Problems buying tires from Amazon

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NorCalPete

NorCalPete

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The tire treads on our 2018 Clarity are just about down to 3/32 (at 44k miles), so I ordered four replacement ones (Nexen N5000 Platinum 235/45R18) from Amazon for $135 each. I've purchased trailer and motorcycle tires on Amazon before without any problems, but this time I wasn't so lucky. My first order of four tires shipped from Baltimore quickly in two packages (of 2 tires each). One package arrived with no problem, but the second package disappeared at San Pablo, CA -- eventually, UPS declared it lost. Amazon quickly refunded me for those two missing tires. The two that I received looked fine (with date codes within the past 5 months), so I ordered another pair from the same seller. That pair of tires quickly shipped but, once again, UPS delivered only half of my order (one tire instead of two). The shipping label clearly indicated a 48 pound package containing 2 tires, so one of them has gone missing again. UPS's tracking record for this package also doesn't inspire much confidence:

3/8/24 departed Baltimore, MD
3/9/24 arrived Middletown, PA
3/9/24 departed Middletown, PA
3/10/24 departed Baltimore, MD
3/11/24 arrived Laurel, MD
3/12/24 departed Lauren, MD
3/12/24 arrived Middletown, PA
3/15/24 departed San Pablo, CA
3/15/24 delivered (with a porch photo showing only one tire)

Having only three tires at this point is frustrating. Next week (my University's spring break -- I'm a professor) would have been the perfect time to dismount the old tires, repair the "curb rash" on the rims, and then mount and balance the new tires. The weather has finally warmed up here, and it is much easier to dismount/mount tires after I have warmed them up in the sun for a bit.

Has anyone else had problems receiving tires ordered from Amazon? Maybe I'm just having an unlucky streak, or perhaps a UPS employ wants a set of these tires for his/her/their car. (If the latter is true, then both of us currently have only three new tires -- maybe I should order another pair so both of us end up with complete sets of four after this next shipment.) Regardless, I eventually hope to have a full set and get them mounted. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Nexens compare to the original Michelin tires.
 
You may be part of a very small group of forum members who purchase tires online, through Amazon and mount the tires yourself.

From your description, both Amazon and the seller appear to have fulfilled their obligations and neither has control over transport once the package is out of their hands. The issue lies with UPS, unless they are farming out last mile delivery to another company.
 
Landshark said:
You may be part of a very small group of forum members who purchase tires online, through Amazon and mount the tires yourself.

From your description, both Amazon and the seller appear to have fulfilled their obligations and neither has control over transport once the package is out of their hands. The issue lies with UPS, unless they are farming out last mile delivery to another company.
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I realize that few people mount their own tires, but others on this forum have purchased tires online based on prior posts, so I was wondering if they have had similar delivery problems. I agree that this is a UPS issue although it's one that Amazon has to resolve, given that they chose this shipping method. As is the case for many large online retailers (Amazon, Walmart, etc.), only the sender can file claims with UPS. I ordered one more tire, but this time through Walmart (for $151) that will arrive (hopefully) on Saturday.
 
Yes, members have ordered tires and any number of other items online from Amazon. If your theory of in transit theft holds true, it could be one individual, or perhaps a small start up crime ring at a single warehouse or distribution facility. Unless a forum member orders an item that passes through said facility while the criminal(s) are on the clock, there is a low probability that they will experience the same issue. Just a theory.

Let’s see if half of your most recent order mysteriously disappears as has been the precedent thus far. If it doesn’t, than perhaps ordering one tire at a time would resolve the issue.
 
NorCalPete said:
Given that I ordered only a single tire this time, I'd be extremely surprised (and, frankly, impressed) if only half of my order arrives for a third time in a row.
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That makes 2 of us.

The 2 most likely outcomes are:
1) You get one tire.
2) You get zero tires.

The first outcome would suggest that ordering more than one tire at a time virtually guarantees that half of the order will mysteriously disappear. Don’t mess with science.

The second outcome throws a wrench in the gears.
 
My tire order from Walmart was delivered today. The outcome was neither Option 1 nor Option 2 -- instead, it was Option 3 (from @Landshark's earlier post):
Landshark said:
Let’s see if half of your most recent order mysteriously disappears as has been the precedent thus far.
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Below is the proof-of-delivery photo the UPS driver took. I'm guessing it's blurry because he was in a hurry to leave before someone opened the door and saw the condition of the tire. Needless to say, I'm extremely surprised (and, frankly, impressed)...

