As usual I had hotel reservations for 3 nights but he told me to cancel Sat. night and he would drive us straight home (6 hours) We headed out of Abilene at 9pm.
I had just dozed off at 1am when I heard an awful noice and Charles started slowing down and pulling over. Of course you can probably guess it was a night time travelers nightmare a BLOWOUT on the trailer. Not only did the tire blow out but it curled the back side of the fender up inside the fender well like a piece of paper. As you can probably guess the tire tool and jack handle were not right inside the trailer door so I did some climbing to retrieve. After beating the fender with a hammer to reshape to a almost normal position Charles got the spare in place and we were on the road in 30 minutes. He pulled over a couple of miles down the road to check and tighten lug nuts.
Less than 10 miles back on the road I hear another noise and over we go to the shoulder again, it is now 1:45 am. Now the real nightmare. The spare had blown out. Of course we were still 2 hours from home.
I asked what our options were and Charles said there is only 1. Leave trailer and go back to get on Sunday.
He happened to look down at the tires on my Toyota Tundra and counted lug nuts, 6, the trailer was 6 also. I got a tape measure out and he tried to measure the center of lug nuts and wasn't too sure if they matched.
As this was our only option at the time we took the spare out from under the truck and tried to put on trailer. WE NEVER DREAMED IT WOULD FIT BUT IT DID.
The trailer had 15"wheels and the truck has 16 or 17" wheels but it fit and we didn't care. Pulled a little funny but we got home and that is was counted.
Charles said he would have bet his paycheck that it would not fit.
The axle on my cargo trailer is from my grandmother's 1950 something mobil home.
I told him I was soooo glad he decided to be my driver for the weekend. I know how to change a tire, where to put jack etc. but I really don't think I would have ever loosened the lug nuts. It would have been day time had I been alone or with my sister as we would have spent the night in Abilene. So now Charles and my dad are gonna give me a hard time if I head off by myself again.
I think our guardian angel was watching over us.
Just thougt I'd share our miracle with you guys.
I did think about Steve W as he said a few months back that he had never had a flat on a trailer.
Well Steve this is what might happen to you..................
I'm heading to the tire store today to have more tires put on the trailer.
Linda
