The curse of 3 piece wheels
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They look amazing, but no shop wants to touch them... I've had the tires sitting next to them in my garage for weeks now, but no one wants to put them on. Any advice? Bribe someone at Mr. Tire after hours? It's especially annoying because the tires it has on now are super dry rotted and are not safe to drive on, so I don't really drive it beyond my neighborhood. -
@TheJWT Is The Hood an option? If you ever need used tires, weird wheels, or specialty work of some kind with no questions asked, try The Hood
Just don't expect them to show up in small claims court when something goes wrong.
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@TheJWT I bet any Euro inde shop will do it. Also, those wheels are tight!
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@ash78 Probably so, I didn't think of that! All the shops I've asked are worried about liability if they leak; if they leak I'll just buy new ones!
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@Tripper Good call, there's actually one right down the street from me
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@TheJWT I wasn't even kidding, and I've heard (but never used) some of these sketchier-looking shops really eat, sleep and breathe wheels and tires. It's a level of appreciation for vehicle style that you just don't get in the suburbs and chain stores.
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@ash78 No for sure, there are a few around here I'll reach out to if the euro specialists won't do it. Anyone who can put low profile tires on a 24" can probably handle my 17s and 50 series tires just fine!
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@TheJWT I have two piece on the truck but three is a lot. I did see Tavarish put his three piece wheels together for a Lambo once, lots of work. My truck wheels have ten bolts around the rim, nobody would touch my old split rims, they have that ring that catches on a lip.
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@TheJWT Seconding the indy shop advise. Some have their own tire machines because tire shops don't want to mess with high end wheels.
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@TheJWT Bring it to my friend's place who does all of our race wheels and tires
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@TheJWT That's dumb, there's nothing special about mounting tires on three pieces. Just make sure you've got a nylon or whatever duck head instead of a steel one (or just be good at it) and send it. Similar plastic covers are good too if you're reverse mounting.
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The hood is always the answer
Reminds me of my favorite hot rod shop before Summit took everything over
Other side of the street
Circa 2008
And now...
It's done been gentrified
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@TheJWT said in The curse of 3 piece wheels:
All the shops I've asked are worried about liability if they leak
This seems like an easy thing to prove with a soap test and then for them to say, "your wheels leak; this is your problem."
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@TheJWT Look for tuner shops, or places that do 'stance', they will have the tools to stretch tires, usually on to expensive rims, so they are used to not damaging stuff.
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More and more, I'm not liking my local chain tire store. They used to be cool with me bringing them 200TW tires to mount up and would regularly hook me up with free or very cheap service.
This last trip, they gave me some excuses about Falken Azenis RT660's being "race tires" and my wheels (Braid Fullrace A's) being "race wheels" and they couldn't mount them except for on their super fancy machine.
They tried to charge me $40/wheel to BALANCE them. I asked them how these wheels/tire were any different to balance than a normal set up? Sure the wheel weights can't go over the reinforcing rib on the inner barrel but come on...
I guess I'll need to find an independent shop from now on.
Good luck @TheJWT
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@ST80MND said in The curse of 3 piece wheels:
the tools to stretch tires
a heat gun, cheetah, shitload of bead sealer, and a couple inner tubes if you're going really wild
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@mhr555 I've rotated my own RT660s from side to side. They've got a really really stiff sidewall. V730s are similar. I couldn't get them on without both helper arms and a tire iron holding the bead down, and even then it was hard. If they were doing road force balancing and rotated the tire on the wheel while doing so, $40 was a fair price. The actual weight placement is nothing special, just use stick-ons.
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@Qaaaaa these were loose assemblies.
$160 to balance??? No thanks.
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@mhr555 The local place I normally go to was even weird about putting snow tires on a set of steelies a few years ago. I think anything other than basic tire changes isn't worth their time
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@mhr555 Yeah if the tires were new, that was a ripoff. Just line up the yellow dot with the valve stem and you shouldn't need to rotate it on the wheel.
If they were giving you a free mount and just charging for a balance, I get it though.