A shock to my pocket book

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Four new tires (44,760 miles on the originals then a double blow out when I just barely grazed a curb), four new wheel covers, one new wheel, a full set of new lug nuts and not enough money left to buy a hamburger for lunch.

 

I got enough food to get by for a few weeks.

 

Tomorrow my SS (Poorly named because it is NOT enough to be 'sociable' and it damn sure is NOT making me 'secure') check will bail me out...for awhile, then my retirement funds will be here and I'll be okay all over again.

 

Sure is going to cut in to any search for a Rossi Model 52, though.  If only I hadn't traded the last one for something else I wanted worse.

 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

I'll move my remark!!!

 

Yep, that was an expensive curb graze. The bright side is they weren't recently new tires! 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I have been putting off new tires since the Ides of March.  Knew it was coming but my lazy bone was in full dress and I just never got it done.

 

Busted the right front wheel...well, not really busted, but bent all to hell.  The others were bent up a bit, too.  Ruined the two right side wheel covers and I never liked them anyway so I got four that look better.

 

The lug nuts were free, so why not?

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

New shoes on the wife's buggy not long ago.
I got kidded about howls in the distance ... my sounds of agony at parting with that many shekels apparently got mistaken for a coyote convention, or testing a new batch of air raid sirens ...

At least lug nuts were the right price!

[Eyesa Horg]

16 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Busted the right front wheel...well, not really busted, but bent all to hell.  The others were bent up a bit, too.  Ruined the two right side wheel covers and I never liked them anyway so....

Good thing it was only a graze 😂 imagine if you actually hit the curb!

[Pat Riot]

I got new tires for my wife a while back and it cost me well over $30K.

The tires came on her new ‘26 Trailblazer. Her old Suburban was nickel and diming the heck out of us. 
 

I found it hard to pay $30K for a car that cost $21K before the end of the nasty part of Covid. Heck of an price jump

[Eyesa Horg]

I've always found tires to be more expensive when equipped with a vehicle! But sometimes ya just have to call it quits on the old accessory! 

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

I was leaving for an appointment in the town about 25 miles away. I was a couple of hours early so I could get some other errands done. Go outside and right rear tire completely flat. Just the day before I had bought a portable battery electric air pump and hadn't even opened the box. Brought it out. It wasn't fully charged but I figured it out, got the tire inflated and was able to make it into town about 1 1/2 miles. They checked it out, fixed it and I barely made it to my appointment. 

 

It ended up the tires had around 60,000 miles on them. The next day I went down and had a new set installed. I knew I had about a thousand mile trip coming up soon.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

40 Rod, I seriously suggest you have the alignment checked.

Beans and rice ain't bad.... 

[WD Farren]

Tires and computer disks have a commonality:  replace them on your schedule or their schedule but you will replace them.

 

Imagine it is July 4th, it is 110 degrees on I5 which is bumper to bumper with holiday traffic.  Your kids in the back want to know are we there yet and I have to pee.

 

That worn tire you wanted to replace just blew out.  Your mother in law in the car says, “Some great mechanic you are…”

[Rip Snorter]

Even when I didn't have much, I never skimped on Tires, car care, and quality ammunition.  Going cheap can cost everything.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

1 hour ago, Rip Snorter said:

Even when I didn't have much, I never skimped on Tires, car care, and quality ammunition.  Going cheap can cost everything.

I'm not ashamed to say that I DO go cheap. On tires anyway. All my vehicles have cheap Chinese tires on them. I'll work on my Jeep, but my wife's Durango goes to a professional unless it's something easy.

I first put a set on my Jeep. Westlake tires. 31-10.50X15s. The first set cost about $100 each back in 2017. Fast forward to last year, in the middle of Bidenomics my second set cost $135 a piece. They stood up to Tucson's tore up road system, took about 40,000 plus miles and never gave me any trouble that I didn't run over. Since even cheap tires have to meet USDT standards, I don't worry about them. none of them have given us any reason to worry. 

I've since put cheap tires on my wife's Durango and my truck. Funny side story. My wife never really liked the OEM wheels on the Durango. While looking for a cheap solution to that, I came across a Craigslist ad from a guy wanting to get rid of his Dodge Ram wheels cheap. Since both vehicles use the same size wheel, I bought them off him and had them put on the Durango. This was, of course, about two weeks AFTER I'd replaced the tires. The funny part? I got those wheels for about $100! AND the tire place gave me $5 each for my old wheels. 

