October 9, 200916 yr The other day I went and had some mud tires mounted on my subaru. I have 235/75/15's on nissan six lug wheels. I just drilled the wheels rather than the hubs.the mounting plate on the nissan wheeler are over 1/4" thick. Most shops wouldnt even touch em.Saying that the wheels were never designed to the two extra holes,that its unsafe, that the car was never designed for 235's etc...Ended up taking the tires off in the parking lot of one tire shop that would dismount/mount the mud tires but they didnt want no part in mounting them to the car...They even said most of the lugs would break/strip because of the incorrect lug seating angle,etc... The rims drive pretty smooth considering my wheel weights got knock off some time ago, and I neglected to have the shop balance them... Anyone ever had issues like that?I probally should have just taken the tires of the car and brought them there,but I dont really have a way to keep all four hubs off the ground..
October 9, 200916 yr I never really had a problem, Les Schwab didnt even notice until I told them I did it then they were like Oh ************..... But they had already mounted them. I used to do all my own tire mounting at my buddy's shop, but they went out of business...... -Bill
October 9, 200916 yr sounds like common sense and liability concerns. They are somewhat correct? You could ask them to locate some 15" rims in that bolt pattern instead , and then they will see why. We have no choice really until a 27" tall tire in 13" is made.
October 9, 200916 yr No tire shop in sacramento (well, any big name shop) will touch a modified rim. When I was mounting 27's on my 14" chevy luv rims, I waiting until after the tires were mounted & Ballanced before I drilled out the 2 extra holes. The guys at Big-O Tire were wondering how I was going to get the 6 lug rims onto my 4 lug subaru (i worked next door, and was chatting with most the guys in their shop). I explained my plans to them, and everybody in the shop called me crazy. Whatever, just mount my tires & ballance them... thats all I need. A few weeks later when the Hatch was finished, everyone at that Big-O thought it was awesome.
October 9, 200916 yr This is yet another thing, that people bawk at, that real world experience has proven works. Is there anything incredibly special about the factory bolt holes that can't be repeated outside of the factory? NO. Sure, drilling another hole in the mounting flange is going to weaken that flange a bit. Apparently not enough that it can't handle a 3,000 vehicle pounding through ORV parks, spinning the tires, and bouncing off of rocks. Alot of guys bend radius arms, and tie rod ends, alot more of that than breaking wheels... Sometimes trial, and error is the best way to learn something.
October 10, 200916 yr I hadn't even considered this when deciding on drilling the hubs instead, but it may just be the best reason to. It's a lot more work, for nothing but looks...but it would look stock to the unobservant tire monkey.
October 10, 200916 yr I think I am gonna weld/grind/paint over the old holes in my wheels so this can be avoided, I am also gonna chamfer the new holes to seat the lugs into. I would prefer no tire monkey touches my car anyways unless absolutely necessary. This will also benefit me if I were to get pulled over and the cop were to think I have 4 lugs missing from each wheel :lol:
October 10, 200916 yr sounds like common sense and liability concerns. I agree with this. If I were a tire business owner I wouldn't touch anything like that because the liability you have wouldn't be covered by your insurance and you'd be in s*** if anything happened
October 10, 200916 yr I live in a rural small community and the local tire shop hasn't even questioned me. I guess there are enough rednecks doing crazier stuff than me
October 10, 200916 yr i never even thought to drill the hubs , i cut the center out of an old stock wheel , bolted that to the 15" wheel , lined it up on the drill press and started pokeing holes . as for the tire shop - well i got some used tires from a guy and mounted them myself - old school - crow bars . yes it sucked but i did it to aviod the "why did you drill the rim ? " question . saved a few bucks and had a pretty good work-out right in the driveway .
October 11, 200916 yr i never even thought to drill the hubs , i cut the center out of an old stock wheel , bolted that to the 15" wheel , lined it up on the drill press and started pokeing holes . as for the tire shop - well i got some used tires from a guy and mounted them myself - old school - crow bars . yes it sucked but i did it to aviod the "why did you drill the rim ? " question . saved a few bucks and had a pretty good work-out right in the driveway . What's the old school way to balance 'em!?!
October 12, 200916 yr i didn't bother to balance them , the whole thing was really an experiment - wasn't sure it was going to work . my 81 gl wagon is front wheel drive only , so i jammed some low profile 50 series meats under stock suspension . i had to cut the front wheel wells just a little so they don't rub on turns . now that i've been driveing around some and i'm confident they will work fine , i'll go and get brand new tires mounted and put them on the wagon myself . it looks really cool - sorry no pics yet - no camera :-\
October 12, 200916 yr One more reason I usually just leave the vehicle on jackstands in the driveway and only take the wheels in when I need new tires. for the Soob it's mainly cause with every set I've went bigger and needed to do a bit of bodywork to prevent rubbing. (in the past they made me pick a smaller size, I learned my lesson) For my daily driver it's cause they don't watch what they are doing and over torqued the nuts on my winter steelies, then over torqued the nuts (now all chewed up from the steel wheels) into my summer alloys. Had to take all the lug nuts off and file the seating surface smooth again. Wheels are all chewed up but all seems to be well.... enough. (I discovered this weeks later when I had a wheel off for some reason or another) They can mount and balance them, but no way they are touching the rest of the car.
October 12, 200916 yr What's the old school way to balance 'em!?! Dynamically. There are websites out there that explain all of it. Long story short; I balance my tires with non-biodegradeable Airsoft BBs. 180/60/13 sould be about 2 oz. per tire. 205/55/15 up to 235/75/15 should take about 3 oz. per tire. It's the same idea as Calcium, or those expensive tire BBs (AKA lead shot) It works extremely well, and since this is in the Off Road section; it works great for wheeling tires, because, there are no external lead weights to knock off in the mud. It's cheap too. A big bottle of BBs will balance two sets of tires, and costs about $10. Just weigh them before hand, seperate the ammounts, and ask the mounter to pour them in when he's mounting the tires. Or in this case; do it while you are mounting your own tires.
October 13, 200916 yr That's awesome...I was just joking, but had never heard of that BB trick. Thanks, Will.
October 13, 200916 yr Author the tires on my truck are balanced that way.Smoothest riding tires ever.I have never even rotated the tires and they all have even wear...Never thought about it on car tires though..
October 13, 200916 yr One of the companies that makes "special" beads even has handy online charts. http://www.innovativebalancing.com/tirechartmap.htm
October 16, 200916 yr DUDE! They even give a scooter size so I can dump em in my scoot tires. Those damn things are never balanced.:banana:
October 16, 200916 yr "If you drill extra holes in your rims....you might be a redneck.." No, but seriously, I agree that sometimes it can just get so annoying to have to listen to "professionals" tell you that what you have been doing for the last 10 years is not possible. Even some wheel alignment shops cannot understand that I know how I want my wheels pointing, and nevermind their computer's standard setup for my Impreza.
October 21, 200916 yr I was looking at this problem when I re-drill my yota 6 luggers. Cuz I'm gonna have to buy new tires when I put them on (unless I find a set in the JY) And I do not trust the local tire shops around here, so I guess I'll just have them mount them, if they will that is... Hey Mugs, your buddy wiling to let borrow his mounting machine? :-p Twitch
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