The Three R's with RNR

Dear Bree,

When I come in and get a new set of tires, what happens to my old tires?  What happens to all of the old tires?

Curious in Tampa

 
Dear Curious,

That’s an excellent question!  There are lots of uses for old, discarded tires, as well as lots of things you shouldn’t do with them.  Try to imagine how many tires are discarded every year; you may just be thinking about cars, trucks, SUVs, etc., but what about motorcycles, bicycles, tractors and other farm equipment, and planes?  There are more tires than you ever thought of! 

In the past few years, as people have focused more and more on the environment, the question of what to do with all of these tires has been given a lot of thought.  Generally, when we think of taking care of the earth, we think of the first thing we taught our children about being responsible stewards of the planet: reduce, reuse, recycle.  It’s kind of like “Everything I need to know, I learned in kindergarten.”  Stick to the basics and you can make a big difference.

Reduce: Want to reduce the number of tires being discarded every year?  Start with your own car by taking care of your tires and properly maintaining them.  That means checking the tire pressure and tread, having the alignment and balance checked and rotating the tires when necessary.

Reuse:  There are ways for you to reuse tires around your own home or in community projects.  Think about making a tire swing for your kids, use them as planters or for unique art projects, or use them to help improve your young athlete’s accuracy by hanging them and having them throw a baseball, football, etc. through the middle (works for archery too!).   Old tires can also be used as bumpers for boats, go carts or other recreational vehicles.  Use your imagination!  Using old tires keeps them out of landfills and scrap tire yards—and it makes you use your imagination!

Recycle:  More and more things are being created all the time from recycled tires!  To recycle a tire,   you have to disassemble it and melt down the parts: rubber, steel and other materials.  Then you can reshape these elements and create something new like the solid tires used on lawn mowers and toys.  Tire rubber is also excellent for making rubber bands and belts that are used in automobile engines—and in making asphalt! Per the EPA, there are at least 110 new products made with recyclable tire rubber and 12 million scrap tires per year used to build highways.

 

Want more?  You can grind up old tire rubber and use it as mulch or as filler on athletic fields.  Want to really get the most out of old tires?  Old rubber can be ground up and used to be “Earthships,” energy efficient homes made from bricks that are essentially earth and ground up rubber.

If you’re wondering how safe it is to have all of this rubber ground up and used as mulch or to create playing fields, checkout the RMA’s (Rubber Manufacturer’s Association) webpage, Scrap Tires and the Environment.

As far as what you shouldn’t do with your old tires, you shouldn’t dump them illegally or burn them.  Discarded tires that pile up in vacant lots are breeding grounds for mosquitoes (standing water inside of them) and rats; burning tires releases toxic fumes and these fires are very difficult to extinguish.  Rats are just creepy, folks; and don’t we have enough mosquitoes already?  I get eaten up every time I step outside!  And don’t get me started on air pollution!

If you need to get rid of some of your old tires, look for a recycling business in your area.  More and more businesses recycle tires, and it won’t be too hard to find someone to help you out. At RNR, we have a service that disposes of or recycles tires that can’t be used anymore.  Ask us for advice if you’re stuck about what to do with your old tires!

Bree

Malfunction Junction - What's the TPMS Function?

Dear Bree,
I do not understand what the heck just happened with my tire.  Please translate.
I was driving into my neighborhood when my tire pressure light went on, and then BA-BAM!  My tire just went flat!  I’m talking about going from, “Hey, your tire pressure is low,” to dead tire.  Not wounded, not a little leak--FLAT!  Then, as if that wasn’t crazy and scary enough, when I got it to a tire place to repair, they told me that the tire sensor valve stem had corroded, so the sensor just went *POOF*, detached and fell into my tire—hence the instant flat! What?!  I don’t even know what a tire sensor valve stem is!
I think that I should have had some clue that this problem existed or might occur or something, but I didn’t.  I just assumed that when my tire pressure warning light lit up, I’d have a minute to do something about it.  Can you please explain to me what went wrong and what I can do about it in the future?  Anything else I ought to know about these sensor things?
In the Dark in Indiana

