Is it not wotrh mentioning that a tire is a steel belted radioal

[micky]

As I mentioned in a post earlier today, I had two flats in 12 hours, or maybe 2 flats at the same time except it took overnight for the 2nd one to go flat.

I must be getting tired, because I'm willing to go to Firestone, a half-mile away, rather than go into the city to a used tire store where I'm always in and out in under 10 minutes, sometimes 6. Partly because he charged $70*** per last time. ***Total price including balancing.

So Firestone has a tire for 66.99!** Less than the used tires I bought last time. Or course Firestone's is the cheapest one they sell, and the used tires might have been a much better model. (But I don't bother to check, and even though I still have the one on the right side, I'll probably not check.) **Plus about $30 for putting it on.

But that was intro and this is the question:

I thought maybe I should have a steel belted radial, and for that price I was getting ... I don't remember what they used to sell. So I looked at the details and it says neither steel nor radial. That's bad. But then I loked at the most expensive tire they sell for my car, $170, and it doesn't mention steel, belts, or radial either. Does no one care about that anymore?

[Mark Lloyd]

I remember my father saying he couldn't understand why anyone would buy used times. Who would get rid of a tire that was still good?

I also heard that a lot of them came from wrecked cars, where the tires are still good.

[snip]

[Ed P]

Today, they seem to tout the need to have matching tires on the axle to avoid problems. There are time though, you just need a tire to get through a time until you can get the tire you want that is out of stock. Used certainly is hand for that.

Years ago, I put re-caps on my cars. I don't think they sell them for passenger cars any more.

[Bob F]

I saw the full tread loop from one of those on the side of the freeway Tuesday.

[micky]

I think that is most of them. Loads of cars in junkyards, and they all once had tires.

There used to be, maybe still are, people who buy new cars and put better tires on them. The old tires, though practically new, become used tires, although if I were a new car dealer, I think I'd want to keep them for repairs to other cars that had them. I don't know if they ended up in used tire stores, or if they still exist much.

Actually, the front tire that I ruined was part of a matching pair, bought from the used tire store, only 6 months ago. I suppose I could check what make it is and try to find the same tire, but I'm not going to do it. They were $70 each when her prices used to be 30, 40, and

1. I suppose it's inflation, or a used tire shortage.

When I got my first car, a '50 olds 88 that my 80-year old cousin gave me when he stpped driving, it needed a tire, and my uncle offered to get me one. I didn't know much at age 19, but I knew to say, Okay, just no recaps. I barely knew what a recap was but I didn't want it.

Chicago was 4 hours away then (3 hours now) and I got 20 minutes from my family home in Indianapolis, when I heard a flapping noise. The cap was partly detached and flapping. Somehow I must have come back to Indy soon after that because I remember that the problem was rectified without my spending more money.

AIUI recaps are used all the time for semi-trailers. But they usually have 4 tires on an axle so if one goes bad, they still have 3.

[Clare Snyder]

Pretty hard to get a non radial passenger car tire today - whether steel or kevlar belted - with the Kevlar tires being more expensive. I can almost guarantee the new tire you bought was a radial. If the size starts with a P and the last part of the number starts with an R - eg, P135-65-R15 it is a p metric (metric passenger) radial tire. A light truck radial would be an LT235-70-R16 or similar

[Clare Snyder]

Most come from wrecks - but many are also "trade-ins" - good tires taken off a car where one or more tires were damaged and a full set of replacements are installed. Sometimes only one good tire left, sometimes 2 or 3. Then there are "takeoffs" where someone decides they want a different (usually high performance or "high end") replacement tire. Once they have been mounted on a rim they are "used" tires, even if they only have 10 miles on them.

