Tire Woes!

 

We have made it to California, but not without some issues along the way.  We are presently in the Palm Springs area and will be leaving for Anaheim tomorrow for our winter stop.  Let me get you caught up on the trip here.

We stopped outside Kansas City to attend the wedding of our nephew, which was a great event.  It gave Fran time to catch up with her sister and brother while we were there.  From Kansas City we then had two weeks to make it here, Palm Springs, for the wedding of our niece.  That is where the fun begins.

Our first stop was Tulsa and was without incident.  This was our first time to Tulsa so we drove Historic Route 66 through the town and had lunch at a famous stop, Ike’s Chili.  We stayed for two nights then headed west.  Our next stop was to be Sayre, Oklahoma. 

About 20 miles east of Sayre we heard a loud explosion from the trailer area and looked out the rear view mirrors to see a tire on the right side completely shredded with the trim on the slide flapping around.  I pulled over as quickly as I could and checked out the damage.  The blowout took out the trim along the bottom of the slide along with the trim around the wheel well.  It also ripped the wires from the motor of the leveling jack and damaged the pin that secures the jack.

Blowout #1

I was able to remove the trim piece and put the spare on.  We made it to the RV park in Sayre where I found a tire shop to replace the damaged tire so I would have a spare.

The next day we left Sayre and headed for Santa Rosa, New Mexico.  About 30 miles from Santa Rosa we heard another explosion.  This time it was a tire on the left side of the trailer.  This time it took out trim around the wheel well and ripped the wires from another jack motor.

Blowout #2

Fortunately I had a spare and was able to quickly replace the damaged tire.  We made it into Santa Rosa and I found a tire shop to replace the damaged tire as we were driving again the next day.

The next day we left Santa Rosa and headed to Gallup, New Mexico.  We got about half way and then BOOM!.  You guessed it, another blowout.  This time on the right side.  Fortunately this one did not do much damage.  As I was getting good at this, I was able to put the spare on and be back on the road in less than 30 minutes..

Blowout #3

Ok, so the three blowouts were all on the original tires that came with the trailer and had about 6000 miles.  That left one remaining tire that was original and the spare which had only a couple of hundred miles on it.  The tires are called Towmax, but we quickly learned via the internet that their nickname is BLOWMAX!,  As we still had over 100 miles to go I stopped at the first big town, which was Grants, New Mexico.  Fortunately they had a tire store that had 2 replacement tires.  I had them remove the other original tire and replace it with a new one, replace the blowout and move the original spare back to being a spare.  So, in 3 days and $750 later we had 4 new tires on the trailer that were not Towmax.

Since then I have been working with our RV insurance company and with the dealer where we bought the trailer.  It looks like that Jayco is going to cover everything under warranty.  They will reimburse us for the tires we purchased and reimburse the dealer we are stopping at tomorrow for the cost to repair the damage.  Fortunately we are going to be in Anaheim for 3 months as I am sure it will take awhile to get replacement parts from the factory.

As our trailer is pretty heavy I have been doing some research on the tires and I think we will be moving to a more stronger tire to handle the heavy load. Hopefully I can find a dealer that sells them, or can order them, and possibly give me some money for the tires I already bought.

Meanwhile we made it to the Palm Springs area this weekend for the wedding where we had a great time. 

Life on the road!