Dear In the Dark,
You’re not alone in your confusion.  We see this kind of thing in some of our locations (namely, the ones located in colder climates), but lots of people are unfamiliar with the problem.  Let me break it down for you.
I’ll start with a little history lesson.  The Great Firestone Recall of the late 90’s had a big influence on the movement toward TPMS (tire-pressure monitoring systems) becoming standard on new cars.  More than a hundred deaths were linked to rollovers caused by tread separation on these Firestone tires, and this led to the creation of the TREAD Act by the Clinton administration.  In short, it requires that all new cars sold after September 1^st, 2007, had to come equipped with TPMS that would alert drivers when their tires were under-inflated.  The benefits are two-fold: reduce the number of accidents on roadways and improve fuel efficiency. Now, whether or not you agree with a government mandate on this topic can be discussed at your dinner table; the point is that TPMS’s are here to stay; so, as consumers and drivers, we need to know as much as we can about them.
TPMS’s are designed to alert drivers when their tire pressure falls below 25% of the recommended cold tire-inflation pressure, and it does this by using pressure sensors in each wheel to directly measure the pressure in each tire (this is the direct tire-pressure monitoring system).  Another option is the indirect TPMS which uses the vehicle’s antilock braking system’s wheel speed sensors to compare the rotational speed of one tire against the others. If a tire is low on pressure, it will roll at a different number of revolutions per mile than the other three and alert the vehicle’s onboard computer.  Most people seem to agree that direct systems are more accurate and reliable, and also have the advantage of usually being able to identify which tire is having trouble.
But TPMS’s are far from perfect.  The most common problem seems to be valve stem corrosion.  If a brass valve core is installed into an aluminum stem or a brass cap is screwed onto an aluminum stem, you’ve got a problem.  These two metals don’t mix; put them together and you get galvanic corrosion, especially if you’re living with Nanook of the North and dealing with ice melting chemicals and salt on roadways.  If this corrosion occurs, these two dissimilar metals will fuse together and cause damage to the stem, core and cap, and eventually the sensor itself.   When a dealer or tire repair professional goes to remove the cap or valve core, or just check the tire pressure, the whole sensor just breaks off or the valve crumbles.  Not good, right?  Sounds like this might be what happened to you.
Another common issue is that eventually, the batteries in these units die (anywhere between 3 and 10 years is the life span); and when they die, the entire unit has to be replaced.  It is recommended that if you replace one TPMS, you replace them all at the same time (more than likely, the others are on their last gasps as well); and this, as you can imagine, can get pricey.  You may be facing a similar fate with the sensors on your car.  If one was this badly corroded, how are the others looking?
So, now you know.  Don’t mix the metals.  Ask questions.  In 2012, it was estimated that there were more than 200 million TPMS sensors on the road, and more than 35% of them were at least 3 years old, which means that in the next couple of years, more than 9 million sensors will need to be replaced.  That’s a lot of sensors.
We deal with problems like this all the time at RNR, so if you come see us, we can help you out and get you back on the road.  Take care!

Bree

RNR Opens New Corporate Store in Orlando, FL

RNR Custom Wheel and Tire Express opened their 10th corporate location on May 5th, 2013.  The new store is located at 6000 South Orange Blossom Trail and is their second Orlando location.  Their original Orlando location is at 3240 West Colonial Drive.
On Saturday, May 18th, RNR hosted a grand opening event complete with local car clubs and live music provided by Obie Diaz and his crew from Power 95.3.  Some of the areas hottest custom vehicles were showcased, and at the end of the day, Team Redline Car Club went home with the trophy for “Best Car Club.”  A few lucky RNR patrons also took home tickets to an advanced screening of Fast and Furious 6, courtesy of Power 95.3.  It was a busy and exciting day for this new location, and one which they hope portends good things to come.
Orange Blossom Trail is perhaps the busiest thoroughfare in Orlando, and RNR expects this new store to see a lot of traffic.  This location is larger than most other RNR stores with 6700 square feet of space, an expansive showroom, and four bays.  All this room guarantees a large selection of wheels and tires in stock and plenty of convenience for customers looking for a variety of styles and sizes.
“This store is an exciting one for us.  We've done extensive remodeling on the building and this is the first corporate store to offer alignment services.  Some of our franchises have been testing this, and we're looking forward to offering this service in Orlando," says Vince Ficarrotta, Vice President of Operations at RNR Custom Wheel and Tire Express.  ”We’re very happy to be opening a new store here. It’s a great building in a great location, and we’re excited to expand our Orlando market.”
RNR Custom Wheel and Tire Express knew they would need more space on Orange Blossom Trail to accommodate the area’s large volume of traffic and business potential, but there was another addition that they knew they would need, as well:  an electronic reader board.  This is a new, but necessary, addition for RNR, according to Ficarrotta.  “Orange Blossom Trail is such a busy area that sometimes it can be difficult to locate individual businesses.  We’ve added the electronic reader board in an effort to help people distinguish us in the crowd, so that our customers can pick us out easily.”
Orlando is one of two corporate stores opening in 2013 (the other is in Daytona, FL), and RNR is looking to open more corporate stores in the future. “Our growth is focused on expansion of current markets where we already have a presence, and small outlying communities where we will be introducing our concept for the first time. Our plans are to open at least two corporate stores a year for the next five years, if not more.  With the growth plans of our franchises combined with new corporate stores, our goal of over 100 stores should easily be obtained in the next four years,” says Larry Sutton, Founder and President of RNR Custom Wheel and Tire Express.
On May 5th, 2013, the lights went on for RNR on Orange   Blossom Boulevard, and they are ready to bring the selection and convenience of their brand to a wider Orlando audience.

