Big snowdrift in the driveway. It's gonna wait. Maybe if I get bored enough I'll go dig it out but I'm in no rush to go out there. Just letting the dogs in/out is enough for me.

Walked around the house with a towel wiping ice/water off all the windows.

Wife filled the birdseed pitcher and asked me to fill the feeders. I'll get the ones that are mounted on the house and deck but I'm not walking out to the feeders in the yard. The birds can just come to the house if they hungry. It's a short flight.

Snow...

36 degrees and visiting the Alamo. Brrrr

I didn't know retreads were still a thing.

Three fiver NEIN

Big thing.

$820 for a new virgin Goodyear 295/75/22.5 heavy duty tire
Versus
$35& for a retread

Of course 8-12 days ago the same tire blew so now the cost of the new tire, plus labor and incidentals add close to $1,000 to the bill from 2 weeks ago. Would have been much cheaper to buy a new tire.

I’m not an engineer but it seems some things stick right out. Every time metal flexes it weakens. So I’d guess there is a finite number of flexes before a side wall fails which is what happened here (thread was in excellent condition, still like new). So to make a retread a company takes a tire shell of unknown residual sidewall life and adds a new tread cap. In the end, they have absolutely no idea how long the tire will last because they cannot do a visual inspection of actual sidewall condition.

In my case the tire lasted less than 2 weeks.

Shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the price difference is marginal, but exposure to other negatives is of high potential.

Buy once cry once.

I've not seen as many road alligators as I used to so I assumed that was a practice that had fallen out of favor.

Ugh,
Is that a thing?
Blood thinners making me even colder?

I would never buy a used tire or retread. Too much safety risk. Learned that from a trucking tire-failure case years ago. Also, I always buy two tires when I need A single replacement so the treads on each side of the axle match. Tires are expensive these days.

Many, many years ago I bought recaps for my ‘66 Plymouth Valiant 200 but only ‘cause I knew I was gonna sell the car in a couple months or so. Plus, as a college student working part-time, that’s all I could afford.

Today? Nope, the thought would never enter my mind, even if I was gonna sell the vehicle soon.

Upon further reflection I realized I left out a key detail.

My company doesn’t normally put retreads on the OTR trucks. But they will put them on the ones used for local delivery. Let me explain. Guys like me haul stuff coast to coast. On some days I run 700 or so miles. I think my best day was 756. Most of that mileage was run at 65-72 mph. But some was spent moving in and out of truck stops, at the fuel island and pulling over to pee. At those speeds for those extended times I’m to understand the tires get pretty hot. The heat combined with the bouncing would tend to wear the steel belts in the tire shell. Not an engineer but at some point one would assume failure is imminent.

So the OTR tractors normally run virgin tires. The tires on the tractors used for local runs aren’t subjected to near the stress as the ones driven OTR. So the will run retreads on those.

So what normally happens is when I go in for a scheduled pm or even happen to be at a terminal to swap trailers the mechanics will pull the tractor in and inspect tires, fluid levels and other misc items. A that point if a tractor has retreads because perhaps he had a blow out it’s at that time that the retread would be removed and replaced with virgin rubber. Assuming it’s still in serviceable condition the retread will go in the pile used on local trucks. No big deal because most of the trucks never leave the local area so retreads are probably fine on them.


Also when I hit the terminal I generally drop my trailer so a local can deliver. The local driver will then deliver the loads on the loaded trailer.

Do yourself a favor William and stop buying Fords......................Toyota or Lexus will change your life

On my 3rd Tacoma......320k,280k and 120k all running without probs and I still own the last.My first Toyota,a late 70 model 4 banger Corolla had right at 300k when I sold it to another squid as I was departing Yokosuka in the mid 80's.All those 4runners and Hilux's I drove in Panama in the late 80's.........most 300-400k in the worst of conditions.........Not a one has ever let me down.My wife drives a 2018 Highlander only 36k.I guess you could say Toyota sold me with results

Mornin' dudes. Coffeed up... waiting for the sun, as it's 39 degrees right now.

-5 windchill -22.

Actually have a level of fear about working today.

Biggest challenge to revitalized ticked.

I’ll admit to being apprehensive about this.

It’s not going to be any better tomorrow.

I'm working from home today...

Mornin Ya'll... -8 and don't even wanna know wc..

I'm not working from home or any other place today. Gotta meet some snowbird relatives from wife's side for lunch but after that I'mma sit in the sun in 65 degrees and enjoy winter. It will be over too soon.

I understand all of those words but in that particular order the brain just ain't processing them.

Defensive driving alert.

So does Alic Baldwin still get to star in any up coming Westerns?

Should be fun! Snow flurries too.

Weird day. Walked the dog and got 41 minutes in the fat burn heart rate zone. Went to the gym and did legs and shoulders, then walked on the treadmill at 3 mph on the hill setting for 30 minutes... and only got 7 more minutes in the zone.

I'm bored out of my f'ing mind. Sick of watching tv, tired of videogames, limited chores I can do outside are done. I went to Menards and the grocery store. I cleaned the basement a bit. I even called work to ask if they needed help 3-11s and they said no. Gonna make burgers for dinner but that's another hour and a half away.

Three double NEIN