Post by zeke on Aug 29, 2020 2:29:09 GMT -8
Tire foibles
About 16 months ago, I bought new tires for my Prius as it hit 56K miles. Since it had 74K in early July, I had them rotated before I left home. This was to be a 7000 mile road trip over a 6 week time frame. I spent the first 2 weeks helping a friend in Nashville recover from shoulder surgery. All was well when I left Nashville on Thursday morning, the 5th of August.
I like high mileage days, often driving from before sun up to well after sunset. I left Nashville at 5:20 am and was eating lunch at 1 pm near Kansas City. Dinner was at Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
As I headed West into the sunset, I found my first section of road repair. Along about 9:30, I was funneled into a single lane with opposing traffic in the other lane as they repaired the West bound lanes. There was no shoulder on my right with cones to remind me of that. I ran over something, just clipping my right front sidewall. Shredded the damned thing. I hit my flashers and limped 1/4 mile to find a place to pull over and change the flat. In the dark. I had my headlamp with me in my backpacking gear, but couldn’t put my hands on it. So, I grabbed the donut spare and worked by Braille. As I was finishing up and returning the parts to the trunk, it dawned on me that my cell phone has a flashlight app. Doh!!
I drove a few more miles that night. I was about 40 miles east of Rapid City, and I arrived there about dawn as I woke up at 4. There was a restaurant next to the tire store, so I ate while waiting for them to open. They had me back on the road in 45 minutes, once I could talk to them.
Back on the road, making good time. Lunch in Sheridan Wy. But some point between Billings and Butte, I began to get a vibration in the car like I was traveling over the corduroy on a gravel forest service road. I called a tire shop in Butte but couldn’t get there before they closed. I ate dinner and was about to resign myself to losing time while waiting for morning to have the tires looked at, when I realized I could drive on to Missoula and be there before dark. I found that store and settled in about 8, sleeping in my car again.
I woke up 2 hours before the shop opened, and thought to myself, why sit here when Spokane is about 3 hours away and an hour earlier as they were in Pacific time. Off I drove, arriving at the Spokane shop just as they were opening. They discovered my left front tire was separating from the steel belts. Luckily I hadn’t thrown the tread entirely. It only took 25 minutes to have me back in business. As I approached Seattle, I called a cousin in Bremerton and spent dinner time and breakfast with him. Took the 11 am ferry across the Sound and drove up to Anacortes with no further problems.
On my return trip, I was traveling through Idaho about 4:30 when I felt the now familiar shake in the car. I was coming up on Twin Falls so I called ahead to see what time the store closed. 5 pm. I got to that store at 4:45. Another tire was delaminating, and the steel belt had threads poking through the treads. I told them to replace both tires that were over a year old, as I had no intentions of visiting a fourth shop further down the road.
I obviously had a bad set of tires and I took pictures of each damaged tire. I hope to get some warranty relief when I finish dealing with the shop that sold them to me. They are a National chain, but their stores seem to skip all of the ground between Ohio and California. No chance to use the same company on this trip.
If they claim I should’ve brought the damaged tires back to them so they could look at them, I am going to have to ask how to fit 4 tires plus my camping gear in my Prius. I was sleeping in it to avoid using motels. Might’ve been crowded.
I was on my way to Boulder for a gathering of friends when I realized Rebecca was also on the same road, only an hour ahead of me. That changed Sunday morning when I got up early. We both were turning South at Laramie and driving through Ft. Collins. My misfortune must’ve rubbed off onto Rebecca, as her camper van hit 100K on this trip and less than 100 miles later she broke down in Ft. Collins. Turned out to be a water pump. I was already in Boulder, but had nothing to do. I drove back to her and was able to assist her for the better part of a day and a half. Her van repaired and most of her son’s furniture delivered, I was on my way.
Some road trips are better than others, but this one was especially trying. It was a good thing I had built in spare time. I only had the one deadline to be in Anacortes by 4 pm Sunday. I arrived there at 2, but could’ve been there at 8 pm on Saturday. I wasn’t really stressed out about the tires, and even found some humor in my troubles. This wasn’t a shoestring budget trip and the extra expense wasn’t really anything more than an annoyance.