Clean Freak or Just a Freak: Why Is My Husband Always Cleaning His Wheels?

Dear Bree,
My husband is a clean freak (I’ll just put that out there first), but I think he’s taking it too far with his truck.  When I called him on the fact that he washes and shines that thing up every week, he came up with some song and dance about how he has to get the brake dust off his wheels or they’ll get ruined.  Now, I know he’s all about those fancy wheels, but is he full of it? Is this just another way to justify his OCD behavior?

Meditating on Medication in Memphis

Dear Meditating,
I can’t say if your husband is really full of it on a day-to-day basis, but in the case of brake dust on wheels, he’s got a valid point.  Here’s how it works:  When you apply the brakes in your vehicle, metal debris breaks off the pads.  Now, we’re talking about dust here, not big chunks of break pads, so don’t get excited. It only makes sense that a good bit of that dust is going to stick to your wheels, right?   That leads us to your question:  Does this actually harm the wheels or is your husband making stuff up?
He’s not making stuff up.  If you don’t wash your car and you leave break dust to sit on your wheels, yes, there can be damage.  Break dust is corrosive and will harm the wheels, especially if the wheel gets wet, because when the dust gets moist, the acids that result can etch your wheel.  So, yes, keeping our wheels clean is a good idea for everyone, but if I were your husband, and I’d made an investment in some “fancy wheels,” as you call them, I’d be taking extra care, too.
How about this: I’ll give you some cleaning tips that you can use to either a.) impress him with your knowledge, b.) create some bonding OCD time by helping him clean, or c.) all of the above.  Here’s what you do:

1.)    Use a mild soap and water solution to clean your wheels.  Never use tar or bug remover or acid-based cleaners because they may permanently damage or discolor your wheels.  Acid-based cleaners can save your arms because they loosen things up and make cleaning easier, but to be safe, put some elbow grease into it, instead. Look at it as a workout; you’re burning calories, right?  Also, keep your SOS pads in the house!  Never use abrasive pads, steel wool or polishing compounds to clean your wheels.

2.)    Wax those babies periodically to protect them and make them easier to clean.  A word to the wise:  Do not apply wax to a hot wheel—it might cause discoloration.

3.)    Beware the car wash.  I know--I love to drive through and forget it but take caution. Some car washes use acid-based cleaners either before or during the wash to make cleaning easier.  Car washes sometimes use stiff brushes for wheels and tires, as well, and that’s a no-no. Use a sponge, soft brush or rag to clean your wheels.

4.)    Save the steam cleaning for your carpet.  Steam-cleaning wheels can dull the paint or clear-coat finish.

5.)    If you do use an acid-based spray-on cleaner, do not let it dry on the wheels. Be advised that many wheels have been eaten up and the finish damaged permanently by acid-based cleaners left on the wheel too long. Actually, don’t let any cleaners dry on your wheels!  Wash one wheel at a time and remember: Spray, scrub, rinse!

We sell a lot of wheels here at RNR (it’s one of our specialties!), so we feel pretty confident giving tips on proper wheel maintenance.  Hope this helps you, Ms. Meditating.  Maybe wheel scrubbing could become together-time?  If not, let him scrub while you go shopping.

Bree
P.S. If your husband feels the need to show his wheels off, tell him to stop by.  We love to ooh and aah over a shiny set of wheels.:)