Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:26:54 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: More about tires...somewhat early ..sort of Friday
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I will heartily condone anyone doing 'good noble work' like mounting their
own tires.
heck..........jeez...........at my tires store, I tell them "I dont' want a
*fast* job, I want a 'careful, good job* .....
and I am willing to pay extra to get it. "
I really say that..because in their haste they'll do thing like rip a piece
of rubber off the inner edge of the bead.........where the tubeless tire
seals on the rim ..
and that would be bad enough, but they managed to get the piece of rubber
between rim and tire..
and two days later the freshly mounted and balanced tire was flat.
so ...........it's better to pay for that kind of work than do it yourself
??
and ........what is wrong with 'nice hard work' .......?
how about Personal Reward ?? !
now there you go..
that's worth $ 200 per hour ....
doing something yourself, do it manually even ..........and really enjoying
what you've accomplished.
PLUS ...........you know it's done right !
that's worth another $ 200 right there .
I get rather bugged that people are 'so dumb' that they think if something
is not done if the most expensive, most completely high tech
manner...........it must not be very good.
when actually .........the complete opposite can very often be true.
and you know the old saying ..
if you want it done right, do it yourself.
And that is certainly true for mounting tires.
and ...........please..........
let us celibrate very excellent results achieved by clever back yard methods
..
and personal hard work .
I sure find it rewarding.
Believe me ......
I will take a guy who knows how to fix *anything* in the wilds of Baja or
wherever, with nothing to work with except bailing wire and chewing gum ...
over 'fancy equipment' any time.
I would even say ...............good old fashioned work ethic is getting
pretty rare.
the idea .....
in my value system , and in the 'work ethic' system is ..............that
work is Good.
That effort is Good.
get down, get dirty .........get a blood blister or whatever mounting your
own tires..
THAT is real living !
Like growing your own food. ...........but it's mounting your own tires.
I get pissed even ..
that I dare not share very clever and highly effective back yard methods ..
because ...............the 'not really that skilled and not very experineced
masses' will think anything not 'official' is mickey-mouse.
- when very often the official stuff is not as good as something done with
brains , tenacity, persistence, and skill eared by sheer volumes of
experience.
I have mounted dozens, scads of tires ...
motorcylce and car tires, by hand.........with motorcycle tire irons I've
had for 35 years probably .
and ..
it's fun !
and highly rewarding.
So please...........
I say, let's take people like Don that share their methods that they are
proud of ..
let's say bravo ....
good for you man, for getting your hands dirty.......and drivin' down the
road on tires you mounted yourself.
I damn sure would feel better about that than tires mounted at the tire
store by some ..whatever ..
'tire monkey' ..
and guess what else !!
if you take an old hub on a spindle..
and you remove the grease seals,
and you lube the bearings with a high quality light oil..
so the assembly turns super easily ..
then you jig that up in a bench vise..
and you balance it so there's no heavy spot ..
like it'll cost to a stop just anywhere..
and you divide the weights ( which you saved from old tires , for free)
equally inside and out ..
that is a pretty darn good balance.
there is a tendency .......in general...
if anyone says ..........whatever ............'Kornflakes are good for you.'
say .
someone is bound to take the other view...
kinda human nature.
so whatever Don or anyone says..
and they share, and they are proud of what they've done..
let's try to say first, 'way to go man' ...
and if we really think they did something not that smart..
sure, let's warn them or offer more info to help them out.
but let's not automatically be so eager to say 'that can't be that good' .
You know what ?
so few people are 'self-actualizing' really ..
that when someone does come up with their own method ..
even if I don't think it's that great..
I celebrate that they even came up with a method of their !!
since so many people don't seem to have that much .
you know ..........cost/ benefit..
or cost/benefit/reward.
I'd say Don is doing just excellently doing his own work, and saving 80
bucks getting four tires mounted and balanced, and usually just as fast as
they possibly can.
you know...........show me cleverness, show me hard work, show me someone
who figures stuff out for themselves........
now we're talking !
There ain't nothin' wrong with doing something yourself , by hand, with
blood and sweat involved..
let's have MORE of that !
- having mounted hundreds of tires personally..
by machine and by hand...
scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: More about tires...somewhat early ..sort of Friday
> Shops charge a tire deposal fee because they have to pay someone to take
> the
> tires away. Someway somehow they don't just disappear. It coast about a
> dollar/gallon to also make oil and antifreeze go away. Most states also
> collect some type of tire management tax.
>
> As for hand mounting and balancing the main advantage of the balancing
> machines is speed and consistency. How long did you spend installing those
> tires? Do you want to pay $100/hour for that? Also the bubble balance does
> not compensate for side to side variations.
>
> It's hard to believe that in a state with so many environmental
> initiatives
> that they allow simply burning tires to get the rubber. What a mess.
>
> As far as the value of the raw materials that is all based on commodities
> markets just like oil. Lead acid batteries have an very recycling rate but
> industrial batteries have also doubled their price in the past few years.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Don Hanson
> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 12:23 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: More about tires...somewhat early ..sort of Friday
>
> I wanted to get my new Hakkapellittas mounted today after they came UPS in
> just one day from Santa Cruz to near Portland, Or. So I called around to
> my
> local tire places and found they all wanted about $15 per tire to mount
> and
> balance....and that included a tire disposal charge...I think around $5
> per
> tire.
> When I was pricing tires at these same shops, they told me the cause of
> almost double prices for tires in just two years was that the raw
> materials
> cost had risen dramatically. I know for a fact that Les Schwabb Tires,
> with their company headquarters just about 50 miles from me in Prineville,
> Oregon...they load all the worn out tires into the same trucks that bring
> the new ones and they take the old ones and melt em for the rubber, use it
> over again. In Baja, when they pave a road, they simply doze-out a pit
> on
> a hillside and set up a place where gravel trucks can drive under the
> outlet
> for this pit.....then they burn old tires and the melted rubber funnels
> into
> the gravel trucks.....instant blacktop!
>
> So why do tire shops try to charge us to 'dispose' of used tires when
> they
> obviously have value and are re-constituted into more tires to sell us
> again?
>
> I also used my own tire changer and balancing device....I got a fixture
> for manual tire changing from Brey-Krause Racing...a simple old style
> clamp
> fixture that I took to races with me in my car hauler trailer...that way I
> was not dependent on trackside tire services to change my racing tires and
> I
> could always count on getting the right tire on the right wheel, etc
> etc...A
> little more work, but perfectly adequate. The van tires are a lot easier
> to
> change than a 12.5" Goodyear racing slick! I use a simple bubble
> balancer. I was skeptical of this, when I first saw the trackside guys
> doing my race tires at Thunderhill park .. and driving it in the next race
> at 180mph with perfect balance on the wheels....
> Who needs all those fancy computer controlled machines with flashing
> lights
> and automatic brakes? Who needs all those power-assisted air clamps and
> automatic tire irons?
>
> So I saved about $60 bucks and a trip to town by doing my own tires.
> Now
> I have to find someone who'll give me some cash for my 'take-offs'...with
> rubber being "so expensive" now a days (grin).
> The brand new Hakkas on the rear really make the van track well....I had
> one of the passenger-rated freebie Hakkas on there and one that was almost
> bald....big difference....just waiting now for the Hankooks to show in the
> morning...
>
> Don Hanson
