Having tread on tires if you always drive in perfect weather?

[brblx]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: brblx
depends. who changes your oil? if they do rotations for free or offer it at a discount, it might be cheaper to just do that. generally you should rotate every other oil change- balancing is not a necessity. quality tires can retain their balance remarkably well. i've rarely ever found a 50-75% worn michelin be significantly out of balance. heck, even the past two pairs of cheap kumhos on my own car didn't ever need balancing.

i think id pay for initial balancing when buying tires before rotations. balancing is a must for a new tire IMO, ive seen too many old steel rims get bent out of whack with an unbalanced tire. hell, my best friends husband works at a shop, mounted his own tires and didnt balance. came back the next day, balanced all 4 because the car was shimmying at 35. he toasted 2 of the rims, had to replace them. you could see the wobble in them.

i tend to spend extra on tires for my truck. i drive thru some pretty awful places during the course of my job, and the heat out here destroys cheap tires quickly. also, most cheaper tires wont handle speeds over 85 or 90 usually. not that i spend a lot of time at those speeds, but the possibility is there.

context is your friend. i'm referring to balancing as maintenance. of course you should balance your tires after they're mounted.

 

[Zap]

Don't run bald street tires. There are wear bars molded into the tire and if you drive on them past these wear bars, you can be ticketed. Also, performance goes to crap. I used to drive a Mustang GT when I lived in SoCal and I drove tires until they got bald... and it was pretty entertaining at times, and scary at other times. Botts Dots would cause the rear end to skip sideways. Any dirt/sand/leaves on the asphalt would result in zero traction burnouts (which can be fun though). Once I was driving on I8 in the mountains at 4000' elevation and it barely started to snow, and I ended up spinning into a guardrail.

 

[KCfromNC]

You can try DOT-R roadracing tires, but there are some definite tradeoffs (low treadlife, needs heat for maximum traction, very poor traction in deep water).

Add in abrupt break away, harsh ride, and more prone to damage from normal road debris. And most importantly, if you're asking the question the OP is, you don't know how to drive well enough to get any benefit from them so you're wasting money.

On the plus side, you become a rock-throwing machine. Keeps tailgaters on their toes, if nothing else...

Still, not a good idea unless you're just going a mile or 2 from the track to refuel or something like that.

 

[JulesMaximus]

So I know that racecars have bald tires to maximize surface contact on the road. In places like California where the weather is always perfect, is it actually better to drive on tires that are close to bald since the roads are always dry? And then switch them out for tires with tread when you drive to other places?

Race cars do not have bald tires, they have slicks, which is a layer of rubber with no grooves cut in it. Bald tires, by comparison, have no tread and are not safe to drive on and do not offer performance anywhere near as good as fresh street tires with good tread.

 

[BassBomb]

its fine to run bald, but only if you run tires at maximum sidewall
everyone knows this

 

[NutBucket]

lifetime rotation is easily worth $100.

Only if you actually take the time to use it. I'm sure the majority of people don't I mean, I'm not going to take my car in just to get my tires rotated (since Costco only does tires. Would be different if you took it in for an oil change at the same time).

 

[BurnItDwn]

Perfect weather involves lots of snow, so I would say that you should get snow tires for the perfect weather. Also, chains help.

 

[jagec]

Only if you actually take the time to use it. I'm sure the majority of people don't I mean, I'm not going to take my car in just to get my tires rotated (since Costco only does tires. Would be different if you took it in for an oil change at the same time).

True. Considering that your average person probably rotates their tires anywhere from 0-1 time over the lifetime of the tires, I'd rather just do it myself and save the $100.

Generally the cost of balancing (which is a one-time event) will be included in the mounting fee.