I AM a tire counter. How utterly boring! Right, maybe, but consider
the cost of those tires. Perhaps $500 per tire which amounts to $11,000
for a 22 wheeler. No wonder these huge machines dominate the roads.
They pay their way
Here is a picture of a 22 wheeler hauling fluid of some kind. Fliuds slosh
around. The weight on the tires must vary making the truck dangerous.
Yet I have never seen a huge rig upset. Rollovers are usually 18 wheelers.
Why is that?
Dad was a truck tire builder. Big Strong men were needed to construct
truck tires. He qualified and was proud of his work. The day
he reTIREd Eric and I visited the Dunlop factory in Whitby
and actually saw dad building a truck tire. Impressive. He slapped
great lengths of heavy rubber on a spinning wheel. Vulcanized I imagine whatever that means.
Real pure rubber tires were reserved for aircraft because real rubber
can take the stress of a B52 trying to land on a Norad airstrip in
Minot, North Dakota. Loaded with atomic bombs. Or the stress
of an airbus loaded with people like us.
alan
P.s. This is the second version of the tire counting habit. The first
version was longer but I hit the wrong button on my computer..
Perhaps a story about rubber will come next.
