Done with Hankook tires...

Just over a year ago I bought 4 new tires for my truck.  Since then I have had a flat on every one of them - the latest happening on Sunday.  I recently replaced two of them and had yet another flat on one of the brand new tires - for which I got a free replacement.  I am switching out all of the Hankooks this week with Cooper Discoverer AT3 LTs.  The are load rated E1 which is comparable to what used to be known as 10 ply (FYI - tires no longer have that many actual plies) and have a light truck rating which is a beefier tire than Ron Mahan's beloved standard load highway Michelin LTX M/S.  The two newest Hankooks will become my two new spare tires - one of my spares is 2 years old and the other is 6 years old.  I ordered the Coopers through Oasis Tire in Alpine because their price including mounting and balancing is only 10 bucks more than the online price (plus I still get a $70 rebate from Cooper).  If I bought them online, Oasis would charge me $25 each for mounting and balancing.  91,96,74,0,B

another flat...

Another busy day...got a tire done this morning at Terlingua Auto, baked super cookies all afternoon, and prepped a batch of hard white wheat bread dough to bake tomorrow.  I had a non-repairable flat last weekend on an almost brand new Hankook Dynapro tire I bought from Discount Tire Direct.  (And please don't bother to tell me about your super tires - I already know about them.)  When I bought a couple of these for my truck in April, I paid $16 extra for a Certificate for Refund or Replacement for each tire - good for 3 years no matter how many miles you put on them. A 5 minute phone call last Saturday and my free replacement with free shipping arrived on Wednesday.  A very good deal and painless customer service.  91,97,73,0,B   

I hate flat tires...

Had 2 flats in the past week.  First the rear passenger side then the front passenger side today.  I'm pretty sure it was a mesquite branch I ran over on that side last weekend.  The first tire went flat right away and I got it patched on Monday - apparently the puncture in the second tire took awhile to manifest itself.  Gonna wait til next week to get it patched.  Funny thing is - I have been riding around with the spare in the bed of my pickup for two years and just two weeks ago I decided to put it back underneath the bed. I am lucky to get about 3 years out of a set of tires since coming here.  Just ordered 4 new tires - and another wheel so I can have two spares on hand.  Also splurged on a new jack since the bottle jack I have barely has enough lift height.  I don't bother with super expensive tires because I normally don't run over stuff I am not supposed to and our sandpaper Hwy 118 wears down the tread on even super tires.  From the looks of the ones I have - I will be out of tread come my next inspection in October anyway.   Now lets see how many people comment on what kind of tires I should have bought... 86,90,58,0,B

Tired

Had my first flat tire on the highway today.  Was heading south on 118 and got the bumpy ride message.  Had to go about 200 yards to make it to Terlingua Ranch Rd...just long enough to ruin the tire but not the wheel.  Found all the gear to change it in my back seat after digging through all the stuff that shouldn't be there.  This experience has inspired me to clean out the cab.  Got the spare lowered and was just about to start on the first lug nut when some anonymous samaritans came along to lend assistance.  I had all the right stuff to git'r'done quickly.  Came back home and turned some imaginary PayPal dollars into 2 new tires (gonna rotate out one of my 3 good tires as the new spare).  They are due to arrive Monday.  89,95,68,0,B