VelocityYellowRules! luck continues...................

Morning Garry, what a great find!! I'm surprised they've lasted a week! Rims alone are worth $1200. each. Bus is the best way as it's fast and reliable. Toronto to here in Comox in 6 days. The only tip I'd give you is to get on the phone right away!!
Cheers Rob.
 
Good mornign Rob,

Contacted, left info, no reply. Maybe I'll be lucky it will be available still in two weeks when I might be going to Edmonton and perhaps on to Calgary from there.

Sort of heart broken today. Stored the Z06 on Saturday with my gf's help. It turned out to be within hours of a flurry so I got lucky as the snow would have made the trailer deck undriveable.

But didn't even manage to clean the car before this, thankfully we'd had some showers that took off the worst of the dust. To be hoenst, is probably cleaner than last fall when I brough toot back from the oil change when there was show on the ground and ened up picking up a lot of the sand from teh road on the car (left four piles under the wheels by spring!) so maybe I'm better off this way.

But only 4000 km of use..............

I hope that I can do better in 2016.

And no, no word at all from the tire store this week. I think I'll try some Nitto dealers in Grande Prairie and see if they can do me any better. I dislike it when a business jacks me around like I feel the tire store in Peace River did. If they don't want my business fine, if you forgot to order the tire fine, but the total lack of caring and communication doesn't sit well with me..............if there was a problem with ordering it or if it was going to take so long they ought ot have advised me...........I could have made alternate plans after all.

I'm curious in the end if I'll get a call in a few moreweeks to tell me the tire has arrived..............

Hopefully everyone has their cars under wraps. It snowed more last night and they're calling for two cm more today. Sigh.

Cheers,

Garry
 
Snow! Yuck! It's coming I guess with nothing we can do about it. However, this year is the first year I'll have a 4wd truck after a 2 year break. So glad to have a truck again and I'm oddly looking forward to some snow to play in!

Glad to hear you got your car into storage in time! That could have been a nightmare! As for the car being dirty, I don't think dust or dirt hurts anything as long as the car is out of the weather and the dust/dirt doesn't have a chance to hold moisture.
 
Good afternoon Riley,

Yep. A bit of a blizzard out there right now. Can't wait for the mess this weekend when it will be +7 either!

Finally got the clutch back in my 1150 tractor this morning. You guys ought to see the size of that puppy, tripple disc and like it weighs a tonne! Used a job on the front end loader and a chain hoist through the top, rear of the engine when the hood was removed. But what a difference. now instead of taking 30 to 60 seconds to get it into gear it acts almost like an automatic transmission!! Can't wait for spring. And as that would also mean that the snow would be gone I really can't wait for spring this year!!!!

But the car is away, still have to get a tire mind you, but time for that now. And even went in and renewed my membership at the Multiplex and spend an hour running and walking there this afternoon. Time to reclaim control over my life and to have some pure "Garry" time now that harvest is over............

Yes, there is not that much dirt on the car. It was worse when I brought it back to store last year. I considered trailering it into town and washing it and then it would have been clean as a whistle but time was pressing (maybe daylight hours?) on Saturday and so I thought going into shelter was the greater importance!

Here's to winter fun with the trucks then Riley!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
Garry have you thought about ordering the tire(s) from an online place like Tire Rack or some similar company? My buddy just got tires for his Viper, he waited almost 6 months for his Michelins. Even Manny tried to help him with no luck but I don't think our tires are as rare as his.

Just a thought. Good luck.
 
Yes, I even started to look on Kijiji as sometimes tire stores post on there. I think that I'll probably look for a Nitto dealer in Grande Prairie or perhaps Edmonton and will get it there and have my Grimshaw tire store mount it for me. 6 months waiting for tires? How in the world can that be - that is crazy! You ought to be able to get the factory to make them and sent them to you sooner than that! Odd size or not! Maybe I can find some better prices too?????

Here's hoping.

