In our 8 years of RV’ing, including this year, I’ve always dutifully subscribed to Good Sam Roadside Assistance prior to heading south for the winter. Until our trip home from Palm Springs a few days ago, I’ve never had the occasion to give them a call. That changed last Friday and Saturday as we had 2 tires blow just hours apart while driving on the I-5 between Bakersfield and Stockton, CA. It was just a tad nerve wracking but all turned out well and we arrived home safe and sound.
We lucked out with very little damage to the fifth wheel
Here’s the tick-tock of our adventure last weekend as best I can remember:
Friday, Mar. 20/15, 7am: We bid farewell to the Sands RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs and headed west on I-10 to I-210 then turned north on I-5 and up over the “Grapevine” heading north to Canada. We were on our way home!
Friday, Mar. 20/15, 11:20 am: Cruising along north of Bakersfield on I-5 south of Coalinga, I suddenly heard a very loud ‘pop’ and looking in my driver’s side view mirror I saw one of the 5’er tires had blown. I remembered not to slam on the brakes but instead carefully drove off the freeway to the side as far as I could.
After the shock of our very first tire blowout receded a bit, I found my Good Sam Roadside Assistant card and called them. They said they would have a tow-truck to us, hopefully, by 1:30pm. I was kind of doubtful about that as we were in the middle of nowhereville.
Other than the shredded tire, the damage to the 5’er was fairly minor. The vinyl wheel well skirting was blown half-off and flapping in the breeze so I unscrewed the few remaining screws and took it off. There was also some minor damage to an aluminum/sheet metal panel the wheel well skirting was attached to but that was about it. I guess we were very lucky there at least.
Friday, Mar. 20/15, 12:30 pm: It was over 90F and big trucks and cars were whizzing by us on the I-5. I was resting with my eyes closed while Paulette had her door open and her head down while doing a bit of sewing. Suddenly, I heard her let out a scream. I turned to see a California Highway Patrol Officer standing by her door – he had pulled up behind us and walked up to the passenger door unseen and unheard. All Paulette saw was a man standing there and it scared the living daylights out of her. I think the officer was a bit surprised by her scream as well.
A few minutes later, I carefully exited the truck and walked around to the passenger side and all of a sudden the officer loudly announced “please take your hands out of your pockets so I can see them”. I hadn’t even noticed my hands were in my pockets but I quickly took them out, raised my hands and said “o.k., just don’t shoot me” as the officer’s hand was on his gun. Good grief!!
He turned out to be a nice guy and asked if we needed any help or assistance. I told him we were fine and after a brief chat he got back in his cruiser and left.
Friday, Mar. 20/15, 1:30 pm: Right on schedule, the tow-truck showed up and the driver quickly went to work removing the shredded tire and wheel and installing our spare which was full-size and brand new. He was all done in 20 minutes and by 2:00pm we were back on the road and headed for the Kit Fox RV Park in Patterson with just one stop to make to buy a new spare tire – just in case.
Before the tow truck driver left I asked him if he knew of a tire shop up the road where I could buy a spare tire as I didn’t want to risk driving without one. The tires on our rig (Power King) were on it when I bought it but I’ve always been a bit suspicious of them even though they have performed well, had lots of tread left and I check the tire pressure daily. The tow-truck driver told me of a small tire shop not too far up I-5.
Friday, Mar. 20/15, 2:45 pm: We arrived at Jose Rodriquez’ tire shop where I made a deal with him on a used Goodyear tire for $50, He quickly mounted it on the rim of the tire that had blown. I bought a used tire because I had already decided to buy a complete new set of Michelin tires in Stockton following our Friday overnight stop in Patterson as by the time we got to Patterson, safely, all the tire shops there would be closed.
Saturday, Mar. 21/15, 8:00am: We unhitched the truck and drove into San Francisco to visit and have breakfast with our daughter and her husband who had just moved there a short time ago. We had only planned a quick trip as we wanted to get to Stockton on Saturday before the tire shops closed. By the time we got back to Kit Fox and back on the road it was close to 2pm. I was really looking forward to to getting to America’s Tire Shop in Stockton for a brand new set of Michelin’s.
Saturday, Mar. 21/15, 3:00pm: Absolutely unbelievable! Just 10 miles south of Stockton, I heard another ‘pop’ on the same side of the 5’er and saw that another one of our original tires had blown out. I pulled over and was relieved to see that other than the tire being flat there was no other damage to the rig. It wasn’t a real bad blow-out but bad nevertheless. I called Good Sam again.
This time they had a tow-truck to us in 30 minutes. The guy didn’t have a bottle jack and had a heck of a time lifting the side of the rig with his manual 3-ton jack. It took him a full hour to get the old wheel off and put the used Goodyear tire I had just bought on the rig. With that done, I slowly pulled out and headed for America’s Tire in Stockton just 10 miles away and holding our breath out of fear another of our original tires might blow.
Saturday, Mar. 21/15, 4:40pm: We pulled into America’s Tire and it was booming even though they closed at 5pm. No problem. The manager quickly had his guys working on replacing all of our tires and we were out of there and back on the road in just over an hour with brand new Michelin tires. I’m sure glad I had phoned ahead to let him know what tires I wanted and to make sure they had them in stock. What a difference. Amazing.
Our new Michelin LTX-MS/2 – LT235/85/R16 tires
The rest of our drive home was blessedly uneventful. The new tires, a slightly larger size than our originals, ran quietly and smoothly. The tires I bought are Michelin LTX-MS/2 – LT235/85/R16. They are the same LTX-MS tires I’ve always had on my Silverado Diesel and I’m very happy and confident with them. I paid $180 each for the 4 tires.
Wednesday, Mar. 25/15, 9:00am Back home, after phoning our Insurance company to put a claim in, I pulled the 5’er over to the Arbutus RV dealer to see about getting the repairs done. The service manager told me he had an exact same 5’er as ours with the exact same damage in for repair just 2 months ago following a blow-out. After inspecting our rig, they confirmed that the only damage done was the 2 easily replaceable panels and they’ll arrive from Heartland in about 3 weeks or so.
I feel pretty lucky as it could have been much worse. Most importantly, no one was hurt and the damage to the rig was minor stuff which can be easily repaired. The original tires on our 5’er were Power King brand. If you have them on your RV then be forewarned – they are Chinese “bomb” tires I’ve heard about. After 3 prior trips south with these same tires and no problems whatsoever, I was pretty confident they’d be o.k. for this trip prior to my plan to replace them before next year. Obviously, I was wrong about that.
Anyway, we’re home safe and sound, a bit lighter in the wallet, and looking forward to having the repairs finished sometime in April. All in all, I guess we can’t complain as this is the first time we’ve ever had a breakdown of any kind. Live and learn. I learned a lot, made some good decisions along the way, so it’s just another experience to chalk up for future reference. I’m already looking forward to our next RV’ing trip this July.
Thanks for visiting!
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