THOUSANDS of dollars are being spent by local motorists to fix bent, broken and, in some instances, completely burst vehicle wheels and rims resulting from the vast number of pot holes on the regions roads.
Local tyre repairer Scott Lutgerink of Bob Jane T-mart said the store had been inundated with banged up rims and wheels since last Wednesday’s deluge opened up pot holes, varying in size on a number of local roads but also the highways leading into Tamworth.
On Tuesday, one lady brought in a 17-inch chrome wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer that had been split in two after coming into contact with a pothole.
“It’s one of the worst I have seen,” Mr Lutgerink said.
“Luckily she had a spare wheel so she wasn’t up for the cost of the tyre too.”
The female driver of a Lexus travelling through Tamworth to Newcastle last Thursday was forced to spend $650 after the vehicle went into a pothole at Nemingha.
In the 15 years he’s been in the tyre game Mr Lutgerink said he’d not seen as much damage to tyres, wheels and rims as he had in the past week.
“It’s almost as though that rain fell last week and the roads just fell apart,” he said.
“We have had a constant flow of people with problems stemming from potholes.
“We’ve done at least eight wheel repairs, three repairs on cars with steel wheels and a heap of others and we’re one of about ten tyre repairers in town, if that’s some indication,” he said.
One of the most serious incidents Mr Lutgerink had heard after being asked to replace two tyres on a Mazda after it met with a pothole on the Gunnedah Rd.
“The lady hit it and the front two tyres burst completely,” he said.
“She was all right but the car was stuck for a while.”
Mr Lutgerink said because lower profile wheels were standard on modern cars it was hard to really do anything to prevent damage to wheels and rims.
“There’s not much air pressure can do,” he said.
“The best anyone can do is to be on the look out for road-damage signs.
“Knock your speed down and drive to the conditions.”
It’s been a similar story at Tamworth’s Beaurepairs.
Assistant manager Craig Lancaster said the store had about eight or nine people come in during the past few days.
“I can’t believe the dints in some of them,”he said.
“I haven’t seen it like that before.”
Up the hill in Armidale it’s just as bad.
Tyre Plus tyre fitter, Daniel Bull, said he had heaps of customers come through in the past two weeks.
“It’s increased since that rain at the end of last week,” he said.
Mr Bull said he had noticed most of the damage was to smaller cars.
“The minute they damage the rim the tyre’s no good so it’s pretty costly for some people,” Mr Bull said.
“It’s not just on local roads either the highways are pretty bad too from what we’re hearing.”
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