Tires

I didn't "trade up" from the old Dakota so I had to go shopping for tires. I don't like shopping and I don't like shopping for tires.

Tire Discounters leveled the playing field here when Chip Wood opened their first store in Cincinnati in 1976. I prefer buying from a local outfit but their prices and service is hard to beat.

Once you start buying there, they keep you coming back by adjusting the price off the last set you bought. Tires often don't make the recommended mileage you should get off a set so if a 60,000 mile tire wears 40 or 50,000 miles, they tell you they can take a little off the next set. I haven't found another store able to beat that.

They also have full service shops with free alignment, free lifetime rotation and tire maintenance, brakes, shocks and struts and all kinds of stuff. Now they have a store in every major town like Wilmington, Hillsboro, Mt. Orab and Washington Court House so they are "always in the neighborhood."

I would rather buy from Brown's at the Martinsville Mall or Magulac Tire on US 50 or Chuck Wait Tire in Mowrystown and Hillsboro but they can't always match the price and service. Bob Sumeral is a Tire Discounter shoot-off also I think but I haven't priced them as they are not close to me.

So I went with Tire Discounter's once more. They had the best deal but they install freshly made tires and I prefer seasoned ones. I haven't made myself buy my tires a year early so I can season them myself but I would probably almost double the tire life if I did.

Convenience is so much easier than money making habits.

At least my truck is safe again and I won't have to call AAA to rescue me like they did a few weeks ago. But I have to be careful where I drive, I can't use it haul metal to the scrap yard or I may pick up a piece of metal in my brand new tires.

That's hard to do on the farm.

Ed