The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Friday, October 22, 2010

New tires

So much for telling you how cheaply we can live! Just spent $930 on tires!

Having said that, we knew that Sherman needed four new rear tires. We had replaced the two front ones when we were leaving Texas in April of 2009. But the rear ones were mixed brands, and two of them were a garbage “Mastercraft” brand, which are the same ones that we have had separated belt problems twice before. The plan was to get into the U.S. where I figured we would spend about 25% less on new tires.

But that was not to be.

We were on highway 401 about 30 kms (19 miles) outside of London, Ontario (pop 313,000) when we heard the left rear outside tire let go. The inner tire still held air, so we limped to the next exit, and took the backroads to the village of Dorchester where we borrowed the local library internet to figure out our options.

We ended up slowly making our way to a Goodyear truck centre on the outskirts of London, about 12 kms (8 miles) from Dorchester. They had the tires in stock, and could do the job right away. So we bit the bullet and got it done.

Anyhow, at least now we don’t have to worry about it.

So we’re at the White Oaks Mall in London where Ruth is making some last minute purchases of things that we would have a harder time getting south of here. Tonight, we hope to be boondocking at the Port Glasgow marina which is another 65 kms south west of here on the north shore of Lake Erie.

Then on Saturday, we cross into the U.S. at the city of Detroit.

Probably won’t have internet tonight, so if that's the case we'll update again Saturday morning.

8 comments:

  1. Yes good tires are the one thing we really need to take care of, glad you got some new ones.

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  2. Wow! At least you were lucky and no one was hurt plus no rig damage so that's good. That price for 4 new tires sounds pretty reasonable too considering what I just paid for 4 new Michelin's for our truck!

    Good tires, so you should be good to go now!

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  3. Yes, that was prudent thinking, no sense in risking damage or an accident due to a blowout, and actually I don't know if it would have been that much cheaper in the States, I put 4 on my truck in the spring and they were right at $200.00US each and by the time the taxes and disposal fee for the old ones and the extended warranty was added I was right at the figure you spent. Sounds like your ready now to head for warmer weather. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

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  4. Those tires sound very reasonable to me. Good job finding them that cheap. Our rig has 6 tires and our truck has 6, so not looking forward to replacing them. Stay safe.

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  5. Good job...now that is out of the way...so onward and upward...all good luck from here on ....safe journey folks...keep us updated on your journey when you have wifi...

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  6. Too bad it didnt happen at a better time (like in the US). Oh well, no worries on that now!
    Oh and I paid about $800 for 4 new ones on my truck too, so not a bad deal really.

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  7. Glad ya got good safe rubber for the trip coming up... better to be safe than to wait for a few bucks difference. Excited to see that you are getting ready to roll!

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
     http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

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  8. Thank you for your comments everyone. We were lucky with the tire. It never really let go and held the air just like both the other two tires that let go in Mexico.

    We definitely didn't feel riped off and the tire service place was very good and took us right away. I think we were in and out in less than an hour. We were happy with the end result even if it was a little more expensive what it would have been in the States, now we can travel without any worries.

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