Ford truck tires!

[joeblack]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster Look for a local "mom and pop" tire shop. Unless you enjoy being raped, avoid NTB, or really any big tire place. I swear that even if NTB offered "buy NONE get four FREE", I could get a better price at my local tire shop. Hedgemaster, this example over exaggeration is not of any use to forum members. It does however reveal your distastes for BIG TIRE STORES, and you are perfectly within your liberty to have these opinions. I see that you are a long time and well known poster here and I assume you have probably posted lots of good information. What i would like to say is its not necessary to make unwarranted claims because of your opinion. Flip the coin. I swear (using your words) I could find a couple of mom and pop stores that would price the same set tires higher than a big tire store. I would like to apologize to you hedgemaster b/c it was not solely your post that warranted my response, merely the straw that broke the camel's back. It has been the repeated bashing of large retailers that is a common thread all over this forum. "CHAINS ARE THE DEVIL" is all I read. It feels as if this forum supports this idea because it is the trendy thing to do and heaven forbid you buy something from home depo(if u do u better not share it here). Let us drop the "too cool for the big stores" act. If you got your local small stores and you like them. Great. Keep going. But no need to put down big retailers bc you think your money is spent more nobly. Well that had been building up since first few months i got here. It needed to be said. Disagree if you will. Just sticking my head out there for side thats not defended much. -JB

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

Heh. It has nothing to do with "noble". It's simply been my experience that the big tire retailers are a ripoff and I've always been able to get my tires for less than what NTB is offering even with the promotion. I've priced them - every time - just for the fun of seeing how much money I've saved by going to the little guy I've been using for 20 years. Perhaps you took it personally since you mentioned NTB? It's cool - I may have taken offense as well if it were the other way around. Sometimes my sarcastic sense of humor doesn't go over well with people.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster

... Sometimes my sarcastic sense of humor doesn't go over well with people.

It's the PA water. I know it!

I've never heard of NTB so I can't comment. Everyone told me I could save a ton of cash using tirerack.com even after paying for shipping but my locally owned tire shop beat them by about $13 and even included tax in the price and I only had to wait one day instead of how ever long it would take tirerack to fill, pack and ship my order.

Tires sure are a whole lot more expensive than I remember. I used to be able to wrap my passenger car in rubber for about $125. Now it's $700+. Yikes!!

[dpld]

Originally Posted by joeblack

Hedgemaster, this example over exaggeration is not of any use to forum members. It does however reveal your distastes for BIG TIRE STORES, and you are perfectly within your liberty to have these opinions.
I see that you are a long time and well known poster here and I assume you have probably posted lots of good information.
What i would like to say is its not necessary to make unwarranted claims because of your opinion.
Flip the coin. I swear (using your words) I could find a couple of mom and pop stores that would price the same set tires higher than a big tire store.

I would like to apologize to you hedgemaster b/c it was not solely your post that warranted my response, merely the straw that broke the camel's back. It has been the repeated bashing of large retailers that is a common thread all over this forum. "CHAINS ARE THE DEVIL" is all I read.
It feels as if this forum supports this idea because it is the trendy thing to do and heaven forbid you buy something from home depo(if u do u better not share it here).
Let us drop the "too cool for the big stores" act.
If you got your local small stores and you like them. Great. Keep going.
But no need to put down big retailers bc you think your money is spent more nobly.

Well that had been building up since first few months i got here. It needed to be said. Disagree if you will. Just sticking my head out there for side thats not defended much.
-JB

i personally think it boils down to first knowing what to buy and what you are getting before you make the purchase.

i think hedge made some valid points because when it comes to service no big box store or chain is gonna do for you what the mom and pop stores will do for you.

at the same time big box stores have their place for certain items but you need to tread water carefully and actually know the differences in the things you buy.

for example: home depot goes directly to the manufacturer and says " we need 3 million units of this product and we are only gonna pay X amount for them " and the manufacturer is not gonna turn them away but they will cut down on the specs to keep it within their budget. that is a fact.

so when you go to a big box store or chain the product may appear to be the same but it is not, the quality is actually inferior.
each manufacturer has several grades of each product they produce depending on who is buying it as well as how much they want to pay for it.

thats what buying power is about it is not just buying in bulk that reduces the cost.
bj's, costco, firestone and all the other tire sellers usually assume all the risks and warranties and by doing that it takes the worry out of the manufacturer cutting down on the quality.

with that said it just boils down to what the consumer feels is more important and what they are comfortable with.

