I definitely wasn't going to buy what was on the car. Toyota used LRR tires to get the mileage up. I don't have a problem with that except they were worn out in a little over 20,000 miles which I consider unacceptable on a 2300 pound car. The current one came with Goodyear Assurance tires so I'll see how that goes. The CS5s had good reviews both for tread life and traction.
I'm used to tire buying. When you ride bikes that get 8,000 miles on the rear if you're lucky you get to try a lot of different tires. With a dual sport in particular you're always looking for that ideal balance of on and off road performance.
Make an appointment, drive out of my way, and hang around waiting? No thanks. I drive in, pull the plug, and go do something else while it drains. Go back when it's cooled a little and change the filter. Put the plug back in, fill with oil, start the engine, check for leaks, and I'm done.
I run studs in the winter on 14" wheels. It helps if I jack up the front passenger side to get the body a little higher. It isn't a problem with the 15" summer tires.
I can usually reach down from the top to unscrew the filter. One of the things I look for when shopping for cars it the location of the filter, plugs, and so forth to make sure it is serviceable without agony.
Thanks for that suggestion. It's nicer conversing with you than trying to shoot down the absurd and arbitrary never ending myriad excuses others are bandying about for why they don't want to work on their cars at home.
Those caps are nice in that they'll always be there when you need them as the best tool for the job, sometimes, is the tool that is in your hands.
It doesn't really matter how you remove & replace the core. Just that you have a tool to remove and replace the core.
A lot of people seem to use this cross type of core replacing tool.
formatting link
Most of the time the valve is blowing air like a banshee while you're twisting on the core so I use the screwdriver type that is shown here.
formatting link
Take for example when you've just managed to set the bead and the air is rushing in. Now it's time to replace the core without the tire deflating.
You get pretty good at screwing in the core with your right hand while you hold the core from blowing away like an artillery shell in the other hand.
You feed the core to the right hand and line it up on the tool and then while the air is blowing in your face, you push it down & start screwing.
Those are a good idea, especially for bicycle use as they're convenient. Everyone loves great engineering, and those 'lil blue caps sure are 'purty.
Some tools I don't really need but I would like to have are a tire spreader
formatting link
would just make it easier when scraping & patching inside the tire.
And some kind of chickenpox rasp, instead of using the flat hand rasp.
formatting link
And sometimes I wonder if it matters had I bought dedicated weight tools
formatting link
a regular pair of pliers & hammer works so I can't justify the tool.
Other times, I wonder why they have so many tools, but I forget they're mostly working on truck tires, which are a different type of animal.
formatting link
But it would be interesting to see how this special hammer is used.
formatting link
And it would be interesting to see how a "curved" tire iron works in use.
formatting link
I'm still trying to figure out how a curved bead breaker can possibly work.
formatting link
My last "luxury tool" was the bazooka gift to myself after a stuck tire. Sometimes I need a "stuck tire" to justify, to myself, these luxury tools!
I like the way you think, because most of the others are wasting my energy throwing audaciously concocted scare situations at me so that they can justify why they don't like working on their cars at home - while you throw solutions!
There will always be a need for a better way to break a recalcitrant bead.
Mainly it either pops on you, and you breathe a concurrent sigh of relief, or, you're squeaking the bead by half millimeter distances, down the rim (and then, when you turn your back to rotate the tire, it squeals back up)!
Maybe that's where the suggested sledge hammer is supposed to help out?
I noticed while looking up the schrader valve removal tools you had suggested in a prior post that they do make a bead breaking hammer wedge.
formatting link
And I saw when I was looking up the tools that I'd like to have, this tool which I had never seen before anywhere, for breaking the bead supposedly.
formatting link
I can figure out how the bead-breaking hammer works - but that curved tool?
formatting link
Any idea how that curvy thing is supposed to break the bead on a car tire?
On May 01, 2023, rbowman wrote (in article<news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>):
Like anything, you need to know what it is that you're buying. Many people, unfortunately, buy only based on advertising. Or worse, they buy the expensive product thinking price equates to quality.
I get my motor oil in the five liter jugs at Costco on sale usually. Or Walmart. Or anywhere. All that matters is the API & SAE designations.
And the API designations, for my weather conditions, don't matter all that much, so it's only the API approvals, and those are almost always the same.
Same with my two strokes, although someone recently told me I shouldn't be using marine specified two-stroke oil - but I can't yet figure out why.
That's a case where I really do not know what it is that I am buying. Do you know better?
On May 01, 2023, Cindy Hamilton wrote (in article<news:9GS3M.642584$ snipped-for-privacy@fx45.iad):
When it comes to working on your own vehicle, they do.
