Tires certainly have gone up!!!

Andy Griffith

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Well, it finally happened.

The left rear tire on my father-in-laws old Ford 8N finally gave up the ghost from years of use and abuse. I believe when he got it, it must have been "20th hand."
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Well, maybe a bit of exaggeration there.
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I honestly haven't got a clue as to how long the tires had been on the tractor, but he stated that they had been on there at least seventeen years! They should have lasted at least twenty-five- worthless Firestones!
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Anyway, when they stated @ $650.00 for one new tire, I was flabbergasted and dumbfounded! (mounted, of course)

I knew it would be expensive, maybe $300-400, but this caught me off guard!

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I have a neighbor that often buys beat up tractors just to get the tires if they are usable.
 
Yeah, tires are up.

I put a new set of sneakers on my truck last month, "on sale" to the tune of $700 for 4. "General" brand, not even the Goodyears I wanted (those would have run me $900+).
 
Originally posted by truckemup97:
Just wait until they want $450/ea and you need 18 of them.
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Can't you retread all but the front tires? Not that 16 retreads would be cheap of course.
 
I'm not sure. I was one of those poor fools who'd never won anything. Always watched friends and strangers pick off the goodies. Then a couple of years ago my name was called. I got a certificate for 4 tires for my Jeep, any size I wanted. So I called the number, read my certificate to they guy, and he wanted my serial number. He said he'd "mail" them to me... uh oh.

But a week later I came home from work and UPS had tossed them on the front yard!
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Of course anyone could have stolen them and I'd have never known they'd been delivered. Regardless, I'd finally won something of value. Besides, the ones I was running were getting thin for my uses. Dick was a happy camper.

Then this spring, I got a phone call from a girl (I like phone calls from girls.) She was a friends daughter, and she said the Jeep Club I belong to in Utah had pulled my name out for a new set of Goodyear tires!
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Life is good.

So when I went down to the tire store out there to have them mounted, a funny thing happened. They weren't the new tread design Goodyear was introducing, they were the old design. Who cares? Free is free, and free is good. Then on Good Friday, at the main vendors event at the Jeep Safari, I wandered into the Goodyear booth to thank them (its only decent.) I waited patiently until the 2 guys BSing stopped for a breath. I asked them when anyone from management would get there. One guy looked at his shirt, looked around, and said "me." OK. So I thanked him profusely for their generosity, but wanted to ask a question.

He was a decent guy with a nice smile, and he said "what?" So I asked if there was a reason my tread design was different from everyone elses, mine being the old style. Of course he replied "no way, they're all the new design." So I said, thats what they should be, I guess, and I'm happy with them. He said "no way, where's your jeep parked." (illegally, of course, where it shouldn't be.) But we walked over to look at it. He instantly said "how'd you get those?" My response was "I won them from you."

He said no way, you're getting new ones. Then he handed me his business card and told me to email him first thing when I got home. Yep, last Tuesday I had to meet a truck with 4 of them for me. I've emailed him a couple of times, thanking him profusely for the tires and asking him what to do with the "old style" tires. No response. If history is a guide, they won't bother to respond, and I' stuck with the 4 tires that have 1700 miles on them, as well as the new ones, and the ones from a couple of years ago with 7000 on them.

Tire life expectancy on a Jeep driven in rock, probably 30,000 miles. Life expectancy of Dick, less than the 80,000+ they'll probably be good for. Life's tough. But I've somehow got to muddle thru it.
 
Originally posted by 2Loud4You:
Originally posted by truckemup97:
Just wait until they want $450/ea and you need 18 of them.
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Can't you retread all but the front tires? Not that 16 retreads would be cheap of course.

Yes, but I don't like retreads. While they are somewhat more reliable than they used to be, they still aren't virgin tires. There is also a huge difference in tread compounding, which effects rolling resistance, which effects fuel mileage. I buy tires for fuel mileage. At 7.5 MPG, a 5% difference in fuel mileage makes a big difference in my wallet when you figure 120k miles a year. Some tires can make as much as a 15% difference.
 
I sell tires and 650.00 for a rear tire for a 8N does sound high. I'm thinking it should be a 12.4-28 but could be wrong a tire that size should run around 450.00 with a tube atleast they do around here.
Brian
 
It was 12.4x28 8-ply.

Tractor dealership which shall remain nameless stated could order a 6-ply for a little less, but I figured the F-I-L might say something if it wasn't "just like before."

Maybe I should just try to find some steel wheels and subterfuge the rubber company, eh?
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Folks are going to find lot's of hard part items creeping north in price now. It's a function (whether openly stated or not) of a devaluing dollar. It won't matter where or how cheaply the item was made either. This is the inevitable creep in pricing that always follows by 12 to 24 months break neck printing of green backs. At least it has, the last two times I've seen it unfold?
 
We just put a new set on the front wheels of the Escape. They are the noisiest tires I ever heard - even noiser than the winter studs. They'll probably last 5 years.
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The tire I had quoted was a 4 ply Firestone so 8 ply would be more.
 
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but Dick, you must belong to the Red Rock Fourwheelers? I tried to sneak in a day at EJS this year but woke up to that fresh snow on the first Sat. and decided I'd better head for home with that blizzard in WY, NE and KS. Had to be back to work Tues. NEXT year we'll be there for 4 or 5 days for sure! We have to meet and shake hands -- maybe some of that good luck will rub off before the Friday raffle!

I wore out 2 sets of MTRs on my Jeep (I had the very first set in northern MN when they first came out) and am running 34" BFG ATs for a change. The ATs are a bit quieter on the highway and I've been happy with traction so far. They were still $180 each a year ago, and I bought 5.
 
Originally posted by Lucky Derby:
Last month it cost me $350 put put 4 tires on my wife's little Hyundai Elantra.
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Thats cheap , thats what I pay for 2 tires on my 01 Elantra, to be fair tho I'm running 215/40-17s .
 
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