Used Tires?

[jcwit]

(QUOTE)Also, the labor to mount/balance a tire now is incredibly high. America's Tire charges $25.75/tire for mounting, balancing,(QUOTE)

This may be in Calif., however here in the midwest most garages charge $8 to $10 bucks per tire. Walmart charges $8.00 for Mounting and Balancing in this area. Fixing a flat at Walmart costs $5.00.

 

[HawkeyeScott]

I have a full size spare for my Jeep. Last time I put new tires on it I kept the best one. Good use of a used tire.

I am actually in the market for a good used one now. Wife's car. It has three good tires and one with some weather checking on the sidewall. I am not thrilled with that tire and would like to get something else on there. But since the other three could last another 6 months, maybe more, I will look for a decent used one to get by. At least until getting a set of 4 makes more sense.

(If I had plenty of money, I'd drop $400 to $500 now to get a brand new matching set. Then there would be 3 good used ones for someone else to have...So a good example of there being such thing as a decent used tire.)

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: jcwit
(QUOTE)Also, the labor to mount/balance a tire now is incredibly high. America's Tire charges $25.75/tire for mounting, balancing,(QUOTE)

This may be in Calif., however here in the midwest most garages charge $8 to $10 bucks per tire. Walmart charges $8.00 for Mounting and Balancing in this area. Fixing a flat at Walmart costs $5.00.



Wow!

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: jcwit
(QUOTE)Also, the labor to mount/balance a tire now is incredibly high. America's Tire charges $25.75/tire for mounting, balancing,(QUOTE)

This may be in Calif., however here in the midwest most garages charge $8 to $10 bucks per tire. Walmart charges $8.00 for Mounting and Balancing in this area. Fixing a flat at Walmart costs $5.00.



Wow!


It breaks down like this:

15- lifetime balancing
1.75- disposal
9.00- TPMS rebuild kit.

If you don't have TPMS, then valve stems are free.

 

[ZZman]

I have done it many times. Short on cash, was going to buy newer tires shortly but uneven wear caused a tire or 2 to be short on making it to full change out time.

Why not? Why waste good tires? Many people change perfectly good tires too early when they get a new set. They may have a tire or two still in good shape. They might dislike the ride quality, handling etc so they want to get new tires but the old tires still have lots of life.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: The Critic


Also, the labor to mount/balance a tire now is incredibly high. America's Tire charges $25.75/tire for mounting, balancing, TPMS rebuild kit and disposal. How could it possibly be economical to purchase used tires?


This would seem to be the profit center. Wonder if their advertised tire prices are below cost. Wonder if you could walk in there and buy loose tires cash & carry.

If a tire dealer has his machine, rent, and hourly labor paid for... he could swap a used tire over for the cost of the electricity for the air. He could even reuse old lead crimpy weights if he were cheap enough. In fact the ripoff mounting price the competition charges for new tires might even drive customers to his store.

In my world of flipping beaters I love when previous owners run their tires down to bald. Winter is great for shaking these losers loose. Usually they buy a 4x4 instead of a set of tires. I remind them that "when all is said and done" it's probably $350 or so for a set, which is already on their mind. Then I get the car and put on my hip waders and tramp around the mud of my favorite j/y.

The tires I get are so good I include a picture when the car goes up for sale. $10 michelin 215/70/15 with 700ish treadwear rating

As for capriracer's example... I can just picture that crowd in my head. They want their car to "just go" with an annual budget of zero dollars. It would be great to force them to change their oil annually too. For these bozos around here, thankfully, we have state safety inspections (another topic recently covered). Am sure there are plenty of actual, professional mechanics on here who know the type that want cheap parts because they're only going to have the car on the road "another year"...

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

The tires I get are so good I include a picture when the car goes up for sale. $10 michelin 215/70/15 with 700ish treadwear rating
...


The tread life of this used tire looks like 40-50% or more remaining, for $10-20/ea I would buy it if it is less than 3-4 years old and my other tires are of the model.

 

[fdcg27]

Good point.
It is a shame to waste anything with usefule life remaining.
Oh, wait, that is the whole basis of the our economy.

 

[GMGuy]

Originally Posted By: the Critic
TPMS rebuild kit


TPMS rebuild kit? And what exactly does that cover? This specific to certain makes/model of tpms? Or to cover their $15 tpms torque driver-that is if they aren't using a regular nut driver.
The TPMS sensors in my work van are one piece with the valve stem, unbolt the valve stem, out comes the tpms. No parts have been replaced in the 3 times I've had a particular tire serviced (two nails and an eventual tire replacement).

Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
A used tire dealer sold a set of recalled tires to someone. The used tire dealer got them from a car dealer who had removed them because of the recall and had contracted with this dealer to damage the tires per the instructions in the recall.


I'm surprised the recall did not specify the shop doing the tire swap had to do the tire disabling. I remember reading a tire recall bulletin some time back that specifically stated the shop dismounting the tire had to either drill a hole in the sidewall or take bolt cutters to the bead in order to prevent the recalled tire from getting mixed into regular stock.

Alex.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Good point.
It is a shame to waste anything with usefule life remaining.
Oh, wait, that is the whole basis of the our economy.


LOL...We agree on something. Great point.

 

[addyguy]

About 2.5 years ago, I bought a used set of all-seasons from a guy for less than 1/2 price of new ones. They were in great shape, and had like 9/32 of tread on them. I'm only replacing them this month with new winters; and they are still in decent shape.

