Forest of the Plains

You thought this tire-replacement story was over? Wrong! :-)

Non-Dave, aka Jordan, put on the new tires. But, he doesn’t do alignments and he suggested that I should have an alignment done since I had new tires. He suggested that I contact this farmer who sells and fixes up cars on the side. I decided to go with a different guy who fixes cars full-time, the owner of Hesston Auto & Truck Repair.

At Hesston Auto you can choose between sitting on an old van seat or on a regular chair. They also have children’s toys and Mary Kay brochures available. And, there is a really old, dusty upright piano in the waiting room. The place is full of character!

Today John and I went inside to pay for the alignment. As a bonus, we got a 15-minute lecture - complete with hand drawn diagrams - on what exactly an alignment is and why you don’t necessarily need one when you get new tires. This guy finds that researching the mechanical history of cars helps in trouble-shooting today’s cars. Apparently alignments haven’t changed since 1915 because “it’s math and math never changes”.

He also said that most tire places try to sell alignments to people who don’t really need them. He also said that Dave’s doesn’t do such disreputable things. Then, we also got advice for how to tell if a car’s framing has been damaged & the wheels have been changed to try to disguise the damage.

I had no idea that getting new tires would be so complicated!