Tire Pros & Wheel Experts Brings Precision to HP/UHP Customization

As unlikely as it seemed operating out of the lone bay, the modest business Judd started with his father, Jay Andrews Sr., and brother, Jay Andrews Jr., soon discovered it was uniquely equipped to meet a demand gap in the high performance (HP)/ultra-high performance (UHP) market that no one else in the Stillwater area understood as well at the time.

Customers wanted bigger wheels, custom fitments and modifications that required skill and precision.

“A lot of (local tire) dealers were comfortable selling the commodity tires, but very few of them truly understood the fitment — offsets, load rating, proper sizing for modified trucks and performance vehicles,” says Judd. “So we kind of saw the calling (and) got into the custom wheels because customers were asking for it and really weren't getting confident answers anywhere else.”

Judd and Jay started changing tires in their early teens and mastered mechanical skills with their father’s guidance. In the early days of Tire Pros & Wheel Experts, they leaned on their father’s reputation and 30 years of experience in automotive service to become HP/UHP experts and bring in customers. Today, they continue to pass that knowledge down to their service technicians.

Capitalizing on what Judd describes as “the beginning of the big wheel boom,” Tire Pros & Wheel Experts quickly became known for installing and servicing larger tire and wheel fitments and began selling more custom wheels and HP/UP tires.

“We were putting 20s on compact cars like Civics and Jettas, 22s on mid-size cars like Chevy Monte Carlos and Impalas and 24s on full-size cars like Chrysler 300Cs, Dodge Chargers, Magnums,” says Judd. “That was pretty cutting-edge. (We) started doing 26s on a bunch of the SUVs. Back then, we were getting close with some of the (new car) dealers, so we would do a lot of Escalades and lower them on 26s and really got known for some of that flashy allure.”

As Tire Pros & Wheel Experts settled into the HP/UHP tire and custom wheel market, its business grew, allowing it to expand from its single bay into the rest of the shop space at its original location, which included a storefront and a full mechanical shop.

The Andrews built a second location to reach a new market in Hudson, Wisc., in 2010. Then they built the company’s current Stillwater location and moved out of their original location in 2012, with two brand new locations, both designed to service the HP/UHP market on either side of the Minnesota-Wisconsin state line.

They also added more products and premium brands to their offerings, filling the expansive showrooms at both locations with numerous wheel and tire options, as well as custom suspension kits and a variety of other aftermarket parts.

“Having the technical expertise and the premium brands — once we did that — instead of competing on price ... we were competing on the precision and the credibility that the customer was going to get what they wanted,” says Judd. “So I think the segment kind of found us.”

In 2018, Judd and Jay bought out their parents’ shares in their family business and became co-owners. Judd serves as president of Tire Pros & Wheel Experts’ Stillwater location and vice president of the Hudson location. His brother, Jay, holds complementary roles as president of the Hudson location and vice president of the Stillwater location.

The Andrews brothers transformed their family business into a high performance tire and wheel authority, where technical expertise, customer trust and a passion for precision drive every sale today.

“We chose to become the experts instead of just dabbling in it and giving people uncertainty,” says Judd. “I think in the high performance and the custom wheel end of things, you're really not selling the tires and wheels. You're selling the precision and accuracy.”

Tire Pros & Wheel Experts' affinity for precision only became more critical as the appetite for custom work shifted away from flashy cars with 20-inch, 22-inch and 24-inch wheels and SUVs with showy 26-inch wheels.

Local car dealerships still wanted attention-grabbing custom builds to draw customers to their lots, but demand veered to lifted, leveled and stock-height compact and full-size trucks with custom wheel and tire fitments — a segment Tire Pros & Wheel Experts is known for today.

“We still do see performance cars and the occasional exotics, but I would say we're definitely most known for custom trucks,” says Judd.

Tire Pros & Wheel Experts customizes everything from compacts, like the Toyota Tacoma, all the way up to one-ton diesels.

