Curious About Discount Tire & Use of Jack Stands

[speeder]

And the PU truck 2' off the ground on floor jacks is a big nothing. They use large, high quality jacks and have two guys raise each end together. They know where to put the jacks. As long as you do not get under the vehicle, (any part of your body), so what? You could do it 8 million times without a jack failing, unless the jack was failing to start with. Hydraulic jacks let you know when they need service, they don't pump up properly.

As for tire shops, the one I use in Hollywood is fantastic. Family owned, their techs are awesome and I'd trust them w any vehicle. When I first started using them, I'd watch the guys work like a hawk but now I just sit in the waiting room and read a car magazine from the table. Fantastic alignments for a more than fair price, they torque every lug nut, etc. If I brought an older 911 there, it would not even be close to the most valuable car in the shop.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by speeder

Hazards of the profession...life goes on.

What I want to know is how the CSI team figured that one out? I'm assuming that the guy got caught if you heard or read about it(?)

My other question, (bit of a highjack but otherwise I'll never remember to ask), what do they do with stolen cats? Take them apart for the precious metal? Because scrap yards don't pay anything for them complete, I tried to scrap one once and it was just "mixed metal." Worthless.

There was another thread here recently about that. Seems that newer, cleaner cats can bring up to $75 at the right place. No, you don't take the cat apart and mess with the 'precious' metals that are in need.

As for the jacks, I think it's known to be faster. In college I worked at a tire shop on Saturdays. They didn't have a lift anywhere but all kinds of jacks.

Remember the "bumper jack?" Put it under the rear bumper of a car of those days and the whole rear end went up about 3 feet. We were careful to not try and balance a car on jacks. It was typically one side up with one jack and then over to the other side. If only the fronts or rears were being changed, out came the BJ. It was pneumatic so it was quick. Floor jacks in those days took about 20 pumps to raise a car with all the suspension droop they had then.

I knew a transmission guy that used bumper jacks all the time. If it was the rear end, he for sure used only the BJ and went under to get the diff out. That thing would raise the rear end 4 feet off the ground. The car often was resting on the front bumper.

No jack stands that tall or safe to use at that radical angle. No OSHA in those days.

[Embraer]

Discount Tire has always been great for me. Porsches, Ferrari, Triumph...they've always been careful and invite me back to the service bay to observe (which seems weird in such litigious times.) They even mounted a set of tires that I bought elsewhere for $5 a tire...just last summer.

[Evans, Marv]

I'll probably be going back to Costco for tires. I took my wife's car to a local Discount Tire some time back when they were super busy. They told me it would be about 30 minutes, and I had an appointment. It was over an hour later that they took the car in. I timed it. It was seven minutes from the time they took the car to the time they returned it, so I don't think they rebalanced the tires. I went to another Discount Tire shop to get tires rotated. I had to wait for quite a while and started paying attention to what was going on. They were taking in the jobs for new tires ahead of the rotation jobs that were already waiting.

[RWebb]

[Scott Douglas]

I use Discount Tires for our tire needs. I've watched them do all kinds of vehicles. Only one that I recall seeing a jack stand used under was a motorhome when they took off the rear dualies. Sometimes, on big 4x4 pickups they lift the front with the lift and rear gets a jack. I usually try to give myself extra time when dealing with going there. Free flat repairs done right are worth the wait to me. Because of my heart surgery changing tires is no longer on my list of doable things.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Embraer

Discount Tire has always been great for me.

Agree from the handful of times I have bought from them. Once when sucking wind for money they kept coming up with cheaper and cheaper options. They had a $60 Chinese tire but only three of them so they sold me four $70 tires and matched the $60 price.

With respect to speedy service my Dad went to work at a tire shop at 65 for something to do. He did well but it was a smaller volume shop and I think the fact that he showed up every day outweighed his less than lightning speed. Finally had to leave because the oversized truck tires were too heavy for him.

I have had a single floor jack blow an o-ring and drop the front of my 911. I was right next to the car.There would not have been enough time to exit but I never go under in that scenario. I won't even stick my arms in the wheel well after that event.

Some long time folks here may know of the Bowden brothers in Anchorage. They liked putting 930 motors in Beetles and running at the Fur Rondy race in the middle of winter. One of them died under a 911 when the floor jack failed. 1990-ish.

