Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Not sure I've ever had a tire go bad from being old, except the ones that you could tell were bad before leaving lol.
šŸ‘

Maybe tires manufactured today are more sensitive to aging - different rubber compounds, thinner material, less UV protection, I don't know. But I've driven a lot of vehicles on old tires (way past the 6, 7, or 10 year "recommended" life.) You know who recommends short lives? Tire stores and tire manufacturers - just sayin'.
 
Anyhow, I'm thinking about going "old school" and running M&S tires on the back (2 wheel drive, regular cab, Chevy 1500) and all season on the front.
Years ago I had a 1980 Ford F350 2WD. I ran B.F. Goodrich AT Trackers on it. The fronts were 10.50 x 16.5. The rears were 12.50 x 16.5. That truck went everywhere. I towed a boat with it. I also had a pickup camper for it. It drove great in the snow too.
 
I HATE caps on truck beds

My dad had one, you know how many times I scraped my back or clipped my spine moving firewood out of his truck

Iā€™d rather put a tarp over my gear in the rain then have a truck cap!!
Fair enough, I guess I'll find out. I do have a trailer for firewood so the truck is more for gear; saws, fishing, camping etc..
 
As SS396 says a cap is great if you are hauling gear. My 4wd Ranger extended cab always had a cap on it because when the wife and kids went up to the cabin all our gear was in the back, and it stayed dry! Did not own an ATV back then, so did not need to put one in the back! Plus, I always had a trailer for wood, a lot easier to put it in a trailer anyway (they are lower and have more access).
 
For the past 3-4 weeks I think I've been living the old curse... May you live in interesting times. Anyhow... yesterday's flavor of the curse:

I took a load of firewood down to my girlfriend's home not far from Mustang Mike. She went through 2 1/2 to 3 cords having "social fires" in her fireplace, and her daughter took some home with my blessings, this season. She ran out before fire weather ran out. I was also there to repair a few items in her house. Things went sideways on the NYS Thruway on the way home... the left front tire sidewall disintegrated. Traffic was moving at about 70 mph but I was able to safely get off the road. It was pitch black so it wasn't fun. I'd been wondering about the tires for a while now... They have maybe 8-10 K miles on them but it I knew they were old. I confirmed today via the date codes that they are from the 33rd week of 2015... basically 10 years old. The spare is original to the truck so it is about 20 years old. I had even less confidence in the spare and got off at the next exit and took slower rural roads home. It was flat this morning!

Anyhow, I'm thinking about going "old school" and running M&S tires on the back (2 wheel drive, regular cab, Chevy 1500) and all season on the front. This as I was not happy with the all seasons that were on the back this winter... Anyone have relatively recent experience with this combo in a matching set of tires?

The current tires are LT245/70R17 Michelins. This was my father's 2005 truck... He had Michelins on his 1988 Town Car years ago and three of them blew up sitting in the garage... The explosion from the one in the trunk bulged the trunk lid! Again, very few miles but old. I'm assuming this old age problem isn't unique to Michelin... or is it? I see that DOT recommends a max of 6 years regardless of miles.

P.S. The last thing I remember reading here was MechanicMatt asking about Browning T-bolts. I will respond to that... hopefully soon but no telling given the unpredictable elder care role.

.View attachment 1250241

šŸ‘

Maybe tires manufactured today are more sensitive to aging - different rubber compounds, thinner material, less UV protection, I don't know. But I've driven a lot of vehicles on old tires (way past the 6, 7, or 10 year "recommended" life.) You know who recommends short lives? Tire stores and tire manufacturers - just sayin'.
Can't say I agree with you guys. I refuse to **** around with bald, dry-rotted tires that need to be inflated every other day. Everybody's budget and perspective is different, but my time, my vehicles, my personal safety and particularly the safety of others is worth way more a decent set of tires.
 
View attachment 1250232
Scrounged up an old truck cap...well, I did pay $50 Canadian for it and it came with 2 c clamps and a pair of vice grips. Lol.
Always wanted to try one. See if I like it.
You'll either live it, hate it, or both. I like caps for some things, and just can't stand them for others. Biggest issue I have is storing one when you don't need it, and I can't have my tool box on the bed with a cap.
Iā€™ve read about ATF/Acetone and being the best penetrant, wanted to give it a try on the last cylinder bolt on this 181se.

