Re: [VAC] Tires

["Ned Hall" <ned@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, all;

I am back from my weekend trip to San Francisco.

Here's how my tire adventure worked out. I got to the tire store,and the
fellow could only find an 8-ply radial that would fit my 7 x 14 rims. As
they were installing them, we were poking around, and wondered if a 15"
wheel would fit. He rolled one out, and it looked like a possibility, so he
looked in the back of the store, and, lo and behold, four used 15" wheels
that matched the ones on my Suburban.  He mounted a tire, and tried it for
clearance, and it looked good. Of course, he did not have three of the tires
required, but he called around and located three 6-ply bias ST tires in a
shop nearby, and sent a guy off to get them.

Meanwhile, they determined that I did not need the 1/4" spacer rings that
were on the trailer (does anyone have an idea why they were there in the
first place? They did not seem to be necessary with either set of wheels...)

Got the tires, mounted them, and a spare, and I am on my way, relieved that
I now had a load capacity of 1820/wheel ( up from the positively dangerous
1130/wheel I had with the 7 x 14 ones that were on the thing when I bought
it).

My relief was short-lived, however...I stopped at a Flying-J and weighed my
rig (the nice lady at the cashier's desk explained the procedure...the scale
is in several sections, and I arranged the Suburban on one section, and the
trailer on another) only to find that the trailer, fully loaded, is 4520
lbs. I am still 900 pounds overweight. Damn. (the Suburban was 6700 lbs,
BTW)

I was on my way to a job in San Francisco, so I pressed on. I kept my speed
to 60 mph, and the tires never got so warm that I could not leave my hand on
them. I am hoping I am not tempting fate inordinately...I towed this thing
through the desert in July with the smaller tires, so I am settling for
these until I can locate an 8-ply bias tire with a 2300 lb or better
rating...

I wonder how Wally and co. dealt with this back in 1958.

Ned