May 9, 2013 – Day One & Done!!

It was a late night last night as we had not finished packing. We got up with the intent to have the boat hitched up and be on the highway by 7:00.

Well, not quite.

It was about 8:30 when we pulled out of the boat club parking lot and hit the highway. We got about 5 miles down the road when there was a loud thump and the trailer lunged to one side. A quick check in the rear view mirror showed sparks showering from the left axle and no sign of a wheel. I quickly moved to the shoulder and stopped. Just as I stopped, Gloria asked “What's that?” and pointed to the left. Out my window I saw the wheel rolling past us and angling across 3 lanes of rush hour traffic. No one hit it and about 100 yards down the road it stopped in the center median. I was sure we'd blown a bearing and the hub was ruined.

“We're probably done,” I said.

The shoulder was unusably narrow, but I carefully made my way back to get a quick look at the axle. To my surprise, the hub was there and looked intact, though the threads on the lug bolts were damaged. The Bearing Buddy, however, was no where to be seen.

As rush hour was waning, I made my way across the road and recovered the wheel. The holes for the lug bolts were eroded away to about twice their normal size. No lug nuts were present, apparently having been broken, or thrown earlier.

We called a friend from the boat club, who came and picked us up. We removed one lug nut from the right wheel to use as the model to find replacements. You would be amazed at how difficult it was to get replacement lug bolts. After a trip that took way longer in time and distance than it should have, an auto parts place produced a handful of nuts they assured us would work. We then stopped by a hardware store and picked up a ½" x 20 die to clean up the threads of the damaged lug bolts.

Fearing for our lives and limbs, we called the OKC police, who send a cruiser to partially block the right lane of the parkway. We cleaned up the threads, put the spare tire in place, and proceeded to try the lug nuts. They didn't fit!! We took them back to the parts place and learned that the rep sold us metric lug nuts, not SAE. Armed with the right lug nuts, we returned. The officer had remained with the boat and, almost 4 hours after we started, we pulled back onto the highway.  Thank you so much, Officer M. Smith!!

We immediately pulled into a tire shop to check the torque on the nuts and check the pressure. They didn't have a cap for the hub, so we determined to go to Bass Pro, where I bought the Bearing Buddies originally. But first we grabbed lunch at a fast food place across the street.

Thus, it was about 1:30 when we pulled into Bass Pro. We went in, bought the Bearing Buddies (they only come in pairs) and borrowed a rubber mallet to install one on the left hub. That process didn't take long, but I noticed that the (intact) right hub was noticeably warmer than the left that had the trouble.

We decided to drive down I-35 about 8 miles and pull into a gas station to check the temperature of the hubs. If the right was was still warmer than the left, we would abort the trip, rather than lose a bearing miles down the road. In fact the right was warm, while the left was barely above ambient.

With a sense of frustration and disappointment, we headed slowly home. Back at the boat club, Gloria looked carefully at the trailer and noted that the right wheel appears canted in at the top. I suspect the axle is bent.

So, as soon as we got back Friday afternoon, we canceled the hotel reservations, notified the cruise that we won't be there, and unpacked the food we were going to take on the cruise.

And we're at home tonight, but we both agree we need a break of some sort. Whether we drive to Galveston, or New Orleans, head west to camp in the Rockies, or do something else will be decided in the next few hours.

Sorry to disappoint you.

The next morning, I took photos of the wheels.  For comparison, here is the left wheel as seen from the back of the trailer, which appears fine.

Below is a view from the rear of the trailer of the right wheel.  Notice how much more of the tire is visible at the top of the fender than at the bottom.  No, the fender is not crooked.  The tire really is at an angle.

This is the same wheel as seen from the front of the trailer.  Something's definitely wrong, here!