Time for new rubber

 

After the last state inspection the tech said that one of the tires had a pretty good gash in it ... no reflection on the driver, eh.

 

And with 50,000 miles on the current Flying Scotsman, some new rubber below seemed to be a good idea. But let's slow down a bit. There are 6 tires on this thing. And right now the going price per tire is a wonderful $678 plus $70 installation ... serious math time ... probably not all 6 today. After two weeks of searching I came up with a place that promised they could do $556 per tire plus $30 to put em on. OK let's do two now.

 

Last Saturday we motored over to the east side of Fort Worth to the "garage." This is Ace tire and while they do have a small auto garage, what you see here is the normal work area. Beautiful 70 degree day and the gravel lot was easy to get into. Again all I had to do was push the button to raise the Scotsman to its fullest height (Indianapolis style) and the tire guy could do his business.

 

Obviously if we needed tires anywhere, including on the Interstate, they could help us ... all the tools compressors, lube stuff, balancing stuff, are in the back of the pickup ... who really needs a garage as we have the built in jacks.

 

Here's Robert, the assistant manager, with his mega-impact wrench making quick work of the many lug nuts and fake chrome things.

And after about an hour the finished product. We took the bad tire off the right rear and put two new ones on the fronts so we are ready to roll again. Maybe we can get two more for the rears before the run to the north but well see.

While in the 1950's vintage auto shop waiting room the water stain on the paneling began to grow on us ...

Armadillo? ... rat? ... don't know ... yup old people with way too much time on their hands!! Can't say enough about the Ace tire folks and their timely and price-right service exactly as they promised ... we'll be back for sure.