Just Another Trip….
We spent the past 4 months in So Cal caring for Terry’s 80 yo Mom who broke her back falling off a ladder while checking the roof. Don’t ask why….
We were finally able to leave on April 24 and head for our summer position in Idaho. This will be our fourth season working at Heise Hot Springs Resort and we are really looking forward to it. We made arrangements to spend some time in Salt Lake City to have our Motosat system refurbished. We were just outside of Cedar city, UT in the Virgin River Gorge and I was at the wheel. Suddenly I heard honking beside me and a lady was gesturing frantically. What was wrong? I pulled the rig off the road at the first spot I could find, and Terry got out to check things out. Sure enough, the right rear tire on the fiver was flat. This was the second tire to fail in 600 miles.
He got the tire changed to the new spare and meanwhile I had phoned ahead to Cedar City to find tires. We have a Garmin GPS that we rely on heavily. Miss Elsie Mae (she may get us there, or may not! ) gave me three shops to call. The second had the tires we needed…how many?….6 Yes!!!!! We will take all of them…come in tomorrow morning first thing and we will take care of you! We were planning on spending the nite in CC anyway, so the timing was perfect.
Next morning we were at the shop bright and early. After removing the old ones, not quite 4 years old, they found defects in all of them. No sign of overheating or pressure problems. Just manufacturer defects. 45 minutes later were ready to hit the road with six new tires. We were set. On to Salt Lake.
We stopped at a very nice new resort in N Salt Lake and made reservations for three nites. Our appointment was for Friday and we would get to Heise on Saturday. The job at Motosat would take about half day so we were going to enjoy our 2 days and see some of the city. We found a market, went out to lunch and found our way back to the park with the help of Elsie Mae.
Friday we took the fiver to the factory. A new dish was installed and things seemed to be OK. We went back to the park and set everything up. The system was not working at all well. Several problems. So…..Monday we headed back to the factory. 10 hours later we went back to the park. Still was not working….many other problems. By this time we were thoroughly frustrated and were ready to scream. We showed up at the factory Tuesday morning and they started to work again. Finally, after all new equipment, and three days of labor the system was up and running. We stayed in the parking lot at the factory Tuesday nite, just to be sure all was well. Next morning the tech came out and we tried everything several times. Good to go!
We got to Heise yesterday afternoon and we parked in the office parking lot for the night. We went down to the campground this morning and turned on the power and water. All was well until one of the pressure tanks blew out….water everywhere. Terry and James went to Idaho Falls an hour ago to get a new tank. As soon as they left…it started to snow…hard! It is sticking on the ground and so pretty. We will have to leave 50 spigots running tonite to protect the system. We turned on the water 2 hours too early…eeekkkk! Oh well.
I love the snow and I am warm and dry at the moment…hope I can stay that way!
Bill Miller
Hi Y’All with your tire problems out there. It might be of some help to all the rest of us out here if at the time you’re telling us about your poor grades of certain tires that are problematic, that you tell us also the tire Mfg. and the specific model name. It might also help if you mention the tire size since some of the respective companies only carry certain plys, and models for motor homes. Thanks again for any assistance, hopefully all of us will stop buying the bad brands/models and they’ll stop making them in the future for motor homes. That will leave only the good ones to buy.
Connie
This must be the week for tire problems. Noticed our front tire was defective with only 6,000 miles. Goodyear. Got it replaced same day.
Darrel
I’ll 2nd the Marathon tire trouble. We had nothing but trouble with them also. You were very fortunate not to damage the trailer with the flat tire. I’d strongly suggest you get a Tire Pressure Monitoring system as you may have used up the good luck. Let me know if your interested in a pressurepro system.
Bob Sharp
I have had nothing but trouble with Marathons tires also, I don’t even run them anymore. Have fun stay warm.
Dianne OKeeffe
Bob, we did not even try. We were planning on getting new tires this summer anyway. They were Marathons and we were not comfortable with them.
bob
Were you able to get any help with the Bad Tires? $$$
Andrew Orton
Great story! Have fun!