There are things that happen in life that as you look back on you realize how much worse something could have been. Every time I think about the traffic light gods that hate me I realize now that if there was an equal amount of that karma to be distributed across all facets of our lives, then I’m glad it was spent where it was because things could have been far worse than they were… for that, I am infinitely thankful.
We left for our quick Eclipse getaway mid morning on Sunday and instantly I could feel something wasn’t quite right. There was a noticeable wobble in the truck as I progressed through speeds. I drove the truck the day before and all was good so I was suspicious of the trailer. We stopped a short time later and inspected the truck and trailer closely. All seemed fine so I chalked this up to be a lost wheel balance weight on the truck. The wobble persisted and I re-inspected at the midway snack stop and my findings remained the same… no noticeable damage and the hub and tire temps were all well within reason. We stopped a third time at a truck stop as we were entering Hermitage, PA (just a few miles from our campground) where we could fill up fuel for the drive home and that’s when I discovered the root cause.
The left rear tire had a noticeable bulge in one spot and the tread wear at the spot was severe, in fact it was completely bald for about 10″ of the circumference. Elsewhere, the tire looked fine so I can only assume the tire was resting on that spot at my other two inspections. The bottom line was, we needed a tire. ASAP. If not all 4.
Truth be told, we were planning to get tires this spring before our big summer trips. This obviously forced our hand and unfortunately given these circumstances, we had to take what was available to us. So instead of getting the same tires as replacements of the ones that came on the truck, I had to make a decision to go to a different brand based on availability. After some research, I was satisfied the suggested Goodyear Workhorse HTs would do what I needed them to do and they had the high Load Rating which was one of the most important characteristics for the heavy duty requirements I put on them throughout the year.
Within a few hours of waking up Monday morning, I was sitting in a tire shop while the new shoes were being installed and I was back at the campground shortly after lunch (an hour before the eclipse started), grateful that we weren’t stranded and able to continue on. Next up to figure out how these felt under tow, loaded to the gills with a massive travel trailer.
