New Shoes

The next time you see Walden, be sure to complement him on his new shoes.

After debating the cheapest, yet safest, route to replace Walden's dangerously worn front tires - I found had multiple options of where to source cheap tires:

• A wrecker: $30 per tire + mounting/balance fees
• Craigslist: $40 per tire + mounting/balance fees
• Used tire dealer: ?? (see below)
• Brand new tires from a box store like Crappy Tire/Walmart. (Crappy tire: $215 | Walmart: $176)

I decided to go with Walmart.

The wrecker option was too sketch, generally people don't replace their tires enough (should be every 5 years)...I did poke around a couple in the Valley - but nothing stood out as overly promising.

Craiglist had quite a few options...it would still be a bit of a coin toss. I'd still need to find someone to mount/balance the tires (cheapest I saw was $28 for the two - at Walmart).

I tried a few used tire dealers in Abbotsford. No one had my size in stock. My theory it's because most people running 205/70 R15, have them on utilitarian vehicles and use them until they pop. I suspect the price would be close to the Craigslist option but would come with some sort of warranty. They advertise prices starting at $10 a tire but I'm unsure if I would want to admit I was rolling on rubber that cheap.

Finally - Crap Tire or Walmart logically would be the cheapest of the chains. I went with Walmart as they were a little cheaper ($215 vs $176) and I like their policies regarding over-nighting in their parking lots. Tires are a safety item...so there is that to consider also.

The Weathermaxx tires themselves, despite being cheap and Chinese, should do the trick - after all - all tires need to meet Canadian safety specs..........right.........?

So far, they don't seem overly bad...not that I've be out on the skid-pad, rock crawling or drag racing with them (not that I intend to either and that's the point). We'll see how they handle wet conditions and how noisy they are when it's dry (I generally have the radio cranked anyways). Plus they come with a 100k warranty - hard not to justify new tires.



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