Officially a 'New' Owner

[Razinni]

It's official. I was able to successfully retrieve my 31' from PA to Atlanta. Thanks to everyone for answering my 'Almost a new owner' post. Here is what I learned.

1. You can in fact tow a 31 foot with a 2003 Suburban without anti sway or a WD hitch.. The trailer weighed in at 5503 lbs and the total combined was a little over 12K. It was a bit unnerving and I had to watch my speed but the PO's hitch wasn't set up for my vehicle and we didn't have the resources to connect it.

2. A dual axle AS will work with 3 tires. The PO had told me he had new tires installed. What he didn't tell me is that he had done the installation work himself and failed to tighten lugs properly. Within an hour of the start of my trip on the highway one wheel suddenly broke free of the trailer and narrowly missed a car before passing me and coming to a halt against the rail in the center of the highway. I was able to retrieve the tire and after visiting multiple auto parts stores I was able to purchase new lug BOLTS and re-attach. Needless to say I checked the lugs often on the rest of the trip.

3. All round electrical connections are not the same. After confirming multiple times that I had the right electrical connection I found that the trailers 7 pin connecter and my bladed 7 way connector were not compatible. The only thing I could do was purchase a temp trailer lighting kit for the trip home.

Thanks again to everyone for their advice. I learned a lot.

Here is a picture of the damage caused when the wheel let go.

Raz

[Foiled Again]

Boy, talk about a baptism by fire. Glad you made it.

Sorry about the damage. Keep the faith though. It can be fixed and you know you made it through the first crisis OK.

I send you good Karma for future trips and for finding a great repair facility.

Paula

[PharmGeek]

Man I would have been TICKED -

Lesson I suppose that we use strict checklists when picking up a purchase - check off the box for "check lug nut torque"

Glad you are safe!!

Congratulations!!!

[m.hony]

There are red marks on the lug nuts so you can visually see if the lug nuts have moved/backed off. I already looked at them on 'Geek's new trailer. They should be re-checked after 25-50 miles of travel.

[SeeMore]

Sorry to hear you had such a trial by fire with your new acquisition. I suffered a somewhat similar event retrieving my first Airstream but from Florida. The PO said he had just had the tires and brakes checked prior to my arrival since I was planning to tow 500+ miles upon pickup.

My trauma came from a valve stem failure around 150 miles into the trip which caused the tire to deflate immediately. The tire shredded and came off the rim while I was on the interstate. The shop had mounted all rubber stems, not the metal shafted version. I got to buy a new tire and four stems at the next exit.

A month after I got home, I got a letter from Discount Tire announcing a "tire valve stem recall" for the batch involved.