We spent the night at the Flying J Truck stop on the I-15 at the intersection of the 50 East, our route for the morning.
Have been avoiding posting this entry because Art was and is a bit cross with himself, thinking that he was taken in by a less than scrupulous tire dealer.
Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning? We woke to this, and sure enough. . . . .
While Gillian was walking the dogs a man wandered past and said the the right front tire looked low and that air was available at the G&G Service tire shop across the lot. Art got our air pressure gauge and exited the rig. The right front tire was about 10 psi low. The man then looked closely at the tires showing him edge of the tread (that was worn more than it should have been) stating that that type of wear was indicative of the likelihood of air within the tire wall, a dangerous situation.
Art's first full time job after high school was at D&D Tire in Duncan, which served the trucking industry as well as passenger cars and trucks so had some knowledge albiet somewhat dated--by 50 odd years! To him, the front tires looked to have been under inflated for some time (worn on both outside edges) though we kept them at 95 psi as recommended by the Michelin chart for tire type, size and individual wheel load. With our previous tires (our current tires were three years old) we had rotated the tires annually and no significant wear was noted.
What to do? We were miles from another shop unless we went out of our way up towards Salt Lake City so decided "Better Safe Than Sorry" so replaced them both. A blown front tire on a motorhome can be very exciting.
Art became even more suspicious when the tire guy checked the rear tires and pointed out a sidewall bulge in one tire (which Art could not see) and showed him how the tread on the inside dual was very rough and appeared damaged, he recommended that all 6 tires be replaced. Again, Art couldn't see anything amiss and so declined, paid the bill and at 11:00 we went on our way.
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You all are very lucky. I work for Cooper Tire in the warranty department and I recently received a call from a gentleman who had stopped at the same location to fuel up before heading down into the canyon area. As he was there, he was approached in the same manner as you were and he was convinced he needed new tires for his RV. Needless to say, he was charged almost $5,000.00 for six tires and the associated charges.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I feel it is more likely that the "sidewall bulge" this guy was showing you was nothing more than an undulation. An undulation is a normal condition in a tire and it is caused by the splicing of the sidewall and body plies in the manufacturing process. Every tire (even small passenger tires) has undulation, but it is more noticeable in larger tires because the undulation is larger. To confirm if the condition is an undulation, simply run your hand along the tire. If the tire dips in and then back to the regular sidewall level, it's an undulation. If the sidewall bulges out and then back down to the regular sidewall level, you have a sidewall bulge and that needs to be handled immediately.
I hope this information was helpful to you.