First thing I noticed was itā€™s wayyyyy less noxious than PB blaster fumes wise. Iā€™m letting it soak and hitting it every so oftenā€¦.View attachment 1250239
Just make sure you keep it mixed up, it separates out really fast.
For the past 3-4 weeks I think I've been living the old curse... May you live in interesting times. Anyhow... yesterday's flavor of the curse:

I took a load of firewood down to my girlfriend's home not far from Mustang Mike. She went through 2 1/2 to 3 cords having "social fires" in her fireplace, and her daughter took some home with my blessings, this season. She ran out before fire weather ran out. I was also there to repair a few items in her house. Things went sideways on the NYS Thruway on the way home... the left front tire sidewall disintegrated. Traffic was moving at about 70 mph but I was able to safely get off the road. It was pitch black so it wasn't fun. I'd been wondering about the tires for a while now... They have maybe 8-10 K miles on them but it I knew they were old. I confirmed today via the date codes that they are from the 33rd week of 2015... basically 10 years old. The spare is original to the truck so it is about 20 years old. I had even less confidence in the spare and got off at the next exit and took slower rural roads home. It was flat this morning!

Anyhow, I'm thinking about going "old school" and running M&S tires on the back (2 wheel drive, regular cab, Chevy 1500) and all season on the front. This as I was not happy with the all seasons that were on the back this winter... Anyone have relatively recent experience with this combo in a matching set of tires?

The current tires are LT245/70R17 Michelins. This was my father's 2005 truck... He had Michelins on his 1988 Town Car years ago and three of them blew up sitting in the garage... The explosion from the one in the trunk bulged the trunk lid! Again, very few miles but old. I'm assuming this old age problem isn't unique to Michelin... or is it? I see that DOT recommends a max of 6 years regardless of miles.

P.S. The last thing I remember reading here was MechanicMatt asking about Browning T-bolts. I will respond to that... hopefully soon but no telling given the unpredictable elder care role.

.View attachment 1250241
I had Michelin tires on my 90 cummins and had constant issues with them. Cords separating, bubbles, balance issues. After having them replaced several times (under warranty) I had them replaced with nitto terra grapplers. They were great tires. Had zero issues, other then they didn't do great off road. Haven't been back to Michelin tires since. Neither of my uncles will run them, or sell them to customers either.
 
Can't say I agree with you guys. I refuse to **** around with bald, dry-rotted tires that need to be inflated every other day. Everybody's budget and perspective is different, but my time, my vehicles, my personal safety and particularly the safety of others is worth way more a decent set of tires.
Meh, I'm just saying that this wasn't an issue (at least not a well publicized one) years ago. Now the big name tire stores have charts in the showroom showing "safety" concerns starting as early as 3 years. That is way more to scare people into buying new tires than it is about safety. One guy's opinion...

Bald, dry rotted, and not holding air has almost nothing to do with age and we can agree on those tires.
 
Years ago I had a 1980 Ford F350 2WD. I ran B.F. Goodrich AT Trackers on it. The fronts were 10.50 x 16.5. The rears were 12.50 x 16.5. That truck went everywhere. I towed a boat with it. I also had a pickup camper for it. It drove great in the snow too.
I used to order vehicles for a Ford dealership in the late ā€˜70s and early ā€˜80s. That was when pickup trucks were primarily used as trucksā€¦ It was not unusual to order trucks with M&S on the rear of 4x2s and all around for 4x4s. I donā€™t recall ā€œall seasonā€ tires being a thing then.

By the early 80s we were starting to see pickups as statement vehiclesā€¦ certainly not mass market family vehicles. Regular cabs ruled. Super Cabs were probably about 5% of sales and Crew Cabs were almost always purchased by municipalitiesā€¦ and rarely at that.

I was basically an ā€œunsupervised kidā€ and they didnā€™t care too much about what I ordered as long as it met the contract volume per vehicle and it sold. I discovered the DSO book when speccing bids. DSO stood for Dealer Special Order. šŸ˜€. With that I specked the first truck the dealership had with bucket seatsā€¦ They used full size Bronco seats, mats, etc, in the pickupsā€¦ I loaded it up with all the chrome and stainless do-dads availableā€¦ 351 4-speed with Coral paint (bright orange). People went nuts when they saw it. I saw the truck at Home Depot maybe 10 years ago and waited to speak to the owner. He was the second owner ā€¦ his neighbor was the first owner and aged out. It had been professionally repainted in the same color and he added a Bronco console but otherwise it was stock and it looked great. There was a yellow and white two tone that I gave a similar treatmentā€¦ automatic. My mother worked with the original owner and the wife of the second owner.

