On Sat, 1 Apr 2017 17:17:20 -0400, Jackson Brown > wrote:

>> They're giving you nothing by way of price, and, worse, you may get less
>> than nothing.
>
>
> The key is to have the proper tools to mount and balance a set of tires.

You need the following, which costs around $300 overall
1. Air compressor, hoses, fittings, chucks, pressure gauges
2. Bead breaker
3. Tire dismounting & mounting tool
4. Static bubble balancer
5. Clip on weights (steel wheels) or stick on weights
6. Assorted tire irons, valve core tools, patch tools

> Most people don't nor do they care to wrestle 4 tires onto rims
> using makeshift spoons...

While it's true that most people don't want to mount and balance a tire,
they do spend far more than the tools cost to have someone else "wrestle 4
tires onto rims".

At 20 bucks a tire for mounting and balancing, and at 300 bucks for a
complete set of tools, that's about three years elapsed time for the tools
to pay for themselves in cost (assuming a two car family who changes tires
on each car every two years).

The tools pay for themselves in convenience the very first day, since you
can patchplug a repairable puncture in your own garage, which is mighty
convenient (ask me how I know).

> and they're still left with balancing and disposing of the old tires.

Disposing of tires is trivial. You drive them to Costco, pay the buck per
tire, and they're gone. Or you drive them to any tire shop, pay whatever
their price is, and they're gone.

Balancing is mostly feared by people who have never once balanced their own
wheels. Balancing, to them, is 99% fear and 1% logic.

What's the absolute worst thing that's gonna happen if your tires are
imbalanced when brand new?

The people who are afraid of balancing, and those who swear that *every*
wheel needs to be "road force balanced" are the same people who have never
balanced a tire in their lives.

In other words, they don't know what they're talking about, where they can
only fear the unknown.

There's nothing wrong with being fearful, but guess what happens to those
tires six months, ten months, twelve months, two years into the driving
cycle?

Are they still balanced?
If not - what happened to all that unbalanced fear?

> Personally, I just have my friendly neighborhood Ford dealer
> do the whole job.

While there's nothing wrong with being overly scared of tires, you seem to
be unduly scared, if the fact you go to a dealer for such things is any
indication of your state of mind.

Most people wouldn't go to the car dealer for mounting and balancing tires,
so you're probably highly unusual, in that the only reason most people go
to the dealer is to get parts that can't be gotten elsewhere without
ordering.

Of course, if money is no object, and if fear is the main object, then the
dealer is the "safest" place to go. I understand that tires scare a lot of
people.

But the next time you have someone else mount your tires, consider that the
guy who just got arrested for setting the fire that collapsed that Atlanta
interstate bridge is quoted in the Washington Post today as having stopped
off under the bridge with his two other buddies to smoke crack before he
went into to work at a tire shop.

"Eleby told investigators he regularly passes through the area on the way
to his job at a nearby tire shop".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...85-in-atlanta/