Tire Rotation and Balancing -- Discount Tire is Rivian's preferred tire shop (just confirm they have jack pucks)

[loucetios]

I took my R1T in for a tire rotation at Discount Tire last week and found out they did not have the jack pucks for a Rivian. So, I order a set of four Rivigear jack pucks from Amazon. Shortly after my jack pucks arrived, I received a call from the Concord, NC store manager Brian. While there, Brian and I had a friendly chat about EVs and Rivian. He told me that Discount Tire is the preferred tire dealership for Rivian, and working with Rivian, the Discount Tire engineers manufactured special jack pucks for my Rivian.

After about fifteen minutes, my R1T tires had been balanced and rotated. I spent more time showing the features of the R1T to the technicians than the time it took them to balance and rotate my tires.

Good experience; I recommend using Discount Tire for rotation and balancing. Just ensure they have the Discount Tire Rivian jack pucks before showing up. The store manager can order them from the Discount Tire warehouse if they do not have them.

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[kyunam]

How much do they charge for the rotation? Rivian charges $60.

 

[DTown3011]

Our local Discount Tire has the jack pucks on hand specifically for this, but I also have a set I keep in the truck.

 

[epnfrn]

My experience at local KC, MO was less stellar getting my snows swapped for OEMs -- I brought them my 4 pucks and printed out Rivian's instructions and handed them to the tech. 'Apologized' to him for giving him instructions but said this car has a unique protocol and the instructions would help. They of course didn't even look at them, put the youngest guy there on the job, jacked up the car through two little holes they saw (not the jack points under the covers). At this point the suspension was fighting them so I came out and reiterated the 'unique' nature of the car and implored them to look at the papers. They did, replaced the kid with more experienced looking guy, then did it correctly. However, they lost two valve caps, and didn't label my snow tires so I don't know how to rotate them next time.

The first mistake could have ended badly but didn't. Losing caps and not labelling tires isn't a big deal ... except let's be real - their job is NOT hard and these are basic things. If I forget to stitch someone up after surgery, people get mad at me! If you can't get the basics right ...

And why give a car that possibly they have never seen before to the youngest kid there?

I never want to be one of those people looking over someone's shoulder and correcting them - but I guess bringing jack pucks, printing off instructions and sheepishly requesting they look at the instructions isn't enough! I did send them a comment card for what it's worth.

 

[Riviot]

I did send them a comment card for what it's worth.

 

[240vPlug]

Will Rivian mobile service do the rotation or do you have to take it to the SC?

 

[Gee Bee]

I use Americas tire as they have a road force balancer , both of my P cars have center lock wheels and I have to remove the axle nuts as they don’t have a 605nm torque Gun.

The road force is the best balance so far

GB

I will order the pucks for the Rt and I will have some Titanium Torx70 lug bolts made for the truck .

 

[Nermal]

I'd posted on another thread about my Discount Tire rotation experience.

Mine was stellar. It would be great if they've established a formal arrangement to be Rivian's go-to.

On day of service, I had a little panic attack on way there thinking about special process, puck requirements, etc. They assured me they knew what to do. They had the pucks at my store and what seemed like a procedure printed out. They'd gotten in and turned on tire service mode and back off when they were done. There's enough R1s around that there's a very good chance mine was not their first.

Probably not to be expected (I know I didn't) but they did my service at no charge. Initially, I believe they confused the R1T for other cars I've had in and purchased tires for. When I brought to their attention that I hadn't bought tires for R1T there yet, associate just said I was all set and thanked me for letting them help me. They pretty much locked in getting the business when new set of tires is needed.

 

[shrink]

How much do they charge for the rotation? Rivian charges $60.

Discount Tire rotations are free - at least they are in Arizona.

 

[itselectric]

How times have changed! 6 months ago they wouldn't touch my R1T. Good to know of the partnership.

 

[CrazyOne]

Discount Tire rotations are free - at least they are in Arizona.

Interesting. I thought they were free only if you buy tires from them

 

[shrink]

Interesting. I thought they were free only if you buy tires from them

Nope. Free for everybody. They use it an an opportunity to check tire tread and sell you tires if you need them. Then they hope when you do need new tires you come back to them.

I think Costco Tire will only rotate if purchased from Costco.

It's a pretty reasonable service to try to get future business. Tire repairs are free at Discount, too. I've use those free services for years at Discount. They'll price match, too. I'll take my wife's Model 3 there for new tires, but when I need new tires on my R1T, I'll go to a specialized performance tire shop locally where they do a road force balance. I don't think Discount does a road force balance.

 

[goldburger]

Interesting. I thought they were free only if you buy tires from them

It’s a sales method. They do this with the hope that your experience is so good you’ll buy tires from them when you need them. It worked for me after I had a flat and needed a patch many years ago— I’m a customer for life now!

 

[Kuro-Rivian]

My experience at local KC, MO was less stellar getting my snows swapped for OEMs -- I brought them my 4 pucks and printed out Rivian's instructions and handed them to the tech. 'Apologized' to....

Like a lot of chain retail, it can be so location dependent. I two Discount's equidistant from my house. One I use to mount, balance & buy a dozen plus tires a year (race tires)...and they are awesome. The other I wouldn't trust to mount a trailer tire for me. One of their employees ripped me off with a tire switch inventory scam once. He was caught but the manager was hardly apologetic.

 

[shrink]

It’s a sales method. They do this with the hope that your experience is so good you’ll buy tires from them when you need them. It worked for me after I had a flat and needed a patch many years ago— I’m a customer for life now!

Just be aware they sometimes overly aggressively try to sell you the additional tire certificates:

https://www.discounttire.com/customer-service/certificates

As @Kuro-Rivian mentioned, however, I'm sure this is location-dependent.

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