Yes another tire thread. 17" and mounting

[lets456]

Okay, I have called Toyota because of their tire sale, buy 3 get the fourth for $1. However, their options are limited and I don't like their choices. Here is my question and concern. I am either looking at the Toyo open country (NOT A20) http://www.treadepot.com/tirereviews/362990.html

Or the Michelin LTX M/S http://www.treadepot.com/tire/M35551.html

Based on the reviews and I want something that is quiet and has good wet/snow traction. However, I wanted Toyota to put these tires on but they do not carry them. The reason for Toyota installing the tires is:
1) Looks like special balancing weights.
2) Had bad experience with Non-OEM work on my Sienna in the past that led to unrepairable vibration after the work.

Are you all taking your Toyota's to a local shop, Ford or wherever to get tires mounted and balanced?

[deadrx7conv]

I have NEVER had a new car dealer mount tires. Dealers know a little about everything and nothing about anything. Find a competent tire shop. Your issue with your non-OEM work is that you went to an incompetent shop.

Any COMPETENT shop should be able to mount and correctly balance your tires. They should also have no problem rebuilding TPMS sensors....

There are no 'special balancing weights'. But, there are incompetent shops that don't stock anything from the 21st century.

Find a shop with a Road Force balancer. If they can invest in a good balancer, then they should also be able to take care of you. http://www.gsp9700.com/

[JMSinMD]

Originally Posted by lets456

Okay, I have called Toyota because of their tire sale, buy 3 get the fourth for $1. However, their options are limited and I don't like their choices. Here is my question and concern. I am either looking at the Toyo open country (NOT A20) http://www.treadepot.com/tirereviews/362990.html

Or the Michelin LTX M/S http://www.treadepot.com/tire/M35551.html

Based on the reviews and I want something that is quiet and has good wet/snow traction. However, I wanted Toyota to put these tires on but they do not carry them. The reason for Toyota installing the tires is:
1) Looks like special balancing weights.
2) Had bad experience with Non-OEM work on my Sienna in the past that led to unrepairable vibration after the work.

Are you all taking your Toyota's to a local shop, Ford or wherever to get tires mounted and balanced?

Those buy 3 get 1 are a rip, I used to work as a service advisor and wouldn't advise my customers to get the 'special' because it wasn't. What I do for the vehicles in the family that I manage is have the local NTB (where I work with 1 mechanic exclusively) price match the Tirerack.com prices. I've heard good things about the Michelin, I however am a fan of Bridgestone, specifically the Bridgestone Dueler Alenza and Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo2.

Don't waste your time/money going to Toyota.

[lets456]

How about "Costco"? They are right around the corner from me....any feeling on their quality of work?

[JMSinMD]

Originally Posted by lets456

How about "Costco"? They are right around the corner from me....any feeling on their quality of work?

If you have a Merchant's/Tire Kingdom/Big O/NTB they all fall under the Service Central company. We've worked with them over the years and have never had any issues.

You can get a 5 year unlimited alignment package, plus road hazard/rotation and balance/etc packages from them as well for decent prices. I think I pay $175 for 5 years worth of alignments (which I get done every 10k) and rotate and balance/road hazard package is like $25 per tire and I get them R&B every 5k along with oil change which they usually have on special as well.

Check their website for coupons.

[davemcd]

Skip the dealer; tire shops are experts at balancing rims and installing tires.

I've been using the Goodyear Fortera Triple Tread tires:
http://www.goodyear.com/en-US/tires/fortera-tripletred

I can't say enough good things about this tire. Good mileage, great all-around traction in dry/wet/snow. I live in a mild climate, but go to the snow frequently in the winter, and this tire has done very well in the snow.

[sweeneyp]

Originally Posted by lets456

How about "Costco"? They are right around the corner from me....any feeling on their quality of work?

I've used costco on other vehicles. Fairly good prices and did a fine job (nothing wrong) mounting/balancing/and aligning the tires

[Ralph6410]

My Toyota dealer (Edmonton Ab) seems to have a "special" on winter tires at the moment. After much dithering I decided to go with that package. Out the door for $1957.71. Alloy wheels, Michelin Latitude 245/65R17 tires complete with TPM's. My tire shop of many years quoted me $2050.01 and I was not totally happy with the alloy wheels they were selling me, a multi patern hole kind of looks goofy in my opinion. Canadian Tire came in at $1600ish.. nicer wheels and perhaps a better TPM system. They claim to clone the sensor so that one does not need to reprogram the car.. But, the tire size was not readily available .

So we will see, they are installing on Oct 26.. perhaps there will be some new surprises..

I purchased the TPM Quick set discussed in other posts. It arrived today and I was able to read the ID numbers of the existing TPM set. When my winter set is installed I "should" be able to read them and thus.. eventually pay for my Quickset. ($186.31 with shipping and taxes)

[caf2461]

Costco did fine by me also.

The only thing you will get more opinions on than tires is possibly oil.
Here are good tables to sort through millions of opinions:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...y.jsp?type=HAS

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...jsp?type=CSTAS

The Michelin LTX you first mentioned gets good reviews. The Michelin Latitude Tours outlasted and were quieter than the Bridgestone Dueler Alenza's I had which were also good tires but got noisy after 2/3 wear.