Cheers,

Garry
 
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Good morning!

So I took a trip down south, to Edmonton but also to Calgary to get some books. Contacted the rim/tire guy who happens to live by Olds (on the way to Calgary) and made arrangements to stop in.

Funny story. The guy is a farmer (as am I for those who might now know!). My first thought was "oh, that is what the rims look like when they are clean - they look good"! Plus the guy even lives on a short stretch of gravel road like me! He wouldn't lower his price from $300 but I guess considering what the rims are worth I shouldn't complain and yes I bought them. Kind of hard to plead poverty when he knows you're a Z06 owner I suppose!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy land prices there around Olds too - right around his area 1.2 to 1.6 million $ for 160 ac. When people up here where I farm are just starting to pay 300,000 K you get sticker shock!!!!

His story is interesting. His name is Scott. I told him about the website and so I hope he'll join up. Anyway a dyed in the wool Corvette fan. He's owned a C4, 3 C5's and the C6 Z06. I was curious to know how he ended up with a front and rear tire and rim and this is the story.

He let his brother-in-law borrow the car. The BL turned off the traction control and went around a corner and downshifted and went WOT. The car, of course, snapped to the right, hit a curb, broke the front tire off/cracked the spokes on the rim and did $14K of damage to the car. So when the car was repaired he replaced the rims and tires and so these were off the other side. He subsequently sold the car (90K km's for 34.5K $) and has ordered a 2016 C7 for the spring.

Scott also said that the bald rear tire, a Goodyear Eagle F1 had only 1500 km on them. Super sticky he felt, and only one burnout on a trip to Edmonton and he couldn't believe that they wouldn't last any longer than that. FYI one driver's experience...........he replaced them with Nitto Invo's I recall.

So anyway the front is good to go for a spare and the rear is as well but as he said in the ad there isn't much tread left on it. But for normal going to get grocery speeds it would be fine and in my case would have allowed me some further trips in October.

And no, still no word from the tire store so I guess I'll seek a new place to buy the tire I need from. Sort of PO'ed about that experience though.

Had a scary moment on the way home though. At night, 30 km south of Valleyview I lost control of the truck. Going 110 on a divided highway and no idea it was icy like this. And yes I do have very good winter tires even. Anyway the truck just broke out and into the ditch I headed. I really thought that at this speed I was going to roll the truck. But it changed direction three times, I didn't overcorrect the steering and I was darn lucky that the tires never caught an edge either - not that much snow yet. Plus there were no trees or rocks either. Anyway I scrubbed off speed and then was able to go up the ditch again and rejoin the highway. I slowed down but people were passing me like crazy. I dropped to 90 km and about 5 km further on had the back end go out again, almost hit a truck/horse trailer - the guy never slowed down and just pulled to the shoulder and passed me as did many subsequent vehicles. A few km more and there was a semi on it's side in the ditch. So called 911, talked with the driver when he got out to make sure he was OK and drove the rest of the way to Valleyview at 40 km and spent the night. Sad we were the only vehicle that stopped at this truck accident too...........

But I thought in hindsight that my autocross driving must have helped. I never thought when I was going in the ditch but just reacted and it seems properly. Still not sure why i had such traction problems compared to everyone else that I saw that night.......

Cheers,

Garry
 
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Glad you are alright Garry. Some scary moments. Car control is something that most drivers are lacking these days. Autocross experience just indeed may have saved you from a nasty.
 
Good morning,

I find it sort of odd how that experience really unsettled me. I keep playing it over in my mind and keep seeing the truck rolling over and over before coming to a stop. It made me think if I needed to rethink a driving position that I have held for a very long period of time. Not a Corvette subject but I hope you'll allow me a little latitude.

While I have a couple of 4 wheel drive trucks myself and the one I was driving on this trip (mom's) is also a 4 wheel drive, I rarely use 4 wheel drive. I do if I am starting from stop and it is muddy or deep snow but otherwise once on the road I don't use 4 wheel drive.

