Like many others, my gum arrived compressed. I've seen several complaints about this. Having worked as a mechanic I'm here to tell you that while car tires don't compress in this way for transport, most large lawn tractor tires do. This is not done by loaders, but by the manufacturer. The trick is to remove the shipping straps/materials and put the tires in a warm place to "unpack". They eventually "swim" and return to their original shape after manufacture. If you try to mount them too early and apply the wrong pressure to them, you will end up with your tire repeatedly rolling off the rim. In fact, I've seen cases of people doing this and the tires getting a permanent saddle shape. If your store doesn't have a comfortably warm, sunny climate or a good heated spot (like right under a heat duct), you can use a heat gun on low to heat it up. I did this during the winter when changing tires on winter snowplow tractors. Just warm them up slowly. In one case I heated and reheated the tires for a few days until they finally took shape. The tires themselves work well. They arrived in great shape. With the exception of a slight rubber bleed at one bead (which has been slightly trimmed to seal better), I have no complaints about the quality. EDIT: I forgot to mention a tire issue. That's right, with just one tire. Although as you can see from my photos they were Carlisle Turf-Savers, Made in USA and 4-ply, one tire had a nasty defect. The height of the side wall is not ideal, but deviates by about an inch. This resulted in the tire being somewhat difficult to fit and causing air loss due to the imperfect fit of the bead on the rim. I solved the problem by installing an internal camera. The problem with "Made in the USA" these days is that US standards aren't nearly as high as they used to be. Once upon a time, American workers did great work because they were proud of it. Today, the majority of our workforce is made up of empowered people who would prefer to take a day off whenever possible.
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