mudisfun
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2019
- Posts
- 29
My family and I spent the week up at Bass Lake trailer camping. 300 or so mile drive with absolutely no issues on the way up. Cruised the whole way at a stately 60 MPH since being in California, towing is limited to 55 I am not looking to earn a multi-hundred dollar citation... I am also aware that my tires are on the edge time wise, so trying to maximize and get there and back. Bet you can guess where this is heading.
Driving home, cruising again at a stately 60MPH and just outside of Kingsburg on CA99, we hit a real rough patch of highway and hear a pop and then feel like we are running over a wash board. This goes on for a moment or two and then dies down, so the first thought was ok, this was just the road. That thought evaporated as I looked in the driver side mirror and see rubber remnants. Wonderful. Front left tire is now protruding wire and what use to be a tire.
Slow down, hazards on and hit the first exit, which as luck has it, is really more of a farm access exit with a huge shoulder! Awesome. Pull over, break out the warning triangles, jack up, change tire and get on the way. Total down time, 20 or so minutes. Check the rest of the tires which show no visual evidence of imminent failure (spoiler alert) and get back on the road.
50 miles later, pull off, check the lugs on the remounted tire and head off again... still no visual of pending doom.
2 miles later. Yes, 2 miles... Pop... rinse/repeat... flashers on, slow down... look in the passenger mirror this time and again see the shotgun spread of projectile rubber bits flying away. Crest the hill and although not an exit, a pretty large shoulder. Pull over, and yep... that is another blown tire. 95 degrees, side of the 99 and about 3 miles North of Delano, CA.
Break out the Google, find a couple of tire shops and decide on Pacific Tire #6 in Delano. Unhook the trailer, grab both blown wheels, leave a love note in the window for the CHP in case the come by while we are on our adventure and head the 3 miles into town. Find the tire shop which is more like a tire pit stop shop than what I am use to in Orange County. They grab the wheels, mount, balance and have me on the way in 20 minutes... Tire stores back home? I would still be standing in line for another 20 minutes.
Get to the trailer, mount one tire only, hook back up and drive the 3 miles back to Pacific Tires... No way I am just replacing 2 tires out of 4 when my failure rate is now 50%. Darn it if it did not take longer for me to put 1 tire on by hand then it took them to pull 3 tires off the trailer, mount the one already done wheel, strip the other 2 not but I am sure about to blow up tires, replace, balance and get me on the way!
All in all, I should have listened to the advice on this forum and replaced the old tires before taking this trip. The only positive out of this, other than no one was hurt and the only damage was a few scratches to the side of the trailer paint is that the tire place was set up for large vehicles/trucks and we were able to just pull in and wham! All tires banged out. Back home, almost all of the tire places are small parcels which have zero space for a trailer which would mean most likely me pulling off all 4 tires, 2 at a time and schlepping them to the shop.
Anyhow, other than the tire adventure, the rest of the trip was uneventful, other than pulling into LA at 4pm on a Friday... only took 3 hours to get home from there.
Driving home, cruising again at a stately 60MPH and just outside of Kingsburg on CA99, we hit a real rough patch of highway and hear a pop and then feel like we are running over a wash board. This goes on for a moment or two and then dies down, so the first thought was ok, this was just the road. That thought evaporated as I looked in the driver side mirror and see rubber remnants. Wonderful. Front left tire is now protruding wire and what use to be a tire.
Slow down, hazards on and hit the first exit, which as luck has it, is really more of a farm access exit with a huge shoulder! Awesome. Pull over, break out the warning triangles, jack up, change tire and get on the way. Total down time, 20 or so minutes. Check the rest of the tires which show no visual evidence of imminent failure (spoiler alert) and get back on the road.
50 miles later, pull off, check the lugs on the remounted tire and head off again... still no visual of pending doom.
2 miles later. Yes, 2 miles... Pop... rinse/repeat... flashers on, slow down... look in the passenger mirror this time and again see the shotgun spread of projectile rubber bits flying away. Crest the hill and although not an exit, a pretty large shoulder. Pull over, and yep... that is another blown tire. 95 degrees, side of the 99 and about 3 miles North of Delano, CA.
Break out the Google, find a couple of tire shops and decide on Pacific Tire #6 in Delano. Unhook the trailer, grab both blown wheels, leave a love note in the window for the CHP in case the come by while we are on our adventure and head the 3 miles into town. Find the tire shop which is more like a tire pit stop shop than what I am use to in Orange County. They grab the wheels, mount, balance and have me on the way in 20 minutes... Tire stores back home? I would still be standing in line for another 20 minutes.
Get to the trailer, mount one tire only, hook back up and drive the 3 miles back to Pacific Tires... No way I am just replacing 2 tires out of 4 when my failure rate is now 50%. Darn it if it did not take longer for me to put 1 tire on by hand then it took them to pull 3 tires off the trailer, mount the one already done wheel, strip the other 2 not but I am sure about to blow up tires, replace, balance and get me on the way!
All in all, I should have listened to the advice on this forum and replaced the old tires before taking this trip. The only positive out of this, other than no one was hurt and the only damage was a few scratches to the side of the trailer paint is that the tire place was set up for large vehicles/trucks and we were able to just pull in and wham! All tires banged out. Back home, almost all of the tire places are small parcels which have zero space for a trailer which would mean most likely me pulling off all 4 tires, 2 at a time and schlepping them to the shop.
Anyhow, other than the tire adventure, the rest of the trip was uneventful, other than pulling into LA at 4pm on a Friday... only took 3 hours to get home from there.
