Border Patrol surplus tires myth

Post by **HenryJ** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 4:39 pm

Rumor has it that there are some pretty amazing deals available on tires from the border patrol vehicles.

The story is that there is a dealer down there selling the damaged tires pulled from the border patrol vehicles. My source mounted four virtually new Goodyear MTR's. Each had maybe one or two punctures from cactus needles. Easily repaired.

The tires were purchased for $15 each.

My source says that there are two sizes available on a regular basis. 235/85-16 and 31x10.5-15

Any one have more information or able to locate a source?

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:15 pm

It doesn't sound far fetched to me. Many law enforcement agencies will not plug a tire for obvious safety concerns. Border Patrol would be dealing with a federal contract and for many years Goodyear has had the contract. That info is 4 yrs old so, I really do not know who has this yrs contract. They are valid thru fiscal yrs and the most recent one started the 1st of this month.

border man · Post by **border man** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:25 pm

Firsthand knowledge here in the Tucson Sector is that we (individual stations) all aqcuire our tires via local vendors. We dropped our direct gov't contract with Goodyear for reasons beyond my paygrade. Here at my station we use several local shops includong Big 'O, Purcell tires and Whitehead's. Also we by what they stock ie.. firestone MT, Bridgestone, Discovery and others although we make it a point for them to stock our usual sizes in Goodyear MTR's as they have been the most reliable. We fix our tires whenever possible, and any tires that may make it to resale are usually very badly worn as our rides are in terrible shape suspension wise.

border man · Post by **border man** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:28 pm

Also, most of our tires are 265/70or 75/16's as that is what fits our pickups. The 31's are used on the Jeep Rubicons, but mostn of those hve been used beyond their service life and are being retired, or wrecked.

Post by **HenryJ** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:50 pm

The government still bids the contract. Each supplier here has "their" brand that falls under the government pricing.
We can buy Goodyear, Firestone, Bridgestone on that pricing schedule.
Cooper does not fall under the government pricing, but can be competitive none the less.
Two years ago I was buying MTRs for under $100. Last year they went to $122. This year I just paid $153.
These are for the 235/85-16. The 9.50-15's run about $20 less. All tax exempt.
I wish I could personally buy them at that price

The four "border patrol" MTRs that showed up here were 235/85-16s and still had the flashing on the tread from the casting.

Word has it that it is a dealer down there that is selling these "rejects". I don't know where or who though. It is third hand information and could be seriously flawed.

I know that just as Borderman says, our goverment agency runs the tires to the scrap yard. only unrepairable damage is rejected. We get every pennies worth of use out of a set of tires.

Perhaps there is an area, or dealer that does "junk" repairable tires? Hence the myth

border man · Post by **border man** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 6:42 pm

We buy our tires full price, tax and all

. Each vehicle has it's own mastercard charge card with a daily limit. so we just choose a conveinient place drop it off and they charge it. Usually comes to over $700 per set once installed. By the way, the coopers and other less popular brands usually costs more than the goodyears retail. We pay tax on all of our maitenance needs (oil changes, car washes, wipers, tires, etc...) I guess it's some sort of goodwill thing for the community as we try to share all the work among various shops around town.

Post by **HenryJ** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 6:47 pm

I think the state of Oregon has gone that direction as well. I hear rumors that they must go before a firing squad to exceed the limit set on each vehicles card.
Quite the opposite of the military supply officer that works 12 hour days , seven days a week to spend the entire budget before the end of the budget cycle. He has to or will be subject to a cut in his budget next year

border man · Post by **border man** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:09 pm

We had to do that too this year. All of us at the station got issued new fancy leatherman tools, and we got a tire machine and balancer (well over $10,000) and a couple of welders that sit idle in our back lot. Maybe they plan on having the guard change our tires and such, as they have doing simple services to our fleet.