IMG_20240320_183807038.jpg

;-)
 
That’s almost enough to make one consider using a local tire shop. I presume you’ll be mounting that on the rear axle? Certainly, ride quality will suffer as will EV range and overall fuel economy.
 
That's some serious "outside of the box" creativity! Totally impractical too, which I also admire. Sometimes you have to do something just to see if it CAN be done.
 
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By the way, UPS eventually found the "missing" tire from my second order and delivered it, so I returned the "extra" tire I bought from Walmart. Mounting and balancing the new tires went smoothly. The only issue was having to pay attention to the location of the resonators on the rims to avoid damaging them (which would be an easy mistake to make). So far, I like the Nexen tires: they feel pretty much the same as the Michelins and are similarly quiet. I'll be curious to see how they compare with regard to EV range/mpg.
 
NorCalPete said:
Below is the proof-of-delivery photo the UPS driver took
Click to expand...

I think your Photoshop skills are superior to those of the Princess of Wales !

BTW - I have been trying to glean whether you are capable of mounting and balancing tires yourself. Your wording implies that this could be a DIY project for you... If so, I would love to hear about your setup. I am an avid DIY'er, but have never embarked on tire changes, thinking I was ill-equipped.
 
As you've surmised, I'm also an avid DIY'er. The tools I use for mounting and balancing tires aren't all that expensive, especially if you have access to a welder and scrap metal. If you aren't a welder, kits are available online but some of them are ridiculously expensive considering what you get. I bolt my tire changer onto a half sheet of plywood when using it (instead of drilling anchor holes into my driveway/garage), which works fine for me. You definitely want to anchor the tire changer solidly to the ground (or onto a flatbed utility trailer if it's big enough to work there). Here's a photo of my changer in use; you also can see one of those pesky resonators attached to the Clarity's rim that make the job slightly more interesting:

IMG_20240319_155636354.jpg


Here's the list (and links) of tools I used for the Clarity's tires:

Harbor Freight
Amazon
Also, these YouTube videos show how to modify the Tire Changer and the Bubble Balancer to make them more effective/usable. For the tire-changer modifications, I had everything I needed in my scrap pile so no additional parts were needed -- I used receiver hitch parts and pipe for the main components.

BTW - My Photoshop skills are, at best, only adequate. Given that, it was easier to just cut one of the old tires in half, slap the new tire stickers on it, and then take a photo that was just enough out-of-focus that the worn down tread wasn't obvious.
 
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NorCalPete said:
As you've surmised, I'm also an avid DIY'er. The tools I use for mounting and balancing tires aren't all that expensive, especially if you have access to a welder and scrap metal. If you aren't a welder, kits are available online but some of them are ridiculously expensive considering what you get.
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@NorCalPete ,

Very nice, thanks for the details ! I enjoyed the videos...
It would have been interesting to see him attempt to use the tire changer right out of the box and then make the modifications to improve it, but I have little doubt that it was likely very bad with no changes.

It is interesting that he chose Nexen tires for his historic vehicle.

I do have welding capability (Stick, and MIG). I also have lots of other toys including a woodworking shop, milling machine, metal lathe, tractor, utility trailer, and 4-post car lift in the garage ! I guess I have not considered changing tires because I have had very little need. I don't need to change tires for summer / winter, and without any unexpected flats, I only change them when they wear out (every 5 years?). I have struggled to change tires on my lawn tractor, but that was using just tire irons.

I am a little dubious about the balancing. As he clearly identifies, this is a 'static' balance, where the shops perform dynamic balancing. No doubt perfectly fine for a historic vehicle with virtually no highway use.

Many decades ago, I had the good fortune to have a summer job at an aerospace company who manufactured and tested weather satellites. Knowing the center of gravity / balance of a satellite is very important. They would mount the satellite on a turntable and initially balance it out with sliding weights (static balance). Then they would spin the turntable. It would be way out of balance until the weights were re-adjusted for the dynamic condition. This was a graphic illustration of how different a static balance can be from a dynamic one, and it made a lasting impression on me. Of course a satellite is a much more complicated shape than a tire.

It is actually possible (although probably unlikely) that statically balancing a tire could make the dynamic balance worse than if you had done nothing at all. They can be quite different.
 
insightman said:
Here's someone with too much time on their hands proving a half-wheel (well, a pair of half-wheels) can work:

View attachment 22369
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Anything can work in photoshop.

Presumably those are solid tires as no valve stem is present on the rear wheel. There could be one hidden on the middle wheel behind the chain stay or seat stay. Using pneumatic tires would be a challenge. The single derailleur on the middle cassette isn’t going to keep the chain on the same cog on the rear cassette. That would create an unpleasant pedaling experience. There’s no caliper on the rear disc. And uneven terrain could be problematic.