Oil is a commodity fluid, much like whole milk certainly is. Which whole milk do you buy? What's the difference between the other whole milks out the there?
If he's the one saying that the only metric of quality is price, then put him here instead of you speaking for him & I'll tell him what I told you.
I'd rather converse with rbowman who is actually trying to say something. It's you who is arrogant. You said price is the only quality metric.
I simply told you that motor oil is a commodity - price isn't a quality metric for commodities - the quality of the oil is the quality metric.
And that's stamped on every container.
You think I'm arrogant because you feel that the fact you know nothing about motor oils gives you the right to tell others that they're not commodities, while others here - who do know oils - don't say what you do.
People like you, who never know anything about what they're buying, always deprecate others who do know what it is that they're buying.
If you ask how I know you know nothing about motor oils, it's not only because you haven't mentioned a single quality metric about oils, but also because you equated price to quality which is always the mark of someone who knows nothing about what it is that they're buying.
People who know nothing of what they're buying, are the ones who buy by price because they inherently feel, instinctively, that price equates to quality. It might. It might not. It usually has nothing to do with quality.
It has more to do with advertising than anything else given oil is a commodity.
BTW, there's nothing wrong with you not knowing how to buy motor oils. What's wrong is you telling others how they should buy motor oils.
Nobody said you can't buy by price alone and not by quality. You're the one who said not to buy by quality but to buy by price.
On May 01, 2023, rbowman wrote (in article<news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>):
As far as I know, there is no such thing as "Kirkland" in terms of manufacturing, so they get it from 'someone' and sell it as an off brand.
I don't disagree that a quart was a useful size, where at worst, you had a portion of a quart left over to use as the inevitable topping up fluid.
Like many automotive parts such as tires, brake pads, rotors, oils, coolants, etc., there are forever "what oil" threads on the forums.
Inevitably, those who read the advertising are the ones who swear by the Michelin tires, or the "ceramic" pads or the drilled/slotted rotors, or the Mobil oils or the "blue" coolants (blue, red & green - they're "similar").
Yes, I know they're not "exactly" the same, but the engines that the oil & coolants are used in are essentially the same, and the water supply used to dilute the coolant varies by location, so whether it's blue, green or red doesn't really matter (I don't like to mix them though - that's my main rule but I only do that out of fear - as you can mix types of oils I'm told).
Do you mix oils? I generally try not to.
It would be nice to know what refinery Kirkland uses, but I already know the marketing tricks because I've studied gasoline. The local Shell refinery can sell to all the local gas stations, where they "mix" the additives every so slightly differently - a bit more poly ether amines here, a bit less ethanol there, etc., and that way they can legally claim the fuel is different.
But gasoline is a commodity. If it's top tier, it's good enough for me.
It's dependent on the deal. I usually order a set of four as my spare isn't the same wheel as the other four wheels are, so that's what I meant.
Buy 3 and get one free.
But it doesn't really matter as the deals come into your inbox almost as frequently as walmart deals did when I signed up for my Covid boosters.
The deals are so frequent, that the only thing I can summarize as repeatable is that there will almost always be a sales going on, but it may or my not apply to the brand of tires that you are looking for.
However, they'll have almost every brand and size that you might want.
And most of the time there is no shipping, which is appreciable when they do have shipping (I see right now there is no shipping for example).
formatting link
Depending on where you live, you often can saves sales tax.
The combination on a $100 tire makes that alone a savings of $20 to $25 per tire (using wide estimates of shipping costs and sales tax of course).
Add a discount of only 10% (which they very often have) and that's 1/3rd the price of the tire saved even if you only buy a single tire from them.
You can ship the tires to anywhere so that's not a problem.
You get a call to come down and they'll install it for the already agreed upon price so you know everything before you pull out of your garage.
Well, the good news is that the radials last a lot longer than the diagonal bias ply tires used to last when we all started working on our cars!
That 20K miles seems low though. Almost at the diagonal ply tire wear rate. Do you drive squirrelly roadways maybe? Twisting & turning sometimes scrubs off a lot of the tread on the fronts.
One set of tools that I've always wanted to buy are basic caster, camber & toe measurement tools. Mostly caster because camber can be measured as a function of the caster with the proper sliding 20 degree protractor plates.
I've measured toe with a long wooden lath, but it is always a pita when they give the measurements in degrees instead of in distances, and when they use the centerline instead of wheel to wheel (although I know why).
While I'm aware that there is more to alignment than caster, camber & toe, those are really the critical measurements when you know the vehicle hasn't been in an accident & therefore you're just checking if anything went awry.
A typical alignment is what? $100 to $150? Do you think the caster, camber & toe tools can be had for about that much?
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.