 

A friend of mine recently put tires on his F150. Cost him $1500 at the stealership. I don't have that kind of money.

[Stump Water]

1 hour ago, bgavin said:

Imagine it is July 4th, it is 110 degrees on I5 which is bumper to bumper with holiday traffic.

 

Can't.

[WD Farren]

This is what happens to my business customers when the refuse to change out computer disk drives with high hours.
Same as the tire thing... it always bites ya' at the worst possible time.

As an aside, last year we drove from D.C. to Duncan S.C.
Traffic was FAR more wretched than what we have in Sacramento, even on a bad day.

 

The I5 drive is between NorCal and Los Angeles.
Not a fun time on a holiday weekend.
But... no tolls.

 

[Stump Water]

1 minute ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

I'm not ashamed to say that I DO go cheap. On tires anyway. All my vehicles have cheap Chinese tires on them. I'll work on my Jeep, but my wife's Durango goes to a professional unless it's something easy.

I first put a set on my Jeep. Westlake tires. 31-10.50X15s. The first set cost about $100 each back in 2017. Fast forward to last year, in the middle of Bidenomics my second set cost $135 a piece. They stood up to Tucson's tore up road system, took about 40,000 plus miles and never gave me any trouble that I didn't run over. 

I've since put cheap tires on my wife's Durango and my truck. 

Since even cheap tires have to meet USDT standards, I don't worry about them. none of them have given  us any reason to worry. 

A friend of mine recently put tires on his F150. Cost him $1500 at the stealership. I don't have that kind of money.

 

I got tired of $400/tire for Michelins.  The guy I have been dealing with for tires for 30 years has been trying to get me to go with Nexxen brand, so I finally did.  So far, better than Michelins.

[Sheriff Dill]

Studded snow tires for my sons Audi last winter ran is $1500.00. Definitely hurts paying that one. 

[Sheriff Dill]

7 minutes ago, Stump Water said:

 

I got tired of $400/tire for Michelins.  The guy I have been dealing with for tires for 30 years has been trying to get me to go with Nexxen brand, so I finally did.  So far, better than Michelins.

We bought a set of studded for our other boys Corolla and we love them. We have a Town Fair Tire close by and they match prices. We got them for $110 a tire studded. Tread wear is great and very reliable in bad weather. 

[Rip Snorter]

Studs are great, but seasonal here, and I don't drive my Magnum R/T in the Winter anymore, even if the roads are dry.  I do still have 3 mounted spares for that and two for the old AWD pickup.  Country living!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

3 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

40 Rod, I seriously suggest you have the alignment checked.

Beans and rice ain't bad.... 

That's scheduled for Thursday p.m.

 

Brakes are due about a month later, then some scrapes, dents, etc are coming along.

 

[watab kid]

yup the tires hurt - but that rim and the wheel covers had to hurt - those are not cheap these days but they also should last the life of the car/truck in my opinion , 

[WD Farren]

My 1991 Toyota needed new sneakers at 250k miles.
$631 out the door for Hankook tires.
Had to special order, as nobody stocks 14" tires anymore.
Truck gets 2,500 miles per year, so these won't wear out, but might die of old age and sun damage her.

The new 2023 Tacoma just turned 4,000 miles, so same applies.
Being retired (not not commuting) is a Good Thing.

 

 

[Doc Eagle]

I just replaced the factory tires on my Jeep Gladiator (they were junk) that only lasted 26,000 miles and had a bunch of cuts and chunks of rubber missing from the rough Southwestern desert dirt roads.  Now I'm running 34" Falken Wildpeaks A/T4W.  That set me back about $1,800 on factory rims.  So far with 6,000 miles of highway and lots of off-road use not a single cut or thread missing.  These things are TOUGH.

[El Chapo]

19 minutes ago, Doc Eagle said:

I just replaced the factory tires on my Jeep Gladiator (they were junk) that only lasted 26,000 miles and had a bunch of cuts and chunks of rubber missing from the rough Southwestern desert dirt roads.  Now I'm running 34" Falken Wildpeaks A/T4W.  That set me back about $1,800 on factory rims.  So far with 6,000 miles of highway and lots of off-road use not a single cut or thread missing.  These things are TOUGH.

