Experiences with Gotire / mobile installation on Fuchs?

[BrakeL8]

Hi all,

Hope you are all doing well.

Given the current quarantine situation and general convenience I’m considering Gotire or other (I’m in Southern CA) to new tires installed at home.

Any issues or special procedures/delicate pieces to consider with Fuchs?

Just want to make sure I don’t unknowingly do something stupid re: their installation equipment that damages a pristine set of 7’s & 9’s that’s on the car.

Thanks!

[75 911s]

I've been surprised at how easily any tire mount situation can go badly. Depending on the skills, or lack thereof of the tech doing the install. A couple of things to look out for:

1. The center area (that the cap covers) can become nicked and damaged if improperly mounted in their machine.
2. They can install the weights improperly and they come loose, or they interfere with calipers and get knocked off.
3. They install the weights on the the outside of the wheel.
4. They install directional tires on the wrong way.
5. And a lot of other nit-picky things. I would micro manage the s out of anyone that offered a mobile service.

Get friendly with your local race shop or luxury shop. Find someone who cares to do it right.

[BrakeL8]

Completely agree.


Guess what I’m asking is - if I use an installer who does exotic cars or those with expensive wheels like HRE’s - are there special considerations / specialty knowledge with vintage Fuchs which they may not be familiar with vs wheels off a new exotic?

[Arne2]

Fuchs are anodized. They need to avoid getting bead lube on the anodized surface, as some lubes might stain or damage the anodizing. The rim lip needs to be cleaned and rinsed immediately with a pH-neutral cleaner or clear water.

[tcar]

Why in the world would you do that??? Are tire shops closed there???

Take the time to go to a proper (excellent) tire shop that knows what they are doing.

[Arne2]

I wouldn't rule out a mobile installer. The mobile shops up here are aimed at the premium market. They may be the future of the "proper (excellent) tire shop".

https://gomobiletires.com/gallery/

[BrakeL8]

I’m not venturing out for non-needed errands at the moment. Had some exotic owning friends suggest the high end mobile guys are SUPERIOR to good tire shops in their opinion.

Appreciate the note about them being anodized and rinsing, suspect similar to other anodized rims.

Undecided as until a couple days ago I didn’t know these services existed.

[Hi_Fi_Guy]

I use a mobile tire installer for all my classic cars and have been very pleased. This allows me to be the one who removed the wheels from the and then reinstalls them later. No worry about impact wrenches.

The installer is always happy to go over the project with me and listen to any concerns I may have. Also allows me to watch the entire process from start to finish. So far I am a happy customer.

Mobile installer can receive tires I order online or can source the tires for me. Either way total cost is about $100 more than local Discount Tire price and much less expensive than most of the specialty classic car/Porsche shops. As far as I am concerned the slight additional cost is well worth it and my cars do not need to leave home or be left in some other shop for a day.

[darrin]

I've had excellent luck with on-site tires here in Denver -- learned about them via PCA and they support the Porsche and racing communities along with several high end fleet clients (e.g. silvercar). They've been a great resource for tire selection discussions (and beat tire rack's advertised prices for me) and have done a great job with each installation I've worked with them on. On my 911, they even had the 911-specific rocker panel jackpoint adaptor on hand -- tires were mounted/balanced on a hunter road force machine and no damage to wheels, etc. Each nut torqued to spec too.

[BrakeL8]

Awesome. Ty for the input! Sounds like I need to find the premier option in Orange County and go this route!

[salayc]

I've had better experiences with mobile installers rather than shops. The mobile installers seem to be much more familliar with classic cars as well as exotics.
I liked ASAP Tire in Southern California (888) 680-2727. They did one exotic and one 911 with Fuchs for me.

[Locker537]

I have no experience with a mobile installer, but would be happy to try one.

I go with shops that have the experience and work on these cars. A local shop has no problem taking care with original Fuchs and using aluminum "aircraft" tape to ensure the wheel weights don't come flying off on track.

[911pcars]

Understand that installing needed wheel weights only on the inside of the wheel is a compromise - a trade off between very accurate tire/wheel balancing and no visual weights. Any unbalance is exacerbated by very wide wheels. Almost accurate wheel balancing, however, can be "good enough".

Sherwood

[spyerx]

Do yourself a favor. Head over to Nate Jones tire in signal hill worth the drive. They will be perfect.
He did my deep6 Fuchs that were just restored. Perfect.
Willhoit brings his wheels there... they do most mounting for Lucas classic tire.
Don’t let the rustic look scare you. These guys are awesome.

Wear a mask.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/archived/nate-jones/

[Driven97]

Totally anecdotal, but Bridgestone has brought a support van to a few of the bigger events I've been to, and the mounting machine they have inside is the same one a good shop would have, just happens to be mounted in a van instead of a shop.

It's almost always down to the quality of the tech doing the work rather than the equipment.

If you want real heartburn, try figuring out where to get new tires put on your Ford GT350R. Clearly not an exotic, but the carbon fiber wheels are ~$7k each to replace if you screw up. My local tire shop was telling me they had to turn down the work on a customer as they didn't want the liability.