“The truck market really exploded for us.”

Tire Pros & Wheel Experts leaned into the shift and built “a reputation around proper fitment,” whether a truck is at stock height, leveled or lifted to ensure there’s no rubbing, no matter what kind of customizations its customers want.

Specifically, Tire Pros & Wheel Experts has mastered the fitment to get 35-inch wheels and tires to fit newer heavy-duty trucks of all makes at stock height with no lift and no rub. At leveled height, Judd says the dealership’s technicians have fitted 37-inch wheels and tires.

“We’ve earned the trust of local (car) dealerships. They send us all of their custom tire and wheel business. Some of these dealers keep customized trucks on their show floor, so when they sell the truck, the dealer sends us the next one.

“We keep the level kits, wheels and tires on hand, so we usually have it done and back to them the same or next day. The sooner we can get it done and back to them, the sooner they can get it sold and get us the next truck.”

Having things in stock enables same-day installs, while extensive displays drive sales.

“Inventory creates the speed, the speed creates trust and the trust kind of puts us into that premium positioning,” says Judd.

At the Stillwater location, Tire Pros & Wheel Experts has 200 wheels displayed in its showroom, ready to go, and about 400 tires in stock. The entire showroom is organized by fitment — with six-bolt, eight-by-180-millimeter, eight-by-170-millimeter and eight-by-6.5-inch patterns displayed separately — to ensure a seamless browsing experience.

“If a customer walks in here, I can bring wheels and tires out to their truck, figure out what it is that they like, put it together and … if we're just doing tires and wheels, we can put them on now,” says Judd. “We even stock leveling kits and some of the basic suspension stuff so that we can have that done (the) same day (or) next day.”

The show-and-tell experience Tire Pros & Wheel Experts has cultivated is a key part of its business. For HP/UHP tire and wheel buyers, there’s no substitute for seeing the product firsthand, says Judd.

While the internet still boasts a bigger selection, “the reason that somebody's going to come in to talk to somebody is because we can offer that precision and the proper guidance to give them the proper product to do what they want with the vehicle,” says Judd.

“We've been pretty well-known for having a show floor full of wheels and tires. Performance buyers don't want (to hear), ‘Let's order that and see if it fits.’ They want to hear, ‘We have it. We've done it. We know that this works,’ and in that segment, the hesitation oftentimes kills the sale, too. People are excited. They want to do it now, if you can, and having that inventory helps eliminate hesitation.”

For the HP/UHP customer, premium is the standard — not just premium parts and service, but the entire experience. And that’s exactly what Tire Pros & Wheel Experts offers throughout the buyer’s journey.

“When it comes to customizing a vehicle, it really starts with consulting with the customer,” says Judd. “Then we’re not just bolting on parts. We’re building a cohesive package.”

When a customer comes in without a clear vision, Judd’s team translates their ideas into reality, identifying a starting point and planning the build from there. The process starts with several questions to land on “one thing they do want.”

Next, customers can view examples of previous builds, including Tire Pros & Wheel Experts’ demo vehicles, which feature various customizations every year across different vehicle types and sometimes inspire copycat builds.

Once the customer knows what they’re looking for, they can browse the expansive show floor to decide on specific wheels, tires and parts. If their vehicle is on site, the Tire Pros team will bring wheel options out to their vehicle to give them an immediate idea of how it’s going to look once it’s installed.

“You kind of just have to show them examples, ask questions until you figure out at least one point that they want and then you can help guide the rest of the pieces of the puzzle to fit with what they want,” says Judd.

When a customer’s vehicle is finished, the Tire Pros team drives it through the car washes Judd and Jay own and operate, which sit adjacent to each location. They then park the vehicle out front.

“If you try to sell a performance customer like a commodity buyer, you lose them immediately. We first learn what the customer wants, then educate them on what is needed to achieve their goals or dreams.”

