Tires on your ATV and side by sides wear out over time, also, sometimes you need different tires for the different areas you ride.
The cost to change or mount a tire varies from FREE to about $100 depending on where you go and what you buy. It’s not uncommon for tire shops to do the mounting free if you’re buying the tire from them, but specialty tires and rims can be costly.
There are also other details that we need to cover to fully answer the question of cost when mounting tires.
How To Get ATV Tires Mounted For FREE
Nothing in life is truly free.
The tire shops that will mount your tire for free usually do it when you buy the tire from them. The cost is just built into the price of the tire itself.
For larger tires or special rims, a cost is to be expected.
How Much To Change An ATV Tire
An ATV tire change can cost anywhere from $0 to $100 depending on the shop and if you bought the tire from them.
On average, you can expect a tire mount to cost anywhere from $10 to $30 per tire.
A damaged rim, which is common, can raise the price or make the mounting impossible. Make sure your rims are not damaged from rocks, sticks, or anything else before getting it fixed.
A tire shop may even refuse to install or remount the tire if it’s too dry rotted or damaged.
Where To Get ATV Tires
Just about any place that sells tires for cars and trucks can get ATV tires.
Certainly, dealerships can also supply them, but consider visiting your local tire shop, particularly if you know the specific size of off-road tire you need. Dealerships often have a higher markup, and many don’t even possess the tools to mount the tires, resorting to visiting the nearest tire shop to get it done.
You can even get ATV tires online here! (ad)
I would try to cut out the dealerships when it comes to ATV and side by sides and try to work with a good local tire shop to see if they can get them. It will most likely be a special order, and you’ll have to wait, but I find the experience to be better.
Balancing Tires
To balance your tires or not is a hotly debated topic, but if you ask me, you should get your ATV tires balanced if it’s 400cc or greater.
Oddly enough, this seems to be the standard that most manufacturers go with too, as you see many coming out of the crate with wheel weights.
The purpose of balancing a tire is so the handlebars don’t shake, and you have better control over the ATV at higher speeds. For some tires, this can be 20MPH or more before YOU feel the vibrations.
Balancing the tires also keeps the wear down on bearings and other parts, as the vibrations start long before you can feel them.
To me, anything with 400cc’s or more is easily going to be doing over 20MPH and should just go ahead and get the tires balanced.
Balancing is not free, but well worth the cost. Even if you mount the tires yourself, getting them properly balanced at the tire shop is smart.
Mounting Tires Yourself
You can mount your own ATV tires, if you got the tools and the patience.
The first tire mount you do will be hard, and you’ll be cussing everyone and everything, but once you get the hang of it, then it gets easier over time.
Here’s a great video showing you how to mount an ATV tire:
PSI To Run
Every ATV and side by side will be different, but the tire pressure you should be running is located somewhere on the ATV body. Often, it’s on the fenders, but the owner’s manual will also tell you.
On average, ATVs run about 7psi and side by sides are around 15psi.
These tires run on low pressure, so you need to make sure you have a low-pressure gauge like this one here (ad).
If you’re mounting the tire yourself, you need to over inflate the tire a little and deflate it to the correct pressure to get a proper seat on the rim. Do not exceed the MAX pressure that is listed on the tire. By a little, I mean if the tire needs 7psi I go to 10psi and deflate back down to 7psi while the max pressure on the tire itself is 30psi.