Jump to content
Ford Transit Connect Forum
   

Guitars4cancer

T.C. Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Guitars4cancer

  1. Guitars4cancer
    Yeah, I hear you... I'm a belt AND suspenders kinda guy, but this was the first ever trip with this vehicle as I was driving it home from the dealer 1400 miles away. I'd tried to look at the spare but it was a foot of snow and 7 degrees when I took delivery. I did manage to see that there was indeed a tire there, but I didn't see that it was a zipper failure on the other side.
  2. Guitars4cancer
    Biloxi... that brings me back. I'm originally from Pensacola but after rebuilding my house 4 times in a decade we became hurricane refugees. Biloxi has more people in it than the county I live in, the county above, below and beside us all combined. Our town is around 700 people with a 45 minute drive to the county seat of about 10k people to buy groceries or the like. Our county has 1 elevator! The next county over doesn't even have an incorporated town, or a single red light. What I was calling a metro area is an isolated city of about 90k people. My only guess is this is a spot shortage, or little cars are much more common in Mississippi.
  3. Guitars4cancer
    Why would they spec XL tires on a Focus?
  4. Guitars4cancer
    Yeah, I have no doubt that there are hundreds of different tires in 215/55 16R listed on the Web pages for Tire Rack, Tires dot com, Tire buyer, Sears, Walmart etc... but that didn't lessen the sting of not finding a single tire in the required XL load range anywhere near me in stock. We almost always buy our tires online, and have them delivered... but broken down 5 hrs from home was a different story. It could very well have been as simple as what vehicles are popular in the area I broke down in...I saw lots of 4x4 diesel pickups, not much else. There was 1 tire at a store 4 or 5 hours behind me in Reno, but it was a Hankook... was 4 or 5 hours behind me with no way to go get it, and wasn't XL. And another in Sparks (even farther behind me)... an unpronounceable jumble of letters, also not XL. I didn't want to waste my money on either one, not that either could get to me the same day. I know, I wouldn't have believed the shortage either had I just had one dealer tell me they didn't have the tires. I spent an entire afternoon on the phone, I don't usually take no for an answer.. but sometimes that is the only answer you can find.
  5. Guitars4cancer
    LOL, well you can make that 11 now!
  6. Guitars4cancer
    I think the 1.6 is pretty much only in the SWB, I didn't see a single LWB 1.6 wagon looking at listings for the Western half of the country. The closest TC that was a wagon, not a cargo van, had the 1.6, was under 50k miles (38k!) and was in our price range was located in Windsor, Colorado... some 1400 miles away. I couldn't even find a TC wagon to test drive, though I did get to drive a cargo van with the 2.5 - we are in the boonies, I'd say directly in the middle of nowhere, but we aren't on the road to anywhere... 40 miles south of the Oregon border on the California coast. As they say location is everything... Very happy so far!
  7. Guitars4cancer
    Doing a simple Google search on cars that use 215/55R16 tires it becomes apparent they are pretty popular on European cars,(my TC is made in Valencia, Spain) and my theory is either they are in high enough demand they can't be kept in stock.. OR they are in so little demand that it cost too much to stock them. Either way I was going to soon replace the tires, and I'm happy with the tires I got, the .4" raise is nice, and slightly taller gearing suits the 1.6 - plus I got a fantastic deal (buy 3, get one free) and a nice road hazard warranty, lifetime balance and rotation from a chain that has locations near where I live, and travel. I was just wondering if anyone else had problems finding tires. AND are other parts going to be oddball? They couldn't find me a wheel locally, I located one in a salvage yard in Washington and it's enroute to my home as we speak. I'll be glad to get the TPMS back in shape, the incessant nagging is tiring (no pun.. ok, well yes pun intended). :-)
  8. Guitars4cancer
    Yeah, well I called Sears, Costco, BigO, Les Schwab, Tire Pros, Walmart etc myself in 2 major metro areas and everyone could get me a tire, nobody had one in stock. It was my idea to buy 4 in a different size and I had to go to 3 different tire dealers just to talk someone even then into putting the 'incorrect' size tire on my Transit Connect. The other 3 tires were of indeterminate origin (no discernable brand name) and had less than 40% tread on them. The Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter tires are the XL with a 99H load rating. Nobody convinced me they were hens teeth other than me from spending an entire afternoon on the phone.
  9. Guitars4cancer
    Hi, I busted a wheel on a recent road trip and needed to replace a tire. I was in a major metro area, yet nobody had a tire in 215/55R16 in stock, or could get me one in less than 3 days. Ended up switching to a set of 4 tires in 215/60R16, a size that everyone had in stock with many brands and models of tires to choose from. Anyone else run into this?
  10. Guitars4cancer
    Hi, as the title says - I'm an excited new owner of a 2014 Transit Connect XLT (SWB) wagon, with the 1.6L EcoBoost engine. Just wanted to say Hi. Drove it home 1400 miles across the rockies and averaged 29.4 mpg despite high speeds (80ish), high altitudes (8000'+), and low temps (7 F). Color me impressed! Busted a wheel and needed to replace a tire - wow! 215/55 r16 tires are about as hard to find as used Transit Connects with the 1.6L! Nobody could get me a tire in less than 3 days! Ended up replacing them all with 215/60r16 tires... Thanks,
×
×
  • Create New...