The entire process is as customized as the vehicles that leave Tire Pros & Wheel Experts’ lots. It’s tailored to the HP/UHP customer’s excitement surrounding the purchase and it’s a welcome change of pace for Judd.

“The custom market ... those are people that are excited to come in and do something with their vehicle, and they're happy to spend money. So it's kind of refreshing.”

Tire Pros & Wheel Experts’ custom work and commitment to offering premium as a standard also help bring in customers looking for basic mechanical work. All over their parking lots, their technical skill, attention to detail and reputation are on display.

“Even customers who aren't looking to do something crazy and custom, they can see the work that we do and it kind of shows what we're capable of and the level of skill that we have,” says Judd. “Those customers can more easily trust us to do their basic mechanical work because they can see our ability.”

Originally, the Andrews planned to grow into five locations, but Judd and Jay want to remain close to their business with the ability to continue developing their workforce — focusing on “being better, not bigger.

“We've more drifted away from (expansion) because we've gotten busier and busier and busier doing what we do out of our current locations,” says Judd. “We just want to embrace what we've got.”

As the business continues to concentrate on customer-focused growth, staying on top of the latest techniques and using state-of-the-art equipment that’s made for the HP/UHP market is vital. Tire Pros & Wheel Experts invests in touchless tire machines, road force balancers and National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification for its technicians to maintain exacting standards.

“When you're working with low-profile tires and sometimes specialty wheels that might be reverse mount, you need touchless tire machines, road force balancing to make sure that you're sending out product that isn't going to be shaking for the customer, causing ride disturbances. You have to know proper torque procedures and you really need to have highly trained techs who know how to use that equipment. I can't stress that enough.”

Tire Pros & Wheel Experts’ technicians are considered general technicians for the first two years of employment. They start out doing oil changes and tires. After two years, they can become ASE-certified and advance into a service technician role. Service technicians handle advanced mechanical work, including brakes, shocks, struts, suspension lifts, engine replacement and more.

Judd and Jay work with new service technicians to make sure they understand how custom tire and wheel fitments and custom suspensions should work together. Hands-on shop experience during the first two years, assisting as a general technician, also helps.

“After two years, by the time they're to that point, they've seen enough come through the shop and what works and what doesn't work to have some of that under their belt, too,” says Judd.

As electronic technologies in vehicles continue to evolve with increasingly complex advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), customizations on newer vehicles are also getting more complex for Tire Pros & Wheel Experts. ADAS calibration have been learned and adopted out of necessity — recalibrating steering angle sensors on alignments and programming collision avoidance parameters and lane centering for new ride heights.

“When we build lifted trucks, like the Ford Super Duty, if you're going to put an 8-inch lift in there and 40-inch tires, if you don't know how to calibrate those ADAS parameters for the new ride height, you're going to have all kinds of warnings and issues on the dash, which is going to create an upset customer,” says Judd.

While Judd describes the level of ADAS service Tire Pros & Wheel Experts currently offers as minimal, he and his team are learning from the manufacturers they work with all the time.

“We have close relationships with the manufacturers of the suspension systems, so they're able to collaborate with us when we see something that's new and different that we haven't seen yet,” says Judd.

Beyond ADAS advancements, Tire Pros & Wheel Experts is also noticing several shifts it will have to account for in the years to come. Increasing factory wheel diameters are driving up demand for larger tires, electric trucks require a whole new set of load ratings and a new type of high performance customer is refining builds via little details like blacking out trim on white SUVs to capture a monochromatic style.

“We're seeing a lot of customers that want what we call ‘OEM-plus’ — a really clean build versus something extreme,” says Judd.

“Twenty years ago, you were seeing a lot of custom paint and that kind of thing — more of the loud custom vehicle — where now they want something really clean, maybe stock height, but with (customization) in there that looks really nice.”

High performance customers are more educated and selective than ever before, he adds.

“The future of this market isn't just bigger, it's smarter. Customers are more educated, vehicles are far more advanced and expectations are higher as a result of both of those.”