There may be other design flaws that are yet to be noted.
 
Landshark said:
Anything can work in photoshop.

Presumably those are solid tires as no valve stem is present on the rear wheel. There could be one hidden on the middle wheel behind the chain stay or seat stay. Using pneumatic tires would be a challenge. The single derailleur on the middle cassette isn’t going to keep the chain on the same cog on the rear cassette. That would create an unpleasant pedaling experience. There’s no caliper on the rear disc. And uneven terrain could be problematic.

There may be other design flaws that are yet to be noted.
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I included a link to the video--the half-wheel bike is not a Photoshop fake. He made a "bike" with 3 partial front wheels, too.
 
@MrFixit,

I wish I had the space for a dedicated woodshop, a lift, and some of your other goodies. In my 20s (four decades ago) I was an engine builder for a racecar team (Electromotive Inc, which ran Datsun/Nissan's IMSA team) and got spoiled working on cars in that great work space. Now I make due with my 2-car garage and a 10x20 fully protected carport. Mostly, I miss having that lift!

Regarding the unmodified tire changer, there are YouTube videos showing it in use; it works, but very poorly and tends to seriously mar the rims in the process. I changed my motorcycle and small trailer tires for many years using only tire irons, which sometimes could be a challenge. My local motorcycle shop never seemed to do a decent job balancing my tires, so I started doing that myself too.

I completely agree that the static bubble balancer is not a match for a dynamic balancer but, for my purposes, it seems good enough. I ran the Clarity all the way up to 80 mph to check for vibration and didn't notice any at all - the ride was just as smooth as the prior tires at all speeds. Of course, the suspension and steering system could be masking vibration. Usually you'd remove all the prior weights when rebalancing but, instead, I left the original weights in place on the assumption that the dynamic balancing might have been correcting rim imbalance. I only had to add minimal weights (at most, 1/2 ounce) to rebalance each new tire. One oddity was that none of the Nexen tires had weight markers on them (i.e., dots indicating the lighter side of the tire, which usually are oriented near the valve stems due to their added weight). Perhaps this was because they are low-profile tires (which I've never mounted before). I'm tempted to have the balance checked on a dynamic balancer to see how good (or poor) of a job I did. But, thus far, I'm pleased with the results.
 
NorCalPete said:
One oddity was that none of the Nexen tires had weight markers on them (i.e., dots indicating the lighter side of the tire, which usually are oriented near the valve stems due to their added weight). Perhaps this was because they are low-profile tires (which I've never mounted before).
Click to expand...

I have a feeling that production methods have improved modern tires so they are nearly perfectly balanced when they come out of the factory. The alloy wheels are also likely to be near perfect. Maybe tire balancing is practically a thing of the past (particularly with passenger car tires). It would be interesting to have access to statistics from a tire shop to see before and after balance data and how much weight they are using per tire on the average.

I have been using a 3rd party TPMS monitor for quite some time. These require you to install rather clunky sensors in place of the valve caps. I was worried about this introducing an imbalance and thought about installing weights on the opposite side but I didn't bother. These sensors may also bend the stems outward with the centrifugal force or introduce slow leaks because they depress the valves and depend on a rubber seal. I will have to say that they have been completely trouble free. I have not felt any imbalance, and there have been no leaks.

Did you find that you had to be especially careful to avoid the resonators, or would they have been fine without even paying attention? When I do go for new tires, should I warn then about the resonators or just assume they "know how to do their job"?
 
I'm also using TPMS valve caps on the Clarity, my tow vehicle ('96 Suburban), and my travel trailer. I shared your concerns initially, but have had no problems either. I did balance the Clarity tires with the caps installed, but I seriously doubt they made any real difference with regard to balancing.

I did have to pay attention to the resonators when dismounting/mounting tires. They are located in the drop-center part of the wheel. When mounting a tire, you need to position the opposite side of the tire bead into the drop-center in order to get the clearance needed to stretch tire over the wheel's rim.
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Given this, I had to plan ahead to ensure that this section of drop-center was resonator-free. I failed to do this for the first tire I mounted so I had to reposition the tire and try again. The plastic resonators aren't very robust, so it would be very easy to crush one if you located the tire bead on it while mounting the tire. So, yes, I definitely would alert the tire shop that fragile resonators are located in the wheel's drop center. I don't know if resonators can be replaced; you might have to buy a new wheel if one was broken.
 
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