Tuesday, October 25, 2011

To Be Or Not To Be

Some things are just not to be, but we push them anyway.  I had agreed to help one of our church mates out by towing his fifthwheel from its current location to a trailer park in Fairhope.  I had told him that he needed to have a valid registration and good tires.  He assured me that he would have both.  Well, yesterday was the day that we agreed on to to bring the fifthwheel back home.

He had a temporary registration plate, however, once we go there the unit had two flat tires and one that was beginning to delaminate.  He had brought a spare for the one delaminating, however, when we stated airing up one of the flats, the stem broke – this was not a good sign.  I was temped to tell him that we couldn’t tow it home, but I checked the Alabama state map and discovered a back route that we could take; there was no way I was towing that rig out onto the interstate.

We aired up the other tire and put the spare on the one with the broken stem; the delaminating tire was holding air so I figured that we just might make it to a tire store where we could get the stem repaired on the other tire.  Also, the rig was light weight enough that it could be towed with the two rear tires if need be; of course, that would mean having good tires.

I took my Pressure Pro tire sensers with us so I installed them on the tires and off we went.  There was no way that I was going to go over 45 MPH with this set up.  The back roads were very good and we made it clear to Bay Minnette (about 70 miles) before the dreaded “Beep” began.  Then a second alarm went off.  Both front tires on the rig were losing air.  A check in the mirrors indicated that the tires still looked normal which meant that the rear tires were carrying the load.

Being that we still had about twenty five miles left to go, we headed for the first tire store we came to which turned out to be just a couple blocks away.  When we got there we discovered that one of the rear tires had a “big knot” developing on the side – that’s not bad, four bad tires out of five.  The only “good” one (and that was debatable) was the spare that we brought with us. 

With the stem repaired, we changed out one tire and the tire store had an old 15” tire which they used to change out the other flat.  Now, what to do about the tire with the “knot” on the side.  We decided, “what the heck” we only had 25 miles to go so let’s just see what happens. 

Well, we made it without any more incidents while sticking to the back roads creeping along.  I guess I no longer have commentary rights on those “idiots” that I see dragging trailers down the road on bad tires.  Now I’ve been there, done that – never again though.  Dragging a trailer over a hundred miles on bad tires is just not the smartest thing I’ve done this year.

Take Care Until Next Time  - - - - - - - -

3 comments:

  1. We all have those moments where " we knew better." Glad you made it home safe. All's well that ends well.

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  2. Wow! Welcome back home safely!! You are a good man!!!

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  3. Glad you made it home safely. I think I might have been just a "tad" unhappy with the owner of that trailer.

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