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Good Local Shop Experiences?

8K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  Green Bay TJ 
#1 ·
Hey all, I am looking at picking up some new wheels and tires sometime soon, and I was wondering if any of you have had any good experiences at any local shops? For wheels & tires or really just for anything.

I hope I get some responses to point me in the right direction, but either way, I'll be sure to post my experience(s) with wherever I end up going. Thanks guys.
 
#3 ·
You asked . . .


Here's the ones I know of that we have either shopped with, worked for, or have wheeled with the owners over the last 15 years.

Hope this helps. :)

4X4 Shops:
Adrenaline Offroad, Burtonsville (Laurel), Md: Jeff Jurgrau, owner. Great guy, amazing prices, installs available, mild to wild. We've known Jeff for about 10 years. Always supports the local clubs with prizes for holiday parties, special events, etc. Plus, he's a Jeeper and competes in the RCrocs events and is a life-long Big Dogs sponsor.
Welcome to Adrenaline Off Road LLC.

Adventurous 4x4 & Speed, Hagerstown, Md: Randy Wood, owner, Wayne Kendel, co-owner. I haven't had the opportunity to purchase from Randy, but we have wheeled with him. Amazing guy, always helped out at any large event we put on. From Wayne: "The Adventurous 4x4 website is going to be updated over the next few months and will have over 1000 products added to the site."
Adventurous 4x4 & SPEED

Appalachian Offroad, Westminster, Md: Mike Bosley, owner. Again, great guy, does amazing custom work with whatever you bring him: cages, axles, motor/tranny/t-case swap, buggy builds. They do it all and are extremely reasonable.
Appalachian Off Road -

DelMarVa Offroad, Salisbury, Md: Mike Ferrari, owner. Sounds like a broken record, but Mike will do whatever he can to help you out. From custom CNC machining to simple gear installs, as well as nearly any product you can find in a catalogue, DOR can get it for you as well as install it.
Delmarva Offroad

Mid-Atlantic 4x4 and Speed, Glen Burnie, Md Very over-priced, cannot recommend them as I've seen lots of shoddy lift installs from that place. If you need to buy hard parts, (U-bolts, Hubs, etc), they may have them in stock. I'd have to say they are a 'speed' shop first that sells some 4x4 parts.
Mid Atlantic 4x4 & Speed 410-766-2727 MID4x4.com

Steig Brothers, Mt Airy, Md: Josh and Sean Steig, owners, ASE trained Jeep mechanics by day, Jeep mod magicians by night. If it's a jeep and either has an issue, needs maintenance, gear/ lift install, motor swap or a complete restoration, these guys are amazing.
Please PM for number, as I use his personal cell

Trick Trucks Lots of these places around. Used to get my hard parts from the one in Edgewater since a buddy was a manager there. Fairly good selection on tires and wheels, used to have blems and tire deals every once in a while. Haven't been to one since the late 90's, so I can't comment on any current status of the business.
Trick Trucks :: Truck Accessories, Equipment, Parts, Caps

Specific shops:
Perry Hall Power Equipment, Baltimore, Md Used them to cut down some axles tubes and rebuild a driveshaft. Good work, pricey, and it takes a little while to get stuff back. Good work though.
(410) 391-2300

A1 Driveshafts, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. If you broke a driveshaft, need one lengthened, shortened or rebalanced, they'll do it. Great stuff. Annapolis Auto Parts delivers to their shop, so a trip to A1 isn't always necessary.
A-1 Drive Shaft - Driveshafts * Front Wheel Drive Axles * Rack & Pinions

Napa Auto parts Lots around. We get our Warn locking hubs there. Very cheap.
NAPA Online

Don't get me started on Junkyards/ Auto recyclers . . .
 
#5 ·
You asked . . .


Here's the ones I know of that we have either shopped with, worked for, or have wheeled with the owners over the last 15 years.

Hope this helps. :)

4X4 Shops:
Adrenaline Offroad, Burtonsville (Laurel), Md: Jeff Jurgrau, owner. Great guy, amazing prices, installs available, mild to wild. We've known Jeff for about 10 years. Always supports the local clubs with prizes for holiday parties, special events, etc. Plus, he's a Jeeper and competes in the RCrocs events and is a life-long Big Dogs sponsor.
Welcome to Adrenaline Off Road LLC.

