The whole reason I went to Pep Boys for tires was to take advantage of all the package deals they have.
Same with my old Cooper Adventurer A/Ts, I have life-time alignment, life-time balancing, free rotation (though I do it self per second oil change anyway), and road hazard insurance. The road hazard insurance is what I see as essential to have, because most of my local highways are under massive construction right now, and I've punctured my old A/Ts 4 times because of random nails on the road. Haven't really found anyone else who can beat that.

 

The best tire shop in my town likes Cooper tires and Tire Rack gives your model a high rating. BTW, Tire Rack gives free road hazard coverage on most tires.

George

 

Got back from Pep Boys again. They re-balanced everything and the front set is doing a lot better, but the back still has about 4.5 oz of weight on them. The tech who did the job said he's done his best, and the guy at the desk said he doesn't know what to tell me. The store manager had went home for the day, so I couldn't catch what he had to say. Even though it genuinely feels balanced now, I'm not happy with how much weight is on the back tires. The Cooper Adventurer A/Ts I had before didn't need nearly that much weight, but the Cooper Evolution H/Ts do.

The Evolution is what I'm trying to switch do since all I do is highway driving, but I'll switch back to the Adventurer if it means the amount of weight needed is in a normal margin. Like you guys said before, this much weight usually means out-of-round tire, and I don't want to go on my road warrior outings on something like that.

Do you guys think I should get the manager to order me a 3rd set and see if they'll need less weight?
Or should I tell them to switch me back to the Adventurer?

 

If I were in your place, I'd take the truck and ask them to check the balance as they are now. But I'm the type who likes to satisfy her curiosity. From what you have described the balancing you have had done has been inconsistent from balancing to balancing. If the tires were removed and remounted each time then the amount of weights and their location would change. But if your re-balancing was done without remounting the tires and the amount of weight and their location was different, then that means their balancing machine is broken or the user is incompetent.

 

Like Christine says, is it the tires or the Tech. Have the worst tire rotated 180 degrees and see if the weights follow. If its the tires then I would move on to a different tire model or live with it if the ride is acceptable and change models at the next purchase.

George

 

Yeah, I think I'm just going to go for a different tire model. The Cooper Evolutions just don't seem to like these aluminum wheels.

So here's the volume of weight I counted.

Front: 0.25 oz ------- 3.25 oz

Back: 3.75 oz ------- 5.25 oz


The Cooper Adventurers I had before didn't need more than like 1.75 oz on each wheel. I remember seeing only one clip-on weight on the inside for each one.
One tire then had to go up to like 4 oz because of a puncture that had to get patched. And then all 4 of the Adventurers had to get more weight added gradually because they started to developed a cupping pattern from worn out shocks and ball joints.

I'm either going to go back to the Cooper Adventurers or maybe something else, like a Firestone Destination with a highway tread.