Tire Troubles

We had a little excitement this weekend; what could have been a very dangerous situation turned out to be as gentle on us as possible.

These things happen when you live on the road… but at the time they feel quite dramatic and disruptive.

We were rolling right along about two hours into our trip, and another driver alerted us to check our back tire. So we immediately pulled over; the exit was right there and as we turned into a service station our tire rolled right out into the grass! Oh how dangerous that could have been at full speed on the highway!

We limped around to the back of the station to survey the damage. Tire looked fine; but bearings, brakes and all needed to be replaced. The insurance company couldn’t find a tow large enough nor a mobile repair; and it was late Friday afternoon. Chris was able to source parts to replace it himself; but got hung up on the castle nut. It seemed we would have to replace the entire axle.

Good things: we were already prepared to boondock for two nights. We were in a safe location that allowed us to stay and had space for us to work on it. We were close enough (within five hour drive) to pick up the axle ourselves rather than wait two weeks for shipping to a repair shop.

We kept calling around the next morning and found a guy that said he could just check on the castle nut to help get it off. He inspected the axle and determined all we needed was a new castle nut rather than a full axle! So I called around and got it while they replaced all of the other parts and in a few hours we were back on the road! What a great result when we thought our only option was to wait until later in the week to even get parts; much less service.

All told; we were only four hours behind schedule and today we completed the 650mi trip with no more trouble and with full gratefulness for a quick resolution. Ironic that it was $650 and 650 miles ago!!

I felt like it was important to share that our trip is not always beaches or peaches 😉 and the inevitable troubles, be they large or small, makes us even more grateful for every safe mile and smile!!! #thepossibilitarians