Focht Family Blog

On the way back to Pennsylvania from Vermont we had our first and hopefully last tire blowout. I was driving and we were almost out of Vermont. A car passed me and motioned for me to pull over. I pulled over and when we got out to find out what was wrong we found that there was no tire on the left rear of the truck. I had obviously lost the tire a few miles back and had ruined the rim as well. I am lucky that I didn’t blow up the truck and my mom’s camper since I am sure it had been sparking down the road. You can see the groove I was making in the road with the hot rim. Here is what was left…

A semi truck pulled over behind us and told us that he had been trying to get my attention for 15 miles or so. I am hoping he meant he noticed a flat or the tire starting to come off and not that I was driving on the rim that long. I never felt a difference from the RV. I guess I was just looking ahead and not paying attention to the mirrors. Now I am being careful to adjust the mirrors when I am driving so I can see the tires so at least I  might notice chunks of tire flying off if it were to happen again. We called AAA and they called the police and a service truck for us since I was blocking a lane of traffic. The police never showed and Nathan already had the spare off when the truck came. The truck was able to park behind us at an angle so that Nathan was protected to change the tire and the driver helped him get the spare back on so we could get back on the road quicker. It looks like we are now looking at having to get 4 new tires, a rim, and an alignment for the truck. Nathan also mentioned that the boots were torn on the caliper so I am hoping he has the tools to fix that to save us some money. At least no one was hurt. Here is another picture I took of the rim when I was putting it in the back seat of the truck…