A hearse." He looked at me with a blank quizical look. I explained that when he saw me riding in a hearse he could have the Beast.

 

I got busy working on a project yesterday and didn't have time to go out and air up the tires to 65 and shine them up, but I made some time this afternoon. Also snapped a few pictures: