How ’bout them tires! – On the Road with Don and Paula

You may remember the quandary in the post entitled, “Soliloquy” To Retire or to Re-Tire.

Unfortunately, we need to do both at the same time. We came back East to tidy up a few loose ends and while we were here, I took advantage of our proximity to Tire King in Sussex. Charlie is a good friend and was a good customer of mine at The Chatterbox. Before we left to head West, I had been meaning to get the motorhome over to Charlie so he could give me an opinion on one of the tires. It seems that the dreaded “Dry Rot” had infested it and I did not know to what degree it was considered an issue. I knew that I could trust Charlie to give me a straight answer.

It was not the answer that I wanted.

Not only was this tire (right front) not safe, but it turns out that the right side of the motorhome was probably exposed to the sun more than the left side because Charlie could see some issues starting on the right rear tire as well. He also discovered slit in the left rear tire. There are six tires on the motorhome, and we are now up to three that should be replaced. The two inside ones on the rear axle ,which are not exposed to any sunlight were fine. Charlie’s recommendation was to get four new tires, that way they will all be the same age and wear and put them all around on the outsides.

He said and I quote, “ It’s really nasty when one of these blows. It tears up your motorhome. Just go over to Mike Ceccini at Country Classic Autobody and see the bunch he has over there waiting to be repaired. Not many places do repairs on these things.”

Driving around the country, away from our normal homebased local repair facilities is nerve wracking enough without adding issues that can be simply avoided.

Needless to say, our departure Westward will be delayed by a day so that the work can be done.

Interestingly, Charlie’s tag line which he has had since he opened about 35 years ago is:

“Tire King, Where anyone can afford to Re-Tire”

I guess so!