A quick blog entry tonight because our Internet is spotty tonight …
We left Lou & Larry’s with some regret today, and lots of apologies for not planning a longer stay. We always seem to whiz through and next time we’ll try to stay longer to explore things in their corner of Ohio. We picked up Brett at Columbus’ airport, because he’ll be traveling with us for the next week (for business reasons), and then towed over to Jackson Center OH, where Airstream is still cranking out new shiny trailers after many decades here in the soybean fields.
The excitement of the day was incidentally received along I-270 somewhere in Columbus. The Doran 360RV tire pressure monitor starting beeping and showed that the right front trailer tire was suffering a rapid de-inflation. In other words, a flat was imminent. I pulled over to the shoulder immediately because the tire was already at 23 psi and I didn’t think we’d make it to the next exit.
The quick stop saved the tire. It was very low but still in one piece when we stopped, rather than shredded into lots of expensive rubber parts. The problem turned out to be a bad valve stem. Doran recommends using metal stems, but three of ours are currently rubber. One failed rather abruptly (leaking around the base of the stem), and if we had not had a tire pressure monitor it would have likely come apart and possibly damaged the trailer in the process.
Brett and I executed a fairly quick tire change right there in the shoulder, which is always disconcerting as cars and trucks rush by at 65 MPH. All went well, and 80 miles later here we are in J.C., with one more item on our service list for tomorrow.
By tomorrow we should also have the password for Airstream’s free wifi, and I won’t have such difficulty posting the blog. At the moment I am using my Verizon card, which works sort of in the Terra Port.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:01 am
We passed you on 270 yesterday by by the time we got turned around you were already gone. We would have been glad to help but you have had much experience with tires.
I have had the exact same situation while on our trip to Alaska last year. The tire monitor saved us. We had replaced all the tires before the trip but the valve stems were not replaced. Because of dry rot one of them failed. We stopped later and had them all replaced.
Glad everything worked out ok.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
FYI – there is currently a recall on a group of tire valve stems made in China – failure description is similar to your failure
August 13th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Another kudos for TPMs, and good to hear. Our Pressure Pro (same as–just labeling, or is there more???–the Doran) has never had a problem to report, but its constant readout has been a great relaxer (relaxative?). Have metal stems on the AS; the truck, which is due for new shoes, will get metal stems shortly. Highest possible endorsement for these systems.