New Tires for my 1931 Ford Model A Pickup – Installed at Les Schwab

Описание: The four tires on my Model A were 8 years old, and the spare tire was much older. Clearly, the tires needed to be replaced. This was my first major Model A maintenance expense.

In this video, I document a rather complicated procedure of mounting four new tires on my Model A and swapping out an old tire for the very old tire for the spare. During this process, several issues were discovered – two damaged, rusty wheels and five loose hubcaps need to be replaced. I plan on posting a video of this additional wheel and tire maintenance project, some of which I will do myself.

Background:
On June 2, 2021, I drove my Model A to Les Schwab Tire Center in Sequim, just a 15-minute drive from home to have the tires inspected and the air filled up to the recommended 35 Psi. Garrett, the service technician checked the DOT code: the tires were new in 2014. Although there were no obvious cracks in the rubber, he recommended that I should consider new tires as being a high priority for safety. The sales manager told me that they could order the tires online, their preference being Coker Tire Company, but that I would save money if I ordered them myself then brought them to Les Schwab to have them mounted. So that was my plan.
I went online and placed an order for four new black wall Firestone | 475/500-19 tires, exactly like the existing tires, and four inner tubes. The email I received after placing the order stated, “The product(s) that you ordered is currently on backorder.” I called Coker Tires and learned that the Firestone tires were in stock, but not the innertubes. The expected availability was in late December. It wasn’t until January 14 when I finally received delivery of the tires and innertubes.