[look 171]

There's the pros and then there are the home mechanics. There's no right or wrong. People take chances, calculated chances. Some people want drain plugs torqued to spec. I am not in the auto business, but in ours, long ago, I told my guys a quick way to check for gas leak is to take a torch to the joint and see if it sparks or catch fire Its true.

[pmax]

If the jack fails, insurance covers it. Why do they care about a rare occurrence beyond moving to the next job ? The tire places around here are stupidly busy for some reason, think multihour waits with appointments.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by group911@aol.co

I'm just not seeing stacks of crushed bodies out back nor do the insurers.

Oh well that just settles it! Let 'em hack your car, good.

rjp

[RANDY P]

As for the rest, I avoid Discount. I hate their sales practices and what you get for work depends on how lazy or not lazy the guy is. They've screwed up more than a few times.

rjp

[Noah930]

I stopped going to Discount Tire after they FUBARed studs on Mrs. noah's minivan twice in a row. They blamed it on cross-threaded lug nuts, but seeing as I'm the guy who does all wrenching on it (other than tires), I can guarantee that wasn't true. Especially twice in a row. The studs are only $5 each, so it's not about the money. But it gets to be a PITA to spend 30 minutes to swap them out each time we get new tires or have to patch a flat.

[Arizona_928]

Sop here and even all the tire shops.
Very stable.

I don't think the op has seen many tire shops, or service departments....

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by Noah930

I stopped going to Discount Tire after they FUBARed studs on Mrs. noah's minivan twice in a row. They blamed it on cross-threaded lug nuts, but seeing as I'm the guy who does all wrenching on it (other than tires), I can guarantee that wasn't true. Especially twice in a row. The studs are only $5 each, so it's not about the money. But it gets to be a PITA to spend 30 minutes to swap them out each time we get new tires or have to patch a flat.

I've gone through at least 30 lug nuts on my ram. No studs yet.
Don't force them on and they're good

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by RWebb

We've seen that 100 times but the question is how did he get it that high? I think the center of balance makes the timbers adequate whether we in the overly cautious US regard this as safe or just enough. I mean after all folks, it is chocked.

The next question is after he's done welding, how does he get it down? Knock the timbers out with a sledge?

Probably.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

I've gone through at least 30 lug nuts on my ram. No studs yet.
Don't force them on and they're good

I know that, but I'm not sure the guys at Discount Tire know that. So I don't go there anymore.

[JackDidley]

Originally Posted by group911@aol.co

So, all you puritans are willing to wait 2 hours for a tire change at twice the price? I'm knocking.
Lifts for every tire change would require twice the space and twice the employees.
I'm just not seeing stacks of crushed bodies out back nor do the insurers.
I remove my Fuchs and have them mount tires for me and they are actually really good at it.
All the other cars I could care less how they do it as long as I don't have to take half a day to get it done.

Last time I was in and out for 2 tires in 20 minutes. Purchased on the internet and appointment made at the same time. No waiting at the store.

[speeder]

I was up in the PNW once and needed a set of tires for a car I had just bought. Every single place wanted me to make an appt. for next week or leave the car all day so that they could squeeze it in. And I went through the phone book, (on my phone). I wound up driving 1000 miles back on bald tires and saved $200 on a better set in L.A.

My guys are busier than a whore on payday and if I call them for an alignment or tires, they ask if I can be there in 1 hour or at 2PM, that sort of thing. Every. Single.Time.

[ted]

Has anybody here ever lifted a car with 4 separate hydraulic jacks?
No because we have more jack stands than hydraulic jacks,

[911pcars]

Using a hydraulic jack in lieu of a jack stand is risking a $.05 o-ring won't fail. Pretty confident it won't? Are you willing to risk your life or limb(s) by being lazy and not have some support redundancy in place? Up to you. How fast can you extract your arms from a vehicle free-falling at some angle from 30 inches? You feel lucky.....?

Or.... are you taking a lesson from a tire shop that worries more about the bottom line than the health and safety of their techs? If you value your personal safety at home (possibly alone), that wouldn't be a wise choice.

Likewise, it's up to the shop owner and how they want to operate. You could mention it, but ultimately it's the owner's liability and their dependence on their insurance company to cover the damages and penalties from state safety regs.

S