Trevor Easton's visit to the Birthday Party

Caution-Don't mix up your rubbers

Had a wonderful time at the Birthday Party and spent Saturday morning exploring the trails and attending the ceremonial breaking of the beaver dam. After lunch it was off to the RTV where we arrived as a late entrant. Watching Quinton take the last few gates of the first section on two wheels was exciting. Now it was our turn in the only Rangie to participate.

The first couple of gates were taken easily but the next was too narrow for a Rangie so we faulted there. Not discouraged we continued and proceeded to descend the rocky section where previous entrants had tried flying. Apart from a few unladylike mutterings from Mary, it was not too bad. A quick scout of the second section showed it to be quite difficult and after Andrew slid off the rock and into the far distance the gates were altered. Again it came to our turn but this time Mary declined the offer to act as live ballast. A touch on gate 9 again finished this section for the Rangie, but I decided to continue and coming off the slick rock Martin Rothman called "You've blown a tyre".Proceeded through the rest of the section with the tyre puffing and hissing then pulled aside to change the wheel. The tires were a matched set of 215/85/16 Sears Trailmasters (by Coopers) but the spare was a Michelin also labeled 215/16 but no aspect ratio. The replacement worked fine for the rest of the weekend and on Saturday we set off for Grimsby via the rail trail and back roads to Belleville then by Highway 2 for a gentle scenic trip. Once it got dark there wasn't any scenery so we turn onto the 401.Here the fun started. The replacement tyre was on the right front and at about 100Km/hr the Rangie started to wander and the wandering was divergent in nature unless quickly corrected. Across Toronto I continued to fight the wheel sure that something was amiss with the suspension (I should really fit those PolyBushes that are in the garage) until at Cawthra Road I had had enough and decided to change the tires front to back. Miracle of Miracles she was stable once more, not entirely, but much better and not heart stopping to drive at 120Km/hr. Monday and a visit to Mr Sear's for a pair of replacement tires and she's like new. Thanks to the road hazard warranty the new tyre only cost me $50.

The moral of the story is don't mix you tires on the same axle, it can be a frightening experience.

Last modified April 30, 2005.

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