#242 Lost wheel rim and tire on RV at 65

We got on the road first thing this morning. It was so cold and I yearned for warmth. I was going to drive all the way to Miami from Hardeeville which is just North of Savannah. We were glad to leave the snow and back on I-95 south. We got across the big Savannah bridge and now the roads were reasonably clear and we were making headway. We we're about an hour out I don't know exactly where and somebody pointed at my rig and said hey you really need to pull over there's something really wrong with your RV. I said well okay I appreciate it and I pulled over.

One of the rear wheels of the RV was completely gone. All 6 lugs completely sheared off and I don't know why. They must have become loose over a period of time and I didn't catch it.

The first thing I thought was wow that's a drag. I intentionally pulled over a little further than the shoulder because you don't want people to squish you whenever you're right at the white line.

I got out and took a look and it was on the passenger side of the double axle of the RV. One entire tire and rim was missing. When these things happen you try to imagine the series of bad things that occurred to make it happen.

I don't know what kind of crazy forces caused the lugs to shear but the entire assembly is flying into the woods at 60 miles an hour. We have to be extremely grateful it wasn't the driver side or it would have gone into traffic into other drivers.

Well, I got things taken apart back there and really all I could come up with is to take the brake drum with me and go find some sort of a trailer axle repair facility that might have this particular wheel assembly.

I left India and Bert at the rig but there was propane heat so I felt she was okay.

I was trying to pin point where the wheel fell off and as best, I can tell it was north of Brunswick GA near where 341 intersects I-95

I rode up and around and went to a Napa Auto Parts they said sorry can't help.

In fact, I remember him saying something funny.

He said you picked worst possible place in the world to break down.

We were in between two major population centers. Savannah Georgia's on one end and Jacksonville Florida on the other and we're just out in the country part of I-95.

I mean don't get me wrong there's gas station and the dollar general and NAPA. A couple of people are making a living with a diner here. As far as really serious supplies for like what I needed they’re not going to have stuff like that laying around.

This is what I saw when I walked back to the RV

He said you're liable to have to go 30 miles north or south from here. I said okay thanks but I thought I didn't really choose where to breakdown. He referred me to a friendly enough fella a few miles away that had the sort of a truck stop. They had no fuel and didn’t seem to be open but there were cool junk parts laying all over the place. I could not find any humans there but there was a telephone number. I called the number but no answer. In a minute the phone rang and he said he couldn’t do much for me. He gave me the number for an auto parts place in town somewhere 20 miles away.

By the time it was over I'm sure I was gone for several hours. I eventually found the town with the auto parts store the guy recommended. I asked for help and they went four times over the call of duty to help me get back to where I needed to be.

It was a young fella maybe 30 years old who seemed to be the son of the owner of the business.

He looked at my situation and instead of actually selling me the brake drum itself, which had the lugs sheared off, he looked at it and said what you really need is just new lug studs.

I said if you sell them to me is there anybody in town that can help me tap these things out? He said come around back with me and he had a workbench and tools. He said let's just tap these things out and do it right now. I told him I was on the side of the road a snowy shoulder of the highway and I really appreciated it. To anyone unfamiliar, parts houses sell parts but its not their role to help out or provide a mechanic and tools

I wasn't that familiar with lug nut studs in brake drums but they're really just tapped in with a big hammer.

With a flat round type punch, he tapped one out with a heavy hammer. He needed to go back to the front and help customers on the counter. With a quick lesson he left me to it with access to his tools just like we've been buds forever. I was just overwhelmed with how cool a guy he was.

I have lost hope and humankind so many times and then you run into a guy like this and I makes me so happy they're such decent people in the world.

The scary part is would it have been the same scenario if I were minority. We are in the backwoods part for Georgia /Florida.

He was the friendliest person ever so you just go to not know everything and be grateful for what he did and I was extremely grateful.

I kept working at it and got all six studs out and hammered the new ones in. I'm ready to ride down the road for maybe 15 bucks at the most.

I tried to offer them extra cash money for letting me use the bench and he said no.

I thanked him 60 times and paid the money and headed out.

It was probably 30 minutes back to the RV and then got to get the whole assembly put back together.

Let's just say we left out of that Catholic church parking lot at maybe 8 or 9 a.m. and I finally got my problem solved and ready to pull out at maybe 3 in the afternoon.

At this point just getting to Crooked River before dark would be a pleasure.

That was the case and we did get to Crooked River and it worked out fine. After we settled in I put the TV antenna back together with gorilla glue.

It's warmer here and no snow and you talking about sleeping good at night, what a long two days.

I had posted my dilemma on Facebook and my sister Darylene had sent me a message asking if all was well. Here is my response.

I'm sorry Darylene, I got so distracted I didn't answer your question for a day. The lug nuts sheared off while I was going 60 miles an hour on I-95. The wheel and tire went flying into the woods somewhere I'll never know where. What you're seeing is on the passenger side which is facing the grassy parts southbound I 95. If the problem had been on the driver side that whole tire/wheel assembly would have been in somebody's windshield. It was bad that it happened but it was great that nothing really bad happened and no one got hurt. I did feel gratitude that things went they did.

Over the years I've learned how to do a few things so I'll able to fix the problem myself with the missing wheel. It took several stops in several towns to find the right vendor but eventually it cost $16 in parts and about all day of my labor. I tried to figure out roughly how it would have cost if I didn't have these Grandpa /Uncle Lee redneck skills, I think you would have been about a thousand dollars.