Tire Recommendations

[jmgtp]

I so stupidly ran over a scissor jack in my driveway. I was barely rolling, clutch not even all the way out but it caught the edge of the tire and managed to cut through the tread and all the way down the sidewall, through the steel belt and all. Given that the rest of the tires have 20-30% life left it makes no sense to replace 1 tire. So I think I need to replace all four.

Here is what my needs are:
-The car is only summer driven so all season tires not necessary.
-I'd like a semi-performance oriented tire.
-Decent tread wear, say at least 40k miles.
-I don't want to break the bank and don't need top of the line but I also don't want bottom of the barrel.

Wheels are factory GP crosslace 16x8, the factory size tire is 245/50/16 and I'd like to stick with that size.

So what do you all recommend, where did you get them and what did they run you?

This has to be the least favorite of car services: its expensive, pretty much the only one I can't do myself, I have to let some punk kid drive my car and he'll probably torque my lugs to 300 ft lbs.

Also, I had a 4wheel alignment done not 5000 miles ago. I'm almost considering buying tires online, seems that is the cheapest route and bringing to a tire shop for mounting/balancing and then I can install the wheels on the car myself. Someone feel free to talk me into that.

[jmgtp]

Ok... well I took the dive and bought some decently priced and seemingly well reviewed Hankooks online.

Now.. has anyone used the harbor freight tire changer? It's $40, claims to be able to change tires 8" and larger: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34542

though it does say 7.5x16... so can I not get away with 8x16?

I can see how the bead breaker on it works but not really how it mounts a new tire. Will this thing chew my rim/paint up?

[johnnymossville]

I am very satisfied with my KUMHO EXSTA ASX tires but you don't need all season tires so I would check out their EXSTA SPORT or 711 tires. I bought two different sets of KUMHOs online from TREADEPOT.com at very reasonable prices.

[communityracingchallenge]

Get Sumitomo HTR Z2's.. you won't be disappointed.

https://www.tirerack.com

[bszopi]

LOL... 2 recommendations AFTER he already purchased tires.

[jmgtp]

haha ya, but thats my fault - I didnt really give it a chance. Any thoughts on dismounting and mounting/seating yourself?

I'm not trying to be too cheapo about it (though thats a plus) I just hate letting other people work on my car.

[91LQ1Lumina]

I'd say you've got three practice tries laying around to learn with, I really couldn't be that hard of a job. Most tire places I know of seem like they hire strait from the fast food restaurants, from flipping burgers to changing tires. You would still have to get them balanced, and I image that there are a few shops that would try and take advantage if you said you mounted them yourself so I would be hush hush about that.

[jmgtp]

I'm going to make some calls and see just how much it will cost to have them mounted balanced. If it is too much then I may just go ahead and order the bead breaker and/or the portable tire changer and give it a go.

[jmgtp]

Got them mounted and balanced for $97.

They used the stick on weights that go on the inside diameter of the wheel.

The car felt smooth on the highway but when I ran it up to 80 or 85 to test out the balance I think I noticed a good deal of vibration.

Normal for these kind of weights or am I out of balance? I watched them balance all four on a machine. A friend of mine has the same kind of stick on weights and he thinks its normal for the shaking at high speed, though his doesnt shake unless you bring the car up to 100 or so. If mine shook at 100 I could care less because if I go that fast once a year its a lot. 80 though is kind of annoying since that is the go with the flow highway speed around here.

edit/side note: neglected to mention I had a 4wheel alignment done 2years ago and only 4-5k miles since then. Therefore I am ruling that out for now.
I had the alignment done when I changed the rack (worn), at the time I was in a hurry and the only one in stock was the 2.75 rack, man do I HATE it, grandma steering. I'm considering swapping it out for a stock ratio rack but it is a pricey. I may see if I can pick up a used rack for cheap on car-part.com and then have the front end realigned.