This is a PSA for anyone planning to carry in tires for mounting.
I bought tires from Summit and had them delivered to my house.
I pulled all the shipping tape and stickers off, oops!
Loaded up the rims and new tires and headed over to national tire chain.
Guy said he couldn't mount them unless they had all the new stickers on them because they had no knowledge of their background.
Went over to another place, same chain, but a younger manager. When he looked at the tires and could see the outlines from where the stickers were pulled off, he said he'd do it, but wasn't supposed to. It helped they weren't busy, or he probably would have said no too.

Is this a new thing? I just had tires put on my Mustang, at same chain.
But those were bought through Tire Rack, and delivered directly to the store.
I bought these from Summit because I had a discount code.

The big tire chain stores are to picky, Fina a small garage type place and no issues. These places usually sell used tires.

That wouldn't fly in the northern regions - where people get tires changed from "summer" to winter" and both sets have been used !!

There was a tire chain growing a lot around here up until they started a set if rules they had to follow.

Basically a bunch of rules that made them money and never benefited the customer.

Kinda curious if your place is NTB.

That's a new one to me. Sounds like a passive-aggressive strategy to force people to buy their tires from that store.

I had a Firestone store by me refuse to mount used slicks for me years ago. I now have been going to the same independent tire store for years , they aren't cheap but they will do as I ask.

The 7 year liability thingy.

kind had the same, i bought from wallyworld online drove over wallyworld i was going from 225 to 235 and they wouldnt mount them saying wasnt the correct size

Yes, it's a liability thing.

I had a local place that would R&R 10+ year old tires that held air on rims for me to roll stuff around. They will dismount, won't mount at all. Really they don't want to touch them now.

Yes, just ask Ford and Firestone. I would bet it has something to do with the information on the label and if the label is missing then no way to prove the customer had the opportunity to read all of the legal disclaimer and warnings. Plus, the label would have the bar code to confirm it was there. It's a cold fact of life in the new world of Cover Your @$$ or CYA . And what if the tires are some Asian knock offs that are not DOT legal for street use and there is no way for the installer to know this, then when asked for the label bar code or info they take the liability. They wouldn't turn away business if there wasn't consequences for not having the manufacture of the tire's label.

Okay, so you bring new tires with stickers to be mounted. The shop looks at the stickers, mount the tires, and off you go. Now you have a problem. Who recorded the information on the stickers? How do you prove after the fact that the tires had stickers?

I would think it was the installer to fulfill their legal requirement?? But I did a search and can't find anything about not removing the labels before taking the to an installer????? Anyone that can show me where this is. I can understand why there might be something like this, but the window (Monroney label) has a federal law that states that only the owner can remove the label or permit the dealer to do it for them. Everyone knows that has ever purchased a new car the dealer does it without asking and you're lucky if you even get it with your sales docs.

This makes no sense. Of course when lawyers get involved it seldom does. It would seem easier to counterfeit stickers than the actual DOT info embedded in the tire sidewall.

Remember years back when Tire Company got SUED for leaving the Tire Stickers ON , and Customer said they Skidded on Stickers , and Crashed into another Vehicle ? Yup , Lawyers Won that Lawsuit !

Had similar happen to me. Earlier this year went in for an oil change at Walmart for my WJ. Now I had bought the tires
on that Jeep from the same exact store a few years prior. I asked the woman ( service writer) to have them
set tire pressure at 35psi....while she's writing up the Jeep. She opens the door, to look at the factory tire pressure sticker
on the B pillar. She says she can't do that, because the sticker says different tire size, than what is currently on the truck.
I look at her and say, " these tires were bought and INSTALLED here, and they are a factory size from JEEP...P245/70/16."
The sticker says P225/70/16...and she actually argued with me over this!!! I finally pulled out the original window sticker, out of the
freakin glove box to provide written proof, of the original FACTORY INSTALLED P245/70 tires from JEEP! Dumba$$ [censored] finally conceded.

Yep, I had a Firestone tire store catty corner from my shop, they wouldn't touch ANY tire even with stickers on them, they would only do tires sold through the store! I found a junkyard near my new shop that does them for $10 each no matter what they are, but they don't have balance capability so I have to take them down the street for that after they are mounted...

I'm lucky. I have a tire store in a tiny town about 5 miles from my shop. I've been using them for over 20 years. No need to mess around buying tires off the innernets and trying to find someplace to mount them.

More and more reason to just buy a used tire machine. That's my next big purchase. It's minimum $125 to swap 4 tires around here.... so, 10 changes and my tire machine has paid for itself. Not to mention.... how many times I drag home a groovy set of old mags, only then having to drag them into town and pay someone to peel the garbage tires off 'em.

Don't forget a basic balancer and some stick on weights.

THAT was a status symbol, kinda like the yellow plastic guards on the Challenger chin spoilers, or backing into parking spots.

