Baby Got New Shoes!

Li’l Homey got new shoes this week.  The ones she had were in perfect shape, with probably less than 2000 miles on them, but they were car tires with a very low profile and I kept dragging the tongue jack in parking lots and driveways.  So it was time to switch ’em out and get a real trailer tire.

The challenge came when I started trying to locate a 13″ tire.  A 13″ trailer tire, that is.  I even looked into replacing the wheels, too, but that became even more challenging since they’re 4-inch 4-lug hubs, virtually impossible to find – this little new-tire project of mine just kept getting bigger and bigger as I started considering changing out the hubs to 5-luggers.  No!  No!  All I wanted was a couple more inches of height!

After lots of research online and a bunch of visits to tire stores and other places looking for all the options, I settled on Discount Tire’s newest addition to its Carlisle line of trailer tires – it’s still a radial but built for a trailer and it had high ratings in all the reviews I read online.  Sounded good to me.  I made an appointment with the local guys and loaded the tires and wheels into the back of my car.  The next morning, I headed out in the chilly air and got some new tires mounted onto my old rims; they loaded them into my car again and I went back to install them on my trailer.

I kept the original spare – a 1965 tire with the weird size (6.50 13 – this numbering system was only used from 1965 to 1970 or so… the things you get to learn when doing research!) and absolutely no inflation information on the sidewall.  Nowadays, they put all kinds of stuff on the sidewall of a tire but back then, size was the only thing they wanted to know, I guess.  But for a 48-year-old tire, it’s in great shape and even holds air!

So, after a lot of huffing and puffing, and wondering why I was sitting on the cold concrete trying to wheedle those big ol’ things into place with all my hands and feet, here she is, my Li’l Homey, my Home Sweet Home, all decked out in new shoes and ready to roll!  No more crashing into the driveways and drainage swales in parking lots!

A special thanks to my cousin’s husband, Bill, for the loan of the tools and for lending a hand at the beginning of this project a couple of days earlier.  I love getting my hands dirty and if I can use tools in the process, I’m ecstatic!  Whee!