Reflections on Flat Tires

I knew I had posted something a while ago (Feb 07) about carrying all those tools for tire and bearing repair as a guaranty they would not be needed. Well, the guaranty is now void. The right aft tire blew out or just went flat. I am unsure what happened as I did not notice any difference in the tow. A good samaritan passed and made frantic circular hand motions. Since I am pop culture illiterate, I thought this might be a new gesture indicating his displeasure with my driving and his certainty my mind, like a tetherball game, was wrapping itself around an imaginary pole! Anyway, I could feel nothing from the trailer to indicate the rim was about to eject the shredded remains of the tire like a flavorless wad of tobacco. I am duly impressed with the tandem setup; could have continued on three wheels for many miles. The tire change went well due to all the tools, supplies (including the hand cleaner) and support from my wife who vocalized encouragement from the cab:"Turn the engine back on so the a/c runs". Yes, machinery heaven and domestic bliss!
 
Glad you had all the tools to fix your trailer on the road.

Your experience is far better than my last failure with a trailer. Even though I had repacked the bearings 4 short trips before I ended up with a bearing failure on my sled at 4 am on the way to the boat ramp to go fishing. I had just pulled away from the stop light when all of a sudden my trailer tire is passing us and there are sparks galore from where it SHOULD be! Yup, single axle trailer. Now this happened not to far from the original C-Dory plant on Hiway-99 (not the best place to be at that time in the morning!).

I get on the phone with Pete's Towing and ask them to bring their Biggest Flatbed as I didn't think they would be able to use dollies on the trailer. I was told the wait would be at least an hour. 2 hours later the guy pulls up with a regular tow truck takes one look at it and states that he has to go back to the barn to get the flat bed. Well gee, that is what I told the operator! Please realize, before this happened I had previously been a tow truck operator and knew precisely what needed to be done to get the boat and trailer home. After another hour a different driver finally shows up with the flat bed. He has no clue how to load the truck so I told him exactly how I wanted it loaded and we finally get it on the truck. An hour later we pulled into the driveway and this kid has no clue how to get it back off! So, I have him back up the truck to exactly where I want the boat and chain it to the post of my carport and have him drive the truck out from under the trailer. Worked like a charm. Sure scared the heck out of the kid though! The biggest problem we had was that the trailer was wider by about 3" than the flat bed was!

Afterwards I found out that when the bearing let loose and the trailer hit the ground it bent the spindle requiring me to replace the axle. All told that $6 bearing ended up costing me $1000 and 2 months of fishing time while I waited for EZLoadr to ship me the Axle. If this had been on a tandem axle I would have been able to chain up the axle and limp home. Put on new bearings and go fishing that afternoon.
 
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