New tires and the Hunter Revolution

[WARP TEN]

Despite the virus I got new tires Wednesday and got to see the Hunter Revolution tire changer work. Now, my Z06 tires are much bigger than most ZR-1 tires--rears are 335/25ZR20 and fronts are 285/30ZR19 runflats. But I mention this because I like the Revolution and for those in the greater Chicago area can recommend an installer with one.

My tread depths were down to about 4/32nds but had been consistent all across the tires. However, I recently started showing cords on the very inside of the right rear tire. Aggressive camber setting which will be corrected with next alignment. Ordered Michelin Pilot Sport A/S + ZPs (yes, high performance all seasons) from Tire Rack and had them shipped directly to an installer, in this case Firestone of Deerfield, Illinois. Why Firestone? Because they were the closest tire installer with the Hunter Revolution tire changer in addition to the Road Force Elite balancer. Hunter apparently has not sold a huge number of Revolutions (about $30k) so they don't have a "Locate Installer" tab on the Revolution portion of their website like they do for the Road Force balancers. So I contacted Hunter and got the names of a few near me (northern Illinois). In the C7 world, we have all heard stories of the difficulties with busting 20" x 12" wheels with 335/25 low profile run flat tires. Around here one nearby Chevy dealer farms them out and another charges $60 per tire for mounting and balancing. My Costco won't do them. I got to watch the Firestone tech do one wheel and tire and it is clearly a great piece of equipment for the large Z06 tires and minimizes damage to the rims. (I have chrome rims). If I brought in a Camry they would use the normal manual machine but they do a fair number of higher end/low profile tire cars and for those use the Revolution. (If you are interested, you can go to their website and watch the video). The total charge for mounting and balancing all four: $124 and the manager and the techs were great to work with (a Firestone corporate owned store and certified Tire Rack installer).

A plus of the corona virus was that I was the only customer in the store, but everyone was practicing social distancing and good cleaning. And on the lucky side: they did not find any cracks or significant bends in the wheels and all four balanced out fine (The OEM C7 Z06 wheels are notorious for easily cracking and bending). However they did note that the two right side wheels had very slight bends or a little wobble that required a bit of extra weight. But it was something I had not noticed driving the car previously, the tech said all balanced out perfectly and they felt fine to me on the way home. The tires seemed quieter than the original Pilot Sports a well, but I have not had the chance to drive much yet. Anyway, just thought it might be of interest here.--Bob