Sweet Evening Breeze

Me with my new rear tires/wheels.  The picture doesn't do them justice.  The new tires and wheels look really good  up close and personal.  The tires were bandag's and ran $346 and change plus tax each, mounted.  The new wheels were $145 each plus tax.  I got 6 of each.  I should be set for quite a few years as far as tires go.   All to together a little over $3 grand out the door.

The guys at Bob Somerel Tire in Winchester Ky were absolutely great.  On my initial visit the guy worked with me for almost two hours answering my questions and pricing tires.  He also gave me a tour of their recap operation.  I found that very interesting and played a big part in my final decision to go with bandags on the rear.  The two guys that did the change out today were professional and knew what they were doing.  They both also answered any questions I had.  None of this was anything like I have ever experienced before when buying tires for my car.  The icing on the cake was when they pulled out the torque wrench to torque my studs.  They did the same to the Kenworth they worked on before my bus.

In the process of the change out though, they showed me several really bad studs on the drive tires.  They are not equipped to change out studs as all they do is tires, but he recommended a couple of places for me to call.  So 20 new studs on the drive tires are next on my list.  I don't know if this is something Barry and I want to tackle or not.  It's not rocket science, but these tires are HEAVY and very hard to handle.  Not sure my knees and back are up to the task.  We'll see.  Either way, they have to be done before our upcoming trip to North Florida for steering replacement.

I thought back to the last time the drive wheels were taken off and it was last summer when the bus was in the shop at S&S Truck Center in Lexington.  They took off the drives to replace a couple of radius rod bushings.  The didn't give me any notice at all about the bad studs... they just put them back on.  Only part of the reason I'll never go back there.  I don't understand people and businesses that do not take pride in their work and will just put anything out the door.  Only part of what is wrong with this country today.

Back to a positive note... all in all a good day.  This is the first road trip for the bus in a year and she did flawless.  I am so pleased.