The previous one occurred when a tire on my truck blew in the middle of nowhere. It was topped off by an epic struggle to take off the shredded tire and replace it with the spare.
Today's consisted of a tire on my boat trailer blowing less than 100 yards from a tire store. I rolled on in there, then stood around drinking coffee while sturdy young men swarmed over the trailer and took care of things for me.
But... (there's always a 'but'):
I asked the tire guys to check the remaining tires and make sure they were okay. The verdict was that they looked good, but ... the tires were over 10 years old. While they had plenty of tread left, the sidewalls had weakened enough over time that they were susceptible to blowouts. I was a little skeptical -- were they just trying to sell four new tires to an out-of-town sucker, or were they telling me the truth? -- but I decided to trust them, especially considering that I had over 100 miles to go, towing a heavy boat in the 100+ degree Texas heat.
So I'm now the proud owner of four brand new trailer tires.
The kicker was that I was taking the boat from our little place on Lake Buchanan to my older son's house on Lake Dunlap. Buchanan is only about 30% full, thanks to a multi-year drought in Central Texas. It's so low that none of the boat ramps on the lake reach the water, and haven't done so in two years. Dunlap is pretty close to full, so it made sense to move the boat to where it could be used.
Of course, my son was thrilled with the idea. He gets a boat basically for free - at least until Lake Buchanan fills up again.
And with four new tires on the trailer...
5 comments:
Not taking sides, but Texas heat over 10 years is decent justification for new trailer tires. Better safe than sorry.
Yup, CTT 10 tire years is = to 100 people years.
My daddy was a volunteer fireman in a small town and they had to replace the fire apparatus tires with less than 2,000 miles on them because of the aging affect on the rubber. Seems like heat and Ozone in the air cause the rubber to disindegrate.
Thanks to both of you for helping me feel better about the purchase. I was thinking along the same lines as you two, but a little confirmation makes me feel better about the decision.
Yep you did the right thing... One thing to do is armor all the tires every time you use the trailer or at least once every three months... UV breaks down the rubber faster than you would believe!
NFO - it's usually garaged, but armor all is a good idea.
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