Safety Alert!! Corporate Liability?? Walmart..........

I got some Michelin 265/75/16 (E) tires at Walmart, after all, they have the best price. After a couple of months, I happened to go to a real tire dealer getting my heavy trailer on new 3750# rims. He took one look at the trucks rear tires and said "you carrying that 16k trailer on those tires?" I said I was going to, and he said well you have low pressure valve stems in the rims, and he had seen the low pressure valve stems blow out under 80 psi and a heavy load. I of course went Whaaaaaaaa.... He showed me the difference between the low pressure and high pressure valve stems. It seems the low pressure stems handle up to 65 psi, and the high pressure stems up to 120 psi.
I went to the Walmart that installed the tires and complained....they had no clue..... they said "thats the only valve stems we stock"(TR413)....I wander around in a daze looking at the stacks of E rated tires with 80psi and 95 psi and just wondering about the liability of it all, (now that I informed them)...

Anyway, I got some high pressure valve stems (TR600HP) on Walmarts' dollar and they mounted and balanced them again for me, putting the HP valve stems in.

Seems like it's happened all over as the following article describes..

Many "calls have come into the International Tire & Rubber Association (ITRA) from commercial light truck owners complaining of a sudden loss of air in their tires, sometimes at high speeds. One major problem we found is that these individuals were using the wrong valve stems."

Above from Tire Review...
Link to Tire Review Article



TR413, all rubber/EDPM stem. Marked on the bottom/inside part of valve stem.






TR600HP, metal tire stem/EDPM base

TR800HP-TR802HP are longer tire stems, or bent longer stems for dually trucks.

Photos

I'm really sorry, I tried to upload my photos and the computer I was using began doing strange things to my compact flash card, now the photos can't be accessed. I'm working on the card, but am not holding out much hope for the photo's to be recovered. I had some of the International Kite Fest that I promised and a few signs along the way.

We retreated from Chinook and went down to Neskowin Creek for a while, just above Lincoln City, Oregon. There are five used book stores in Lincoln City, I added a few to my Laurell K. Hamilton collection and finished up a Janet Evanovich collection for my mother.

So the rig is now in NorthBend/Coos Bay at my uncles, full hookups 1.5 miles from the ocean and free, ( less the occasional buying a dinner). My mother and I traveled to Hagerman, Idaho to winterize her house and pick up her car. It seems she will spend the winter in North Bend or perhaps on the road with me. I'm going to travel around Washington State for a month, then journey down to Quartzsite, stopping at Delta Shores near Isleton, Ca., River Grove near Santa Cruz, Ca. and Catspa near Desert Hot Springs, Ca. First of the year I'll be back in Quartzsite, Az. keeping warm and NOT SHOVELING SNOW, not worrying about the cold, the flu or slipping and getting hurt. Although I will miss that great Event, the Sundance Film Festival,"snort". I'm still trying for some photos as I think many times a "picture can say a thousand words." I'll leave a short video on a shoplifter in Aberdeen. :Video:

Wow.... IQuad kite team

If you ever want to see magic in the air (or indoors) you should check out the IQuad kite flying team. I am currently in Chinook/Ilwaco/Long Beach, Washington attending the International Kite Festival once again. Seems I enjoy the weather, the colors and the area a lot. Back to the story, I watched the team last night fly LED lighted kites, in a magical dance of beauty, passion and rhythm. It was truly awe inspiring, and no way to get pictures of these fast moving marvels. Dancing in the sky appeared simple, from old fashioned starbursts to playing tag and follow the leader, the kites took on a life of their own. I highly recommend anyone within reach of a kite festival to attend and watch these highly skilled pilots. They even fly indoors, without wind, to the delight of grownups and children alike.

I will be posting some kite photos again soon.

I don't want to be...

an organizational terrorist, but......

Reading through a RV trade digest offered me insight on Park City Municipal Corporation. I'm glad to know PCMC is ahead of the curve here. Also note the turnover rate near the end of the article.

http://www.rvtradedigest.com/interactive/2007/08/07/in-the-new-corporate-america-how-much-is-enough/

The article is "on-point" to say the least....