– Who waits until they get home so they can do some online research for a future purchase?

– Who knows where their Yellow pages phone book is?

A few years ago these questions would be silly.

“Of course I have to wait to log on to my home desktop pc” – there was no laptop, no ipad, no smart phone.

“My trusty yellow pages are right by my desk” – where else could I search for local businesses?

Well, those days are long gone. You would be amazed how many people find businesses online via their smartphone. Your phone is your computer – instant search – instant information – instant gratification.

The problem for businesses? Your website probably looks pretty funky on a smartphone. It is either squished in, shows a small portion of the webpage or worse, it shows a blank screen if your site uses flash.

That why this week Ken Jones Tires launched it’s mobile site (left picture), www.kenjonestires.mobi. Take a look.

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We want to make it easy for our customers to find us – easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. Quick information local buyers need – hours of operation, directions, a quick link to our main site, www.kenjones.com and even a “tap to call” button – no need to search for a phone number. Keep it simple.

The future is here. Take a look at your website on your iphone, android, blackberry etc. If it isn’t pretty, take steps to remedy the problem. More and more searches are made by phone every day.

Thanks to Krush It! Web Marketing for their help in creating our mobile site.

Municipal highway departments and commercial contractors preferred this tire for their tractors that mowed and maintained the median strips of majors roads and highways. They would replace the standard 16.9×30 Ag tread with this beefy, heavy duty forestry tire because it would hold up better in the harsh, glass-filled environment of highway mowing. Who knows what you’re going to run over???

The problem was the supply disappeared

Now they are back and produced by Mitas, so take advantage!

And it’s even better when you foam fill these tires with EcoFlex softfill flatproofing. Now the tractors performs like a tank. Of course the goal is ELIMINATE downtime to to flat tires.
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Here are the specs for the Mitas tires that are now available:

TIRE SIZE TREAD PATTERN LI / SS RIM (PERMITED) OD SW SR RC LOAD CAPACITY(lbs)
16.9-30 TL-01 143A6 (135A8) TT W15L (W14L) 58.5 16.9 27.0 172.8 7209.0

Tires fit for use in forestry service.

■ Excellent resistance to puncture due to steel breaker.
■ Good traction thanks to tread pattern.
■ Very good self-cleaning properties.

Call to order 1-800-225-9513.

They will be added to our website, www.kenjones.com soon.

For years, many major farm tire manufactures made the odd sized but popular ag tires for the small 4 wheel drive tractors. Firestone and Bridgestone seemed to be the most popular. But when Bridgestone purchased Firestone years ago, they stopped exporting the Bridgestone brand tires into the US, probably because Firestone could make them here and fill the aftermarket customer needs.

Supply was good in the beginning, but eventually these became scarce. Then we started noticing that the Firestone tires were no longer made in the US. Then we noticed a brand called Superstrong enter the market and they look “very similar” the the Firestone mold. Could it be that Superstrong were making the Firestones at some point? Not sure, but they are definitely a Firestone “look-a-like” and they are made in China.

Anyways, we started buying some Superstrong and they look great, perform well and fill a need.

They are available in the following sizes:
5×12
6×14
7×16
8×16
9.5×16

Again, were are impressed with this tire and so will you.

You can find them here – Superstrong tires.

Please share this with your tractor owner friends and let us know you thoughts on this post.

Note:
If you DON’T want an import brand, both Titan and Carlisle manufacture some of these sizes in the US.

The “fix” is also explained in detail.
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Click the links below to read each post with comments.

Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Please send us your comments!

It’s a common occurrence…a customer stops by with with a strange look in their eyes. They’re holding their Honda snow blower tire and rim in their hands and wonder what happened? The tires won’t hold air and there’s this weird little round metal ring of some sort that seems to have dislodged itself from the tire.
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As you can see we finally took a picture to illustrate this odd set up. In all my years in the tire business, this is the only tire I’ve seen made this way…almost like the steel ring is supposed to “lock” the tire to the rim – who knows. Fortunately 99.99% of the tires on the market are NOT made this way.

I can even “peel back” the tire bead with one finger. I could never do this with the normal tire bead.
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After years of wear and tear, the tire becomes flimsy, the “wire o-ring” dislodges and the tire fails.

And one more thing – Don’t install a tire tube. This may be a temporary fix, but after a while the tube will work its way between the metal ring and the tire and cause a blowout which can be dangerous to your health!

So it’s best to eliminate this headache and replace your tires.
You just know they will fail at the worst time… -20 degrees and you can’t get your car in your driveway!

Send us your comments!

Go to www.kenjones.com to purchase.