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Thought I'd share a "real life" experience using the CoachNet Discount Tire service. Howard wrote about this in his blog several months ago and I was interested, knowing that after we had an alignment completed in February after an issue with our shackles, we'd most likely need to consider tire replacement. I had it all planned and budgeted to take care of this when we were stopped for 5 weeks in the Sacramento area just to make the logistics coordination a little easier
Wouldn't you know it, we had a blowout as we were in our last week of travel before reaching the Sacramento area. So we put the spare on, got into Sac and requested the Coach Net quote.
Note: Coach Net's process is to send you to a Goodyear Commercial Tire Service Center, which are more limited in location than just any Goodyear store.
Quote - $65 -200 per tire less than any other place I could find online or the local stores. SCORE!!
Or so, I thought. Then the quote is updated with mounting, balancing, tire disposal, valve stem replacement, etc. All of these costs were either included in the other quotes I had received or the prices quoted through Coach Net for mounting or valve stems were overpriced compared to the other quotes.
Bottom line, after price shopping 5 different options, in total it's $5 more than the lowest cost quote I received, but for $5 we'll continue down this path as there is a convenience to having Coach Net make all the arrangements, scheduling the appointment, etc. We're on the shop calendar for the day we plan to leave Sacramento which works out perfect for us, budget and travel plans.
Just didn't see the cost savings we had been hoping for based on the original quote for the Good Year G114 tires.
-- Edited by NWescapee on Wednesday 24th of April 2019 02:05:36 PM
Good to know - appreciate the information. We will be replacing our Goodyear G114’s this summer but haven’t started shopping just yet. I think there are a couple of different places to get discounts including Coachnet and Escapees, and another that I can’t think of at the moment.
Just curious ... why are you replacing your G114's? Seems too soon on a 2016 rig and unless you never park it, I'd be surprised that you've miled them out ... so is there an alignment issue that caused unusual wear? I've had mine for two years and looking to going 5-8 more years, with luck.
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Ron and Janice
2016 Ford F350, King Ranch, DRW, 4x4, CC, 6.7 PS Diesel, remote control air lift system
2017 Durango Gold 381REF, Lambright furniture, MCD shades, morRYDE IS, 8K Disc brakes, GY G114 LR H Tires, 27,320 lbs CGVW
Just curious ... why are you replacing your G114's? Seems too soon on a 2016 rig and unless you never park it, I'd be surprised that you've miled them out ... so is there an alignment issue that caused unusual wear? I've had mine for two years and looking to going 5-8 more years, with luck.
We have Flat spots on the tires, possibly due to a very hard breaking situation. We bought the rig in the spring of 2016 - so the tires are likely dated from late 2015, making them over 3 years old. They are definitely not miled out - just worn to the point we prefer to replace them. Not sure how to determine if there is an alignment issue.
Alignment would look like the inner (or outer) edge of the tires would be wearing faster than the middle. Flat spots can be caused by several things ... but out of balance is the most likely cause. When you get your new tires make sure they balance them with the tire monitoring transmitters on the valve stem.
BTW ... if your trailer brake gain is set properly, the trailer tires shouldn't "lock up" (quit turning under hard braking). FWIW.
-- Edited by RonC on Thursday 25th of April 2019 12:21:54 PM
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Ron and Janice
2016 Ford F350, King Ranch, DRW, 4x4, CC, 6.7 PS Diesel, remote control air lift system
2017 Durango Gold 381REF, Lambright furniture, MCD shades, morRYDE IS, 8K Disc brakes, GY G114 LR H Tires, 27,320 lbs CGVW
Alignment would look like the inner (or outer) edge of the tires would be wearing faster than the middle. Flat spots can be caused by several things ... but out of balance is the most likely cause. When you get your new tires make sure they balance them with the tire monitoring transmitters on the valve stem.
BTW ... if your trailer brake gain is set properly, the trailer tires shouldn't "lock up" (quit turning under hard braking). FWIW.
-- Edited by RonC on Thursday 25th of April 2019 12:21:54 PM
It’s probably not an alignment issue because the wear on the tires seems even across the tire. Thanks for the info!
Winnebago TT 2101DS & 2020 Silverado LTZ Z71. 300 watts WindyNation solar w/MPPT, 2 Trojan T-125s. TALL flag pole. Prefer USFS, COE, BLM, USF&WS, NPS, TVA, state/county camps. 14 year Army vet-11B40 then 11A - old MOS 1542 & 1560.
They had issue with tread separation on tires dated 2015. This is what the condition looks like. The three center ribs will start raising higher than the outer two. Then if not replaced the center ribs will start coming off. Contact a GY "OWNED" store to get the best deal on a pro rated replacement.
Tires were replaced yesterday at the Goodyear Commercial center in Sacramento. In the end it did not end up costing as much for the balancing, install, etc. as we had been quoted so happy to save we did save about $600 over the original quote.
However, I still wasn't totally a happy camper when we left there. The shop knew what size and how many tires we needed, we had already paid Coach Net for the tires and a week before Coach Net had double checked and confirmed that we could come in on May 22nd and get the tires replaced. We knew it was first come / first served so we weren't surprised that we waited about an hour for them to finish up with one of the semi-trucks in the bay before we could pull in. What happened after that was horrible communication and customer service. The old tires were removed quickly, a couple of new tires were put on and then the workers went onto to other projects. After waiting a bit with no one telling us what was going on, I finally inquired and it turned out they were waiting for additional tires to be brought up from Stockton. They had sold all the tires in our size just a couple of days before and had to bring them in from another shop. WHAT?? We had paid for our tires, we were on their schedule for the day, and they didn't seem to notice until they started the work that they didn't have enough tires. 3.5 hours later we finally left the Goodyear store and continued our travels. The shop did apologize and gave us more of a discount on the install process and waived the disposal fees, reduced the valve stems fee to just their cost, etc.
I did contact Coach Net to let them know that the shop didn't have the tires in stock, despite the fact that they had us on their calendar and we had already paid for the tires. Coach Net apologized but said that was out of their control but she probably wouldn't recommend this location again.
So in the end, we did save money with this option. It did cost us a bit more time and frustration than expected.
My recommendation is that once you've decided which shop to use, contact the local shop directly and make sure that if you pay Coach Net that they promise they will have the tires in stock on the day you arrive.
“Coach Net apologized but said that was out of their control but she probably wouldn't recommend this location again.“
Coach Net’s agent, the tire store, is out of their control? Goodyear Commercial had a customer they value ahead of you and Coach Net.
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Winnebago TT 2101DS & 2020 Silverado LTZ Z71. 300 watts WindyNation solar w/MPPT, 2 Trojan T-125s. TALL flag pole. Prefer USFS, COE, BLM, USF&WS, NPS, TVA, state/county camps. 14 year Army vet-11B40 then 11A - old MOS 1542 & 1560.