Tire mounting and good customer service from Hunter
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
Tire mounting and good customer service from Hunter
I just posted this on another Corvette forum but thought it might be of interest here as well.--Bob
I have seen quite a few posts about problems with mounting our Z06 and other Corvette tires due to the large wide wheels and the low profile stiff run flat sidewalls. Some places simply won't mount them. However, in the last year or so Hunter (maker of the Road Force Elite Balancer) introduced a new tire mounting machine called the Revolution that busts the tires without touching the rims and without the "help" of a human being (https://www.hunter.com/tire-changers/revolution). No big metal bars on our rims to worry about. I will be looking for tires later this summer and was interested in finding what tire dealers had the Revolution Tire Changers. My local Chevy dealer has a Road Force balancer but does not have a Revolution Tire Changer (a $30k+ machine) On the Hunter website they have a "Locate a Balancer" button in the Road Force section of their website that lists the tire retailers which have Road Force balancers. Unfortunately, there is no similar "Locate a Tire Changer" button in the Revolution section. So I sent them an email asking for info on any in my area with the new Revolution machine. The next day I got a phone call from the local Hunter Sales Rep responding to my email. He said they did not have a "Locate" button up yet for the Revolution but he told me of some retailers who had stepped up and bought them, including my old employer Knauz BMW, Mercedes and Land Rover dealerships (which I already knew, as they regularly deal with picky customers with very large wheels and low profile run flats). He even mentioned that one tire retailer which had just gotten the machine and I might want to wait a bit before using them so they get experienced with it. I told him that Hunter should really consider adding a "Locate a Wheel Changer" button to the Revolution section of their website as I thought many people (in particular Corvette people) would like to know about the whereabouts of Revolution machines. I also opined that it might even help increase sales for Hunter if retailers knew potential customers could see who has a Revolution and who doesn't. In any case, I felt that his quick and helpful response to my email was a fine bit of customer service from Hunter. When I decide it is time to get tires I may just call him again to see if there are any more new ones, but more likely I will just take my car to my friends at our local BMW dealer for tires, which I will ship in from Tire Rack. I will have to watch them carefully on how they lift the car up but I am sure they can figure that out. Maybe when you are looking to buy tires you might send Hunter an email to ask where Revolution machines are in your neighborhood to encourage them on this. --Bob
The following users liked this post:
Road machine (06-04-2019)
#2
Safety Car
Thank you for this....I believe that many of the wheel bending issues are poor work in tire changing. It is super easy to put the bead braker in the wrong spot and bend a wheel. I only know this because as a kid I worked summers and after school at a tire shop.
The following 2 users liked this post by ZR1Bob:
kenownr (06-04-2019),
Road machine (06-04-2019)