My reasoning for this is that while 4 wheel drive helps you to start moving it doesn't help you to stop. If traction is a limiting factor I'd rather find out about it while in 2 wheel drive rather than being able to travel at a faster speed in 4 wheel drive and then discovering that traction is limited ie. I'd rather slide at 50 km than 100 km/hr.

I'm not sure that if I had been driving in 4 wheel drive that night things would have turned out any better for me. Maybe I would not have lost control at all. Maybe it would have happened further down the road instead of when it did.

I just find that 4 wheel drive gives drives a false sense of confidence and then they end up in a situation in which they've lost control, something that would have perhaps happened at a slower speed than if they'd been in 2 wheel drive..........

Any thoughts?

I've considered that the truck does have fairly wide tires, the winter tires are the same size as the summer ones since the truck came with a second set of rims that size. I wonder if the wider tires and consequent lower ground pressure played a role in my losing control too? Maybe narrower winter tires would be better?? Allow for more pressure per square inch of tire on the road. The truck was also not ballasted either. I mean I had the two Z06 tires and rims, maybe 200 lb of books I bought (really!!) and some other things in the box so it was not like empty.

Do I need to rethink my position on using 4 wheel drive even at highway speeds now??

Cheers,

Garry
 
I'm with you Gary for only using 2-wheel drive on the highway; this is also what I do. As a rule I only use the 4-wheel drive when I have to. I find that the 4-wheel drive gives a false sense of security and you do not become aware of how slippery it is until too late. I have done a 4-wheel drift in my old truck becuase of this. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic but sure did scare the livin' daylights out of me. Here in NL we are still allowed to use studded tires in the winter and I have found these make a huge difference when driving up to town. A lot of people think the studs make the tire less effective on dry pavement and that is not my experience. Speed is the issue and being very aware of the driving conditions. The number of accidents we have responded to during winter with people driving on all-season tires or winter tires in poor condition is unbelievable. Sometimes I think they should be charged but the lost of their vehicle is probably enough of a penalty. Drive for the conditions and most times you will ok.

Stay Safe
Fred
 
Thanks Fred,

Glad that you seem to be thinking along the same lines as me. My problem was that I was unaware of how slippery it was. I think that I missed, at the time, the really big clue which was how the tail lights of vehicles ahead of me was reflected off the road surface - that should have made me clue in to how icey it was out. I usually do drive for conditions, for example, after I clued in to how bad it was and started driving to Valleyview at 40 km/hr, I drove mostly on the shoulder where there was untravelled snow for better traction and also with my 4 way flashers on to let people know I was travelling slower and I was stunned at the way people kept passing me going full speed. I remember realizing as well, at the time that semi went on its side in the ditch and I was getting out to cross the road to see if the drive was OK but almost going flat on my face I realized how slippery it was and still seeing people flying by me (at the scene of an accident no less!). I decided that I needed to get back inside my truck and to stay there so I didn't get hit.

My position on 4 wheel drive is that it's great for acceleration, no help at all for braking.........even in mud and snow once I get moving I usually go back into 2 wheel drive.

I wish I could use studded tires myself but we can't in Alberta - illegal as far as I know.

I find it so funny that way back, like 25 years ago or so 4 wheel drive was uncommon and now it seems people can't get by without it. If you need 4 wheel drive to get somewhere isn't that Mother Nature just telling you that it is time to stay home anyway??!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
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Gary and Fred I agree with the idea of not using 4 wheel drive on the highway, it strikes me that it can actually get you into trouble a lot quicker but that is just my opinion.

Pickup trucks are notoriously light in the back end, they do give you that seat of the pants information you need but sometimes, maybe as in your case, just a little to late. I keep sand in the back of mine, I just buy 8 to 10 bags of dried sand and keep it over the rear axle and towards the cab. Seems to work for me.

Drive carefully it is a scary world out there.
 
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