I don't remember how long I've had my '96 Ram 1500 but it's been a while. One thing that has always bugged me was the wheels looked dinky on it. A year or two ago, I scored some wheels and painted them black. They sat a while as I never found the right tires.




Yesterday, I went to get a set of wheels for another truck I'm looking at. I have plenty of wheels but I'm looking at a J20 and needed some 8 lug wheels. The guy also had a set of tires that were on them. I looked at them and rolled one out to my truck. Using a tape measure, it looked close enough I figured they would work.I was a little shy on cash but he wanted to get rid of them so I shook the moths out of my wallet. That left me a total of $3. The tank was full enough I drove home and dug my extra wheels out. Fortunately for the tire store, I wanted to clean them up before I put new tires on them.

I did back off quick though. The third wheel had a snake curled up hibernating in it. I can imagine the results at the tire shop if the installer found the snake. I found a pile of leaves out of the wind and buried the snake there to hibernate the rest of the winter. (They eat lots of rodents.)

Got the new wheels and tires installed and balanced. I even had a set of center caps for the wheels. The new tires are definitely the maximum for the truck. They just barely clear and only rub a bit under full lock and a slight suspension compression. If these grab granite outcrops like my old tires did, I have the perfect tires now. Time will tell. The truck does sit a bit higher and my view out the windshield is higher as well. It's not a Brodozer though. It does a definite attitude now though. It always has done okay in muddy areas, but it should do even better now.






I finally got the wheel wells filled up and come spring, I'll clean the brake drums up and paint them.

 

That looks pretty farking good.

So, do the tire techs get hazardous duty pay for snakes????

 

I mentioned the snake to the techs and most just laughed. Evidently, one of them is terrified of snakes. Personally, I was raised to live with nature. I don't know if this is "Gladys" or one of her kids. I hadn't seen her for years. (I don't know the gender, I just named it to mess with a friend who is scared of snakes.)

 

I was out mowing my lawn some years back, at a previous residence... and the ritual was, walk the yard, pic up all the sticks, then mow. So, I was mowing happily along, Mr. John Deere was runnin' great, and I saw a pile of sticks in the yard in my path..... There were a LOT of them, and I wondered how in hades I could have possibly missed that pile.... Stopped the tractor, jumped off, went up to the pile of sticks, and imagine my surprise, when the pile started MOVING...... and probably two dozen little snakes scattered in all directions...... Fortunately, not toward me. I have 'em some time to clear the area, and then finished the yard.... We had three acres and change there, only half of it groomed. The rest I just left to nature. The deer, and various other critters, loved it. We constantly had some variety of wildlife wandering the yard.

 

My Grandfather taught me to live with Nature. Mother Nature can be a good neighbor but if you fight her, you'll lose. I feed the birds year round. I keep a healthy population through the winter and come spring, they fill out the trees quick. I had a pet female Cardinal for a little over three years. She would perch within reach when I filled the feeder and if I had a black jacket or shirt on, she'd perch on my shoulder. The male would sit off a bit and give me dirty looks for messing with his woman. During the summer, if the mosquitoes get bad, I'll let the feeder run empty and they will clean house.

I don't beat the trees though. Grandfather would beat them with a rolled up newspaper after midnight. I asked him why once and he said it would fool the tree into thinking it was being grazed by Deer and such. It would put a growth purt on to get its leaves out of reach. When I asked if it worked better on capilary action by doing it after dark, he replied no. If you beat your tree in daylight, your neighbors think you're crazy.

 

We had possums that would come by for the cat food we left out..... We have barn swallows as well, and them fellers are AWESOME at keeping the skeeters in check. At my previous residence, there was an abandoned barn across the street, and HUNDREDS of swallows lived there. They learned than when I was riding around on the tractor, it stirred up the bugs really well.... My ex-wife still has the pics of me mowing the law, concealed by a cloud of swallows. You could get little glimpses of green now and again, but, aside from the noise from the tractor, you would never know there was anything but birds there. We had zero issues with mosquitoes there, regardless of how wet/humid it got. I was a bit nervous the first time.... them guys would fly CLOSE by.... but, after my third mowing with them, I didn't worry about it. They never touched me, or the tractor.

I live out in the sticks for a reason. Well, several reasons, and nature watching is right there near the top of the list. I have deer, turkey, coon's, possums, the occasional squirrel, (they don't like the dogs.....) and all manner of flying critters here. The only ones I really take exception to, is the bees, hornets, wasps. If it flies, and stings, it is NOT my friend, and I will go to a lot of trouble to remove them. I am waiting for it to get cold enough, and STAY cold enough, to remove the paper wasp nest, (quite a bit larger than a basketball.....) from the tree out back.....

 

Got a chance to put some road miles on the old gal with a GPS. My old tires, I was reading 60 but GPS said 54. The new tires, my speedometer reads 60 and the GPS says 62. I'm wondering if a previous owner had bigger tires when the transmission was rebuilt then the tires were removed when they sold the truck.

 

Now you know they belong on the truck They look great!

 

Once I measured them I knew they would look right. I've always had a knack for seeing something in my head and getting the look I want. It just took a while to find the right tires. Everybody wanted to sell me huge wide tires.