My 06 3500 4x4 came with 17”. I bought new take offs from a 2015 3500 4x4 that are 20s for $700 from a dealer, they were rotated and balanced a few times then new tires put on last year, nothing was said. Of course this is the sane east coast.

Why call that person a dumb+++ *itch? Do you know them in real life? Did not think so. Hmmm, you having a bad couple of days Mr. Angry?

for many, many, [and many more] years, i changed tires using a manual machine i built, and used a bubble balancer to balance them.
last summer, i put new tires and wheels on "the bus". using the equipment i have, it just about did me in.................
so since i play with tires and wheels on a regular basis, i pulled the trigger on one of those chinesium tire machine and balancer combos.
before i pulled the trigger, i researched those machines and talked to others that had bought them, to find out what problems they have had with them, and how good the service after the purchase was.
these were tire shops from mom and pop operations, to tire stores that sell a very large volume of tires.
as i will not be using these things every day, i determined it was worth the risk.
after they show up [late next week] and i get them installed and in use, i will report back my experience with them.

There are so many independent shops around here it isn't an issue. I called Discount Tire to get an appointment to swap tires I had purchased from them mounted to a different set of rims. Tires are nine years old, but have stored indoors with minimal miles. I knew the policy of not touching anything over ten years already. Tech was very non-committal about it even though he confirmed the age policy hadn't changed. Took it to a small shop in town and the guy only charged me for a $100 for mount and balance.

If I had to guess there has probably been a number of cases of lawsuits that make the chains not want to deviate from stock and play it safe with age. That and wanting to sell tires.

Lots of European countries don't let you change factory tire size as a matter of regulation.

I dunno….I earn my living selling and installing production equipment to venues in western Canada. I quite often get requests (usually from churches) to install knock-off Chinese made garbage they have purchased off the internet.

My response ranges from “go pound sand,” to politely suggesting they ask the e-commerce site they bought the stuff from to install it for them.

Tire shops have made the investment in staff & equipment to serve their customers… Maybe that means limiting that to servicing what they have sold.

Exacly, you nailed it.
It's a nonsensical policy, no where on the receipt does it show what tires were installed/balanced.
They didn't take any pics or note any serial numbers on the receipt.
Theoretically I could crash with a completely different set of rims and tires (that are complete garbage) and sue them for mounting them. Absolutely no way to prove otherwise.
I still think it's a ploy to sell the tires, mail order must be killing them.

He also mentioned they no longer patch trailer tires, "New or nothing, not worth the liability of someone wrecking their $200k boat and blaming the repair"

Don’t they know how to read the date code on the tire?

Just bought a nice reman coats 50/60AX tire machine today, so I'm good that way.. but try bringing in a tire new or not to a Harley dealership to have mounted, the last and only time I ever tried that they wanted to charge me the price of a new tire along with mounting fees since I didn't buy the tire from Harley?? I had the counter full of stuff I was buying at the time..
like 600 dollars of stuff on counter and walked out. I've been having my Harley tires mounted at a dirt bike shop ever since, that had to be 15 years ago now. Not to mention 6x cheaper for the mounting!

It seems everyone can buy tires for about the same price unless there's a special deal. The bread and butter seems to be how much you make on the install. I don't know the agreed paid install rate between say Tire Rack and your local installer is and the RULES therein for liability but it sounds like it's getting out of hand.
Like some others here. I bought some good used equipment and avoid the tire store all together.

i don't know what the cost is to mount and balance tires these days, but even with the rim clamp machines and "no touch" mounting hardware in use, it seems the "operators" [if they could be called that] of these new style machines can still find ways to hack up, er, i mean, mar expensive rims during the mounting and balancing procedures.
no one seems to care about others investments in tires and wheels anymore..............
that usually isn't a "small dollar" deal these days, and i'm sure there are others out there like me, that must save for quite a while in order to afford what one really wants.
only then to find out some numnutz doinks up a sizeable investment when it comes time to mate the two investments together.
this is what led me to fabricate the manual tire machine i build back around the 1986 or so, time frame.
since then, i have probably changed hundred upon hundreds of tires and wheels, without causing damage to any tire or wheel, no matter the size. the smallest was a wheelbarrow tire, while the largest was a 31x19.50 mt tire on a 15x15 rim.
although the machine i made still works perfectly, i'm getting too old to use it, as it takes effort to use, and my effort "got up and went" as my old man used to say.

Im pretty stern at the shop I go to. I take them perfect rims and take pics of them in front of the workers when I leave them. I also inspect them before I pay. They may not like it but the do not mess my rims up. Some may not understand English well but the terms I use they do. Dont XXXX my rims up please! But I also tip well and they know this so in the end its all good. I can understand a minor issue can happen, no one is perfect but I do expect a certain level of quality work. Lets the rim killers work over in the farm/industrial side where they can do no harm.

On the plus side is, they will mount anything without question since most out here in the rural dust bowl have a good bit of common sense and know what will work and what wont for there application.