I missed getting a shot of this yesterday as I headed up busy Hwy 99. But on the way back, it was still there. Looks like it has some good tread left; wonder if it would fit on my Ford? Maybe it’s still there today.
Curbside Outtake: Anybody Need A Tire?
– Posted on April 23, 2013
Detroit testing its new invisible car….
Or why they stopped storing spare tires in the rear fenderwells of station wagons?
I must be getting old. The first thing I thought of was W. C. Fields chasing his runaway wheel down the long, long hill. From The Man on the Flying Trapeze, I believe.
Watch out! It’s Robert. Have you not seen the movie “Rubber”?
It’s a great satire of the slasher flicks, isn’t it?
Very strange & very funny.
They charge us to dispose of old tyres maybe this is a way around that charge leave old tyres curbside.
“Midnight Disposal” it’s called.
For awhile, where I lived, there was no place to dispose of used engine oil. Couldn’t put it in the trash; a garage would charge you for it. I took to putting it in old plastic jugs and parking it on the front step of the local garage overnight.
These days…I couldn’t do that because of the prevalence of surveillance cameras. Happily I don’t need to; the local garage is gone, but the discount auto parts places take old oil for free with a receipt for oil. It’s a better plan than pouring it on the road at 3am, hoping nobody and no camera is catching it.
I subscribed to Popular Science as a kid in the early 70s, and recall a little tip for disposal of old oil. The editors recommended pouring it into plastic milk jugs and putting it into the trash. They said that it was so much more responsible than pouring it on weeds in the alley. Seriously. Now I just stockpile it in jugs in the garage because I keep forgetting to load it into the car for disposal when the car goes into the mechanic.
The way things are going, we’ll be using it to heat with.
Years ago, in the early to mid 70’s, one of the hotrod type magazines posted how to make your own oil disposal site in your back yard. Dig a hole in the back yard and fill it partially with gravel. Then take a coffee can and cut off the bottom place it so that the top was flush with the ground replace the dirt around the can. Then just pop off the plastic lid and dump in your waste oil.
For years my Dad followed the put it in the plastic milk jug and we took it to the dump with the rest of the trash.
I also remember oil disposal kits you could buy at auto parts stores in the early 80’s. It was a cardboard box with a plastic bag filled with what was mostly shredded paper and a twist tie. The bag was sized so that you could fold it over the edge of the box and use it as a drain pan. The instructions were to twist tie the bag, close the box and put it in the trash. It was a very thin bag and I’m surprised it didn’t melt if you drained the oil hot like you should. I’m ashamed to admit now that I used those many times.
As far as putting it on weeds it wasn’t until at least the late 80’s or early 90’s that they outlawed using it to oil dirt roads to keep the dust down around here. The service station I worked at in the 80’s used to have a road oiling truck that came around an picked up our waste oil.
Nowadays it is serious trouble if you were to do any of those things. A friend of mine who operates a mobile heavy truck repair business had one of the jugs start leaking in his truck and a cop saw it dripping out while he was going down the road and pulled him over. I don’t remember how big the fine was but I do know he had to do something like 40 hrs of community service to avoid jail time.
Thankfully for tires you can still take a limited number to the transfer station, I think 2 per visit or we have recycling events in the spring and fall where you can drop off up to 6 or 8 tires along with your motor oil, scrap metal and a host of other things.
Interesting, how with all the dust-control, and midnight disposal, and garbage insertion of old oil…that life actually survived.
Did better, actually. The roads in small towns were less dusty. No government puke was checking off what happened to used oil, like a UN WMD inspector.
And here we are…with fears generated with garbage science and control-freak bureaucrats…worrying about USED ENGINE OIL.
The Earth is a durable place. It made oil; it can handle oil.
Something about that picture just makes me laugh out loud.
“Timmy the tire was unable to go on the field trip with the rest of the class, as his mom forgot to sign the form.”
I know, I’m weird…
Lol, you’re not the only one…! 😀
After the most incredibly stressful month at work, I sure would like to re-tire, do you think the pictured tire would help? 😉
I think it would make you…tired.
[rimshot]
This post is most tiresome.
Bada-bing 🙂
Is that satire? 😉 (Thank you, I’m here all night!)
Zzzzzzz
Looks pretty old, a blow-out waiting to happen.