All's Well That Didn't End Well

We left Burleson close to 1:00 and made our way to Madisonville for one more stop at a dealer. From there we continued south on I-45. At Exit 116 in Huntsville KAPOW, a blow out on the trailer. This is our third one with Goodyear G614 tires. When this happens the wheel well fender gets torn up and has to be replaced.

As fate would have it we were stuck on the x-way in front of a Pilot Truck Stop and across the highway from a Shell Truck Stop but Good Sam sent a wrecker from Centerville, some 50 miles away. Thank goodness we could go into Wendy's at the Pilot to get out of the 104 degree heat. After an hour, the spare was on the trailer and we continued the remaining 40 miles to Rayford.

When I went inside the trailer I could smell burned rubber. Ted looked under the trailer and there was shaved rubber everywhere. The bracket that held the mudflap must have been bent, gouged the spare on the inside removing the edge of the tire an inch wide and an inch deep. How we made it home is beyond me. The bracket and mud flap were both missing at this point.

It took some phone calls, e-mails, advice, etc. to decide what to do. We couldn't go anywhere on that tire and now had no spare. In the end we ordered a new tire from Goodyear that didn't arrive until 1:30 on Thursday afternoon. Ted picked it up and Milstead came to put it on so we could put the trailer away. The guy said he had never seen such a thing.

In the meantime Ted has ordered four new H rated tires and new wheels (these tires are bigger). They will be delivered to Thornton RV Repair on Monday. We'll take the trailer out there for Elmer to put them on. At the same time he'll assess what he needs from Nu-Wa to repair the fender damage and whatever else he finds underneath.

Ted has a claim once again with Goodyear. The first time we had a blow out they gave us a new tire and paid to have the trailer fixed. The second time they gave us all new tires and paid to have the trailer fixed. I know they will pay for the new tire we bought that we'll keep as a spare since everyone said that would work OK in an emergency with the new H tires but I'm not sure if they'll give us anything back on the new H tires ($2250 for tires and wheels). They'll pay to get the trailer fixed too.

Ted is now having conversations with the engineers at Nu-Wa on their recommended tire pressure. He feels they post too high a psi for the heat in the summertime. His friend Greg from Haulin' HitchHikers has the same trailer and now has H rated tires so they are putting their heads together on the best psi, especially in summer.

Ted was complaining to Elmer at Thornton about the Goodyear tires. They have stood behind them every time but this is getting old. Elmer said it's not just Goodyear. He said he sees every tire manufacturer and every type of RV rig in his shop with the same thing. He said it happens to all of them and he hasn't seen anymore Goodyear than any other kind. I guess it's just a hazard of the road.

So with everything under control we went to Mario's for dinner. They have long brass handles on their door. One was wrapped with a rag so you could open the door. Of course Ted had to touch the other handle and found out quickly why the rag was on the other one. We both had not one, but two, frozen margaritas before dinner. We earned them!