Wheels of fortune

WASILLA - When John Hauser woke up Monday afternoon, he didn't realize he would be one of the most popular men in the Valley - at least not until he looked outside and saw the first snow.

With the white stuff on the ground for the first time this winter, it would have been appropriate for Hauser to show up for work with an "S" on his chest. It would not have stood for "Superman," although he had to leap tall Toyota Camrys in a single bound. No, it would have stood for "Studs." As in studded tires, which were more valuable than gold to people Monday morning.

Hauser works for Diversified Tire in Wasilla. When he got to work at 7:30 a.m. Monday, he was greeted by a lot of slipping and sliding motorists anxious to have their studded tires put on their vehicles.

And he certainly was not surprised by the reception he received.

"I've been doing this for 20 years now. You should have seen it Monday. I got here and there were 20 cars in the lot already," Hauser said. "I knew it was going to be crazy."

Crazy is a perfect way to describe the madness taking place in garages around the Valley this week.

Hauser was one of more than 10 workers who were flying around Diversified Tire in a blur Wednesday morning.

Normally, a world-class gymnast's moves are described with terms such as mounting, rotating and balancing.

For a tire technician, those terms are elementary aspects of the job during the week of the first snowfall.

Monday was by far the busiest day of the tire season for local businesses. At various spots, waits of four hours were not uncommon for people. And while waiting four hours made some people angry, for the most part, they understood.

"About 99 percent of the people understand and don't get angry about waiting, because they know we are going as fast as we possibly can," said Mr. Lube owner Andy George. "But 1 percent of the people can't see why they have to wait."

Wednesday morning, waiting drivers agreed with George's assessment.

"I'm not exactly happy to be sitting here waiting for my tires, but I know they are doing the best they can," said Linda Pizon. "Yeah, I wish they could do it faster, but they can't. Every year I say I'm not going to wait until the day of the first snow, but every year, I'm sitting here waiting for a couple of hours."

Another motorist, who didn't want to give his name, wasn't quite as polite about the situation. He was late for an appointment he had made weeks in advance, and he was not afraid to let every other waiting person know about his unhappiness.

"If I made a person wait three hours at my business, my customer would go somewhere else," the man said. "The wait is ridiculous. They know it is going to be this busy. They should be ready for it."

The same man admitted that he did not know exactly when the first snow would be either, but added that if he were in the tire business, "I would be watching the weather reports a little closer."

Judy Snyder of Diversified Tire said she hears quite a bit of stories from the people who wait, some good and some bad. An elderly woman gave her a chuckle Monday, despite the craziness the first snow brought with it.

"She said, 'One thing is for sure about winter in Alaska - it will snow. When, nobody knows. But it will snow,'" Snyder said. "And I can count on one thing too - when it does snow, there will be a line in here."

George said the wait at his business was about three hours on Monday, with the wait decreasing to about an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday. At Diversified Tire, another popular place for change-overs, the wait was about four hours on Monday, with the wait decreasing to about an hour and a half by Tuesday morning.

"On Monday, we had 125 cars and trucks get their tires changed over, and we still had long lines of people waiting," Snyder said. "Some people get upset because they have to wait. Some just go with the flow and understand that we are going as fast as we possibly can."

For the workers, running a marathon could feel like a walk in the park compared to the frenetic pace they keep during the change-over season. Consider David Smith. He is an alignment technician at Diversified Tire. Sort of.

"You get pulled off your normal job and start changing over tires when the rush hits," Smith said. "Anything to make things go a little faster. We are trying to get the cars in and out in as little time as possible."

The reason there are long waits is that a limited number of businesses change tires over, and an overwhelming majority of the people needing the service performed wait until the day it snows for the first time. The result is lines, lines and more lines.

"We put extra people on call to work, and we have our full staff here, but it doesn't make a dent in the lines, it seems," Snyder said, adding that the customers don't see all those extra workers when they are in line. "Once we get the cars in the shop, it only takes 20-30 minutes to change the tires over. It's the backlog that gets bad."

George said the first snow, and the next week after it, are by far the busiest days of the year for his business.

"It's great to see it come, and it's great to see it go," George said. "If you have a good crew who are good workers, it is not that bad."

Those who are waiting a while to get their tires changed over should take heart.

It won't be much longer until the lines are back to normal at the local tire companies.

"It usually gets back to normal in about 10 days," George said. "For a week though, it's chaos. You always have the people who come in the minute it snows and then the second wave of people who wait until winter is in full swing."

Snyder said she expects things to start slowing down around the end of next week.

"It doesn't completely slow down until spring, but things get back to normal here in about two weeks' time," Snyder said. "By then, people who are putting on studs for the winter usually have done it already, and those who aren't going to don't come in anyway."

Pizon was one of the customers who was going to brave the winter without studded tires. She said she thought her Subaru could handle the winter road conditions just fine.

On her way to work Monday, Pizon nearly went into the ditch, she said, trying to avoid another sliding motorist who obviously did not have winter tires either.

"I figured it was better to put them on after the near-accident," Pizon said.

"You never know what is going to happen up here on the roads. No matter how safe you are, having studs on the tires is reassuring," Pizon added.

The man who wished to remain nameless said he puts studded tires on because of the way other people drive.

"There are people out there who don't care about the roads being slick. They just drive like it is the middle of July," he said. "I put studded tires on so I can avoid those kinds of morons.

"They are out there," he said.

Photos:

1. John Hauser of Diversified Tire jacks up a small truck in order to change the tires and put on studs.

2. Hauser loosens the lug nuts to take the tire off. Hauser has been doing tire change-overs for 20 years. He said when he got to work Monday morning, there was a line of cars waiting for him.

3. Jeremy Seaholm gets an old tire off the rim as quickly as he can, so a studded or winter tire can be applied and the owner can get back on the road. This week is the busiest of the year for tire shops.