How to become a tire rack installer

When you first visit Tire Rack online, you’ll see the option to shop for tires or to shop all products. If you click “Shop Tires,” you’ll be able to enter your vehicle’s make, model and year along with your ZIP code. Then, you can click “View Results” to see the available selection of tires that fit your vehicle.  

Once you’ve entered your vehicle’s information, you’ll be able to browse tires that fit. If you’d rather shop by tire size, you can do that too. No matter how you decide to shop, you’ll likely find what you’re looking for at Tire Rack.

“If you go to a tire center, warehouse club, Walmart or a place that just sells tires, there’s a pretty limited inventory. What Tire Rack offers you is massive choices,” says money expert Clark Howard. “You don’t have to worry about them not having your size in a particular style or brand. You’ve got such wide choice, and it’s a discounter.”

While it’s great that Tire Rack offers such a huge selection of tires, the search results can be a little overwhelming. I found 104 tires that fit my Toyota Camry! Fortunately, you can filter your results by delivery date, price, brand, speed rating and more. You can also check the “Specials & Closeouts” box to see current deals and markdowns. 

After you’ve made your selection, you can choose whether you want the tires shipped to a recommended installer, shipped directly to you or whether you want to pick them up from a nearby distribution center. You get a discount if you pick up the tires, but both shipping options are free. 

When you’re ready to submit your payment, you can use a credit card, or you can use PayPal, PayPal Credit or Affirm. 

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As you shop for tires at Tire Rack, you’ll find an incredible selection, average prices, free shipping and more. Unfortunately, you won’t find many post-purchase perks such as installation or tire maintenance. Keep in mind that you will have to schedule and pay for these services completely separately.

Compared to other tire stores, Tire Rack’s prices are on par with Goodyear, Discount Tire Direct and Costco with an average per-tire price between $160-$170 as of February 2023. For my 2017 Toyota Camry, tire prices ranged from $106.03 to $257.01 each. If you choose to have your tires installed at one of the company’s recommended installers, you’ll find that the installation prices average around $24 per tire. Still, it’s important to call and get quotes yourself from a few different installers, as prices will vary.

Consumer Reports polled nearly 50,000 of its subscribers to ask about cost, selection, sales service and perks when it came to purchasing tires. CR members can view the full survey online, but you can see how Tire Rack’s average prices and scores compared to other popular tire stores here:

Store	Median Tire Price	Installation Price (Per Tire)	Consumer Reports Score
Walmart	$128	$17	80
Sam's Club	$161	$20	85
BJ's Tire Center	$169	$20	86
Town Fair Tire Centers	$166	$27	83
Firestone Complete	$159	$20	87
Discount Tire Direct	$152	$22	90
Goodyear	$184	$25	88
Tire Rack	$158	$30	91
Costco	$172	$18. 99	91

As you can see, Tire Rack’s prices are on the higher end of the spectrum, but its overall rating of 91 ties with Costco and is only beaten by Les Schwab Tire Centers’ rating of 92. Still, you’ll probably find cheaper installation at Walmart, Sam’s Club, BJ’s Tire Center and Costco. Walmart is the only tire center among those four that will install tires purchased elsewhere. 

Despite not having the lowest prices, Tire Rack’s high CR rating is attributed to its selection, sales service, checkout ease and shipping. The online retailer also earned high ratings for installation quality and waiting areas at recommended installers. 

To lower your overall total, be sure to filter your results by specials and closeouts. You can also check out the tire sales and deals page for rebates and offers on wheels and tires. 

Tire Rack offers fast and free ground shipping to most U. S. locations within 1-2 business days. According to the company’s website, Tire Rack has 11 distribution centers across the United States that your tires can ship from. You can also choose to pick up your tires directly from your nearest distribution center for an additional discount.

Tires are typically delivered via UPS Ground shipping, and you’ll receive emails with tracking and delivery confirmations. You can choose to have your tires sent to a recommended installer, delivered to your door or you can pick them up at your nearest distribution center for additional savings. 

Obviously, you can’t have your tires installed by an online tire center, so Tire Rack has partnered with more than 10,000 independent recommended installers across the country. To find a nearby installer, you can use Tire Rack’s online locator.

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The installation will cost an additional fee. Before you decide where to have your tires installed, be sure to call a few tire centers ahead of time to find out exactly how much installation will cost and what the service includes. That way, if you live near more than one installer, you can compare the cost and benefits before deciding where to have your tires shipped.

If you purchase a set of tires from Tire Rack and you aren’t completely happy with what you get, you can return them for up to 30 days from the date of delivery. Just know that tires are eligible for return only if they haven’t been driven on and aren’t damaged. If you pick up your order at a distribution center, only immediate returns or exchanges are accepted. 