i know money is important for all of us but for me personally i will go with whoever is gonna secure me the best possible product.
years ago i bought some cheap tires for my 22' enclosed trailer and two weeks later i had two tires fail on the same side while i was driving down the highway at 55mph and that trailer went completely out of control and the trailer started fishtailing violently and slammed into the guardrail and almost caused the truck to roll over and possibly kill us all.

when i got situated on the side of the road the whole side of the trailer was trashed and my equipment inside got trashed as well from everything flying around and it ended up totaling $22,000 in damages.
all that to save $400.00.
because of the size and what i carry i don't buy enclosed cargo trailers i buy the enclosed car haulers because they are far superior and can handle the heavy loads.
but they come at a price and they are not cheap and at the end of the day bewtween the trailer and what is inside it i got of $60,000 tied up into it and that don't include the truck and i am not gonna take any chances with that to save a buck.
thankfully no one got hurt and the only damage was to material replaceable items that the insurance paid for but next time it could be me and my crew or some innocent person driving next to me and all the money in the world is not gonna fix that.

so buyer beware.

[dpld]

Originally Posted by mark123

It's the PA water. I know it!

I've never heard of NTB so I can't comment. Everyone told me I could save a ton of cash using tirerack.com even after paying for shipping but my locally owned tire shop beat them by about $13 and even included tax in the price and I only had to wait one day instead of how ever long it would take tirerack to fill, pack and ship my order.

Tires sure are a whole lot more expensive than I remember. I used to be able to wrap my passenger car in rubber for about $125. Now it's $700+. Yikes!!

tire rack is only good when you buy what they want you to buy when they have close outs and specials but more often then not you will want a specific brand or style that is not on sale or close out and that is when the savings go right out the door.

plus i rather have the option in the event of being ripped off to be able to drive back to where i got ripped off and bitch slap the face that beat me.

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by mark123

It's the PA water. I know it!

I've never heard of NTB so I can't comment. Everyone told me I could save a ton of cash using tirerack.com even after paying for shipping but my locally owned tire shop beat them by about $13 and even included tax in the price and I only had to wait one day instead of how ever long it would take tirerack to fill, pack and ship my order.

Tires sure are a whole lot more expensive than I remember. I used to be able to wrap my passenger car in rubber for about $125. Now it's $700+. Yikes!!

You've heard of Sears? Same thing - Sears owns National Tire and Battery.


I got a great deal from Tire Rack once even w/shipping and paying for local install, but the key is to call around and ask. That was the only time they were a better deal.



Also, since dpld mentioned "cheap tires", I'll note that off name tires do not provide the wide margin of savings over "good tires" that they once did.
I used to pick up "no name" (Multi-Mile) tires for my winter tires, but over the last several years, the manufacturing cost has risen so much that I was only saving around $80 on a set (4) of low-mileage, tires that didn't even afford the same quality of traction. It just wasn't worth the $80 savings to me, so I had name brand tires installed.

[mark123]

Oh, yes. Sears. I asked them for a price, too. What a bunch of chuckleheads. The only way they could get close to the local shop's price was to switch good tires for off-brand with unsafe weight rating. B instead of E. That was the manager's idea not the regular chucklehead.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

I never had much luck with big tire chains either. One place adds a charge for everything then touts it as free. The tires are a few buck more too but its really the extras that drive the price up.

Sears tried to charge me over $300 more for the same set off tires that I literally bought across the street. Again it was the road hazard, alignment, rotation, that made it expensive.

Another one sold me firestones and they were just junk tires. I paid more for these tires. Its good they came with some kind of warranty.

I had the best luck with a local place and bennys. Bennys is somewhat of a chain store but local to my region. I just had a pair of coopers installed on my car for $137.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by SECTLANDSCAPING

... I had the best luck with a local place and bennys. Bennys is somewhat of a chain store but local to my region. I just had a pair of coopers installed on my car for $137.

Wow, that's a good price even for Coopers. Of course we're talking different load ratings and wheel sizes.

I paid $348 for 2 Yokohamas but that included all the extras; valve stems, disposal, tax, mounting and balancing.

[SECTLANDSCAPING]

Originally Posted by mark123

Wow, that's a good price even for Coopers. Of course we're talking different load ratings and wheel sizes.

I paid $348 for 2 Yokohamas but that included all the extras; valve stems, disposal, tax, mounting and balancing.

Yeah it was a civic. I always liked toya and yokohamas for cars. I never put them on a truck before. I run duallys so were talking 6 tires at once. So $25-$40 a tire adds up quick.