I have bought used tires in the past - for example a set of high end winter tires that had been used for one winter by the original purchacer who then bought a different vehicle - and found they did not fit. Got them for less than half new price. Another set just happened to be mounted on a set of rather rare custom rims that I wanted for my vehicle. They had lots of tread left and they saved me buying a new set of tires to fit the wheels for another 3 years - - - Got the rims for what I considered to be an EXCELLENT price - and got the tires for nothing. The only other time I would buy a used tire is to replace a damaged tire to carry me through untill replacing the full set - like I'm on a trip across country and blow a tire - no new matching tire available on short notice and the sxcrapper or used tire shop has a decent tire that is either a match or close match with roughly the same tread wear as the rest if the tires on the vehicle. Back on the road for $40 in half an hour instead of waiting a day or two for a $150 tire and having to pay for a motel. My other option is to buy a set of 4 matching new tires (that do not match my old tires) ald leave the 3 used tires with the tire dealer (who I pay a "disposal fee" to - and HE sells them to the next guy that needs a single used tire, or a pair.

[Clare Snyder]

They do, but not in North America - -At today's highway speeds they are NOT SAFE

[Jim Joyce]

You lost me at "used tire".

[Clare Snyder]

I'd like to see the guy dismount. mount, and balance the tire in 10 minutes. As a young fellow I held the local record fir snow-tire change-overs - with the car on the hoist remove the wheels, deflate, dismount, remount, and reinstall - no balancing - at 4 1/2 minutes per tire with a manual (not air powered) tire machine. That was with lots of practice - about half way through a season when I changed 700 sets. I'd be hard pressed to do it in twice that time today with a powered tire machine - - -

[micky]

That makes a difference. They use airpowered.

They have room in the shop for two cars, one behind the other. if someone were behind me, I'd have to wait until he was done, which could add another 5 minutes, But I don't remember that happening.

If there are already 2 cars inside when you get there, guys come out to the sidewalk and the street with floor jacks and air guns, you have to tell 'em what tires, but each one has his off in 30 seconds. One goes in the back to get replacements while the other takes your rims to the workroom where the old tire is removed. Guy come back in a couple minutes and you approve the tires they found (I never look, they've always done fine), then (pretty much out of sight. I could look in but I'm busy paying so I'll be done with that in time to leave when they're done. And the sign says you have to stay with your car) one guy puts it on the rim and inflates it, another guy checks for leaks with a water bath, a third guy does dynamic balancing, and another guy brings it to your car and bolts it on. Meanwhile, I'm paying for it, to the middle-aged blonde women who run the place. Maybe it was started by their father, I don't know. And they're friendly although there is not a lot of time for that. And I'm done in about 10 minutes. Once it was

6, but I don't count on that.

4.4 stars on 386 reviews. (It's really amazing how some reviews make it sound so bad, but most are great and I've never had any problems. Google reviews are like that for every place. One person loves it and the other hates it.)

's+New+%26+Used+Tires/@39.2920825,-76.6595625,16.46z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c81b58822b552b:0x6152f228b16f2649!8m2!3d39.2928855!4d-76.6559344!16s%2Fg%2F1vtzj54m?entry=ttuOpen 7-5:30, to 3 on weekends.

We'll see how long Firestone takes, even though I've picked out the tire and made an appointment for 1PM today Friday. But I'll save 15 minutes of driving each way. .

[Cindy Hamilton]

Have you figured out what caused the flats? Used tires might be a false economy, if they fail after 6 months.

[micky]

I know exactly. It was not the quality of the tires. In the dark in the rain I drove over a little island, not outlined in paint, in the middle of the road where it comes to an intersection, meant to separate opposing lanes, but the intersection was skewed and required a turn to the left. I didn't see the island and I drove too far to the left. (I've been there 100 times in the daylight, but I was rushing.) The left front tire went flat immediately, and I changed it in the light rain. The left rear looked fine then. Somehow I was still able to go to Home Depot a mile away, then a mile and a half back to my house without that tire going flat. I thought it was okay. But the next morning, the left rear was flat, and I know those 12v tire pumps are not that good, but my tire pump wouldn't pump it up. And I had to leave for the airport in an hour.

