Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Tires and Packing the Trailer

When we were in DF we noticed very few non-commercial trucks (we're driving our Nissan 4x4 to DF and towing a small trailer.) And we saw none with the standard Pacific Northwest shiny mag wheels and big, oversized tires. But we did hear some stories about people coming out to their vehicles and finding that their shiny wheels and tires had been stolen. So we decided we'd fare better if we "downgraded" our wheels and tires.

Left - Picture of old wheel and tire.

Right - Picture of Nissan with new wheels and tires.

So we turned to Craigslist and created an ad for a "tire swap." Sure enough a guy from Arlington contacted us. He has a 1988 Nissan truck with stock tires so we met and swapped tires!

And today we unloaded the trailer and created our inventory (in both English and Spanish) list of everything we're taking. We understand this will be necessary for crossing the border and at the different checkpoints through Mexico. It's amazing how quickly the trailer filled up. I just hope we have room for everything.



2 comments:

Theresa in Mèrida said...

Hi! The inventory list is for your menage de casa. When you receive your FM-3 or Fm-2 visa you also receive the right for a one time duty free importation of your household goods. The same agency that approved your visa approves the menage. Then when you import your goods you need a broker etc. We chose not to do that, we sold most of everything we had and then just brought what would fit in our car. It is my understanding that you can get your import sticker for your car (and trailer) online so you don't have to do it at the border.
I don't know if you already know this stuff, we did what I thought was a great deal of research and there were still things we didn't know about.
Good luck,
Theresa

Beth said...

How exciting! I can't wait to hear about your adventure as things get rolling. I'll be looking forward to reading. I'm so jealous that you guys are getting so close to leaving while we've still got a few years before we can start our own adventure!