Kuhmos from Tirerack.

nhromyak · nhromyak's Garage

Well, I did it. I bought some Kuhmos Victor Racers 700s (225/50-15s x4 going on 15x7 & 8" Fuchs) from Tirerack. I got a confirmation email just a little while ago. Says I should get another Email when they ship.

I called all the local tire shops, they all wanted ~$18-40 more for EACH TIRE!

I compared just the tire prices themselves, with tax and shipping as appropriate.

I should see them arrive at work in two days!

Gotta' get ready for PCA-SVRA CRAB 29! (two days of auto-x, rallies, walking, wineries, and of-course Crab eating).

I hope I did the right thing...
Now to find someone who will mount and balance them for under $20 each.

JDaniel · JDaniel's Garage

Just be careful in your search to find a cheap place to mount the tires. I'd rather pay more and not have my wheels scratched by some garage-monkey! There's a time to save $$ and a time to spend it...

Planter91C2 · 04-02-2002, 11:57 AM

very true jdaniel, when i got my yoko's from the tirerack i went to the shop and stood there while the guy did the mounting. had him do the lugs by hand to. hand torqued.

the tires are just strapped together for shipping so to get them to the shop i put each one in a plastic garbage bag, twist tied each one and fit them all in the porsche front and back seats. i was drinking alot of beer and got a little crazy. when the tire guy saw this he knew i was nuts about details and took his time not to scratch or make any errors installing.

don911 · don911's Garage

The local Discount Tire store said they'll match tirerack prices. I haven't tested them yet but plan to when the A032Rs are needed. Sales tax will probably equal shipping so it should be a wash for price.

tobluforu · tobluforu's Garage

Call your local indy shop and ask where to bring them. They will know. Also, make sure they know what the red and yellow dots are. Some knuckle head mounted mine wrong. Weights all over the place. Had them do it again and had to explain to the tire guy what the dots meant.

nhromyak · nhromyak's Garage

My 9 inchers were scratched by Four day Tire store...

I have since, made them worse when I did the corner balance.

Some day I will have them done professionally.

My 15" x 7 Fuchs are TRASHED!!! The lips have all the pits from leaving the brake dust on them. So I am not too worried about these getting scratched.

I tried to get my best price brick&mortar store Discount Tires to match, and they said NO WAY on mail order. Besides, it was below their cost, as these tires are special order...

nhromyak · nhromyak's Garage

What do the dots mean?

That's new to me!

LeeH · 04-02-2002, 01:12 PM

I'm guessing that you mispelled "Discount" and the auto-editor didn't like how the letters came together.... starts with a "c" and rhymes with "bunt".

Discount Tire did match Tire Rack's price for me. They will simply work toward a "bottom line" price. I told them what I would pay to have Tire Rack ship them and a shop to install the tires. They lowered the out the door price.

nhromyak · nhromyak's Garage

Thanks for the info and correction LeeH.

cstreit · cstreit's Garage

What are the dots for?

tobluforu · tobluforu's Garage

Most of the dot colors depend on the manufacturer. I have r compund tires from yoko. I called yokohama and asked them what the colors meant. In their case, red is just meant for the TYPE of tire and the yellow dot is where you line up the valve stem . He also stated that for optimum balencing when mounting the tire that 15 degree on either side of the dot is leway. There's a best mounting point between those points if you want to use the least amount of weights. When mine were first mounted, they didn't line the valve stem with the dot, and I had all sorts of weights. When he changed it, the weights were cut by almost 2\3rds on 2 tires.
This is what I was told, and it seems to work.
Now, I asked some tire mounting shops and they said it did'nt mean a thing. Those places I would stay away from. Other places knew what it meant.

nhromyak · nhromyak's Garage

Thanks for the information!

Zeke · 04-02-2002, 02:47 PM

I am told that nowdays tires are not as out of balance as they used to be because of the overlap during layup of the tire in the mold. Nevertheless, a tire shop should have a bubble balancer to locate the tire on the rim at its optimum position before inflating. Then it's off to the electronic spin balancer. The first thing to check there is out-of-round. If it's the tire that's out, get another. then balance with weights on both sides as indicated. The real serious guys then spin them up on the car and trim them out.