Oct 30 - New Rubber

One of the joys of owning a bus-house is having to replace the tires every few years. Having first discovered sidewall cracks in our 5 year old tires more than a year ago, I've been procrastinating and delaying the inevitable ever since. Like most good procrastinators I guess there's a subconscious hope that the need for action was all imagined. If you wait long enough the problem simply disappears... evaporates into thin air.

Off with the old...

and on with the new. The torque spec for these lug nuts is 450 - 500 ft.lbs.

Well, tires don't heal themselves and cracked sidewalls never improve. So over the past month I've been working on getting replacements. Got a quote here... another there... and a third down the road a piece. I wasn't happy with any of them. These things are expensive!... like more than 5 "Ben Franklins" with maybe another "General Grant" or two... per tire.  And every time I walk around the bus-house to count tires, I always come up with 6.

I'm happy to report that yesterday this project came to a conclusion. In conjunction with an FMCA/Michelin National Account program, Pomp's Tire Service in Deforest Wisconsin, and a rapidly decaying calendar of available days before we head south, I was able to overcome procrastination and get some new "shoes" installed.

A few details if you're interested:  I replaced the original 275/70R22.5 tires with 275/80R22.5s. The higher profile new tires are about 2" larger in diameter, which means they turn about 5% fewer revolutions per mile... which means engine RPMs drop 5% for any given speed... which should mean a little less fuel is used. Additionally, these higher profile tires can carry our loaded weight at lower inflation pressures, meaning an improvement in ride comfort. I'll carry 95psi on our steer tires (carried 105 with the old tires), and 90psi on the rears (95 previously).

The folks at Pomp's Tire in Deforest were professional and made the experience enjoyable. Bill, the manager, Josh, the tech who did the installation, and every other person I met made me feel comfortable and almost glad to be turning over a Brinks truck full of cash. Thanks guys.

We're now down to a few days before departure. Not locked in yet, but it looks like Friday is the day.

Today we're on the western margin of the Sandy super-storm that's messing up the folks out east. The wind is hard out of the north and gusting to well over 30mph. But I'll take the wind as long as we can avoid the rest of it.

Super-storm Sandy... on Tuesday Oct. 30