OK. so we've all been irritated by the difficulty in finding replacments for the stock tires. Me too. I went to Discount Tire in the Twin Cities looking for help and willing to spend up to $1500 on new rims and tires. What happens? The sameold problem, the rims hit the calipers, don't fit, can't find any with the right offest for the 5-127 bolt pattern...etc etc. I left the guy with instructions to special order some 17" rims and 235/65/17 Yokohama tires.......a week later, no call about the tires and rims...but...he went ahead and charged my account $1351.29 .....WTF? Needless to say, charged in there and got a refund.
Then, called my guys at Tires Plus in Moorhead, MN where I go for all my oil changes and rotates. We research together. Finally, we find a set of Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza's 235/50/19 - in stock. Great reviews. And my guy tells me that this size is better than going with 235/55's cuz they won't put my spedometer off as much. The 235/55's would cause my spedometer to be off by around 5 mph (under what my actual speed would be)....the 235/50's will only put it off by 1 mph or so....I don't know about you, but speeding tickets are expensive (when caught)...I'll push it, but I want my spedometer to read as accurately as possible.
Then I ask about the spendy valves....he tells me that as long as they don't torque one taking the old tires off, they can REUSE them!....saved me a bunch of $$$...why doesn't anyone else tell us these things?
Needless to say, I am buying the tires. The reviews on these tires are great, and frankly, I am very appreciative of Tires Plus and their demonstration of loyalty to their customer...namely...ME. And, they special ordered the tires for me from Tire Rack.com.....and didn't raise the online price....! Can use my rims without having to spend more $, don't have to "grind down my calipers to make it fit" like Discount Tire offered to do, can re-use my valve stems....(oh, and if they do torque one, they will replace it)....the only thing left to do is to take in the Journey and get it done when the tires come in.
Talk about EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY!
Total cost........delivered, installed, tax and all $1114.00 for some tires that will get me at least 60,000 miles. Lots better than those stupid Kumho "starter" tires....
Love my Journey! Hate the tire troubles....
