Headed home on the weekend of Memorial Day. We left on Friday and we took a different route home to see some more of the country. When we got off the interstate in Tucumcari, NM I heard a noise and asked Bruce what it was. We stopped on the side of the road and guess what??? Another flat tire in Tucumcari. I was not going to call a wrecker again here.
We made it into Morarity, NM. The stations were all closed and it was hard to find any one that had a tire for sale. We stayed again in a truck stop parking lot, and I cooked supper in the camper. The next morning Bruce went out hunting for a spare tire. He found a tire shop that had two of them and we bought them. The spare we had put on was chipping off tread and so he changed that one again and put another tire on the spare rim. So, we are off again.
If buying a secondhand tire it is prudent to ask if there are any obvious repairs that have been done to the tire. Although if a repair has been done properly there should be no issues if there are any problems with the repair moisture and air could have seeped into the casing of the tire which could potentially cause issues further down the track. No repairs is great!
When your car or truck starts to pull hard to one side, and you have to labor just to keep it going straight, then it is definitely time to stop by your tire store or local auto garage to have your vehicle properly aligned. Unbalanced tires also create problems.
Inspect the inside part of the tires. See if there is evidence of previous repairs such as patches or plugs. If the tire has too many patches, leave it and go find another one. Sieve-like tires won’t help saving your money. You’ll end up spending your budget to repair the damaged tires.
It should also be noted that references in this article apply only to buying used ford f250, not retreads. Retreads have their own pros and cons, and will be dealt with in a separate article.
Having the wrong model will make repair jobs much more difficult if not impossible and will take more time. If you do not know what kind of tool you need, speak to a service agent at your local auto parts store to get the correct information.