Anyone order tires online and have them shipped to your house? Down sides?

 

Pep boys has a sale and I can probably save close to $200 after all is said and done, online purchase only. There is a store 45 minutes from my house so I could drive there if I have issues with the tires. 

 

Or should I just go to my local guy who is 5 minutes from my house? Pep boys has Cooper A/Ts or I go local and get Dynapro ATMs, both 265/70/17

I've done it about 5times now from different sites, depending on who has the best deal. No issues there, other than sometimes one tire can be almost a year older than the other 3. 

Quote

other than sometimes one tire can be almost a year older than the other 3. 

 

Did ya send it back ?

 

1 hour ago, GSP7 said:

 

Did ya send it back ?

 

No I'm impatient, I think it was about 8 mounts different, rest are usually within few months. Sometimes they all match. 

I’ve done this method several times with different vehicles over the years, always had gone smooth.

I usually order from discount tire direct, they got free shipping on Coopers too. UPS just sets them by the garage and I just take them to a local shop and have them mounted 

One thing I forgot to mention most of our Firestone stores will put them on with lifetime balance, and some stores don't want nothing to do with tires you didn't buy from them

Also Firestone offers lifetime alignment which is beyond me.

Edited February 28, 20187 yr by Dieselfuture

You might find this odd, I know I do, but I have only aligned mine twice since I have had it. Once after I rebuilt the front end and once just because. The only time I experienced uneven tire wear was before I rebuilt the front end.

After some searching, i’m giving simple tire a try. I’ve read horror stories and good stories, we’ll see.

Keep in mind the cost for mounting and balancing along with disposal if necessary.

 

Oh and buy from a reputable site. Tire rack, discount has a special site as well.

Tires came in today, manufacture dates of 3816 and 4116, so september and october of 2016, so these tires are about 1.5 years old.

 

You will have those tires long wore out before the date code is even a concern. 

1.5 years isn’t nothing if they were properly stored. Now if they were 8 or more years I might be a little concerned.

Yeah I agree with the above, but it is much older than the tires I usually get. Maybe it's better to use larger sites where they have more flow.

I got my trailer tires online, about $60 each from Amazon.  Tire store wanted $180 each and since  I needed 6 tires, my choice was obvious.  They are chinese tires, but DOT approved.  My trailer tires wear out rather quickly being a triple axle, lots of scrubbing on turns, so I didn't see the point in spending big money on something that won't live long anyhow. 

9 hours ago, Sycostang67 said:

I got my trailer tires online, about $60 each from Amazon.  Tire store wanted $180 each and since  I needed 6 tires, my choice was obvious.  They are chinese tires, but DOT approved.  My trailer tires wear out rather quickly being a triple axle, lots of scrubbing on turns, so I didn't see the point in spending big money on something that won't live long anyhow. 

If i remember correctly all if not most trailer tires are made in china, last few sets I had on my gooseneck I put truck tires on, some will argue that till cows come home. I never had a problem unlike my friend that had 2 blowouts with china tires.

Discount Tire matches delivered price on online sellers.  I usually look for a deal and try to push the price at Discount.  They also repair any tire for no charge regardless of where it was purchased.

 

Re: Firestone lifetime balancing - the tech are usually incompetent and only "align to specs".  You almost have to fight with them to get them to a) get in the middle of specs &/or 2) make adjustments to compensate and have the vehicle drive better.

 

Esample:  I have an 84 & 85 Mercedes 300SD.  Those cars have extremely adjustable front ends with caster specs at ~ 10 deg and camber also adjustable through a wide range.  One guy gave my the car back with the camber adjustment on both wheels maxed all the way to 1 side.  Wheels looked like //.  He stupidly made a note "cannot be propery adjusted". 

 

I think what happened was because changes in 1 setting affect the other.  When he pushed camber to the + side, it also threw caster more positive.  Then he's subtract some caster and camber would also decrease.  Of course they thing owners are idiots and he wouldn't read the FSM pages I handed him that explained all of this. 

 

I just took the car to another store and had them try it.  I'd go elsewhere but there are no really competent places other than the Mercedes dealer.  At least firestone is free for me.

 

Another trick of the alignment shops is to get the specs close then bump the heads of the machine to make it look like it is adjusted correctly.  Then they refer back to the print out and say "it's adjusted to spec".  I hate sloppy work.

America's Tire used to beat everyone's prices and had good installers. 

 

Not sure now, I know local, they started to hiring full blown idiots for sales staff.