Busted Flat in Georgia Along I-95

March 28, 2022

After dinner at my father-in-law’s house, we started driving back to the RV. It is a 45 minute drive from his house to our campsite.

Along the way, there was a noise on the passenger side by the front tire. We ran over something in the road and it scrapped over the front passenger wheel well.

I said, “What was that?!”

Bruce said, “We ran over something on the road. It was just some road trash.”

Bruce continued driving and POW! The passenger side front tire blew. We could smell tire smoke in the cab. Bruce was able to pull the truck off the road safely.

Bruce sat there for a just a short bit, just recovering from the shock of the tire blowing. He turned on the hazzards. I jumped out of the truck to see how bad it was.

The tire was still smoking and Bruce carefully got out of the driver’s side. While he was well on the shoulder, he didn’t want to get hit by a passing car or commercial truck.

He came around and looked at the tire with me. The tire was shredded! In looking at the tire, Bruce said he couldn’t believe how well the truck handled that.

Next, came the changing of the tire. We had to read the manual, to figure out how to get to the jack and spare tire.

The spare tire is stored underneath the truck bed. There is a hole just above the license plate and off to the side a little bit, that allows you to reach the spare. You have to assemble a long rod from the jack kit and put it through so you turn it to lower the tire down.

Bruce got the tire off the lift and then turned the rod until the lift was back in place. He was planning to put the shredded tire in the truck bed. He didn’t want to forget and have the lift dragging.

Next, was prying off the hubcap and loosening the the lug nuts.

Figuring out where to put the jack required checking the manual again.

Bruce got the truck wheel up enough and then he removed the lug nuts, putting them into the hubcap so he wouldn’t loose them. He got the shredded tire off and then had to jack up the truck some more to get the spare tire on.

Bruce got the spare on and it was a pain to get the tire lined up with the bolts for the lug nuts. The tire was also big and heavy, so it wasn’t easy to manage.

He put the lug nuts on. Tighten them down and lowered the jack.

Bruce put the shredded tire into the truck bed, then he went back to the front of the truck and tighten the lug nuts again.

Bruce waited for a good break in traffic and started getting up to speed on the shoulder, so he could pull in. He left the hazard lights on until he was up to 55 miles per hour, then he turned them off.

It had been a long time since either of us had needed to change a tire. We tried to remember the last time we needed to change a tire. It had been years.

What was I doing while Bruce was changing the tire? I was holding the flashlight and various parts to give to him as he needed them.

Most of the traffic did move over while we were changing the tire. It made a big difference.

We got back to the RV at 10:45 PM last night. It took us over an hour to change the tire.

Bruce is always good to work with in a crisis or a problem situation. His attitude makes a big difference.

This morning, Bruce started looking into getting the spare replaced. He is off getting that done now.