Doing it at home. Yes it is worth it.
What are you paying these days to get a set of tires mounted and balanced? Or are you doing it at home? For those doing it at home, is it worth it?
I pay $Free.99, but I have an unfair advantage, because I'm a mechanic and can use my shop's tire machine.
It depends on where I buy my tires. If I get them through the local Discount Tire then they're mounted for free. If I buy used or from tire rack then I pay $20.00/tire.
I've thought about getting my own equipment but so far I haven't thought it was worth it. I don't have a lot of shop space, even at $20/tire you can mount and ballance a lot of tires before you cover the cost of the equipment and I really don't enjoy mounting and balancing tires.
DIY, using work's equipment. The downside is the stuff is at a second location that I almost never work at and is out in the middle of nowhere. So my cost is ~$10 of fuel and 1.5hrs of my time to drive there and back. Still generally worth it but it's annoying; I will occasionally pay to get a set mounted locally if I'm in a hurry and don't have a day to burn on it. If I had space at home and a better compressor I'd be at least seriously considering buying my own equipment.
My most recent order from Tire Rack cost me $120 for mounting. That didn't include disposal, I kept the old tires.
I can't say what is reasonable, small businesses have to charge enough to stay in business and provide a reasonable income for the employees and the owner.
Still, that's a lot to add to a set of tires. Two years ago I paid $80 at the same place.
A shop I use on occasion for oil changes on the Suburban and repairs that I can't do charges $25 a tire. A small tire shop in the county charges $15 per.
A shop I use charges $20 per tire, not including disposal. That adds an extra $7 so i just collect them until i make a dump run.
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