New England B.S. Thread

I already sent photos. I’m on a first name basis with the tire shop I use. It almost looks like it had something scratch the tire, but that doesn’t make a ton of sense.

A little age appropriate wear doesn’t bug me, but that looks iffy. Ironically we were on the highway last night. I’ll see what the shop says and move accordingly. I’m anticipating needing (4) tires.

 

Yeah I wouldn't drive that thing. Dry rot always concerns me especially around the rim or in the treads. IMO that's more than iffy, nor should it be considered normal if the tires aren't old.

 

They’re date coded late 2019, so three years. See what the tire shop says and move from there. Annoying nonetheless.

 

We've got CrossClimate2 on a Honda Odyssey...extremely happy with them

 

Saratoga Fat Bike Festival next Saturday, just picked up a second fatty for my wife and the girls. Also have a buddy that made up some 29er wheels for my Farley, fast rolling fully rigid carbon 29er for…I’m not really sure yet, but I’m stoked!

 

I have seen that happen to only one set of tires at my work, but the tire were MUCH older than yours (I think a date code from 2011 or 2012, so...). The tires were also getting low, so we recommended replacing them, and the customer approved new tires.
I am not the biggest fan of Cooper tires, as my brother had the rubber around the bead disintegrate causing a major leak on one of his cars, and the set of AT3s that I had on my truck turn rock hard after one winter (no traction in any rain/snow, even with my 4 cylinder!).

 

So far, I've had good luck with Cooper tires. I've had two sets of the ST Maxx, the STT Pro and now the AT3 XL.

 

No way at basically 3 years that happens and it's normal. That isn't wear from driving on low pressure, that's rot.

 

I'm (pending inspection) buying a place and have been considering ground source. The existing house is mechanically suitable for a retrofit, and I've done the basic math on capacity. It's a smaller place (~750 sq ft) and the smaller Bosch units look like a good fit. There are some other brands that are a little cheaper but I'm very much buy once/cry once on this. Given that I'll be upgrading from a wood stove/radiant propane, and there are ~30% rebates available based on my exact situation, this seems like a no-brainer.

Given all the details of geology/geometry/etc I'm looking at a slinky style horizontal loop. Per the well report, there's just enough topsoil over the ledge rock to meet minimum depths and I'm going to be talking to a geotechnical guy in a week or two to discuss a "smart" idea I had - basically, put an SFPF specced for a non-heated building over the field for the loop because 1) save excavation costs for the workshop by doing both at once, and 2) further insulate the loop due to the relatively shallow burial permitted by the terrain.

I don't have a pond or anything available. There is a natural spring on the property but I don't know if it's something that could be developed into a pond, and given its approximate location (on a ledge up from the house) I'm not exactly sure I want to put a pond there even if I could.

Anyway, I'm waiting on callbacks from a couple of places up here and was just curious to know what kind of general pricing people in the region have been getting, even though a lot of it is going to be variable based on the geology and specific setup.

 

@deanosaurus copy all.

I would hold, if you "just meet minimum".

I've gone to a few over the years, and the ground wasn't able to provide anymore heat.

My recommendation, WaterFurnace. Water source heat pump. Uses the aquifer, which would prevent the issues with ground source.

Not in this house, but, the last place I had up here, I went dual fuel.
95+% LP furnace, with an air source heat pump. The COP on a heat pump drops with source temp. I used to have mine shut down the heat pump, and switch to gas around 30f ambient. Also, kept the house cooler(62-66) If you like a 75-80f house, a heat pump isn't you best bet.

So, I haven't installed a ground source, but, I've worked on a few.

 

that looks like the tread cap coming off the carcass of the tire. Its it doing it on the inside too? Any sort of warranty on them?

 

I need to inspect the inner sidewalls, didn’t get a chance to. Cooper’s warranty is 60,000. I should be able to get a pro-rate on this one, but I’ll be on the hook for the other 3.5. Funnily enough I was reading today they had a recall on the 275 width tires for sidewall issues.

 

I had sidewall issues with a previous set of Coopers as well. Cracks looked the same but mine were about an inch away from the rim. Cooper pro-rated them based on tread depth. I had 65% tread depth left so they gave me a 65% credit toward any Cooper tires I wanted. At the time, I was running Cooper ATR's and they were discontinued so I ended up buying AT3s. I really liked the ATRs but they were starting to get a little loud. I couldn't get the AT3s to wear evenly. Great traction, but they didn't wear very well and got loud and rough. My dad had similar issues on Cooper tires also. Haven't been back to Cooper since.

 

Any thoughts on when shocks should be replaced? I'm at 63K on my 2019 Tacoma. It's an SR5 and so I'm not looking for anything more than an OEM equivalent. Not sure I need to take it to the dealer for shocks. Not going to do it myself, but there's an independent near me I've used for my wife's Highlander.

 

Even more so on a motorcycle. When only two patches of rubber are connecting you with the planet. It’s best to be proactive

 

Combination of age, mileage and usage. You can do the old school bounce test but you'll know they're shot if they fail that test. Generally, I look for them to start leaking oil and you'll notice the performance fade a bit, more bounce than you think the should have.

Rear shocks are easy, just start soaking the hardware with penetrating oil a few days prior. The fronts require a spring compressor.

 

You can go a lot longer. I’m at 160K miles and just changed my rear shocks a couple months ago. I’ll do the front in the spring.

 

I got 231K out of the ones on my Tundra. Maybe a bit much, but that's why I asked.

The rears look about like every rear shock I changed ever. I did a bunch of fronts back when I had access to a comercial garage, big jacks, spring compressor, and air compressor. Don't have any of that these days.

 

Mine were done at just under 12 yrs old and 117K. Probably could have squeezed a little more from them but it was free labour.

 

They're at the end of their useful life.

Come hang out at a mod day, install is free and we have a good time hanging out.

Don't resume till warmer weather but if you can wait it's easy and we have all the tools. If you're not going to have the truck for a few hours anyway might as well shoot the shit with some locals.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/new-england-mod-meetup-thread.762539/