About 16 months ago, I bought new tires for my Prius as it hit 56K miles. Since it had 74K in early July, I had them rotated before I left home. This was to be a 7000 mile road trip over a 6 week time frame. I spent the first 2 weeks helping a friend in Nashville recover from shoulder surgery. All was well when I left Nashville on Thursday morning, the 5th of August.
I like high mileage days, often driving from before sun up to well after sunset. I left Nashville at 5:20 am and was eating lunch at 1 pm near Kansas City. Dinner was at Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
As I headed West into the sunset, I found my first section of road repair. Along about 9:30, I was funneled into a single lane with opposing traffic in the other lane as they repaired the West bound lanes. There was no shoulder on my right with cones to remind me of that. I ran over something, just clipping my right front sidewall. Shredded the damned thing. I hit my flashers and limped 1/4 mile to find a place to pull over and change the flat. In the dark. I had my headlamp with me in my backpacking gear, but couldn’t put my hands on it. So, I grabbed the donut spare and worked by Braille. As I was finishing up and returning the parts to the trunk, it dawned on me that my cell phone has a flashlight app. Doh!!
I drove a few more miles that night. I was about 40 miles east of Rapid City, and I arrived there about dawn as I woke up at 4. There was a restaurant next to the tire store, so I ate while waiting for them to open. They had me back on the road in 45 minutes, once I could talk to them.
Back on the road, making good time. Lunch in Sheridan Wy. But some point between Billings and Butte, I began to get a vibration in the car like I was traveling over the corduroy on a gravel forest service road. I called a tire shop in Butte but couldn’t get there before they closed. I ate dinner and was about to resign myself to losing time while waiting for morning to have the tires looked at, when I realized I could drive on to Missoula and be there before dark. I found that store and settled in about 8, sleeping in my car again.
I woke up 2 hours before the shop opened, and thought to myself, why sit here when Spokane is about 3 hours away and an hour earlier as they were in Pacific time. Off I drove, arriving at the Spokane shop just as they were opening. They discovered my left front tire was separating from the steel belts. Luckily I hadn’t thrown the tread entirely. It only took 25 minutes to have me back in business. As I approached Seattle, I called a cousin in Bremerton and spent dinner time and breakfast with him. Took the 11 am ferry across the Sound and drove up to Anacortes with no further problems.
On my return trip, I was traveling through Idaho about 4:30 when I felt the now familiar shake in the car. I was coming up on Twin Falls so I called ahead to see what time the store closed. 5 pm. I got to that store at 4:45. Another tire was delaminating, and the steel belt had threads poking through the treads. I told them to replace both tires that were over a year old, as I had no intentions of visiting a fourth shop further down the road.
I obviously had a bad set of tires and I took pictures of each damaged tire. I hope to get some warranty relief when I finish dealing with the shop that sold them to me. They are a National chain, but their stores seem to skip all of the ground between Ohio and California. No chance to use the same company on this trip.
If they claim I should’ve brought the damaged tires back to them so they could look at them, I am going to have to ask how to fit 4 tires plus my camping gear in my Prius. I was sleeping in it to avoid using motels. Might’ve been crowded.
I was on my way to Boulder for a gathering of friends when I realized Rebecca was also on the same road, only an hour ahead of me. That changed Sunday morning when I got up early. We both were turning South at Laramie and driving through Ft. Collins. My misfortune must’ve rubbed off onto Rebecca, as her camper van hit 100K on this trip and less than 100 miles later she broke down in Ft. Collins. Turned out to be a water pump. I was already in Boulder, but had nothing to do. I drove back to her and was able to assist her for the better part of a day and a half. Her van repaired and most of her son’s furniture delivered, I was on my way.
Some road trips are better than others, but this one was especially trying. It was a good thing I had built in spare time. I only had the one deadline to be in Anacortes by 4 pm Sunday. I arrived there at 2, but could’ve been there at 8 pm on Saturday. I wasn’t really stressed out about the tires, and even found some humor in my troubles. This wasn’t a shoestring budget trip and the extra expense wasn’t really anything more than an annoyance.
