While I was driving home from the 19th Annual DAM Gathering of the Teardrops at Lake Shasta on Tuesday night, the right-hand tire on the trailer blew out!
Fortunately for me, it was on city streets close to home instead of at high speed out on a deserted stretch of I-505.
While I was at the DAM Gathering, a lady warned me that my tires, while showing very little wear, were quite old and were showing cracks where the tread meets the sidewalls. I said “yes, I see them, and will deal with it when I get home.” Little did I know how close to home I would get before having to deal with it.
At the gathering, I spoke to several guys about the possibility of changing my wheels (now modern tri-spoke alloy) for some 1948 Ford wheels for a more authentic look, so I had been figuring on buying new tires when I got the new wheels. I didn’t think the problem was, or would become quite so urgent.
When the tire blew, the tread came off in a big belt, like it does to trucks on the highway, and the belt flogged the fender into submission ;-(
Fender damage
The fender damage isn’t catastrophic; the trailer is towable and the bent metal parts aren’t anywhere near the new tire, but now I’ll have to find someone to repair it :(
My “Plan A” for such a catastrophe was to use the car jack to raise the trailer and one of the screw-type stabilizer jacks to support it. Well, the car jack wouldn’t work because the lifting surface is customized to mate with jack points on the bottom of my Subaru. There was no “Plan B” but being close to home, I was able to borrow a nice hydraulic floor jack and a heavy-duty axle stand from a neighbor. The floor jack made short work of lifting the trailer and the stand was exactly what was required. I’ll be purchasing a floor jack for the trailer soon!
Shredded tire
I took the wheel and shredded tire to the nearest tire store (Les Schwab) as soon as they opened Wednesday morning. The store manager offered me a choice of tires ranging from moderate ($88) to expensive ($122), and I chose the expensive one. About 15 minutes later, I was on my way back to the trailer with a new tire on my wheel.
A repeat of the floor jack act had me back on the road in less than 15 minutes after arriving with the tire and wheel. Had I carried a spare tire and jack, the teardrop and I would have been home less than an hour after the blowout!
I had to leave the trailer by the side of the road, on a busy boulevard in a No Stopping zone and fully expected to find a parking ticket stuck to the trailer when I returned. I also half expected to find the trailer vandalized when I returned because the cabin door latch is far from secure and only a little brute force would be required to open it, even when locked.
Lessons learned: 1. Carry a spare wheel and tire and a jack. 2. Test your “Plan A” at home before it’s needed. 3. Have a “Plan B.”
All’s well that ends well, and the damage to the teardrop could have been much worse, so I consider myself “DAM lucky.”
I’ll post my DAM Gathering story and pictures in the next day or two so stay tuned.