%$@* Tires...

[AustinBoston]

...and how being cheap can catch up with you.

About a year and a half ago, we replaced two of our trailer ties because the old ones ahd more than 25,000 miles on them and were worn out.

We got a pair of Tow Masters that were dirt cheap.  I told PJay at the time "We'll have to replace these in two years or less."

They look good...as long as you don't look between the tread, where they are cracked all the way down to the plys.  Can you say "catastrophic tread loss?"

So now I need a pair of ST185/80D13's (a.k.a. C78-13ST) load range "D" tires before Friday morning.  We're travelling over 2,500 miles round trip, and these tires will not do it.

The local Fleetwood dealer has them...at $176 EACH, and I would have to dispose of the old tires myself.  (I think he's violating MN law by selling tires without taking the old tires for disposal -- for a fee, of course).

$176 each...I can get them shipped from far away by next day air for less.

Austin

[austinado16]

Mmm....I think I'd be on the phone to Tirerack and let him keep those.  They'll look nice sitting on his shelf another 10 years.

[AustinBoston]

I found a set of Duro's locally for about $95/each.  More than I want to pay, but I can get them before Friday.

Austin

[austinado16]

I was quoted $95ea for some class "C"s a few years ago, so that seems like a pretty normal price.

Question is; whatcha gonna do with the money you saved?  Buy a $200 solar set up from Harbor Freight?

[wavery]

I was quoted $95ea for some class "C"s a few years ago, so that seems like a pretty normal price.

Question is; whatcha gonna do with the money you saved?  Buy a $200 solar set up from Harbor Freight?

YA.......that's just what AB needs. Minnesota only gets about 20 days of sunny skies a year :p .

[flyfisherman]

Good grief ... I'm running Tow Masters presently!  And they are doing good. But these are the 12 inchers, too, and that might make a difference. The price at the time was about the same as Carlisles, I don't remember exactly.

I have this (bad?) Great Depression era habit that I picked up from my parents, especially my Dad ... "don't throw nothing away .... get all the wear out of your tires you can" (never mind all that safety business! LOL). Well, I was putting a lot of miles on the the little Starcraft and the the orginal Carlisles were wearing thin and there we were up in northern Michigan ~ went through one of those highway construction sections on I-75 and I'm thinking I must have picked up some debris because a little later down the road I had a tire failure. Don't think the tire blowed, I think it just went flat. Anyway, we put on the spare and got to the campsite. Later I went to town to see what was available for PU tires and ended up having to order them which took a couple/three days. And, they turned out to be Tow Masters ... and I never heard of them before but was glad to get 'em!

A fishing buddy of mine, his SIL works for a big tire distrubtor and he says tires can go bad after a time, new, never been mounted or used, just setting in warehouse storarge.





Fly

[AustinBoston]

A fishing buddy of mine, his SIL works for a big tire distrubtor and he says tires can go bad after a time, new, never been mounted or used, just setting in warehouse storarge.

That is why I'm replacing the almost-never-used spare that has a few hundred miles but has been sitting on the back of the camper since 2000.

Golly, I need to rotate those tires from time to time...

Austin

[mike4947]

Austin, glad you looked in the treads for the readed dry rot. Way too many people forget to look there and BANG!
As for the Fleetwood dealer price, part of it is because they only offer tire/wheel combo's because that's all they can get from FLeetwood as FLeetwood only orders trailer loads of them as OEM. They just don't by "tires only" from their supplier.
The rest is most likely the dealer has a kid going to college this year and needs you to help with the tuition...LOL