Stretch My Van?

I thought today would be fairly simple. I needed to put two new tires on the van. So I drove down to Tire Kingdom and told them what I wanted. “Mr. Sapp. You really need to get this van aligned.” How could I disagree? If I’m going to pay for new tires I should at least assure the van is in alignment.

So an hour and a half later I return and pick up the van. They muttered something about needing a break job and muttered something about getting that done real soon and I was on my way. Until I realized that the van is pulling to the right. That’s odd. It wasn’t pulling to the right before I got it aligned. So I drove it back and explained the problem to them. “Oh, yes, that’s because your rear end is out of toe and there is no way to adjust the toe on your rear end”. Well, thanks for telling me before I left. I responded, “It wasn’t pulling to the right before you ‘aligned it’”. So they agreed to put it back on the rack and take a look at it.


The interview that followed…
Tire Kingdom: Mr. Sapp. Has the van been in an accident?
Me: No, we are the only one’s who have ever driven the van.
Tire Kingdom: Do you have kids
Me: Yes, but they don’t drive.
Tire Kingdom: It looks as though someone has run into the back of your van. The back wheel is tilted as if it’s been in an accident. Did you buy it as a program car?
Me: I bought the van brand new. We special ordered it. We are the only one’s to have ever driven it.
Tire Kingdom: Well the rear end is the problem. You can have the frame stretched to fix the problem in the back.
Me: There wasn’t a problem when I drove it here this morning and now my frame needs to be stretched?
Tire Kingdom: Sometimes new tires will reveal pre-existing problems. The old tires were probably worn into a pattern that masked the problem.
Me: (to myself) So I have an evolutionary van.
Tire Kingdom: If you have it stretched we’ll realign it at no charge.
Me: Gee thanks.

So the long and short of it…this morning I had two well worn tires. Now I have an out of whack frame in need of stretching.