New Shoes - April 7, 2015

Well, after so may miles and trips and years, and a couple thousand mile rally trip coming up, it was time to seriously think about finding the BDV a new set of shoes. I'd been thinking about it for awhile now as the original tires are Michelins and Michelin says to change tires after about 7 years. the BDV gets lots of usage, so it's not like a regular RV that sits around for months at a time and only gets used on the weekends; it gets driven practically every day. This is why the tires were in such great shape.

I order my tires from an online retailer called www.tirerack.com. They are so busy, they have fresh stock, which is very important for tires, have good prices and will ship anywhere you want - whether it's your house or your favourite installer. I got mine shipped to my favourite installer, Custom Alignment in Mountain View, California.

They hoisted the BDV up onto the big lift and proceeded to take off the tires.

I asked them if they could please give me a report on the tires and they agreed. The tires looked really good for being 9 years old. There was only surface cracking from normal wear and tear and sun exposure, but only one of the tires had radial side wall cracks. They weren't very bad, but it was certainly time. They were old and due to be replaced.

After getting the tires off, they took them to a machine that either removes or installs the tire on the rim. It's pretty fancy, but it's so much easier. Here is the first tire being taken off.

Next was cleaning up the rim and prepping the new tire to put on, then they balanced it on another fancy machine. This is one of them getting soaped up to put on the rim.

This is the computer controlled balancing machine. The mounted tire (from the step above) and put it on this machine and locked it in place. The computer is programmed to balance the tire and find the unbalanced spots. From there, the operator cleans and installs sticky back weights that just stick onto the inner rim of the tire. No more unsightly lead weights on the outside rim of the tire. This process is done several times, each time the computer telling the operator where to put the weights. It's all done and balanced when the display reads 0.

When all the tires are mounted and balanced, it's time to put them back on the vehicle. They used these neat rods in the bolt hole locations. They thread in just like the bolts so they stay secure. Then the tire is placed on the rods to guide it into place. The other lug bolts are installed, the rods are removed and the last two lug bolts are put in.

Once all the wheels are back on, the BDV was lowered onto them and the torquing was all done by hand. The aluminimum alloy wheels get torqued to 125-140 ft lbs. He did 140 ft lbs. Using a torque wrench set at the exact torque is the best way to get the correct tightness.

All set now for another 7 years.