Keep on Truckin'

I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but in addition to my fondness for computers and home improvement, I'm also a car geek. I'm not a super hard-core motorhead, but I've done my fair share of maintenance and repair, up to and including a couple of total engine rebuilds. As I get older, I usually let the pros do the maintenance, but I still enjoy having a nice vehicle, and am as fond as ever of muscle cars.

For the last several months, I've been saving up the money to get some routine maintenance done on my truck. I just passed the 50,000 mile mark, and some of my maintenance is overdue... at least according to the manufacturer's maintenance schedule. I finally got that work done yesterday. I needed new tires all the way around, and my transmission needed to be flushed. In addition to this, I got the mandatory oil change. The tires were the worst though. They were almost down to bare rubber.

In fact, day before yesterday, one of the tires gave out. After getting home from work, my younger daughter asked me to play outside with her. As I passed through the garage on my way outside, I heard a hissing sound. Yep, you guessed it, one of my tires got a hole. So I pulled the truck into the driveway, where I had enough room to work, and changed out the quickly-flattening tire. Fortunately, my truck has a full-sized spare, not one of those crappy donut spares. Even more fortunately, I was ready to buy the new tires. I was just waiting for my recent credit card payment to post, so I could get the work done. The payment posted the next day, and I arranged for the work to be done.

As I tell you my mundane tale, I've got to say that I'm a fan of Tires Plus. I had budgeted about $800 for the tires and transmission flush. They did that, plus an oil change for a little under $700. The work was quick and thorough. And as I left their shop, I had forgotten how much difference fresh tires and a good alignment makes to the steering and handling. The steering was noticeably easier, and the change in responsiveness was phenomenal. There's no doubt that I got the maximum possible life out of my old tires, but I'm incredibly pleased with the fresh tread.

The transmission flush also helped noticeably. The truck shifts much more smoothly. As I drove around town yesterday and today, I was as giddy as I usually am when I get a new toy for my computer. Next, I'm going to have to take the truck out for a little mud-running.