Re: [A/S] Globetrotter 1969????

["Jim Dunmyer" <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kerry,
 I bought a '73 Avion this Spring and towed it around on short trips this
Summer, but kept thinking about the tires. They looked nearly 'new', but
were automotive type, not trailer tires. The load rating on the side WAS
plenty high enough, it said "1870#", so 4 could carry 7480#, significantly
more than the 6000# weight of the ready-to-roll trailer.

However, I kept thinking about the MANY folks on this and the Vintage list
who advised as you do below. "if you don't KNOW how old they are, replace
'em, period". When I pulled them off the trailer to take 'em to the dealer,
I found dry-rot checking in the cracks of the tread. Mind you, they looked
very good on the sidewalls.

I feel much better with my brand-new tires mounted. :-)

Had an interesting experience with the tire dealership, Belle Tire on Secor
Rd. in Toledo. First of all, they quoted (over the phone) either Goodyears
or Nankings, with the former being about $30.00/each more expensive. I've
never heard of Nanking, so asked for  the Goodyears when I took the wheels
in. As I've experienced in the past, they didn't have my preference in
stock, so I had to settle for Second Best.

Well, that's OK, but when I went to pick up my new tires, I noticed that the
old balance weights were still on the rims, with no evidence of new ones.
When I asked good ol' John about this, he gave me some total BullShit
(there's simply no other way to describe it, sorry) about how trailer tires
don't need to be balanced "because of the way they're loaded, etc, etc."
When I became a bit more insistent, he argued a bit more, then FINALLY
relented: "Back your truck up here and we'll balance 'em!" Took the guy all
of 5 minutes to do the 4 tires.

When we left, my buddy made the comment, "Well, I'm not too impressed by
what I just saw". I'm normally very tolerant, but the more I thought about
it, the more displeased I became. IIRC, that was about the 4th or 5th time
that I've bought tires from Belle Tire in the past 3 or 4 years. Needless to
say, it's the last.

Just an FYI:


<<Jim>>