Postcard from New Mexico- 5

Santa Fe

Must be getting close to time to head for Arizona cuz my beloved asked today if I'd checked the pressure in all the tires. Sheesh! I buy a new compressor and right away the Admiral thinks I ought to use it.

There's a reason for her concern since the new trailer tires are under-inflated at the moment. Discount Tire has a large industrial compressor which, as it turns out, is set at 80 psi max. Probably a shop safety issue so no one accidentally over-inflates a new tire enough to damage the tire or hurt someone. That's all well-and-good, but our new Load Range G tires need 115 psi for our load. In cases where 80 psi isn't enough, the shop has a small portable compressor that dribbles enough air to get tires to 100 psi. And that's still short of the 115 psi we need. Our old low-profile, lightweight 'pancake' compressor has an non-adjustable cut-off switch on the compressor that trips at 100 psi. And it has no regulator, so it's really the wrong thing to use.

Out with the BLUE, in with the RED

So I went to Home Depot where I found a compressor (Husky... the store brand) with adjustable output regulator. It pumps the tank to 155 psi, and the regulator allows setting any pressure up to the maximum tank pressure. Best news is that it has a substantially higher flow rate (3x-5x more) than the old $70US Campbell-Hausfield. Not bad for about $130US. Home Depot was out of stock, but a couple days later I brought home the new (and sadly 15# heavier) compressor, did the 20 minute break-in, tested it at full pressure... and put it away. It took several days and a rush-delivery internet order to get the pieces you see here which can all handle the higher pressure the tires require.

The old yellow Slinky went away with the old compressor

Once I had the new old fashioned rubber air hose, an air chuck with a lock, a proper tie gauge, and a proper angled double-chuck (for the duals), I connected to the new compressor and checked the air pressure. Shoulda' known... the Discount Tire tech inflated the tires to 80 psi and didn't use their backup compressor to get to 100 psi. Nice guys at DT, but everything they do has to be double-checked. Aarrgh!!

Garcia Tires

Now that all the drama is over I learned I probably could have had the tires changed right here in the park. Last week I heard a large compressor pumping away. When I walked the dogs I discovered Garcia Tire of Santa Fe had a mobile service truck busy at the park. They were mounting new tires on a Cougar 5th wheel right at the trailer-owners camp site. I've never dealt with Garcia Tires and I'm sure there's a surcharge to do it, but it's pretty cool to get new shoes on the rig without driving into town! A couple days later their service truck was back and the driver was repairing a tire on a big motorhome.

Spring At Last

The park has a very nice patio which turns into a camp site
during Balloon Fiesta!)

It's 6 months late, but it's finally spring in Santa Fe. Every living plant has turned green and has (or was) flowering. Just in time for us to bail out for SE Arizona. What a change from the persistent hot days we've had this summer. We did have the incessant spring winds. And initially they masked the heat which was to become the theme for summer 2011. We didn't like it, but what Santa Fe had was trivial compared to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, et al. We're glad to see the end of this chapter and look forward to what comes next.

LOTS of sunflowers in New Mexico

Even this metal tree seems alive!

Shadows on the patio