Yeah, I don’t know what’s up with tire guys. I thought I’d give the local mobile tire guy (he has a tire shop in a small cube van) a chance, but he wanted $90 for travel to drive 10 minutes, plus $145 to mount and balance. I said, nah, I’m good. Took it to the local shop 1/2 mile away and got them on for $90 total.
Let us know how you like the Kanatis.
Yeah -it's out of control. Last year I bought some tires for my travel trailer. They're 15" trailer tires to swap over. Local shop wanted $60/ea. And that's me bringing in the loose wheels and tires. It takes maybe 15 minutes total to do all 4 on $2500 worth of tools. $240 plus taxes and fees. At some point it makes sense to just buy a damn tire machine and balancer. If I were staying here beyond next year, I'd probably be looking pretty hard at that option. For a family with 4 vehicles that's swapping snow tires 2x per year, that's $1,920/yr. It would break even in just one year at that price. I don't know how that place stays in business. Jiffy Lube was $15/ea and did it walk-in in a few minutes. That seems more reasonable, but I don't get warm fuzzy feelings going to jiffy lube for tires. They did okay though.
I need tires right now for my Tundra. The "Alaska tax" is very high on stuff like tires. It's either Costco which only will install OEM spec tires, but I'd really like to put something a little larger and more durable on - I'm looking at either 275/70/18 LT tires or 285/75/18's and Costco won't install em. Or pay $450-500ea for those at a local tire shop or order on Amazon/TireRack or similar to a freight forwarder and pay another $300ish to get them shipped up. What's also challenging for me is that I want a very quiet street type tread that's excellent in snow and ice because I spend almost all of my miles on the highway in the summer - the terrain here is not really viable to go offroad in summer with a full size truck unless you're on 60" ag tires because it's mostly peat bogs, deep water, very soft stuff that only really works in a side by side, amphibious 8x8 type vehicle, or ag tires.
But I love the look of larger tires and would like to occasionally get out more on the beaches and do some offroad trips in the winter once it's frozen. First choice I'm looking at is the Michelin Defenders in a 295/70/18, but they're both pretty heavy and expensive. Amazon has the 285/70/18 Cooper AT3 LTX right now at $275/ea which seems like a pretty great deal, but they're not 3PMSF rated and probably not as good on snow or ice as the Michelins. Most 3pmsf rated tires are significantly less snow capable than the Michelin Defender - not sure why it is missing the rating. In the side by side testing the Michelin is closer in snow and ice performance to a dedicated snow tire than it is to a 3pmsf rated AT tire. The other options I see that are good values right now are the Goodyear Adventure MT at $260/tire which seems super cheap, but probably poor snow performance and noisier. Unfortunately Michelin doesn't do a 285 75 18 or 285 70 18, and Cooper doesn't do the AT3 4S version in the LT sizes. So, I'm trying to sort out what's the best compromise that I can get for ideally less than $1,500 for a set.
I wish there were more tall skinny options for people like me who would like a bit of extra clearance and want a better highway option vs a wider tire. Something like a 275/80/18. Or even just more 285/75/18 or 285/70/18 tires in road oriented tread pattern. Also - hard in AK because I can't just go down to a Discount Tire and have them bring in a couple tires to test fit. Gotta order and hope I like em.