I used to sit in the laundromat ordering vehicles and would flirt with woman who were curious about what I was doing. ā€œWhat color Thunderbird do you want?ā€ šŸ˜‰ Ended up selling the owner of the laundromat a carā€¦

I liked dealing with truck buyersā€¦ more concerned with functional issues than what color pin strips were available.šŸ˜‰
 
Don't know if it is just Michelin couple of years ago I bought four "new" Tiger paw tires from Priority Tires, thru Walmart, to put on my daughter's Ford focus before sending her off to school.
One of the tires had a blowout at Highway speed within a few days of being installed on the car
When I had all the tires inspected, the date code showed that they were all six years old
I went to a lot of hassle to get there, but eventually the local Michelin uniroyal dealer replaced all four of the tires and they told me they couldn't believe any dealer would sell me tires with a date stamp six years old
They said they pulled all of their tires out of inventory and sent them back to the manufacturer when they got to be one and a half to two years old
Eventually, the customer service representative at Walmart, reimbursed me the entire price of all the tires
Whether or not priority tires owned up to it and reimbursed walmart, I don't know, but I doubt it because they kept claiming there was nothing wrong with selling in six-year-old tires
At any rate, if I were you, I would get rid of those tires
The Mrs had michelins on her Ford escape. Maybe 3 years old and low mileage. We had bought the car used from a dealer. She was going to drive to North Dakota and I had my mechanic go over the car. He called and said all the tires had dry rot cracks on the inner sidewall. Tires and tread looked great. He told me he saw it a lot with michelins. I had put Michelin XZX on my 74 pinto station wagon and put close to 80K miles on them. They stihl passed safety inspection when I sold the car to a buddy.
 
My stepside when I bought it 7.50-17 mudders in back same size road tire on front . This was standard practice on work trucks IMG_7213.jpeg

Were still on it as I did the resto
IMG_6139.jpeg

Truck was last registered in 96 when I bought it in 2019 . So the tires were over 20 years old . Back then the DOT only had the week and last digit of the year these tires were I believe marked 238 . So 23 rd week of an 8 ending year could have been 88 or even 78
 
Regarding Mattā€™s question about the Browning T-Bolt. I looked up the suggested retail on those guns in the 1973 Guns and Ammo Annual to refresh my memory. A T2 listed for $98 ā€¦ didnā€™t see the T-1. The T-2 had nicer walnut and checkering. The metal finish, machine work, bluing, trigger, etc were excellent for a field gun. Compare that to a 10/22 Deluxe Sporter listing for $66. Nobody would ever say the Ruger had great machining and finishing or a good trigger but it was a step up from the Standard Carbine!

Street prices were a different storyā€¦ The Browning couldnā€™t be found in my local shops and they wanted the $98 list price to order one. I got my 10/22 Deluxe Sporter on sale for $44. I bought my 700 BDL on sale for $129 as I recall.

Scopes for .22s were crap back thenā€¦ I preferred aperture sights. That said, I put a Leupold on the 10/22 maybe 10 years agoā€¦ with the rings and bases it was well over $300 as I recall. $300+ in optics on a $44 gun.šŸ˜‰
 
Thanks for the perspective Matt! We're in the thick of little kid stuff with our 5, 8 and 11 year old boys. Sometimes I find myself wishing they were older. Time is going too fast and every milestone that my 5 year has is bittersweet because I know it's the last one. I need to be reminded that they're eventually going to grow up and time with them at this precious stage is fleeting.
Iā€™d give ANYTHING I have to make my girls that age again!!!

ANYTHING and EVERYTHING
 
Can't say I agree with you guys. I refuse to **** around with bald, dry-rotted tires that need to be inflated every other day. Everybody's budget and perspective is different, but my time, my vehicles, my personal safety and particularly the safety of others is worth way more a decent set of tires.
In general I donā€™t mess around with tires that are used on the road.. especially the highway. The truck I inherited hasnā€™t gotten much attention yet due to the elder care time demandsā€¦ Back when I was putting 35,000 + miles a year on my commuter car the car had pretty much daily inspections! You could tell they were highway cars by looking at the windshieldā€¦ they look sand blasted! Retirement decreased the miles a lot but the majority are still highway. My Accord turns 10 years this month but only has 60K on the clockā€¦ I used to do that in 20 months. I do NOT miss the time and expense of the commute!
 
PXL_20250316_150126719.jpg
After a couple months of sitting in the corner of the garage, I gave some attention to the $15 wild thing. Cleaned the filter, blew out the saw thoroughly and wiped it down. Dressed the bar and sharpened the pitiful chain. Some fresh fuel and it actually runs pretty good. Gave a couple test cuts on some small limbs... The chain is still pitiful but better. I find the smaller chains more difficult for me to file.
 
Can't say I agree with you guys. I refuse to **** around with bald, dry-rotted tires that need to be inflated every other day. Everybody's budget and perspective is different, but my time, my vehicles, my personal safety and particularly the safety of others is worth way more a decent set of tires.
Safety is my number one priority also. We wear tires out before they age out but if they're questionable I just change them. My family's(and other's) lives are more important than cheap or questionable tires.
 

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