trust your instincts...

[dvgofaz]

I had a premonition Tuesday. Looking at the weather report and seeing continued temps of 110 I wondered about the wisdom of traveling in the heat and risking having trouble that would leave me stranded by the side of the ride in dangerous conditions.
Well 'the best laid plans', as they say.

Batteries charged, propane full, waste tanks empty, me and the Mrs are taking our happy springer spaniel Belle and our friend Rudy to a bluegrass festival a few hours away in Prescott AZ.
Despite the 110* temp all is well and we're rolling along in the evening heading first to Phoenix for a bite of dinner and then to our destination a couple more hours north.
First problem came when we blew a tire making a U turn at our stop for gas and food. It's a tri-axle trailer and we lost the rear tire starboard side. We are most conveniently 100 yards from a large well lit lot where we drop the spare and change it, no problem. Of course the tread separated and did body damage. A block away is dinner and after we eat we are ready to hit the road again.
A mile later in the acceleration lane getting onto I10 we lose another tire. This time is's the front tire starboard side. We have no second spare so we limp along the shoulder at a walk until it's obvious that the belt has separated and is doing body damage also. I decide to remove the tire and limp on 5 wheels instead of 6 and stop for the night in a parking lot a mile ahead at the next exit(thank you Sams Club).
In the lot we crank up the generators and start the A/C ready to call it a night...until I look up and notice that the accordion curtain in the skylight is puckered upwards. I slide it open and discover that 'somewhere' the skylight has blown completely off and I'm looking up at the night sky and a street light. It is nearly midnight, still 110...and there's no chance of a/c being able to cool us down.
We pack it all up and very slowly go another mile on good streets to a motel where clean sheets, cool showers and cool rooms await.
The next morning I'm at Discount Tire getting ALL new meat as I no longer trust ANY of my tires(only 3 years old and with almost no miles) in the heat. All 6 tires...oops, make that 7 tires as they come and tell me the spare is 10 years old...and 'oh by the way your decorative lug nuts are collapsing, we need to replace them with solid ones that wont crush. 36 of them...at $3 each.
Knowing that the heat was still going to be a huge problem once we got to the festival, we decided to pack it in and head home.

There are many silver linings:
the best of which is, we kept our heads in the middle of our problems and nobody got impatient or angry or started pointing fingers. Mostly we shook our heads and laughed our way through it, knowing we would just laugh about it later anyway.
I learned that while not advisable you just might get away with 5 tires instead of 6.
It is monsoon season here and despite the invitation of an 20 square inch opening in the roof the torrential rains held off.
Another good take away was the TV, our 2016 f150 was a dream to drive and even the tranny temp barely broke 200*.
So we are home safely, have a lot of really good food to eat, and the pool out back is just the ticket for these brutally hot days.

Like Roseanne RoseannaDanna said ...'It's always somethin.."

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Wow, that's all pretty crazy. Good to hear nobody was hurt in the process (other than the ever suffering bank account ...).

If you don't mind the question - what kind of tires did you have on the trailer? Three years and only a few miles sounds pretty bad for two blowouts in a row.

My grandparents had a very similar situation in Florida in the 1930's with a single axle. Thirty years later my grandmother could still go on for about three hours about those tires ....

Bob

[dvgofaz]

I didn't notice the specifics really, they were goodyear trailer tires. This trailer sat for 18 months or so before we bought it, that and the brutal sunlight over 3 summers probably didn't help their life span any. As I think about it those tires were on the south side of the camper where it was parked in the open all that time.
I am sort of surprised that the tires are 15". I would think larger wheels and tires would have better longevity.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by dvgofaz

I didn't notice the specifics really, they were goodyear trailer tires. This trailer sat for 18 months or so before we bought it, that and the brutal sunlight over 3 summers probably didn't help their life span any. As I think about it those tires were on the south side of the camper where it was parked in the open all that time.
I am sort of surprised that the tires are 15". I would think larger wheels and tires would have better longevity.

Hi

Thanks for the info. I do understand that hanging around taking notes on the old tires probably was not a high priority

Bob

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi



Thanks for the info. I do understand that hanging around taking notes on the old tires probably was not a high priority



Bob

PA is an excellent environment for tires.

Way down south: white covers, overinflate by 10%, on wooden boards, and out of direct sunlight.

If not ST, might last into fourth season.

To OP: 15" is what's needed for a tridem. Some good LT choices. Best to scale the trailer.

[ITSNO60]

Originally Posted by dvgofaz

Like Roseanne RoseannaDanna said ...'It's always somethin.."

Wasn't is "If it ain't one thing, it's somthin else" ?

[Lumatic]

What brand of tires failed?