Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
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 ‘70s and early ‘80s. That was when pickup trucks were primarily used as trucks… It was not unusual to order trucks with M&S on the rear of 4x2s and all around for 4x4s. I don’t recall “all season” tires being a thing then.

By the early 80s we were starting to see pickups as statement vehicles… 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 municipalities… and rarely at that.

I was basically an “unsupervised kid” and they didn’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. 😀. With that I specked the first truck the dealership had with bucket seats… They used full size Bronco seats, mats, etc, in the pickups… I loaded it up with all the chrome and stainless do-dads available… 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 … 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 treatment… 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. “What color Thunderbird do you want?” 😉 Ended up selling the owner of the laundromat a car…

I liked dealing with truck buyers… more concerned with functional issues than what color pin strips were available.😉
 
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 Matt’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 … didn’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 story… The Browning couldn’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 then… I preferred aperture sights. That said, I put a Leupold on the 10/22 maybe 10 years ago… with the rings and bases it was well over $300 as I recall. $300+ in optics on a $44 gun.😉
 
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.
I’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 don’t mess around with tires that are used on the road.. especially the highway. The truck I inherited hasn’t gotten much attention yet due to the elder care time demands… 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 windshield… 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 clock… 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.
 
Thinking of tires... just realized there's 2 load range c tires on the new truck. 🤦🏻 all the tires are shot anyway and bigger then I'd typically put on a truck these days. Try to find something in the 285 70/75 range for it.
 

Attachments

  • 20250316_134701.jpg
    20250316_134701.jpg
    2.3 MB
Cleanup on aisle 9! Just noticed that this elm tree came down in the last day or two. It's been dead for awhile and the bark has been peeling badly, so I was waiting/hoping for nature to take it's course. I couldn't have placed it any better - both split trunks missed all of my young evergreens in the vicinity. So, another project to add to the list now.
20250316_134045.jpg20250316_134131.jpg
 
I guess the developers are getting afraid with the amount of push back they are getting on the racetrack.
I didn't think about this the other day, (though I had heard of the place and drive by it every Sunday on my way to church) but someone brought to my attention the retreat that's less than a mile from the proposed location. It's a retreat for kids, mostly from Fort Wayne, to come a get away from all the noise and chaos. It's always really good for them, at least from what I've heard. Anyway, I think that's just terrible that they would take a nice peaceful retreat and ruin it like that.

Here's the latest on the petition:

Screenshot_20250316-142748.png
 
Thinking of tires... just realized there's 2 load range c tires on the new truck. 🤦🏻 all the tires are shot anyway and bigger then I'd typically put on a truck these days. Try to find something in the 285 70/75 range for it.
That’s a huge rim @75 inches :)
tires about 9 feet tall ?

I was at a Sam’s one day and a guy was getting some tires put on his F350 I was getting them on my 3500 Dodge . I had to special order them because they didn’t stock E rated tires . Casually talking with the guy and I mentioned it took two weeks for them to get the tires in . He said he just stopped in because he had a flat and decided to put all new tires on . I told him he better check the rating . Sure enough they were putting D rated tires on it . Man was he pissed they had to take them off and get some from a local tire shop .
 
Back
Top