If my wife didn't want the 'added security' of new winter tires (she is doing a lot more driving than she used to), I'd find another used set of winter tires to replace them. You just gotta know how to examine tries to make sure they are solid, and have no major defects before buying them.

 

[mrsilv04]

An excellent example of three perfectly good tires being thrown away is that of vehicles with AWD systems, such as Sis's Outback.

She could have a set of 90,000 mile Michelin Hydroedge tires on it with 8/32" of tread remaining. If she runs over a piece of broken glass and ruins a tire, then it is a brand new set of tires.

Wouldn't it be a shame for the other 3 tires to be landfilled, or ground up for some sort of other product?

I'd rather see someone else get some good use out of the remaining tires.

 

[exranger06]

My Ranger has the OEM Goodyear Wrangler RT/S tires, which I hate because they hydrplane easily in the rain and have bad snow traction. But they still have a TON of tread left. I've considered getting new tires and selling my still perfectly good Wranglers to help offset the cost. But I'll probably just wait until they wear out and not deal with the sellig hassle.

 

[Mustang_Cougar]

Several years ago, when my wife & I were uber-poor college students, I used to buy studded retreads every 2 years. Due to the constant switchback from heavy snow/ice to bare pavement, the sidewalls would start to separate and the studs would fall out in bunches. That might sound scary, but at the time we had no money and yet you just could not get around in the town we lived in without studs. Thankfully, studded retreads are now illegal in my state (Washington).

Oh, and if you're wondering how big the market is for used tires, go on Craislist and check it out.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Gen1GT
It should be illegal to sell and buy used tires. Why would you sacrifice the safety of yourself and your passengers (perhaps your wife and children?)


It should also be illegal for a new car to come with junks like Goodyear Integrity / Invicta and Bridgestone Potenza RE92, they are way more dangerous than many good used tires out there.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: Gen1GT
It should be illegal to sell and buy used tires. Why would you sacrifice the safety of yourself and your passengers (perhaps your wife and children?)

Compare even GOOD all seasons to amazing summer tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=118

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=48

Imagine how bad your used tires are. 15 feet in an emergency stop can make the difference between life and death.


I'm sorry, but that's just baloney. Used tires can be anything from OEMs with only a few miles to down-to-the-cords dead carcasses. Viewing both the same way is simply foolish.

At the moment, as most of us know, business is in the toilet. But my TCH needs new tires. I just hooked up a set of OEM Dunlops from an Accord that have less than 5k miles on them. Not what I'd choose if I was flush with cash, but OTOH, the set cost less than half of what even the most deficient new replacement tires would cost. I would never buy worn out carcasses, but I can live with these for a while, especially for the price. Who could have a problem with that?

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: Gen1GT
It should be illegal to sell and buy used tires. Why would you sacrifice the safety of yourself and your passengers (perhaps your wife and children?)


It should also be illegal for a new car to come with junks like Goodyear Integrity / Invicta and Bridgestone Potenza RE92, they are way more dangerous than many good used tires out there.


Excellent point! Goodyear's continued production of these AWFUL tires verges, in my opinion, upon criminal conduct. I have encountered two sets of Integs (bty, what an oxymoron of a name...), one on my 01 Highlander, the other on my 03.5 V-6 Camry. They were so very bad that in each instance, I felt compelled to shed them in less than 10k miles or so.

I would so much rather have a 10k mile used set of Michelin Hydroedges or Primacys than new Integs that it's hard to find words emphatic enough to describe.

We really MUST look at each particular situation to decide whether or not used tires are justified and appropriate.

 

[Panzerman]

The last four sets of tires I bought for my pick-ups, only one set I bought new. Especially truck tires there is a glut of new take offs, that people buy a new truck and want big mud tires on it right away so they take off the stock tires. Iam past that stage. They ussually sell the stock tires cheap and Ive never had trouble. The best ones were tires (Continentals) I bought from a guy that put big tires and rims on his Ford Explorer and found out when I checked the reviews on the tires that they got a recall on them and the tire dealer gave me Brand new BF Goodrich long trails in exchange for a used set of tires I bought for $150. That was about the best deal I ever got.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: Gen1GT
It should be illegal to sell and buy used tires. Why would you sacrifice the safety of yourself and your passengers (perhaps your wife and children?)


It should also be illegal for a new car to come with junks like Goodyear Integrity / Invicta and Bridgestone Potenza RE92, they are way more dangerous than many good used tires out there.


Excellent point! Goodyear's continued production of these AWFUL tires verges, in my opinion, upon criminal conduct. I have encountered two sets of Integs (bty, what an oxymoron of a name...), one on my 01 Highlander, the other on my 03.5 V-6 Camry. They were so very bad that in each instance, I felt compelled to shed them in less than 10k miles or so.

I would so much rather have a 10k mile used set of Michelin Hydroedges or Primacys than new Integs that it's hard to find words emphatic enough to describe.

We really MUST look at each particular situation to decide whether or not used tires are justified and appropriate.



Very true...

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
]

It breaks down like this:

15- lifetime balancing
1.75- disposal
9.00- TPMS rebuild kit.

If you don't have TPMS, then valve stems are free.


Tell them to put the TPMS rebuild kit where the sun doesn't shine, you don't have to buy that. I just bought a set of tires from them. If you paid for the TPMS rebuild kit scam, you obviously have a "kick me sign" taped to your back.