Dealer said can't diagnose heavy cabin vibration because I have aftermarket wheels and tires

Hilarious little update regarding the wheels & tires. So I traded the MB racing wheels that I had on the truck for stock TRD Off Road wheels with another TW member who was kind enough to drive up from southern Oregon (!) for this. Had an appointment at discount tire. It took them five minutes to find me in the system, and then five minutes of explaining what we wanted (to switch the WHEELS only and keep everything else on the original vehicles).

They got to work and in about 15min, a guy came out and asked if I had the allen key for the hub caps on my MB wheels. I said no, I bought these here new, I didn't get any allen key for them, you guys should have them. He said we were just asking, we'll keep looking. Then he asked where I had the wheels balanced, and not to go there again. I asked why not, he said because they put too much weight on the wheels. I told them that it was required in order to get them properly balanced, and he had a blank look on his face.

Next, while the other TW member and I were chatting, his wife noticed they were putting my blizzaks on his truck, and his tires on my truck. We had to run over there and get some more blank stares until they understood that we only wanted to SWITCH THE WHEELS, NOTHING ELSE.

Last but not least, they completely forgot about the slotted security lug nut socket that's required to get the lug nuts on and off for the MB racing wheels. I asked about it when they said they were done, and more blank looks. They started looking for it and turns out the guy driving the truck to us had it under his ass on the seat, where I had put it in the first place so they could see it.

It finally all got done, but yeah. People are right, discount tire has gone to total shit. I've been going to their shops for years and it didn't used to be like this.

 

Until places start paying their employees to give a shit or stay working there, you’re gonna get that nonsense. I had tires installed at a Goodyear a few years back and they not only balanced the tires wrong, they didn’t use a cone to balance or guards on the aligning tools. All four wheels were scratched up pretty good.. and then they couldn’t load the profile to align me (paperwork required for Hawaii state inspection).

They ended up paying for the wheels, but wtf. I went to a spot that charged a little more but had legit mechanics doing everything. Never looked back.

 

No shit. I was curious so I looked up the numbers. Discount Tire pays 9 to 15 bucks an hour, depending on the region and the position. MCDONALD'S STARTS OUT AT 15 BUCKS AN HOUR TO FLIP BURGERS HERE IN SEATTLE, WTF Discount Tire? My wheels and tires are worth slightly more than some methhead cooking my burger!

 

Much like McDonalds, some Discounts are better than others. The tire mounter job is an entry level job and if you find someone that has been doing it for more than 6 months, you have found a veteran. It is grunt work and the business is fiercely competitive. While I agree that you want someone better than a methhead doing the work, it is hard to justify paying more because most people shop on price and don't think that much into the process.

Interestingly though we tried once to pay the tire techs more to see if quality improved. This was years ago and they were making $7 per hour. We bumped them all up to $10 per hour and instantly the quality and productivity improved. Interestingly about 2 months later we were back at the $7 per hour levels. They basically forgot about the money and went back to their old ways. It is really a lousy job. You work in nasty conditions and spend the day covered in filth. A lot of those guys have aspirations to be mechanics. Few make the transition. My guess is you hit that particular Discount with the guys that will be flipping your burgers in a few weeks.