To Be Discontinued

So I currently have over 76,000 miles on my truck. I am still running on 3 of the original tires (one of them exploded on freeway at about 40,000 miles). I have never balanced or rotated them. However, my tires need replacing now as they don’t have much tread left. So I’ve been doing a lot of research on what tires to get. However, I have found that the size, 265/75/15, and type (All Terrain) on my Colorado Z71 truck is fairly hard to find. I have checked around, called around, and no one has them “in stock”. It would take anywhere from a day to a week to get them. And the decent brands want way to much, and the crappy brands, well, they are crappy. I was about to get some Cooper tires, until I started to read reviews. I finally narrowed it down to a Firestone Destination LE, but it would take a week and a day, and they want way to much for the actual installation. I think my final answer will be the Dunlop Rover AT from Sam’s Club. I’d love to get them from Sam’s Club (but their selection is limited) because of their tire service being only $10 per tire, as compared to $15+ anywhere else, and still doesn’t include everything Sam’s Club does (like lifetime rotation and balancing). I had called the Chevy dealership to find out about getting the same tires that I had, and apparently, the General tires that I have are being discontinued. I’m still not sure what to do though, as the reviews haven’t been great any any single tire… but then there is always something bad to say.

Break my Brake

So about two weeks ago, I changed the brakes on the Cavalier that Danielle has been driving for a while. They’ve been sticking a lot when she stops. I had already changed out the front brakes a while back, so this time I changed out the back brakes. I get everything put back together, and back out of the yard all the way to the road. I could feel that they were working better. When I get to the road, I hit the gas in reverse getting ready to stop and go to tighten up the rear brakes. *crunch* The car doesn’t move now. You hit the gas, nothing, change gears, nothing. I put it in neutral and roll (which is still does) all the way back to the car pit. Something is broken in the tranny. So there it sits for the moment.

My father came down this last week. He didn’t stay long, but we hung out a little bit. We went shooting one day with his SKS and my Glock and .38. I am really liking the SKS. I want to build a few stands for different things to shoot. One will hold targets (which I intend to make myself after a little bit of trying). One will hold “cans”. And the other will have nails sticking up to hold watermelon or other rotting fruit. Bobby tells me that shooting rotting watermelon causes it to explode. That will prove to be fun. We also went to Wing House, where I had Danielle’s permission to “enjoy the boobies”. He finally left without taking a whole lot (well, except for a few fun things such as the propane tank).

Yesterday, I started a little more cleaning up. I started another fire, and started throwing things out. I also changed the brakes on my truck. I was a little apprehensive because of my last experience changing breaks, but I had no problems. The front brakes were a breeze. I loosened up the calipers, put the new ones on, and I was good to go. I drove down the Discount and picked up some rear brakes (I already had the front brakes purchased months ago). I checked the rear ones (which were making noise). WOW. They neeeeeded to be changed. One had no pad left, and where there was pad, it could break off easily. The rear brakes were a little more troublesome. The parking brake cable connects directly to the shoe, and the there is a bar that holds the shoes in that you need to pull out, then get it back into a little hole while pulling out and trying to push over while making sure you don’t get your fingers crushed.