Off topic tyres

[AlbertaFarmer5]

After years of installing used worn out tires on the tandem, this summer I put all new drive tires.
I told the tire shop I wanted anything except Chinese tires. His response is that they don't even stock anything else, rarely ever sell anything else. And most of his customers are logging trucks, oilfield trucks, heavy haul etc, all in the nastiest conditions anywhere ( Ford sent the superduties to this general area to test them before they came out, because they had established that our roads are the hardest on vehicles anywhere).

Then he gave me the price on brand name compared to the Blacklion. At almost double the cost, I reluctantly accepted the Chinese tires.

No problems so far, but I can see a day where North America doesn't have enough capacity to manufacture our own tires ( along with every thing else), and our economy could literally be shut down or held for ransom if the Chinese wanted to.

[helmsdale]

I've noticed alot larger difference in margins on domestic tires than chinese...

Place I've been dealing with sells a slug of tires but his margins are likely quite low.

I put bridgestone 775s (everyone makes a knockoff version of these) for about 1/3 more than an off-shore knockoff of the same tire. Many other retailers were 1/3 higher again, but their chinese price was similar.

I still put enough miles on the Pete and super B's, and pull stupid poorly maintained river hills, so have gone with Bridgestone W919s. They are high ply, so I run at 80psi and still get about 130K out of them with second to none winter ice and snow traction.