wheel & tire install/balance around boston?

[worker_robot]

hey guys,

just got new tires and new wheels, so i'm trying to find the best place to take them to have them installed and balanced...there's that machine everyone talks about that apparently balances wheels the best? anyway, does anyone have a good place they go to for this?

i've been to express tire in watertown but i have a feeling they overcharge. they want $40/wheel to do this for me, and i'm not sure what equipment they have to do it...

thanks!

 

[Astral]

natick NTB is good, at least my roommate went there 5 times and liked it every time.

avoid waltham NTB, bad job balancing.

i've had good luck with Sullivan Tire places, most of them have the Hunter GSP9700 machine that balances it real good. They charge $25/wheel to mount & balance, so it should be less to simply rebalance. Probably $10-15/wheel. Don't pay $40/wheel unless it comes with a blowjob.

Honestly, you need less of a machine and more someone who gives a s*** to balance the wheel as well as they can. You also need someone who knows what they're doing. The machine doesn't guarantee much. Someone who doesn't give a s*** can do a crappy job on a Hunter machine to make it "good enough."

I went to this one guy in Marlborough back in the day to put my summer tires on, after another guy botched the balancing job. He used one of those typical balancing machines (not the Hunter one), but he told me: "look, it's not reading 0's here or here". And he balanced it to read 0's everywhere. Added weights in like 3 places on each wheel such that it read 0's all around. And it was some of the best balancing I've had. (i think it was New England Auto & Tire on Rt 20, but that's too far for you)

It sounds stupid, but I always ask them to balance it extra well...

 

[worker_robot]

astral - thanks for the tips. i ended up heading out to express tire early this morning and they were able to balance/mount the tires to the wheels for $32/tire. not as good as $25 but i didn't see you post until just now!

weird thing was, they called me and said they didn't have the right lug nuts for the ADR wheels i purchased (17" GT-sport)...i went to autozone down in allston and got some "tuner" lug nuts and even though the sales guy came out and showed me that they were fine the way they sat on the ADR wheels, the lug nuts seem way too long...

so, what are the best lug nuts, and do the have a universal fit?

 

[Black_Protege_5]

I preferably like the Mcgard lug nuts. They are expensive but they have a special lock key just like oem.