I'm still driving with the donut on the front with the left-front flat in the trunk and it has a vertical slit over two inches long in the side wall. I don't know how bad the left-rear was, but Ben's Mobile Tire Service gets 4.9 stars on 53 reviews and I trust him not to replace it if it could be patched. (Several of his reviews say he did repairs when he could have done replacing.) He/they told me in advance what the charge would be if a new tire was needed and if it wasn't; they came out within 2 hours of my calling and put a new tire on the rim, and charged about $100, including the tire. Certainly a fair price. He called me when he was there, and took a credit card over the phone. He said he would put a business card on the windshield. I asked him not to and he didn't. And even if the HOA didn't object, I wouldn't want my car sitting with a flat for a month.

(Two threads before this one, called Emergency Tire Repair, I had said briefly how the flats happened.)

[Cindy Hamilton]

Yeah, about that. tl;dr

[Clare Snyder]

Micky likes driving over curbs, apparently. New tires would have suffered the same fate, at a higher cost

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I know of a new highway that allows 85MPH. I hear a lot of animals get run over.

[Bob F]

Have you checked the rims for dents or other damage?

[hubops]

My 2015 Kia's OEM tires had unexplained sidewall leaks. < a first for me >

The first one was tricky to find because it was such a slow leak and there were no curb scuffs at all. The dealer replaced it with a small pro-rating deduction but it was a 4-5 week wait for the manufacturer to come through < Nexen >

Later when the second one started leaking I just replaced it myself with a used tire and later replaced all 4. This sort of experience makes a person swear-off the brand. I was surprised at the high prices last year when I bought the set of new tires - having not bought tires for 10 + years.

ps : whenever I see the family Utes with the huge < 19 -20 ? inch > wheels - I wonder if they have priced-out the tire replacement .. John T.

[micky]

Yeah, they're scuffed some more on the edges but they're good to use.

I went back to where it happened and I can't see anything that could have done it. Once in a while you see a metal sign post that is broken off and the stub can damages tires, but here there was a rounded curb, thke kind designed to drive onto, and an array of bricks at the top, like a brick patio. Yes, I shouldn't have driven over it, but I don't know how I damaged 1 tire, let alone 2. I didn't hit the sign, and if I had it would still be broken. The road department is not that fast here.

Got a better view of the first tire today and it had an L shamed cut,in the sidewall, 3" vertical and 2 or 3" horizontal.

Went to firestone, on time, and they were very nice, but it took 90 minutes. Some of that was not their doing. I had found the tire for my car on their website and put it in their shopping cart, a 215/60R16 (which I verified later), but when he went to put it on the rim it wouldn't fit. I had a 17" tire and a 17" rim. Either the Firestone listing is wrong or the original owner bought different rims than normally came with a 2005 Toyota Solara SLE.

Yhat they are 17" might be why I had to pay $70 for each tire even at the used** tire place. I think those two were the first tires I bought for this car, an maybe 17" are harder to find. ?? **They sell new tires too, and would have offfered me new if they didn't have used, but there were no stickers on them so I think they were used.

I saved 40 minutes of driving but still I'm going back to the used-tire place next time.

[Jim Joyce]

When I lived in Texas, a long stretch of I-10 West was marked at 85mph. Of course, the traffic flow was more like 105+. Oh, and there's Hwy 130 that somewhat connects San Antonio to Austin, designed to reduce traffic on I-35. It's a toll road with little to no enforcement. I don't remember what it was marked at, but I was out there doing triple digits, getting passed by most traffic.

When I lived in Montana, the Interstate speed limit was "Reasonable and Prudent" during the daytime. I once overtook a state trooper at about 140mph. I figure he was only doing about 120, which was close enough that we could exchange waves.

I don't know about that but it sounds like the lady who wanted the 'deer crossing' signs moved because so many deer were getting hit by traffic.