Interesting

Yesterday I found out that rocks are sharp in the back country when one of my tires on my truck started going flat miles from nowhere on a backwoods road. Luckily, a hiker and his wife seeking refuge from the never ending traffic jam from somewhere between Weed and Yreka heading south on Interstate 5 gave us a bottle of compressed air and liquid rubber sealant for the tire. This inflated the tire and temporarily sealed the hole in the tire enough so that we could drive to the top of the hill where there are Forest Service bathrooms and one bar of cell service if we had to call a tow truck to help us that far away from AAA. But, luckily again one of the dualsport motorcyclists camping in the back country had a 12 volt small mini- air compressor so I plugged that into the 12 volt outlet in the back of the truck in the rear seat area of 6 passenger full size truck and we were able to inflate from about 10 pounds of pressure up to 33 pounds and then headed down towards Stewart Springs down a fully paved road for a change after about 10 miles from Gumboot lake and Seven Lakes Basin Trailhead of very rocky roads with sometimes thousands of feet of exposure and amazing views back country lakes and the Trinity Alps in the distance. We finally drove past where Deadfall Meadows was only to find out that our tire was going flat from a sharp rock. So, luckily between the bottle of air and liquid rubber sealant and the small 12 volt compressor and the fact that we knew it was bumper to bumper from the folks avoiding that and going down Highway 3 towards the coast and San Francisco instead after they were caught yesterday for an hour barely moving on Interstate 5. So, when we went down past Stewart Springs towards the city of Weed, California on back paved roads now we knew to turn down Old Stage Road past Hammond Lake avoiding the freeway and Interstate 5. So, anyway the tire held up to the hotel in Mt. Shasta okay but the next morning was down to about 10 pounds pressure again. So, I stopped at the nearest service station and blew the rear tire up to about 33 pounds which is recommended in the sticker inside the drivers door for a rear tire on my truck. Then we drove to a Tire place and he said, "The volcanic rocks in the back country tend to be very sharp and they cut tires a lot. Also, you probably need to replace your tires and he showed me another cut on my right front tire that hadn't gone all the way through on the tread from sharp rocks. Then I looked at my paperwork in my glove box and realized I had already put 41,000 miles on my truck in the last 2 years on these Michelin all weather tires. My wife wanted to know why we weren't buying off road tires and I said it is because we would have to live in Mt. Shasta and almost never travel out of this area to make that practical because we travel all the time to Mt. Shasta, To Santa Barbara, to Portland and all sorts of other places so freeway all weather tires make the most sense and Michelins though they are more expensive tend to last the longest and be the safest I have found if you drive enough to warrant that kind of safety and expense. When my wife put them on her Forrester and we had a 4 wheel alignment like you can with an all wheel drive car like a Forrester it handled like a completely new car just from the alignment and the new tires and was steadier than we had ever seen it be which was completely amazing to witness in person.

So, we ordered new tires after putting the spare on at the tire shop and then  called the dealership I bought the Truck from and asked them if my spare which is 5/16 diameter bigger than the other tire in back now because it hasn't been driven before except in short term emergencies if any. They said that a 400 to 500 mile drive on a full size spare tire 5/16 of an inch diameter bigger shouldn't hurt the differential in the back of the truck. So, when we return home to SF Bay Area we have a new set of Michelin Truck tires waiting for us for our 4 wheel drive truck in the bay area. I like Michelin all weather tires because I usually can get about 40,000 to 50,000 miles out of each set of 4 I get (depending upon what kind of driving I'm doing "on or off of paved roads"). Good paved roads will make your tires last the longest. But, good paved roads are hard to find almost anywhere these days.