According to Tire Rack’s website, all tires (except for race and rally tires) sold by Tire Rack have a manufacturers’ limited warranty that covers things like quality of materials and/or workmanship. Generally, these warranties cover tires for four to six years or until the tread wears out. 

In addition to the manufacturers’ limited warranty, most passenger, light truck and SUV tires also come with free two-year tire road hazard protection. If one of your tires gets damaged on the road, you can get a replacement worth up to $599. Plus, the free protection includes flat tire repair coverage up to $40 per tire per occurrence. 

Overall, Tire Rack is a great place to shop for tires online. You’ll find a huge selection of popular brands and average prices compared to brick and mortar tire centers. The shipping is fast and free, but you will have to schedule and pay for installation separately. 

If you decide to purchase your tires from Tire Rack, follow these tips to maximize your savings:

1. Visit the tire sales and deals page. If there are any rebates or promotions available when you’re ready to make your purchase, you’ll see them listed here. In February 2023, Tire Rack was offering a $100 rebate on a set of four select Goodyear tires. There was an additional $140 rebate available if you paid for them with a Goodyear credit card. 
2. Filter your results by specials and closeouts. While you’re scrolling through the selection of tires that fit your vehicle, you can narrow your results by specials and closeouts. This is a great way to find a discount. You can also sort your results from the lowest to the highest price to see the best overall deal. 
3. Pick up your tires and compare prices among installers. If you live near one of Tire Rack’s distribution centers, you can pick up your tires yourself and get an additional discount. When I added four tires to my cart that fit my Camry, I was offered a $40 discount for pickup. Whether you pick up your tires or have them shipped, take the time to call a few different recommended installers to make sure you’re getting the best overall deal.

Have you purchased tires from Tire Rack? Let us know about your experience in our Clark.com Community!

Common mistakes in tire fitting | How to do the right tire fitting

Spring is really coming into its own, and it's time for motorists to change into summer tires. Today we’ll talk about the most common and dangerous mistakes of tire fitters, which you must definitely pay attention to in order to prevent them and conclude whether to come to this workshop next time or not.
Experts from the RUBIKON-S company, the official representative of Snap-On (John Bean, Hofmann), an installer and adjuster of equipment for car services, a supplier of tools and consumables for tire fitting, will help us sort out these issues.

Some “clowns” manage to save time, especially often on “fours” and “spots”, unscrew three wheels at once, lifting the car with one powerful jack. At the same time, the body of a new car can be severely deformed, and at best, the doors will not close properly, and at worst, due to a change in geometry, the car will significantly lose controllability and safety. In the right workshops, cars are changed on lifts. As a last resort, in normal "garage" workshops, each side is raised under the side members with two rolling jacks.

2. Does not sign wheels

You come to a tire fitting, they remove your wheels or take off your tires and do not sign which one was installed in which place.
This is one of the most serious and common mistakes, because the wheels in the future must fall into place or rearrange in a certain way if they are heavily worn.

The most common scheme is to swap front and back. The second technique is to put the front wheels back, and cross the rear wheels and put them forward. And the third option is to swap all the wheels crosswise. By the way, recently, tire manufacturers, for example, MICHELIN, have come to the conclusion that on modern cars with their suspension device and camber adjustment features, such rearrangements are meaningless and unsafe, because they violate the "run-in" tire contact patches with the road. Thus, saving is in conflict with safety, and manufacturers recommend putting the tires back in their places. Therefore, it is very important that the rubber is always signed.

3. Does not clean wheels and tires

This is a very gross mistake of crooked tire fitters. Despite the seeming unimportance of this operation, dirty tires and rims cannot be properly balanced, because even 10 grams of dirt on the rim or pebbles in the tire tread, which are imperceptible at first glance, will lead to incorrect balancing, steering wheel beat at a speed of 100 km / h and breaking suspension units.

4. Does not use nylon protective pads on the machine

Sometimes the price of wheels and tires can exceed the cost of a tire shop. Therefore, in the right tire services, in order not to “scratch” expensive wheels and not damage the rubber during installation and dismantling, they use special nylon pads on the presser feet of the machine, mounts, and even on wrench heads. By the way, the most common “stampings” in the “kotsok” places also begin to rust.

5. Do not use tire paste

Many unfortunate tire fitters, for the sake of imaginary savings, like to boil a soapy solution instead of tire paste or, even worse, use "working out" to facilitate the installation of rubber. The paste is needed to lubricate the tire when landing on the disc. It, unlike the soap solution, also works as a sealant and has anti-corrosion properties.

It takes some time to dry and harden. Therefore, it is recommended that after changing shoes for several days not to accelerate much, otherwise, with a “big dope” under the hood and in the head, you can easily turn the tire on the disk and kill the balance. By the way, "working out" does not dry out at all and corrodes rubber.

