did a search and didn't find a specific answer... I'm buying a set of rims/tires from Tire Rack for track days. The plan is to buy them, have them shipped to my house, loaded on a buddy's truck, taken to the track where I'll mount them (swapping out my regular rims/tires). Of course, this means I'm at the mercy of Tire Rack's mounting and balancing skills, and the shipper not screwing this up in transit. Is it worth the extra hassle/expense to have the tires drop shipped to a tire store and re-balanced, or is this "belts and suspenders"? In other words, anyone have experience with the Tire Rack (good or bad) in this regard?
It has been a while, but I have purchased wheel and tire combos from Tire Rack (and similar companies) in the past. Never had an issue. Mine were never used on the track, but I believe you can get Tire Rack to heat cycle the tires for you as well.
Same here. Not for track use, but the set of wheels and tires that I ordered from them arrived perfectly balanced. It's hard to imagine what could happen in shipping to screw them up, short of major destruction.
+1. Chas, if you can, contact the facility that will be mounting and balancing the set and tell them these will be for track use. I'm sure they will take extra precautions to do the job correctly. I have found them to go out of their way in customer service.
^ exception rather than the rule... been dealing with Tire Rack for right around 20 years... zero issues having things shipped, zero issues going out to south bend to have them mount/balance tires... I'm not saying things can't happen but I can say they are a rock solid place to deal with.
I see no reason not to have TR do the whole thing and then TR can ship you new race tires when needed. We racers do this all the time with various vendors. With new wheels make sure you test fit them and run them around the block to make sure they work for you not rub etc... You don't want to find out at the track you gotta run on your street tires. That's a slow and painful day.
Been a TireRack customer for over a decade - have plenty of great experiences with them on tires (only). About 2 years ago, I bought a wheel and tire package (winter wheels + tires for a minivan). Well, lo and behold, I got the package on and there was a serious wobble above 55 mph...i.e., they weren't balanced properly. To their credit, they refunded me the fee for that service without any drama.
i have always sued tirerack for most of my purchases and i have never had a problem with them. I have used most of my tire for track days as well and no issues. if youre getting rims and tires you might as well get them put on by them.
Boy, I bet Tire Rack loves you! How bad can the service be to have to sue them every time you've used them? Just kidding you...
I've purchased several wheel/tire mounted/balanced combos from Tire Rack and they've always been perfect.
Mounting and balancing is only half the battle. Many careless shops use an imopact wrench to attached lug nuts/bolts. WRONG! Lug nuts have a very specific torque setting and over tighhtening with an air wrench can warp your brake rotors. Check you manufacturer's lug nut torque specificaions and use a Torque Wrench in a progressive, crossing pattern. Scott
Fixed it for ya, welcome, BTW, to F Chat! I have always used tirerack for most of my purchases and i have never had a problem with them. I have used most of my tire for track days as well and no issues. if you're getting rims and tires you might as well get them put on by them. My $.02, Tirerack is awesome!
I have also newer had a problem with tire-wheel combos from the tire rack. The tire rack uses the Hunter Road force balancer. The Hunter Road Force balancers are the "Ferrari" of balancers. Tire segments are measured 2x the amount of a standard balancer. Sidewall force is measured with 2000lbs of pressure to determine weak sidewalls. More info. here: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=20
Follow-up to this thread: my rims & tires arrived from Tire Rack today, visual inspection looks good, they have been balanced, no tears/gouges/bulges in the tires and no scratches in the rims; will install on the car this weekend and see how good of a job they did! thanks for all the advice/affirmation, guys!
Tire Rack mounted and balanced tires/wheel combos get high marks. Tire Rack 'approved' vendors for mounting buyer beware. I've had wheels damaged at 'approved' shops locally here in the Detroit area twice on my BMW. I finally did my own diligence, starting with the TR approved source list and visited several of them, reviewed their mounting and balancing techniques and spoke with the owners before having tires mounted on my 355. Ended up with a great shop but I did my homework.
If you were in Austin, you could order tires from the Tire Rack and have them drop shipped to our shop. Or you could have us, a "Tire Rack Dealer" sell you tires at the same price you see online and have mounted and balanced. The difference between us and a tire shop is that we know the specified torques and we know the lift points on the car, we also clean each wheel and put "metal race tape" over the wheel weights to keep them from slinging off (which they will if you don't). I would assume there would be a good repair shop that services your car that offers this kind of service. Its not a money maker for us, but a service to our customers. Typically we get our customers to do it in conjunction with other work like an oil service or a brake job or something. FYI we had a customer's 360 in just last week that had one of these chain tires stores mount and balance a set of tires. It took approximately 500 ft-lbs of force to remove each wheel bolt that obviously was over tightened. They were so over tightened that a ring of the silver powder coating came off the wheel around the wheel bolts. Don't even ask me how many oil drain plugs we have had to repair with helicoils from some of these quickie lubes.