Adventurous 4x4 & Speed, Hagerstown, Md: Randy Wood, owner, Wayne Kendel, co-owner. I haven't had the opportunity to purchase from Randy, but we have wheeled with him. Amazing guy, always helped out at any large event we put on. From Wayne: "The Adventurous 4x4 website is going to be updated over the next few months and will have over 1000 products added to the site."
Adventurous 4x4 & SPEED

Appalachian Offroad, Westminster, Md: Mike Bosley, owner. Again, great guy, does amazing custom work with whatever you bring him: cages, axles, motor/tranny/t-case swap, buggy builds. They do it all and are extremely reasonable.
Appalachian Off Road -

DelMarVa Offroad, Salisbury, Md: Mike Ferrari, owner. Sounds like a broken record, but Mike will do whatever he can to help you out. From custom CNC machining to simple gear installs, as well as nearly any product you can find in a catalogue, DOR can get it for you as well as install it.
Delmarva Offroad

Mid-Atlantic 4x4 and Speed, Glen Burnie, Md Very over-priced, cannot recommend them as I've seen lots of shoddy lift installs from that place. If you need to buy hard parts, (U-bolts, Hubs, etc), they may have them in stock. I'd have to say they are a 'speed' shop first that sells some 4x4 parts.
Mid Atlantic 4x4 & Speed 410-766-2727 MID4x4.com

Steig Brothers, Mt Airy, Md: Josh and Sean Steig, owners, ASE trained Jeep mechanics by day, Jeep mod magicians by night. If it's a jeep and either has an issue, needs maintenance, gear/ lift install, motor swap or a complete restoration, these guys are amazing.
Please PM for number, as I use his personal cell

Trick Trucks Lots of these places around. Used to get my hard parts from the one in Edgewater since a buddy was a manager there. Fairly good selection on tires and wheels, used to have blems and tire deals every once in a while. Haven't been to one since the late 90's, so I can't comment on any current status of the business.
Trick Trucks :: Truck Accessories, Equipment, Parts, Caps

Specific shops:
Perry Hall Power Equipment, Baltimore, Md Used them to cut down some axles tubes and rebuild a driveshaft. Good work, pricey, and it takes a little while to get stuff back. Good work though.
(410) 391-2300

A1 Driveshafts, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. If you broke a driveshaft, need one lengthened, shortened or rebalanced, they'll do it. Great stuff. Annapolis Auto Parts delivers to their shop, so a trip to A1 isn't always necessary.
A-1 Drive Shaft - Driveshafts * Front Wheel Drive Axles * Rack & Pinions

Napa Auto parts Lots around. We get our Warn locking hubs there. Very cheap.
NAPA Online

Don't get me started on Junkyards/ Auto recyclers . . .
Awesome, thanks! Can you do a part II for junkyards and auto recyclers? :whistling:
 
#4 ·
Firstly, a big & belated thank you to Hubdeep. Thanks so much for such a thorough and thought out response!

I ended up purchasing 17x9 Mickey Thompson Sidebiters and a set of LT305/65/R17 (33") Dick Cepeck Crushers. After a long back order wait on the Sidebiters, they finally arrived, and I got everything installed this past Saturday.

The first shop I went to for mounting & balancing was Hampden Tires, Auto Repair, New/Used Vogue Tires, Towing, Transmission Repairs | Baltimore, MD
They've got a 5* rating on google with almost 40 reviews and my roommate had previously had a good experience with them getting some performance tires mounted on his VW GTI so I decided to give them a shot. Not shockingly, the place looks pretty ghetto, but the people there were pretty friendly. The bad news is their equipment was NOT up to the task for the wheels and tires I brought them; just too large and not too mention the metal clamps on my shiney new wheels. Too hit credit, the guy tried with the first wheel & tire and then let me know his equipment wasn't up to it before he tried to force it and damage anything. Long story short, anyone on this forum probably doesn't need to waste their time at this place.

The second (& final) shop I went to for mounting & balancing was Tire Network, The Tire Network - Baltimore, MD
This place also has a 5* rating on google (15 reviews). I wish I would have gone here to begin with, they've got a great machine in the back that had no problem at all with my wheels and tires. The owner was very friendly, even offered me a slice of pizza as I pulled in during his lunch. I popped over to a bar for a sandwich and some college football, and 2+ hours later I was on the road with all 5 new wheels and tires on the Jeep and the old stocks in the back. It cost me about $205 out the door.

My only complaint is I brought in a 23 piece black spline drive locking lug set from quadratec and the guy who bolted the wheels on the Jeep clearly didn't realize their was a difference in the nuts so he used all the regular ones first and then the locking ones, so there are 3 locks on my spare, 2 on one back wheel, and none on the other 3 wheels. So it looks like I will be moving around 6 of the nuts in my free time.
 
