Re-Tirement, Day 1
Aug. 15th, 2023 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeI got the email from TireRack.com this morning, so this afternoon when I got off work, Lisa and I drove over to USA Parkway and the warehouse, backed up to the retail customer pickup lot, called the designated phone number, gave my particulars, and presently a worker appeared with a cart containing our tires. I showed my ID and credit card with which I'd paid, and at our request, he set the tires on the dock and allowed us to load them ourselves. They fit just fine.
We went home and Lisa set three of the tires in the garage for later use, as we can only replace one tire at a time.
We confirmed the country of manufacturer. It turns out that this batch was made in Mexico, which is acceptable if not ideal. Had they been Chinese-made, we would have refused delivery.
We had one blank wheel, because we had the shredded tire removed from the RV when the problem first started.
I took the wheel and tire over to a shop located a few blocks from our house, and they mounted and balanced it right away. I told them we'd be back either later today or sometime tomorrow with the second of four tires. They did not appear to have any problem with us bringing the tires in one at a time like that. I'll pay for them as I get them done, because the costs are different. For example, I'll have to pay tire-disposal fees for the other tires.
It was a bit of a struggle getting the spare off the Rolling Stone, and by the time we started working, the sun was beating down hard. Lisa put the spare under the RV to act as a safety should the vehicle slip off the jack. I located the RV manual, which has the eight-lug tightening pattern and the torque setting (140 foot-pounds). I also brought an umbrella and stood over Lisa providing some shade while she worked on tightening and properly torquing the lugs. Her mother bought her a good-quality torque wrench from Snap-On tools many years ago after an unpleasant run-in with a tire shop that over-torqued the lugs, resulting in a broken wheel stud when changing the tires. This is why she wanted us to put the tires on ourselves — that way, we knew they were properly torqued.
We later realized that we had left the hubcap off. That's annoying because the caps on this kind of wheel require you to take the wheel off to put the cap on. We'll do that after we've done the other three wheels.
To my great annoyance, we knocked loose several black widow spiders while doing the wheel work. I'd never seen a black widow with white spots on its back, but I later confirmed that some do have spots. We dispatched everything we could find. I'll poke at the next removed wheel tomorrow before putting it into the minivan to take it to be removed and replaced. I don't like spiders, but black widows are the worst. I'm glad we don't have to deal with their even worse Australian cousins.
So that's one tire down, and three to go, or actually four because we have to swap the best of the remaining tires on to the wheel for the spare. I hope that we'll get this done by the time I leave for the Bay Area on Friday evening.
We went home and Lisa set three of the tires in the garage for later use, as we can only replace one tire at a time.
We confirmed the country of manufacturer. It turns out that this batch was made in Mexico, which is acceptable if not ideal. Had they been Chinese-made, we would have refused delivery.
We had one blank wheel, because we had the shredded tire removed from the RV when the problem first started.
I took the wheel and tire over to a shop located a few blocks from our house, and they mounted and balanced it right away. I told them we'd be back either later today or sometime tomorrow with the second of four tires. They did not appear to have any problem with us bringing the tires in one at a time like that. I'll pay for them as I get them done, because the costs are different. For example, I'll have to pay tire-disposal fees for the other tires.
It was a bit of a struggle getting the spare off the Rolling Stone, and by the time we started working, the sun was beating down hard. Lisa put the spare under the RV to act as a safety should the vehicle slip off the jack. I located the RV manual, which has the eight-lug tightening pattern and the torque setting (140 foot-pounds). I also brought an umbrella and stood over Lisa providing some shade while she worked on tightening and properly torquing the lugs. Her mother bought her a good-quality torque wrench from Snap-On tools many years ago after an unpleasant run-in with a tire shop that over-torqued the lugs, resulting in a broken wheel stud when changing the tires. This is why she wanted us to put the tires on ourselves — that way, we knew they were properly torqued.
We later realized that we had left the hubcap off. That's annoying because the caps on this kind of wheel require you to take the wheel off to put the cap on. We'll do that after we've done the other three wheels.
To my great annoyance, we knocked loose several black widow spiders while doing the wheel work. I'd never seen a black widow with white spots on its back, but I later confirmed that some do have spots. We dispatched everything we could find. I'll poke at the next removed wheel tomorrow before putting it into the minivan to take it to be removed and replaced. I don't like spiders, but black widows are the worst. I'm glad we don't have to deal with their even worse Australian cousins.
So that's one tire down, and three to go, or actually four because we have to swap the best of the remaining tires on to the wheel for the spare. I hope that we'll get this done by the time I leave for the Bay Area on Friday evening.
