01-27-2015, 10:31 AM
I'm posting this for information as well as therapy value. We blew inside street side dual on our way to Quartzsite. We were just inside AZ around 36 mm on I-10. I pulled off road & checked for damage. Lost mud flap & tore wire to docking light. Whew! not too bad so far. Love's roadside assistance had me on hold to the point I gave up & looked up TA in Willcox. They said it would be an hour before they could dispatch someone. I decided I could limp to Willcox in an hr (20 miles @ 20mph to keep tire from coming apart & taking out height control valve) and save some time & money. All tires on coach were 4 1/2 yrs old so I opted to be done with it & replace all 8. They said we would be done & out the door mounted & balanced all 8 in around 3 hrs. This was around 8:30 pm. I had to meet a customer to drop off some stuff we had in the tow car so we unhooked it & went to Benson. About 75 mile round trip. When we got back they started to work on the coach. When they balanced the 1st tire I was mortified to see the tech put a stack of weights the size of my hand on the rim. I complained that something must be wrong. He said "no, your rim is out. We can't do anything about that". At that point I got frustrated & told Fran we may as well get some sleep. We finally rolled out of the shop around 10:00am. They said to stop at a TA or Petro after +/- 100 miles to get lug nuts re-torqued. Went to rally at Quartzsite & had a great time. On the way home we stopped at TA in Tonapah, AZ to get re-torque done. I complained to the tech about excessive weight and he said he would take a look. He found 1 wheel with 32 oz & another with 21 oz. DOT limit is 16 oz. They ended up pulling all 8 wheel assemblies & re balancing. Not 1 was correctly done. Still had the issue of 3 tires at or over 16 oz to balance. TA Tonapah did not have any of the new tires in stock. Willcox had 6. So it was decided I would ease back to Willcox to get 3 new tires replaced. They dismounted the 3 bad tires & checked rim balances. All were perfect. I still had one inside dual on the coach which had required 12 oz to balance. I had them pull it off & dismount to inspect it. It suffered from the same issue as the 3 that were replaced. Soap!! They had used that solid grade soap, kind of looks like lard in a 5 gal. pail, to seat tires on the 1st Friday night mounting. In their hurry and lack of concern to "do the job right" they got copious amounts of soap inside the tires. Most trucks only balance steer tires. Therefore they look at you like you are crazy wanting drive & tag tires balanced at truckstops. Tonapah did not dismount tires for inspection because they did not have any replacements in stock. Had they dismounted & found the problem, it would have saved someone the cost of replacing 3 brand new tires for free.
Morals: Fran's brother Mike was right, "always stay with the coach and watch repair work being done".
When you can't take the time to do it right the first, you will have to make time to do it over and over until it is done right.
If diagnosed with terminal illness, move to Willcox. You may not live longer, but it will sure seem like it!
Morals: Fran's brother Mike was right, "always stay with the coach and watch repair work being done".
When you can't take the time to do it right the first, you will have to make time to do it over and over until it is done right.
If diagnosed with terminal illness, move to Willcox. You may not live longer, but it will sure seem like it!