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An interesting moral dilemma presented itself Sunday morning. Martha and I were driving west on Colo. 119, headed into Longmont for the annual Dalrymple family picnic.
As we cruised along, windows wide open because our Spewt is not air-conditioned, a late-model Ford Explorer passed.
Its tires sounded weird -- not the normal hum, but noise reminiscent of the days when I drove with recaps and the tread was about to fly off.
I wonder if it's got those Firestone tires,
I
mentioned to Martha.
There's a stoplight up ahead. Why don't you get next
to them and see?
I did, and observed that they were the Firestone Wilderness tires that have been in the news of late, along with ATX models. The light soon changed, and since I'd had to get into the right-turn lane to look at the tire labels, I turned and took some county roads into Longmont.
I can't believe you did that,
Martha said.
Did what? We wondered if that Explorer had that kind
of tires, and we found out. What did I do?
It's what you didn't do. You should have tapped your
horn and got their attention and told them that at least
one of their tires sounded as though it was coming
apart.
They obviously had air-conditioning, since it was over 90 degrees and their tinted windows were rolled up tight. Just getting them to roll down the window, especially at the urging of an unkept fellow in a grimy 10-year-old Blazer -- they'd probably be using their cell phone to report an attempted car-jacking, and I'd spend the afternoon talking to a state trooper.
And besides, how could they not know about the great tire recall -- this being the August silly season, the mass media haven't had anything better to do than create a nation of hysterical Spewt owners.
But still, you should have tried,
Martha said.
She's right, I should have. For all I knew, they'd been
camped for the previous fortnight, blissfully unaware of
the tendency for the tread to separate from the carcass on
certain Firestone tires that came stock on many Ford
Spewts, especially if driven hard in hot weather when
underinflated. And if they were headed for Estes Park or
Grand Lake instead of Longmont, disaster might loom
somewhere up the road.
Further thought raised several questions, the main ones concerning tire inflation.
Firestone recommended 30 psi for the tires in question, while Ford said 26 psi was enough, and gave a softer and smoother ride.
The problem is that if you start at 30 psi, and the tire loses a little pressure (as all tires do over time), you'd still be in the safe range at 26. But if you start at 26, then you're down to 22, and that's not safe.
So you should check your tire pressure. Old bias-ply tires had the merit of visibly sagging when they were low on air, but modern radials look about the same even if they're nowhere close to being properly inflated.
Thus, you can't just look. My kids have a hard time
believing this, but someday I'll convince them that there
was a time when you could pull into something called a
service station,
and get service: not just your tank
filled, but your oil checked, your windows washed and your
tire checked and, if necessary, inflated.
(I note that even car retailers have moved away from the
service concept -- ads invite us to the Ford store,
rather than the Ford garage
or Ford dealer.
Stores offer goods, not services.)
So you need a gauge. The convenience store probably doesn't have one to borrow, since the one it did have got borrowed and never returned. Fortunately, tire gauges cost only a few dollars, so you can carry one in the car -- and then try to remember where you keep it.
After you check your pressure, you may need to add air to the tires. They charge for air. And there's usually something parked in front of the air dispenser.
At first I was inclined to propose that, in the interest of public safety, the legislature require every gasoline retailer to install a free air hose.
But then I realized the nature of our legislature. So here's a safety proposal that might pass. Make it a crime to drive with improperly inflated tires (sort of like driving without a seatbelt), and issue every cop a pressure gauge so he could check the tires on every car he stops.
Our roads would be safer, and there would be yet another way for the cops to write tickets while improving the state's revenue stream. And maybe then I wouldn't have to feel guilty about not trying to warn somebody that one of his tires sounded as though it were starting to fall apart.
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