6. Does not pay attention to the color marking of tires

One of the main mistakes that tire fitters make is the incorrect alignment of color marks on tires and rims. Tire manufacturers, including motorcycle ones, mark the point of maximum centrifugal force of the tire with a red mark and recommend combining it with the minimum disk radius (usually this place on the disk is marked with a white dot).

The yellow mark indicates the lightest point on the tire and, in the absence of a red mark, must be aligned with the heaviest point on the rim. There is a myth that the yellow mark on the tire must be aligned with the valve on the rim. But it is not at all necessary that the installation site of the nipple will be the most difficult. It can be determined by turning a washed empty disk with a nipple, but without a tire and weights, on a balancing machine and noting the place where the machine suggests hanging a weight. Diametrically opposite to this point will be the heaviest place on the disk, and it is with it that the yellow mark on the tire must be combined. This is the only way to achieve the best balance and get by with a minimum of weights when balancing. Many tire fitters have no idea what these dots mean.

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In order for the tire to sit well on the disk, it needs to be pumped up quite strongly.

8. Pumps the wrong pressure into tires In fact, the pressure in the front and rear wheels, as a rule, is different. It is determined by the design of the car and depends on the load (loaded the car - pump up the wheels, and vice versa). The wheel inflation scheme is usually indicated on the nameplate at the ends of the doors or on the gas tank flap.

Inflate exactly as recommended by the car manufacturer. If you do not pump enough, then the rubber will wear out a lot at the edges. If you pump over, then the center will be erased. This affects the handling, braking and durability of the rubber. And most importantly, for your safety!
By the way: an under-inflated tire is more prone to punctures than an over-inflated one, because the central part bulges and picks up (as if drawn into itself by treads) debris, including nails.
No good tire fitter will let a client go without checking the pressure in all tires, even if only one wheel was being repaired.

9. The balancing machine is not fixed on a massive base

A very gross mistake of tire workshops is the incorrect location of the balancing machine, when it often just stands in the trailer on a wooden floor. The balancing machine must be securely fixed with anchor bolts on a horizontal, even and massive (concrete) surface. Any of its vibrations must be excluded. Otherwise, normal wheel balancing is simply impossible. For the same reason, balancing done at mobile tire stations is practically useless.

10. Does not calibrate balancing equipment

According to the regulations, the balancing machine must be calibrated several times a season. Of course, in most poor workshops, this procedure is often not bothered. Moreover, many expensive machines do not allow you to calibrate yourself and you need to call a specialist and pay for his services.

11. Poor adhesion of balance weights

On alloy wheels, balancing weights are usually glued. In order for the load to hold well on the disc and not fall off from vibrations or, for example, at a car wash under a Karcher jet, the disc and the load itself must be carefully prepared.

Before sticking the load, the surface of the disc at the place of gluing must be degreased with a not very aggressive solvent (it is assumed that the disc is already cleanly washed from dirt) and it is desirable to warm up the place of gluing and the load itself with a building hair dryer. Only in this case, the load will stick “tightly” and will not fall off at the first wash. By the way, pay attention: there are a lot of unstuck weights lying around at self-service car washes.

12. Does not achieve zero balance

In a hurry or out of laziness, the tire changer can convince you that it will do like this: "5 grams of imbalance is not felt. " Considering that when installing a wheel on a car, the imbalance will increase even more, you must always ensure that, as a result of balancing, the machine shows all zeros outside and inside. You may have to peel off and move the weights.

It may be necessary to disassemble and clean the inside of the wheel and tire (it happens that there is dirt or water inside the wheel). It is possible that the disk is crooked, and it will have to be “rolled”, but errors should always be minimized. Because even 5 grams of imbalance at high speeds will lead to steering wheel beating, reduced handling and early failure of suspension parts.

13. Screws the wheels with a wrench

One of the common and harmful mistakes, because it saves time and effort of the tire fitter, however, to the detriment of your safety. A wrench can easily strip the threads of studs, nuts, and bolts, and this can cost you your life as a result. In addition, excessive tightening can distort the seat on the disk, and this will lead to imbalance and wheel runout.

Even with the smallest amount of force, the wrench will usually "drive" the bolt or nut with too much over tightening. And you simply cannot unscrew the wheel with a balloon wrench in the field. Only in very advanced tire centers are special wrenches designed and adjusted for a minimum effort, so that later the nuts can be tightened with a torque wrench to the desired moment. Proper tire fitters unscrew the nuts with a wrench.

14. Tightens the bolts or nuts on the wheel in a circle. And therefore the load on the hub, suspension parts and your nerves. Therefore, in order not to knock down the alignment, it is imperative to tighten the bolts or nuts crosswise.

