anyone have the name, url or other info on the mats for the tires that suppodely minimize or eiliminae flat spots. you drive on then.

anyway, kep me post if you do.

 

www.tirecradle.com
Tel: 866-740-0193
No affiliation

 

Yeah, tirecradle.

I looked into these a while back myself -- ya know for when we winterize the car. However, the price (for 4) put me off.

So, my el cheapo solution was to put four thick cushions, from a discarded, albeit heavy-duty couch, on the garage floor. Now I just 'drive' the car onto the cushions (yep, there's enuf clearance). You DO have to 'brace the cushions a bit, otherwise they'll 'plow' forward. The wife laughed her a$$ off when she saw this ...but when I told her the price of 4 tire-cradles ...she turned around, went inside the house, and made me a nice dinner.

G.

 

I have the tire cradles since my car in LA may sit for months at a time. When I store the car I inflate the tires to 45 psi or so and have not had any flatspotting issues save the one instance that I had a slow leak. Not sure if the sidewalls were compromised but I didn't want to take a chance plus the tires were 5 years old so I switched them.

 

or for even less money and hassle - just inflate your tires up to 50-60 psi during storage to minimize the flatspotting. Just remember to bleed them down come spring.

 

I agree on the price of those cradles. I think I need to produce a competing product. Wonder what their patent covers... hmmm...


g_murray, your solution makes me feel better and I plan on telling my wife so she knows I'm not the only slightly obesessed person out there. These kind of stories help me continue the illusion of sanity
I gotta see a pic!!

 

Tire cradles are pricey...their main selling point is the kind of foam rubber they use...it's firm but it gives, so it seem to spread the weight of the tires over a greater area.

 

Before you go as high as 50 - 60 lbs check the sidewall of the tire for the listed max pressure for "seating" the tire bead, then DON'T go any higher. Seating the bead is when the tire is first installed to make sure the tire seats on the rim, and that is for much less than a min. Personally, I would stay at least 5 lbs. under that value if you're going to leave it that way for any length of time.

 

Ironically, I pulled their patent and am not impressed. It's pretty narrow.

 

How long of a "park" period are we talking about here that will result in a flat spot? I always park my car on a 2'x3' rug. TIA.

 

I have parked my care on the Tire Cradles for as long as 10 months.

 

Hi,
Trust me, you'll laugh when u see the pix! (I'll post a couple next week, I reckon).

Since I don't truly 'winterize'/'hibernate' the car for 'months', that is, but just don't drive it when the weather turns really nasty/snowy/salt-on-the-roads etc. (here in New York) - I don't feel the need to super-inflate the tires or truly 'tirecradle' her.

At the max., last year, I didn't drive her for 3 full weeks - mainly coz the roads (February) were full of snow/salt. For 'stints' like that - the 'couch-seat-cushion' solution is just right, methinks.

Gerry

 

I just had a very good laugh when I went to tirecradle.com and looked at their pricing. A couple layers of high density carpet underlay for short term storage or jackstands would be a better solution for the money!