uh oh......new tires

We recently had to purchase a new van for my husband's business.  We were able to get a used one on Craig's List.  Unfortunately, after we got it home we realized that the tires were not rated for the weight carried in the work van.  This was a dangerous situation that we had to address immediately.  When we called tire stores we were given a quote of about $1,000 to get the proper tires for the van.  Yikes!  We began our hunt for less than full retail price tires.  Though we found discounts and rebates on a number of tires online we were unable to find the correct match that would save us money.  We called our mechanic who sometimes has used tires but the tire man had just been there to pick them all up the day before.  We began looking at salvage yards and turned up nothing.  Finally, we spoke with a family member who had a van for his business.  He had some old tires that were a bit too narrow for our van but just may work.  A call to the tire business assured us that they would work and would be much better than having the current tires remain on the van.  My husband was able to work out an exchange of computer work for three tires.  (Did I mention how multi-talented my husband is?)  The tire company was able to find a tire that closely matched the tread of the other three tires and the total out of pocket expense was $200.