 

I'm glad to hear that because I just ordered 5 of the Falken Wildpeak A/T4W for my wife's new-to-her XJ to mount on beadlock wheels.  I got a call from Tire Rack yesterday that they are delayed for another week and they should be here by the end of the month.

  

14 hours ago, Stump Water said:

 

I got tired of $400/tire for Michelins.  The guy I have been dealing with for tires for 30 years has been trying to get me to go with Nexxen brand, so I finally did.  So far, better than Michelins.

 

I'm sorry sir, but nothing is better than Michelins if they're made for your application. 

[Doc Eagle]

5 minutes ago, El Chapo said:

 

I'm glad to hear that because I just ordered 5 of the Falken Wildpeak A/T4W for my wife's new-to-her XJ to mount on beadlock wheels.  I got a call from Tire Rack yesterday that they are delayed for another week and they should be here by the end of the month.

Yep, mine ran late too.  Apparently the tires are becoming very popular because of all the great reviews.  And I can easily say they are probably the best A/T tires I’ve ever run and I’m in my fourth Jeep.  

[El Chapo]

1 minute ago, Doc Eagle said:

Yep, mine ran late too.  Apparently the tires are becoming very popular because of all the great reviews.  And I can easily say they are probably the best A/T tires I’ve ever run and I’m in my fourth Jeep.  

 

I have tried a bunch, too.  Two sets of two different Goodyears on two different vehicles gave good service but wore way too quickly for their price.  BFG are always the standard by which everything else is judged and only the KO3, which is not yet available in her size and won't be until next May, is ranked better than the Falken.  Usually I avoid foreign made tires if I can, but I am hoping these Falkens are as good as the hype.  The next one in line in the reviews was the Toyo, but I had 3 Nitto (same company) Terra Grapplers fail structurally on my tow rig out of a set of 5 before they were aged out so I'm a bit gun-shy about Toyo/Nitto. 

 

Tow rig is running the Michelin Agilis Crossclimate now and so far they seem better for it than the three sets of A/Ts that preceded them.  I hope I don't regret putting all seasons on my tow rig but it's 4wd so I figured I could try a more modest tire and see how they performed.  I hardly drive it other than with the 5er back there so these should last a little longer.

 

I enjoy shopping for and buying tires.  Nothing seems to improve the performance of a vehicle more than installing the best tires for your expected use.

[Eyesa Horg]

For a snow tire I've the best results with Nokian Hakkapeliitta. They have 5 sided stud and go through anything with decent wear as well.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

13 hours ago, watab kid said:

yup the tires hurt - but that rim and the wheel covers had to hurt - those are not cheap these days but they also should last the life of the car/truck in my opinion , 

That's what I thought about 45,000 miles ago.

[Doc Eagle]

1 hour ago, El Chapo said:

 

I have tried a bunch, too.  Two sets of two different Goodyears on two different vehicles gave good service but wore way too quickly for their price.  BFG are always the standard by which everything else is judged and only the KO3, which is not yet available in her size and won't be until next May, is ranked better than the Falken.  Usually I avoid foreign made tires if I can, but I am hoping these Falkens are as good as the hype.  The next one in line in the reviews was the Toyo, but I had 3 Nitto (same company) Terra Grapplers fail structurally on my tow rig out of a set of 5 before they were aged out so I'm a bit gun-shy about Toyo/Nitto. 

 

Tow rig is running the Michelin Agilis Crossclimate now and so far they seem better for it than the three sets of A/Ts that preceded them.  I hope I don't regret putting all seasons on my tow rig but it's 4wd so I figured I could try a more modest tire and see how they performed.  I hardly drive it other than with the 5er back there so these should last a little longer.

 

I enjoy shopping for and buying tires.  Nothing seems to improve the performance of a vehicle more than installing the best tires for your expected use.

