Tires, tires and more about tires!!

This is a story about tires, whodathunkit!  Who would have thought that I could write a blog about tires, what could I have to say about them.  Will it be a good story or a bad one?   The story starts with a car crash that happened in 1982, a 1974 Chevy Vega GT that rolled over a number of times with three passengers inside.  It ends with new $92 a piece tires installed and out the door on a 1997 minivan.  So you have been warned, read on if you must.

 So as most of you probably know, I have an old Jalopy (1958 Ranchero) and Bride has the Girl Jalopy (1963 Galaxie 500).  What you may not know is that we also have a 1997 Chrysler Town and Country minivan.  It has very faded red paint, 165,000 miles and if you were to go by the various lamps on the dash, possessed by some demon of epic proportions.  The wipers will, without warning or reason, occasionally come on, and will not go off with user interaction.  Only when “the van” decides to shut them down do they stop.  It could be day, it could be night, it could be raining or sunny, no meaning to the madness.  It has been doing that since we got it, over 9 years ago.   

So back to 1982……  my very first car was a 1974 Chevrolet Vega GT, it was orange and it was a hatchback.  I bought it for 50 bucks and for those who are old enough to remember the Vega you probably realize I paid too much for it at $50.  It needed tires badly, and I had just picked some up, they were in the back of the car.  Tim was sitting in the passenger seat and Don was in the back seat and we were speeding down Zimmerman road, towards Millerstown.  We has just passed Millerstown road, now called CR16 according to Bing Maps. 

We were bearing to the left as the road came around, I was going too fast and the tires were too smooth.  BOOM, the right front tire blows and I go sliding into the ditch on the north side of the road.  We were sliding along sideways when I saw the culvert, a concrete mass hiding in the weeds.  Before I had time to wonder what that meant we hit it broadside and it shot the car up into a roll that ended with us upside down with hot transmission fluid leaking onto me through the floor shifter.  That car was completely destroyed, completely!  The only thing that was left undamaged was the steering wheel, which I sold to someone who put it on a 55 chevy (I think it was a 55).        

So at that point in my life I had a VERY GOOD understanding of the importance of good tires.  The three of us came out with nothing more than scratches so we were very lucky!!  So after that , I have always kept good tires that are properly rotated and maintained at the correct pressure on my cars or trucks and have NEVER had another issue like the one that should have haunted me from my childhood.  Even when I could not really afford them, I got good tires.  The one time I bought retreads, I regretted it.  I was being transferred to Maine and I bought an old Oldsmobile to take up there to save my brand new truck from the snow and salt.  I put retreads on it to save a buck, I was not 100 miles out of Norfolk and two of them had gone out.  I stopped at a Goodyear shop and had a 500 dollar set of tires put on, that was more than I had paid for the car.  I had no problems with the tires on the car for the 12 months I owned it.    

So if we fast forward to the days of Jalopy, which has Cooper Cobra tire on it we can start the story about the van.  I had rebuilt the suspension and steering on Jalopy before I put new tire on.  A few years later we got the Girl Jalopy, which needs the suspension replaced in it as well.  It is not as bad as mine but I am planning that work.  So we were left with the question, what do we do with the Van, sell it, junk it or keep it.  Do two people need three cars??  We decided to keep it, because we owned it and the insurance was only $17 a month.  We decided that we would drive it until the wheels fall off.  That old van will hold (and has held) 4x8 sheets of plywood laying flat so it is a good utilitarian vehicle.  Well, last night on the way to the grocery store the passenger side rear tire literally exploded.  It scared the hell out of both of us.

The old van has needed tires for a while, I have never let a set of tires get so bad, plus there was some age on them so the dry rot was also concern.  We kept praying that it will die, so we could be done with it.  But since it is so cheap to operate and we are car payment adverse we were waiting for the wheels to fall off. 

So I am about 2 blocks from the house when this happens and decide to limp it on home and change the tire once I get there.  In those two blocks of me crawling along at about 2 miles an hour with the hazard lights on - two people driving by stop and ask if I needed help.  Both of them were women, which was a little poke to my ego.  I can and have taken cars completely apart and put them back together again, good as new.  I have even shared pictures in Facebook and the blog of that skill set on Jalopy.  What was it about me that said to these women, that poor boy needs some help.  Don’t get me wrong, it renewed my faith in humanity and folks simply helping other folks when the need assistance but……  it was a flat tire, I have a professional floor jack, impact ratchets and all the tools that a pit crew might use to change a tire.  I am just saying it hurt my pride a bit and made me wish I would have just changed the tire alongside the road.      

So today Bride called around looking for the most economical set of tires we could find.  The prices varied quite a bit.  Anywhere from almost 600 bucks all the way down to 368 dollars.  Because we do not drive this car out of town or on the interstate I decided we did not need expensive tires.   We decided on the $368 offer from Tire Kingdom.  When I dropped the van off, I asked Kaleb, a very young service manager, if they were all four round and black.  He laughed and said, yes they are.  It made me laugh that I had lowered my requirements for tires to “are they round and black” but I knew I did not need much more than that. 

He asked if we wanted to have the free front end alignment check, even though I did not really care it was free so why not I thought.  Go ahead and check it I said.  Not that it would matter, I suspect the van will not make it to the time that these 40,000 mile tires wear out.  Since we drive it only around town and the fact that it did not seem to be wearing out the other tires I am going to take my chances.  He finished up by saying it will ready in 45 minutes, to which I said thank you.  An hour and half later we still had not received a call, so we called back and we were told that they were putting it on the rack for the alignment check.  I thought, of course it needed “aligned”, that is why places offer the check for free – in hopes of getting the work.  I was pleasantly surprised when he told me the alignment was dead on.  I laughed about my misconceptions as we drove off, with probably the least expensive set of tires I have purchased.