falling flat

i thought by sticking with factory rims on m i would avoid a lot of the tire drama and bullshit i’d dealt with when i put the custom wheels on betty…

…i was wrong!

the moral to the story is maybe don’t use the new guy for the fussy motherfucker that actually does your graphics for multiple businesses?

so, last saturday i noticed i had a tire that was going low. i threw some air in it, drove home, and checked it after i’d trekked the twenty some odd miles to find that the pressure had actually gone up. figuring maybe it was just a temperature thing, i moved on. but i checked it when we got home that next day and it had dropped dramatically.

so i knew where i was starting monday.

i went to the tire place and spotted the screw, mid tread, after i parked, so i was able to point out the exact problem. the new kid pulled the wheel and went to do a plug, which isn’t a very long term solution. when i told him i wanted a patch, his limited english got in the way of the conversation, so he got his boss who then went to pull the tire to patch it. while he (the boss) later said he damaged the tire, watching the two of them work i don’t think that was the case. i was watching this kid really tear at the bead to get it off, which inevitably damaged it and once we put the wheel back on the tire the leak was very apparent and obviously from a damaged bead.

the problem being my tire size is odd (275/30/r20 for all curious) and it was a pirelli run flat. he said if i ordered another tire online he’d pay for it, and even get me a temp tire that could be there by two to drive around in the mean time. i told him this plan worked with one issue – i had to be at work in less than an hour.

“no problem”, he said, and tossed me the fob for his roofing truck, a jacked up 2023 toyota tundra. “take the truck, and just get back here before six.”

so i did. i always wondered if i’d be a good “truck guy”. apparently, i would not. parking that thing sucked. driving it was fun, though. a lot more mid-level acceleration than i expected. still not my thing.

i got back to san marcos around 4:30 to see my car still out front on a jack with no wheel. when i went in i was told tire drop off had changed to 5:30, but it got there a little early…and while he was mounting it i noticed it was the wrong size! fortunately, during all this, once my brain had chilled a little, i remembered that m’s back tires are the same size as betty’s front tires, and since she had a rim die i had an extra run flat in storage at the house. when the tire ended up the wrong size, i told him to toss me his fob and chill. i ran to the house, retrieved the tire, drove BACK to san marcos, and that got put on the car (after newbie, once again, screwed up and tried to put clip weights on my rim). i drove off and finally got home about four hours behind schedule.

tomorrow i’m supposed to go back and get the run flat swapped out for the pirelli one we got off line (and then i’ll put the goodyear back in storage for the next “oh shit” situation).