I tried running BFG KO3s in two of my older 2 door Jeep TJs.  They both gave me death wobble on the old Jeeps.  The explanation I got from two tire guys I trust was that running oversized (I was only running 33") BFK "truck tires" on the super light TJs was an issue because the BFG KOs were originally designed for much heavier vehicles and when you ran them at highway speeds for extended periods of time, which most of us running a Jeep as the DL do, they would go out of round and have sidewall internal issues.  

 

I had to remount and rebalance the same tires multiple times to fix this (tire life WAS exceptionally long with them) and finally got tired of it so I swore off BFGs for a while.  My understanding is that the problem has been addresses by both Jeep and BFG and now there's no problem.  Otherwise they were great tires!!!..... Unless you hit a deep puddle on the highway at high speed in the aforementioned light Jeeps 🤣

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

56 minutes ago, Doc Eagle said:

I tried running BFG KO3s in two of my older 2 door Jeep TJs.  They both gave me death wobble on the old Jeeps.  The explanation I got from two tire guys I trust was that running oversized (I was only running 33") BFK "truck tires" on the super light TJs was an issue because the BFG KOs were originally designed for much heavier vehicles and when you ran them at highway speeds for extended periods of time, which most of us running a Jeep as the DL do, they would go out of round and have sidewall internal issues.  

 

I had to remount and rebalance the same tires multiple times to fix this (tire life WAS exceptionally long with them) and finally got tired of it so I swore off BFGs for a while.  My understanding is that the problem has been addresses by both Jeep and BFG and now there's no problem.  Otherwise they were great tires!!!..... Unless you hit a deep puddle on the highway at high speed in the aforementioned light Jeeps 🤣

They gave you a bucket full of BS

I have run BFG A/T 33's on my 1985 Jeep CJ-7  for decades with no issues. 

The new KO3's are fantastic! 

[Doc Eagle]

1 hour ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

They gave you a bucket full of BS

I have run BFG A/T 33's on my 1985 Jeep CJ-7  for decades with no issues. 

The new KO3's are fantastic! 

Maybe…. But what I know firsthand is that I had problems with them on my 1999 Rubicon and my 2004 Rocky Mountain edition.  You could literally see ridges on the sidewalls and the tire guy showed me where they went out of round twice.  But I have friends that swear by them so there is that.

 

So whether it was the tire or maybe I ran them too hard we’ll never know.  Like I said they tell me these problems are old history and I don’t really care anymore, so it’s all good.  I’ll probably give them another try in the future but for now then Falkens have me sold on their current offering.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

33 minutes ago, Doc Eagle said:

Maybe…. But what I know firsthand is that I had problems with them on my 1999 Rubicon and my 2004 Rocky Mountain edition.  You could literally see ridges on the sidewalls and the tire guy showed me where they went out of round twice.  But I have friends that swear by them so there is that.

 

So whether it was the tire or maybe I ran them too hard we’ll never know.  Like I said they tell me these problems are old history and I don’t really care anymore, so it’s all good.  I’ll probably give them another try in the future but for now then Falkens have me sold on their current offering.

Sounds like those tires never had a final inspection. 

The tire installers should have caught the visible defects. 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Put the Falken tires on the wife's Subaru. 

That have been fantastic. Very quiet and great ,mud/snow traction.

[Doc Eagle]

13 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Put the Falken tires on the wife's Subaru. 

That have been fantastic. Very quiet and great ,mud/snow traction.

Good to hear!  They are becoming really popular tires for good reasons.  I just got a brand new Mazda CX70 Turbo S Premium with the inline 6 turbo for my wife and it came from the factory with Falken low profile high performance tires.  While I'm NOT an SUV or Cross-Over guy I LOVE driving her car now because its stupid fast and the paddle shifters are a hoot 🤣

 

The car handles, as my late father in law used to say, "like a cat with sneakers".  It's super important for a car that is as fast as this damned thing to handle well and I keep forgetting how fast I'm talking the exit loops off the highway because it's just glued to the pavement.  When I take it up into the mountains it takes a whole day for the stupid smile to come off my face and it stops on a dime!  And believe it or not, in the desert it does rain and our roads become stupid slick every time it does and so far it has been impressive performance.  Have not tried it in the snow, yet.

[PowderRiverCowboy]

Just to make you feel better last week I order 4 tires for work 18.00R33 $7300.00 each X 4 

[Doc Eagle]

DAMM!!!!!