Tires and Tires and Tires

It seems that tires are ever my nemesis (as Dwayne would tell me, the Albatross about my neck).

When we purchased the new-to-us rig, we knew it had 2 year old tires on the front, but the back tires were about 9 years old, so, even though they looked to be in good shape, we knew we'd need to replace them sooner rather than later.

We had decided to go ahead and drive to Texas on them, but then other concerns took us to Virginia before Texas, and when we got to Virginia, Jimmy found that one of the inner duals was flat. We didn't know whether it had been damaged by a puncture, or whether its age caught up with us, or whether the combination of the valve stems and tire minders caused an issue (probably), but we decided we had better get new tires before making the drive to Texas. On Thursday, I researched the FMCA program for Michelin tires and Friday morning started calling places around Richmond. My third phone call found a place that had newly shipped in tires of the model and size we needed.

Jimmy and Dwayne were working on the back end of the rig on Friday so it was already up in the air so they could get the fluids and filters changed and the mechanisms greased. They took off the tires and Jimmy tried loading them in the back of his pickup as he knew that I wasn't comfortable dealing with a trailer, but the rig's tires are big, and 6 of them wouldn't fit safely in the bed of the pickup, so he hooked up his utility trailer and put them in there.

I headed off to Richmond driving Jimmy's pickup (which I hadn't done before) and towing his trailer (which I hadn't done before) - Jimmy was awfully trusting that I wasn't going to destroy his property, I think!

When I was about a mile away from the tire place, I called them again and told them I was almost there and that I had the tires on a trailer behind a pickup and I couldn't back up the trailer so asked them to tell me which way to come to allow me to enter and leave without backing up. The man was very nice and told me exactly where to come.

When I pulled in, there was a line up of trucks waiting, so I waited behind them. While waiting, I got some pictures of some REALLY big tires:

(Im)Patiently waiting

You may not be able to read it, but that middle tire on the bottom had a message written on it that says "Holds Air".

I have to admit that I have my doubts about the veracity of that label....

 I got the wheels and old tires delivered, and headed back to the farm. Then out in the Jeep to CVS to pick up prescriptions... by the time I got back to the farm, it was time to return to the tire place to get the new tires.

Our rig with the wheels removed - easier to see the levelers.

 

It was supported by jackstands on the frame.

Here you can see the two sets of jackstands as well as the leveler.

And... the new tires installed!

We're leaving the tire minders off for now; when we get back to Texas, we will put them on and see if they cause any issue with the new tires holding air. We tested them with a smaller tire in a container of water at Jimmy's shop, and they did not seem to cause any issue; it could have been operator error (I may not have put them on tightly enough).