15. Does not use a torque wrench, but tightens the nuts with uneven force “by eye”

This is also a common mistake when, when installing a wheel, the nuts are tightened by hand with force, “relying on one’s own experience,” or even worse, with a wrench. Given that the rim is relatively soft, uneven tightening can lead to slight distortion and imbalance. In order to properly tighten the wheel bolts or nuts, there is a torque wrench. Only they can tighten the nut with the necessary force, which each machine has its own, is calculated by the manufacturer and indicated in the manual.

In addition, the size of the standard balloon key in your trunk is not a mockery to save space. It is designed in such a way that, kneeling down and using the efforts of the hands (without putting the pipe on the key and without jumping on it with your feet), tighten the wheel nuts with the necessary force. Even a girl can handle it. And, accordingly, it is possible to unscrew the wheel in the field with a standard “balon”, provided that it is tightened at the tire fitting with a torque wrench with the force necessary for your car.
And finally, advice to you, dear car owners
Every season, when changing tires, immediately check the alignment. Our climate and our roads are very conducive to the care of the correct adjustments. And don't wait for the hot days when the "tinker's day" comes and the roasted rooster begins to peck in one place. On such days, even in the most correct tire services, the most qualified fitters may make “parking” errors that can cost you nerves and health. Take care of yourself!
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Mobile tire fitting as it is possible DYNASET EQUIPMENT ON EUROMASTER GOMOBILE

In addition to more than seventy Euromaster stations in Finland, a new heavy duty service concept is being implemented at the Turku site.

GoMobile is a mobile service organization that, as the name suggests, operates on the road and is capable of inspecting, servicing, and servicing heavy duty tires. The idea of ​​GoMobile comes from Europe. A year ago, the English Euromaster pursued a policy of performing all work with tires in difficult conditions on the road. The same approach is now being adapted to Finnish roads.

- We at Euromaster are gradually moving away from heavy brick warehouses, and cars are serviced with tires where they are. It is also the best service moment for the entrepreneur. According to Pentti Jussilainen, who runs the GoMobile project, maintenance can be arranged during the day and when the car stops.

Pentti Jussilainen has many years of experience in the tire industry. A career that began in 1981 has gone through various stages. Jussilainen, who continued his career as the second Euromaster franchisee in Finland at 1991 in Loimaa, retired after maximizing market share. Over the past 15 years, working days have been spent as an area manager, ahead of a new project.

-In my opinion, the new in the development of the old is preserved and is currently being carried out by GoMobile of this concept. In early September, I took charge of its development as business director. GoMobile is free from other services and operates through its own organization. And only in the field. We have now created the regions of Uusimaa, Southwestern Finland and Pirkanmaa.

Resetting 10% at atmospheric pressure is a huge expense for the operator.
- One of our biggest customers today is Pohjolan Liikenne and his 300 buses, which we are responsible for tire maintenance. We visit the depot a couple of times a week and this year we will install 1,700 tires on these buses. Michelin's large customer organization sells tires to these customers at a price per kilometer. We care about maintenance and service.

With the service concept, we offer the most cost-effective option for the tire service entrepreneur. If the service also includes tire pressure and wear monitoring, rolling stock at the correct pressure will save a lot on fuel, not to mention tire costs. We do not spend, but we also produce for the customer, emphasizes Jussilainen.

Fully equipped service vehicles
The first three divisions of GoMobile are the prelude to a new organization as well as new equipment. Within five years, there must be 24 fully equipped trailers on the road. Now there are two.

Service vehicles designed and manufactured by Dynaset. The car's engine acts as a power source, so no additional weight is gained from the power source. The hydraulic pump connected to the power take-off forms the basis of the system. The flow is distributed through a modular valve to a system that includes an HG6.5 kVA hydraulic generator (230V and 400V) and an HKR hydraulic screw compressor producing 1300 l/min. Compressed air is stored in 10 bar / 240 l tanks and constantly maintained at maximum pressure. The compressor output is automatically regulated and does not stop at all during operation. This ensures an immediate response as well as operational capability even in the most severe frosts. The outgoing compressed air has a water separator and a cooler - tools last longer. There is also a radiator for the hydraulic system.

- The system was developed especially for Euromaster and is the result of a long collaboration and development. The first cars and concepts, with slightly different intentions, were created for them almost 10 years ago. According to Dynaset's Jari Vuorenmaa, these are some of the finest diamonds in the world today, and over the years we have been able to find a very compact set of equipment for servicing high load tires.

Why Dynaset?
- We have previously purchased various Dynaset equipment for some of our vans and trucks. They were left with the impression that they had the best package available to us. We now have the equipment we need for this efficiency. We need the best factors and the best equipment for our fleet. We provide our products with our service, which we also guarantee. Therefore, we do not compromise on the functionality of our equipment. Good equipment also means motivated staff, concludes Jussilainen.

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