#8 ·
Hubdeep said:
You asked . . .

Here's the ones I know of that we have either shopped with, worked for, or have wheeled with the owners over the last 15 years.

Hope this helps. :)

4X4 Shops:
Adrenaline Offroad, Burtonsville (Laurel), Md: Jeff Jurgrau, owner. Great guy, amazing prices, installs available, mild to wild. We've known Jeff for about 10 years. Always supports the local clubs with prizes for holiday parties, special events, etc. Plus, he's a Jeeper and competes in the RCrocs events and is a life-long Big Dogs sponsor.
Welcome to Adrenaline Off Road LLC.
.
Anybody got a physical address where adrenaline off road is located? I could not find it on their website or Facebook.

Thanks.
 
#12 ·
There are two places I deal with on a routine basis in Harford County.

Adams Jeep of Maryland - 5 Star Jeep dealer (Aberdeen area). These guys are top notch. I just had a lift installed, 5 U joints replaced, A/C serviced. Long time customer. Amazing how my 12 year old jeep runs now compared to last week. I also use them for non-jeeps (aka car or minivan).

United Auto Center - Churchville in Campus Hills shopping center. I've bought most of my tires from these guys. They specialize in Cooper. I've bought several sets of Coopers from them, as well as Goodyear. They offer free tire rotations if you bought the tires from them. Also, I can usually get them to knock off $10/tire when I buy 5 (I do 5 wheel rotations on the Jeeps). I also tend to use these guys for battery and oil service (I'll drop off Saturday AM, walk over to the Arena Club for a workout, and can have oil and rotation done when I get back).

Next set of tire will probably come from Adams if I go to 32" tires (I'll get them to put together a tire/wheel package for me); or if I stick with 31s I get another set of Duratracs from United Auto.
 
#17 ·
Although these are some great names and shops.. I found that a few of the Mr Tire locations are willing to do a few mods to your jeep even if they didn't order the parts for you. Granted all I had done to the ole 99 was install the DayStar budget boost system (nothing more then adding poly spacers on top of the coils) and even thou the guys had never attempted this before I walked them through the process.. seeing how I use to be able to do these kinds of things before..

Mind you I had checked out a few other shops and one in GlenBur (shops name is on the list above) I wasn't to pleased with.. Lets just say there was another jeep in the shop bay that was having a lift kit installed.. The Mech, some kid and apparently didn't have the "tie wrap" on to securely thusly breaking, sending the coil spring threw the wall and into the retail store area.. wasn't a pleasant sight..

Follow Up: One place that I was able to have allot done to the ole 99 was Midas, however over the years since we didn't have a jeep, they've been sort of moody.. and not willing to do much of anything for me and for anyone else. While there asking them to check out my "rusting" exhaust system.. the Rep just didn't rub me the right way.. granted we were great friends at one time. But anyway.. I had an issue with the Rugged Ridge header.. and Midas welded it up for me.. so with them its a crap shoot..
 
#19 ·
Hey guys, I'm at adams jeep. If I can help just call and ask for mike. I always try to help out forum guys. I just joined here but I've been on jf.com for years as well as other 4x4 forums and willys jeep forums. I'm not sure we can always be the cheapest, but it's worth a try.
 
#22 ·
I know Adams can be expensive, but I've found that they will shave costs here and there for me (I've been using their service department for close to 20 years, so long time repeat customer here). And I'm still not convinvced their pricing for the jobs I've had done is that much out of line with comparable service shops in the area. But they know Jeeps, and I know when I get my jeep back everything will be fixed right. My 12 year old jeep needed a lot of TLC that I did not have the time nor the ability to do myself. Earlier this year it sounded like gravel in a blender. When I got it back from them it was awesome. Still is.
 
#24 ·
Thanks guys. I always try to help. In the end it's still a dealership. Labor can be a bit more then other shops but we have a great group of guys here and I don't trust many people working on my CJ, YJ, & Jk. I'm just a sales guy but I am a total nerd. So if I can help I will. I always try pulling strings if I know ahead of time you're coming in for service. I worked in parts and service for a year or so. So I have a better relationship with service then most sales people do.
 
#25 ·
. . and I don't trust many people working on my CJ, YJ, & Jk.
That's what it really comes down to . . . who do you trust to fix your vehicle right. When I was a kid, my dad had his mechanic, Gordie, who did all our work. I have a friend who has a mechanic he trusts for his car and van. I know a lot of folks on this forum have the abillity (and time?) to do their own work. For the rest of us we find someone/place we trust to do it right.
 
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