Three flats and a blow out

After we left Hot Springs we headed to Vicksburg, MS. It was a long dreary drive. It didn't rain very much but it was cold and gray.
We spent the day in Vicksburg going around the battlefields and taking pictures of the state monuments. I also spent a little time at the outlet mall.
As we prepared to leave Vicksburg we were all set to take off when Bill noticed a flat on the camper's left side front axle. We called Good Sam and they had someone there, fixed the flat and we were gone in about 45 minutes. We headed of toward Gulfport, MS it was a beautiful day and we had no problems. Until we were about 35 minutes north of Gulfport, we had just passed a 5th wheel and drove on when they came running up along side us blowing their horn and waving, we thought that we had another flat. We had a blowout on the right side front axle. There was an 18" strip of rubber in addition to a tiny fringe of rubber around the rim. The tire was gone, completely gone. the rim was chewed up a little, but still usable.

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Well, unfortunately since it was late Sunday afternoon Bill decided to change it himself. It was pretty difficult to get those lug nuts off, but he did it and we were back on the road in short order. But the fun wasn't over just yet. 

 When we went outside the next morning the tire that had the flat the previous day was flat again, but Bill just aired it up with his compressor and began thinking seriously about new tires for the camper. Our preacher friend had given us a recommendation last year, so we called him for an update, went to a couple of places checking prices and availability. We ended up ordering two tires to be put on the next day. We spent about half the day doing this instead of walking on the beach in Biloxi, MS. I wasn't happy about this, but you do what you have to do.

I went on line to check out these camper tires. Power Max/ Tow King seems to be the # 1 tires RV manufacturers use on their campers. I read the reviews and they are constantly failing and not just failing, but blowing out. This is so dangerous, I can't believe that manufacturers continue to use these. Just for fun I looked to see how much I could buy one for..... $65.00 each. The ones we bought to replace these chinese junk tires were about $200. **** camper warning**** check your camper tires.

So we were getting ready, packing up the camper to go and get the two tires, guess what, another flat tire. That's 3 flats and a blow out in a little more than 48 hours. We quickly called the tire guy to see if he could get two more, we decided to change all four. It took a few hours out of our travel time, but it is worth it to know that we are on safe tires now. It is tremendous peace of mind to know that we are as safe as we can be for ourselves and not a danger to others.

Getting a camp site, this is a whole other story, just wait.

Donna