Friday Funny - the wheels from hell

This is a stock photo of my rolling saddle stand. I bought it used for $60 several months ago so I wouldn't have to install permanent saddle racks at Castle Rock. In typical Craigslist fashion, it was advertised as "good condition" but in actuality the wheels were flat.

I decided to fix the flat wheels so that I could take it to the show. How hard can it be to fix a leak in a little tire?

I took the pins off the end and brought the wheels home. They're about 10" in diameter, so they are lightweight. I YouTube'd how to find leaks in tires (squirt with windex and look for bubbles) and found that both tires were completely riddled with leaks. Plus one had a leaking stem (the base of the air intake component).




Turns out Harbor Freight Tools was selling 10" diameter wheels with the same size/model number for only $6 each! So I picked 2 up, happy to be avoiding the messy business of leak repair kits and stem replacement kits. Win!

Beautiful new wheel.

In a wonderful moment of thinking ahead, I did a leak check on the new tires before putting them on the stand. Perfect condition. So I put the new wheels on.



But they wouldn't fit on the axle. After manhandling and muttering for 10 minutes I commandeered a fellow boarder's horse husband and he confirmed my suspicion: the new wheels' bearings were just ever so slightly wider than the old ones, resulting in not enough room for the axle to come through.

Damn.

Axle

We brainstormed and he suggested that it would be faster and easier to get a new, longer axle rod then it would be to try and purchase other wheels since the model/size numbers did match (and were darn close, but not close enough, in size). Its just a metal rod with holes drilled on the ends for pins to secure the wheel on. He said any hardware store could cut me a new axle and drill the holes. So I took the axle home.

I took it to the local hardware store...they could not help me. No metal rods. The recommended another hardware store across town.

So I took it there. No luck. The 2nd hardware store recommended a 3rd.

So I went to the 3rd. Nope.




How many stores does it take to get a new axle?  I don't know. I gave up on #3.

I went to their tire section to see if there were any tires that *looked* thinner in width, and found some solid rubber tires (aha! never deal with leaks again!). They fit on the axle with room to spare.

What was going to be a quick afternoon project turned into a road trip hardware store adventure all over town and took way, waaaaay more time than I would have thought.

The end.

Even newer solid rubber wheel.