Tyrz Madder

I subscribe to this blog and have been enjoying its enthusiasm.
https://www.truckcamperadventure.com/review-of-the-cooper-discoverer-at3-xlt-tire/

I'd noticed the Cooper XLT on a Comcast truck in Kanab, Utah the other day.  I figured Comcast had probably vetted many others; they looked as if they could handle it.



Great image at top of Cooper Tires website!

The perfect Bud Lite, Big Tires "look."
http://us.coopertire.com/

Piddling Southward

Tires have become an issue; the sidewalls keep succumbing. I tried 10-ply trailer tires but they turned out to be no better.

Piddling southward from Cottonwood, Arizona, the weather and countryside are darn near perfect.

Diverse vegetation and interesting rocks.

Cooper Discoverers AT3 had to be ordered but are expected to arrive today.

12/27 -- Cooper Discoverers don't fit. Reordered due tomorrow.

12/28 - 4:03 p.m. Awaiting tire install. Weather tolerable for end of December. Sunshing and temp near 60 F.

Flat Tire

Not Fat Tire (Fat tire is a popular beer), but the one that sounds like Trixie greeting the Smirket Girls (see below). Perhaps I've mentioned, smirket is Michelle's childhood word for a black cat. 

Dana and Fox (in the box) after having been "greeted" by Trixie with a long, wet Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

It turned out the road I was gonna camp on last night soon deadended at a ranch. It was dusk and too late to find somewhere else so I headed back up the road to where I'd camped the prev night. THIS time though I saw the sign that designated the beginning of the dispersed camping...6 miles sooner than I'd driven the night before. It all stems from the ambiguous wording that reads "NO CAMPING FOR NEXT 8 MILES (7 miles past Animas Overlook)." It's 7 miles to Animas Overlook and the dispersed camping sign -- which I missed seeing the prev night -- is a mile further. I interpreted the sign to mean you had to go 7 miles BEYOND Animas Overlook.

Then it happened. I looked about expecting to see Trixie hovering in the night sky, but as the right front of the car dipped down I realized what had happened. I came to a stop right at Animas Overlook. And even in the darkeling gloam my headlights picked out the well-placed blazingly yellow NO CAMPING HERE sign.

Bonsai, a.k.a. Trixie, having a cuteness seizure

I whupped out the jack and other tools, put down a tarp and in less than ten minutes someone stopped to see if I needed help. I complained that my therapist wasn't answering my calls but I seemed to be coping pretty well. I thanked them and sent them on their way, changed the tire, saw the sign about dispersed camping and found a nice place.

This morning I went to the tire shop my intuition had spotted yesterday afternoon. A lady who's lived in Durango for 25 years said it's the best. She had recently bought some Nokian tires, the ones made by the Finland company that: "operates the only permanent winter tyre testing facility in the world (Wiki)." She had, over the years, been to three other places, but come back to JP's. The guy said the sharp-pointed shale cuts like a knife. Even more so I'd say looking at the irreparable, inch-long gash in the sidewall. $92.00 later -- mounted, balanced, and old one "disposed" of...out-the-door, as it's known -- and I was on my way.

On my way up to last night's campspot, before the flat (BTF), I stopped at Junction Creek Campground to see if there might be a quiet spot. While perusing the map for potential sites the C.G. host and her sidekick came rolling up in their golf cart. Beaming like a mule eatin' sweet taters, she asked if I was lookin' for a campsite. I said yeah, but I didn't like people, especially children, or dogs, or radios and slamming car doors. Undaunted, she confabbed with her partner over which sites were available and might be appropriate. Then, with ebullient enthusiasm, we went off tuh see 'em. 

The first site was directly across from her 5th-wheel where I could, she said, if I wanted, charge my laptop (both batteries were down). The next, for $2.50 more, had electric...I could charge to my heart's content. There were several others, but the one that sounded the best, which she thought was available, was taken. I told her I liked the one across from her and we headed back.

By the time we pulled up to her place (it's a BIG C.G.) I'd had time to think...and realized I couldn't do it; too many children, dogs, radios, generators, people....suburb in the pines.

I gave 'em $5.00 for their patience (she said they'd put it toward their beer fund), my card, bid them goodnight and trundled off to have a flat and find the best tire store in Durango.

It's all good.

Kumho Solus KR21 Tires - Ripoff

After less than 13,000 miles my Solus KR21 tires were a hair's breadth from the Need To Be Replaced marker. I estimate 20% of those miles were on dirt which, altho' I have no scientific evidence for my surmisal, I surmise to be "softer" than pavement -- and thus SHOULD have helped them last longer?

So a tire that's rated for 85,000 miles actually wears out at 15,000. Doing the math, that's barely more than 15% of the advertised life. Kumho said to work it out with the dealer, but wouldn't comment on the tire's (lack of) longevity.

After some wrangling -- we have three vehicles kept shod by these folks -- the dealer prorated the usage and I accepted a set of General Altimax RT s. They don't prorate their Road Hazard Warranty so after paying for "certificates" for each of the new tires and the disposal fee for the old ones I was out another $100.00. When I pointed this out the Dealer said to take it up with Kumho. Kumho never replied to either phone calls or emails.

Let the buyer beware, eh? Or is it P.T. Barnum's quote?