Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Dodged a bullet - whew!

Thank God I have a TPMS - Tire Pressure Monitoring System.  I got it at The Big Tent at Quartzsite a couple of years ago.  I have the kind that has batteries, and I can replace them myself.  I had two batteries that that needed to be replaced, but had let them go for a couple of weeks.  So...

Two days ago I'm driving between Cottonwood and Sedona, AZ in the "slow lane" and I start feeling thump, thump, thump from my rear passenger tires.  I slowed down and looked in the side mirror and saw something black flying out from the back of The Palms.  I thought I had a shredded tire.  As I was pulling off onto the side of the road, the drive was smooth again.  Weird.

I got out and checked the tires as well as I could on the side of a highway, and didn't see any issues.  So I walked back along the road looking for what came flying out of my tires.  I found a bunch of chunks of black rubber that were from a tire right about where I saw the flying black stuff, and I collected them.

After bringing them inside The Palms, I saw the top right piece wasn't from a tire, but the rest were.  I took them outside and compared the markings with my tires, and they didn't look the same as my tire markings.  Plus they weren't as dusty as my tires.

I drove slowly down 89A until I came to a place I could pull off the road and do a better check on the tires.  I couldn't find anything wrong, inside or outside, with the tires.

I also got out two new TPMS batteries and installed them.  One tire was fine, but the other was showing ZERO PSI.  It wasn't the battery, because if the battery is bad, the readout shows two dashes, and this showed "O" PSI.   That was pretty scary!  It was the inside rear dual tire on the passenger side.

I bought the tires at Discount Tire in Yuma, so I drove slowly back to Cottonwood to the Discount Tire store. Unfortunately they were closed since it was Sunday, and I drove on to Walmart to shop and noticed their tire store was open.  I drove up and they checked the pressure, and it was, indeed, empty of air.  They aired it up and looked at the tire pieces I picked up on the side of the road.  He said the pieces were from large big rig tires, so that was good!

I decided to spend the night in Cottonwood at the nearest dry camping spot - by Thousand Trails - a mile or two down the road.  The next morning the pressure in that tire had gone from 65 the day before, to 27 pounds, and I went back to Discount Tire and asked them to examine my rear tires for damage.  He took off the two passenger side tires and the inside one had a large bolt stuck in it.  He fixed the tire for me and then examined all four rear tires, which were good, put the proper PSI into each, didn't charge me a cent, and I was on my way down the road.  What a relief!

I'm back in the Coconino Forest again until my 14 days are up. Nice site, I've met a couple of nice people camped nearby, and everything is good again.  I'm SO glad I ran over that piece of big rig tire which caused me to stop, which caused me to replace the bad batteries in my TPMS sensors right then.  Who knows how long it could have been before I checked the tire pressure if I didn't have a TPMS.  I wouldn't have known my inside tire had a bolt in it, and had no air in it.  I could have ended up with a  blown tire going fast on a freeway, an accident, who knows?

Lately I've had some issues that were serious and had to be fixed, repaired, checked, etc. immediately for my safety and comfort.  It can be stressful when that happens.  You have to do what's necessary right now, but then when the problem is fixed, the sky is blue again, the sun is shining and all is well.  That's how I feel after getting the tire fixed.  And this time, it didn't cost me $$$!

I always think these kinds of things keep my mind sharp, too.  LOL

Below are photos from one of my sites in Cottonwood - first (no surprise) a cow having a munch lunch - she was grazing all over the place:


And one of those Walking Stick insects - this guy was really big.  I was leaving my site and saw him.  I didn't want to drive with him on my tire, and he wouldn't get off.  So I had to pick him up in the center of his long body and was surprised that he was really soft, like a little green worm.  I guess since he looked like a stick I was expecting him to have a hard body.


And finally the beautiful sky one evening as the sun was going down.  Sure do love these Arizona skies:

That's it for now - take care, everybody, and check your tire pressure!  💝💝

17 comments:

  1. Really enjoy reading your adventures! I admire that you wanted to hit the road some years ago, and did! It's inspiring!! Also love the idea of a park model home in an RV park as an eventual home base. Thinking along the same lines! Travel safe Barbara! Aloha

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    1. Great to hear from you, Aloha! I still think often about the Placerville area and the group at the county. Thanks for commenting. Let me know if I can help you with any information (although most is probably in this blog!)

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  2. Me myself and I are all glad you pulled in to camp here along FR525 Barb!! As I told you, I follow you on the blog but rarely comment. I knew it was you before I came over and made the introduction! Hope the weather holds together while you are here, blue skies and sunshine, and glorious sunsets! John

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  3. Whew! Pretty scary, but relieved that everything worked out. I'm a fanatic about checking the TPMs after any stop.

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  4. Hi Barb. That would be called a good sequence of events. So happy you found it quickly and it didn't cost you anything except some time. Whew, big sigh of relief for you!

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  5. Hopefully headed your way soon. PM to follow.

    Virtual hugs,

    Judie

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  6. Isn't it amazing how one thing leads to another and in the end everything works out. Glad you are safe.

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  7. We had a blowout on I40 East of Barstow in September. Alarm went off on our TPMS, we lost the sensor on that tire even! Unfortunately caused damage to the RV with the shredding of the tire :(

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  8. Any RVer can tell stories about tire and tire problems. We sure had our fair share of it over the years. Faulty tires exploding, a bolt stuck in a tire and various flat tires along the road. A freind of ours just lost his motor home due to fire caused by a flat inner rear tire. Best thing one can do is check tire pressure EVERY TIME after a stop.

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  9. You definitely did luck out. Thank goodness it wasn't worse and also that Discount Tires handled it for you.

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  10. Thanks so much for telling your story....I plan to get an Rv and become a Full-timer in the near future.....and now I know to definitely get a TPMS ;-)

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  11. Love reading your adventures!!! I hope to be joining the community one of these days. I'll stay in touch.
    Lauri

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  12. Great that you got the problem resolved before any serious issues,
    I check our tire pressure every time we move the coach and every time we stop on the road.

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  13. Yep I can relate as I am still stuck in Oregon waiting for a tire

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  14. Love our tire monitor. One of those things I consider a necessity for RVing. We're headed back to the valley next week so I'm hoping the 90's are gone.

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  15. You know, it has been a while since I've check my tires. I'll do that this weekend.

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Thank you for your comments - we LOVE them!