My Kingdom for a Tire  The commodities frenzy has led to a
shortage of giant tires—and boom times for a niche business  On
the plant floor at RDH Tire & Retread in Cleveland, N.C., about
60 workers do nothing all day but retread giant tires that have
come off of mining equipment—giant meaning 12 feet tall, 40 feet
around, and 13,000 pounds. A tire retreading shop is fairly
quiet as factory settings go. You'll hear lots of dull thuds as
hammers whack away at the vulcanized rubber that makes up most
of the tire. There's an occasional whoosh of an air hose
sweeping away debris and dust. Now and then, high-pitched whines
pierce the air as workers grind broken bits of metal that make
up the tire's interior radial belt.  What's more remarkable are
the smells. Before a new tread is put on a tire, the old, worn-
down one has to be buffed off. As that happens, each tire gives
off its own olfactory signature, depending largely on the job it
used to do. On a recent winter day at RDH, a 10-foot-tall tire,
caked in white l