You know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention. For Hudson native Chris Karman, that moment came when he needed to store his snow tires.  

For years, the owner of Daniel’s Amish Collection Handcrafted Furniture didn’t have to think about storing his tires. That all changed in 2020. 

“I used to store my winter tires for years at the dealership that changed my snow tires,” Karman said. “It was simple and easy. One day they told me they couldn’t store them. I honestly didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to drag them back to my house and find a place to store these dirty tires. 

“I found out there was not one tire dealership that would store tires. The reasons they gave me ranged from not enough space to ‘insurance companies don’t like us to have a bunch of used tires hanging around.’ The rubber is a fire hazard, which is another reason you may not want to store them in your garage.” 

At that point, Karman, who discovered two companies in Colorado and Michigan that stored tires, talked to business partners Rob Robinson and Bob Deuberry.   This led to the opening of Rubber Racks, located at 7600 Olde Eight Road in Hudson. At $100 per season, the company provides pick up, cleaning, storage and delivery back each year. 

“We started up Rubber Racks as a convenient way for people to store their seasonal tires,” Karman said. “Rubber Racks works with any dealer you want. We pick your tires up, free of charge, and take them to our warehouse for cleaning and storage. 

“We can also pick them up at your house if that’s preferred. We also deliver them back to your dealer of choice when the season’s over for the switchover. Many dealers have told us there is a real need for this. Not only for customers like me, who just want to avoid the hassle of transporting tires back and forth, but also for people who simply can’t store tires.” 

Opened last fall, Rubber Racks is targeting the Northeast Ohio snowbelt area. The other aspect of the operation involves using snow tires, which for some folks remains a foreign concept that their grandfather used to talk about as the norm.   

“For some reason over the last 40 years, people started buying these all-season tires, which they thought were good,” Karman said. “About 10 years ago someone told me to get snow tires, that they make a huge difference. I did and it was like, ‘Wow. This is amazing.’  

“It’s a different rubber that is softer. So, yeah, there are still a ton of snow tires being sold out there. I think they’re coming back. They really do make a difference in the snow, and we’re just getting the word out about Rubber Rack.” 

Featured image caption: Residents (l-r) Rob Robinson, Chris Karman, Bob Deuberry and Andrew Northrup operate Rubber Racks on Olde Eight Road.

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