Our latest trip didn't start out well. We no sooner left the house and stopped in a parking lot to double check the tie downs on the car before we hit the highway, when I discovered the bottom mirror on the drivers side mirror was gone. The top mirror looks down the road behind you, but the bottom one looks right down the side next to you. It takes care of the 'blind' spot big vehicles have. Anyway, Craig was sure we had it when we left, so we turned around and backtracked looking for it. And did we find it? Of course not. And I can't drive without it. At least I didn't want to. So I dug around the house, and found a small travel mirror I thought I could make work until we have a chance to get it repaired. It wasn't concave so it didn't cover as large of an area, but it worked well enough that I felt safe driving. So a half hour later, we were on the road again. That's why I like to leave early, in case something happens, we have time to take care of it and still arrive at our destination at a decent time. Well, that was just the beginning. 2 hrs into our drive, we heard a loud pop. That means we blew a tire. We pulled into a rest area, and sure enough, we blew the passenger side inside rear tire. At least when one of them blow, you don't lose control of the vehicle. So I called our Good Sam's emergency road service. And here I am waiting for them to arrive. 
If you remember from our first trip 4 years ago, the same thing happened, only on the drivers side. Here's the poor tire..
I can't say enough good things about Good Sam's. It took about an hour for them to bring a new tire and another half hour getting the old one off, and the new one on. 
I could see that these tires are getting old when I compared them to the new tire. We've been trying to get as much life from these as possible because new tires would run about $350 each, and we have 7 tires including the spare. Our tires are now 8 years old. I think we've reached that limit. I think we need to bite the bullet and get new tires.We finally got on our way again, and arrived safely at our campground nearly 3 hours later than planned. That was okay, at least we arrived safe and still before dark.This trip took us to Indiana Dunes State Park. I'm sure you've noticed we stay here a lot. That's because we love Chicago! And we're only 45 min. from downtown.
I can't say enough good things about Good Sam's. It took about an hour for them to bring a new tire and another half hour getting the old one off, and the new one on. I could see that these tires are getting old when I compared them to the new tire. We've been trying to get as much life from these as possible because new tires would run about $350 each, and we have 7 tires including the spare. Our tires are now 8 years old. I think we've reached that limit. I think we need to bite the bullet and get new tires.We finally got on our way again, and arrived safely at our campground nearly 3 hours later than planned. That was okay, at least we arrived safe and still before dark.This trip took us to Indiana Dunes State Park. I'm sure you've noticed we stay here a lot. That's because we love Chicago! And we're only 45 min. from downtown.I'll fill you in on the rest of the trip in my next post. Right now I need to unpack.
Hey Wayne and Craig, sorry to hear about the couple of incidents you've had. I would say 8 yrs is a good time to change the tires. Ours are coming up on 3 yrs old (November '06 manufacturing date).
ReplyDeleteWe don't carry a spare and hope that we won't ever need one. Now I'm nervous, thinking of Murphy's law.
It looks like your blown tire didn't come apart too much so hopefully no other damage in the wheel well. I saw a C-class have an inside dual blow-out in front of us last year and there was a stream of styrofoam and other misc debris trailing behind them.
Take care, travel safe!
MarkandCraiginCalifornia
You were lucky with that blowout. I have heard of several that will do alot of damage to the rv when they blow. And yes, 8 years is too long even if they look good. Every thing I have read, is to change them between 5-7 years, even if they look good. Glad to hear it did not affect your trip too badly.
ReplyDeleteKen from Tampa
Yeah, tires normally go by mileage and not years, so I'd say go for new tires. :)
ReplyDeleteAs you know, we lost the refrigerator cover on our travel trailer and didn't know until we reached the dealer an hour and a half away so we didn't even bother looking for it, though I did try to keep an eye out for it going back to the farm house. No luck, of course. :)
At least you only lost one tire this time. The set we had on the blue trailer all failed within an hour of each other, one at a time. They were a set with like 60,000 miles or however tires come. And had come off one of our pickup trucks. I thought that made them a fairly well matched set. :)
*hugs*
Sis