Tire rack seems to have the best deal on 285/75/16 BFG MT KM's at 176 i think it is, and wanted to know how good tire rack is as far as dealing with them and their products. do they ship them straight to your installer or to you? you guys think its worth it to pay for the shipping ($40 somthing i think) or just to buy them at the installer for however much they would be? my guess is probably around 185 or 190 from a dealer but not sure. what happens if something is wrong with a tire they send?

-bigdawg

 

BigDawg, I have bought tires from the Tire Rack warehouse/showroom in South Bend. The people there are very friendly and knowledgeable. A first class operation. I would imagine the mail order part of the business is just as great.

 

No problems after 20 tires at least...maybe 30

 

I think you raise a good point. No matter how good Tire Rack's service is, the bottom line is you could end up stuck if you have problems and you didn't buy your tires locally.

Don't forget you're going to have to find someone willing to mount and balance them also. How eager do you think your local tire guy is going to be if you bring in mail order tires for him to install. It sure won't be free!

Have you considered printing out the Tire Rack quote and bringing it to your dealer? Maybe you could negotiate a better price out the door.

 

good point oppy, i think i will do that. b/c if i get a bad tire im think im gonna get screwed. so i am probably safer going to a local guy and have them deal with it. thanks guys and have a happy thanksgiving

-bigdawg

 

A while back I ordered a set of BFG MT from them and 2 of them were out of round. I called them up and they promptly sent me 2 more. 0 hassle.

 

Im with buying locally. I just purchased ne 285x75x16 BFG Mud TA's from my local dealer for less than tire Rack, and that included mounting, balancing, new stems, and siping them. Plus, I thru a weight after the first 1000 miles and they rebalances all the tires. They also rotate and rebalance every 5k free of charge. It is worth it to shop locally.

 

alright i found a local guy that seems pretty good and honest, set of 4 285/75/16 BFG MT KM for $780 only $20 more then tire rack with their shipping so its not that bad. plus i do have the conveniance of being able to have them serviced by the same people who sold them to me and installed them. and the extra $20 if for the balancing and all that stuff. hey jfralph, you can have tires siped?? what exactly is sipping anyway, i thought it was just how well the water was evacuated from under the tire.



-bigdawg

 

Sipes are those little grooves in the tread that help to squeeze water out of the tread area. If you plan to do a fair amount of on-road driving, siping is a great idea - it'll really help your wet traction.

 

Atually, they are just diagonal cuts in the tread blocks. The greately improve traction on wet and icy roads. Supposedly they also improve tread life by reducing tread squirm and subsequent heat. Siping was originally developed for over the road trucks to improve traction and tread life.

The only down side is high speed travel on gravel roads tend to break up the tread blocks. Although it is not that big of an issue. Only one person I know has quite siping tires because of it, and he has to drive 70 miles on gravel roads before he gets to pavement. I had them on my other trucks, and was getting 45k miles from my siped mud tires with still over 3/16" tread left.

The plus side is they perform better on hard packed snow and ice than all terrains do plus they will still dig like a mud tire. You get the advantages of both tires.

 

how much you think im gonna pay to have something like that done? is it easy for the installer? how exactly does he do it? just curious, like to know whats goin on

-bigdawg

 

I bought a set of 4 dunlop mud rovers from them over the phone. I ordered on a monday about 1pm. I got home about 1pm on tuesday and my tires were in the back yard. I only paid for the cheap shipping. I'm freinds with the local garages and they didn't blame me at all for the price difference. I got them cheaper then there cost was, and they only charged $30 to mount and balance them. I did take them off the truck and put them back on while they mounted them.

 

Siping usually only costs $10 per tire.

Hobert:

For 30 bucks almost any shop will mount and balance tires if you do the install. For $40, the shops I use will mount with a new valve stem, ballance, install, on the vehicle.

Since I purchased my tires locally mounting is FREE!!!! I have them rotated every 5k miles, I have had them rebalanced when I threw a weight, flats are free, and every spring and fall, they switch from winter to summer tires for FREE!!! Lets hear about hour your FRIENDS will do that for you since you didn't purchase the tires from them.


BTW, I paid less for fully mounted tires siped, new stems, and new wheel centers, than tires without shipping from the tire rack. Go figure.

 

I have bought 5 sets of tires from tire rack and have had no problems with any of them
I got a set of BFG for the wifes Mustang GT and including shipping and what i had to pay to have them mounted and balance (50 bucks) I saved over 250 bucks over the cheapest local shop.

The Mustang now wears a set of Conti Ex contacs that are great for the rain and snow around here (for a hi pro rear wheel vehicle)
we got about 45,000 miles off the BFGs

I had Pirellis on my T bird that I payed 550 at NTW back in 95 I got a set of the same Pirellis from tirerack for 74 bucks a piece.So with mounting it cost about 350 for the set on my T bird that i got from tirerack and now it also has the Contis

My old F150 had a set of Generals on it from tirerack that had about 50,000 on them when i traded it in for the F250
The UPS man hates when i order tires cuz he has to lug them up the driveway 2 at a time
Each time I order I look locally for a better price and cant find anything better
I think most shops get their tires from tirerack then add on their cost plus road hazzard , mounting and balancing

I figure if i get caught with a bad tire I can either return them or if i got any wear out of them just order new ones and I am still ahead of the game

 

Go check out Sam's Club for tires.

I priced BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A's this weekend. THey were $139 per, plus $9 for installation, stems, hazard insurance, etc. So, say $150 total. Discount tire had the same tires for $184 installed.

Tire Rack has them for $158, but Sam's is local.