We got up to another beautiful day. We got things tucked away and hitched up and headed to the dump station. This campground didn’thave the sewer connection at each campsite, only electric and water. This is the first time on the road that we’ve had to use the dump station. After we got that job complete we hit the road to Junction City. It was just a short drive and we left with plenty of time to spare. Good thing.
We were just turning down the street that the warranty service area is on, it’s just off the main drag of Hwy 99 and all of a sudden the tire pressure system alarm went off. Now what in the world could that be? We pulled into the driveway of Guaranty which was very crowded with people and their rigs checking in. Rich had me jump out to see if we were off the road and I could hear this hissing sound. Some guy was walking by and said, "Boy I think you have a leak". Sure enough, the rear driver side fiver tire was loosing pressure fast. What?!? Upon closer inspection there was this huge (I wish we had thought to take a picture, but in the heat of the moment, didn’t think to pull the camera out) piece of a lead tire weight sticking out of the tire. Oh no, this doesn’t look good, but the timing was perfect if it had to happen. Apparently as we were turning the corner, we picked up a lead tire weight that had come off some vehicle. Bummer….. Well upon chatting with Guaranty, they suggested that we call Les Schwab to come and change out the tire. Luckily they are just down the street.
The Les Schwab guy shows up in his mobile truck and starts to work jacking up the fiver. We don’t have the traditional axle setup, we have a MoreRyde Independent Suspension system which is suppose to give a smoother ride and that’s about all I know about it. So he had to figure out how to jack up the rig to get the tire off, which he finally did. He couldn’t tell if the tire could be repaired or would have to be replaced, so it was decided to pull down the spare which was on a wheel and was exactly like the other tires, in other words it wasn’t like a car spare tire. This is not my field of expertise, so excuse the non technical explanations. Anyway, to get the spare tire down, we had to find out where the little crank hole was to lower it, which after some exploration we discovered was behind the license plate. Then the next question was where is your crank? Where is our what? You know, the metal bar that you use to turn this little knob inside this hole behind the license plate which will lower the tire down. I’d never even seen a setup like this though Rich assured me our pickup spare is set up the same way. Well now I know. =)
So the hunt was on for the crank. We looked in one compartment, nope wasn’t there. Hmmm that only leaves the big compartment where we have all of our extra tools/hoses/miscellaneous stuff that you just can’t live without. So here we were, unloading our worldly possessions along side the fiver and the street looking for our little crank. Well of course, next to us was this fancy big motorhome from Alberta, Canada and a very tanned couple who apparently must have been down south for the winter going over their work items with a rep, do they have to unload their rig in front of everyone, nooo. Oh well, it is what it is. Well we finally found the rascally crank and down came the tire. Whew. So then it was off to the tire store to see if we were repairing or buying a new tire.
Bad news, was that the tire couldn’t be repaired, so it’s a new one. The question was, do you stick with the Goodyear brand to the tune of $500+ shipping or do you go with a different brand for half the price. The salesman assured us it was the same quality tire and since it was to be the spare tire, we opted for the cheaper tire. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it. We always start our journey’s out with a prayer for safety, so glad that if we had to experience a flat tire, that it happened where it did instead of the road coming down from Fern Ridge Reservoir where there were no shoulders at all. We learned some valuable lessons on that little jaunt which is what life it about.
Well needless to say, after that delay we were well past our 10:00 check in time. We finally got to meet with Dean our warranty rep and walked through the couple items on our list which took no time at all. Since we can stay at my mom’s, we told him that if needed, they could have a couple days to get things fixed. So the plan was for him to call us tomorrow and let us know the timing on the repairs.
So after a quick lunch at the local Dairy Queen, we were on our way to my mom’s. It was a nice sunny drive on the back roads from Junction City to Mehama. It is so pretty in the valley when the sun is shining. It’s just all that other time with the rainy, gray skies, that I don’t care for. It was a relief to get to my mom’s after our adventure in the morning.
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