A short road trip...

[Crazy Geologist]

So I will tell you a tale, of just a couple weekends back, when the Crazy Geologist had a few days off, and decided to go to Colorado to go climbing...

 

4 days to departure: I need a tune up, and I am losing clutch pressure, but I have no time to do the work myself. As I am new to NM, I do not have an established relationship with a local mechanic. So I make an appointment at the shop that is recommended by co-workers.

 

1.5 days to departure: Drop the rig off at the shop. They keep it for a day and a half, perform ~$500 worth of service, including front wheel bearing repack.

 

Day of departure, Noon: Pick up the rig from the shop, jet home, load the climbing hardware and bam, I am out of town, no more stops.

 

So I get about 70 miles from home (just through the town of Taos, NM) and as I am accellerating out of town and I get a crazy vibration. Worrisome. Feels like I lost the tire weights. So I stop, get out and walk around, no tire bulges, no bent weights: nothing I can do, I'll just drive to Questa (about 25 miles up the road...with really nothing between) and get the tires re-balanced there.

 

Back on the highway, up to 60mph and the vibration disappeared. That is even more worrisome. Tap the brakes...an unsettling shift...I am being out run by my left front wheel. Surreal.

 

My first instinct was to pull right off of the highway, and this kept me on three wheels briefly, then *THUD* as I straighened out and the rotor, caliper and balljoint contact the asphalt at more than 55...

 

Back to the wheel :My 31x10.5 BFG lego veered slowly into oncoming traffic, narrowly missing a lowered red honda civic (whose driver had an eye out, and a steady hand on the wheel as she romped across the shoulder). The wheel hit a berm along the shoulder, caught about 15 feet of air, flew through a tree, bounced once, cleared a barbed wire fence and rolled across a horse pasture. I eventually found it down in a small, mosquito infested creek. Fun.

 

I stop, get out, fetch the wheel, and jack up the rig- I am missing a 1/2" chord of my brake rotor, an equal proportion of my caliper, and the ball joint nut is gone altogether.

 

There is no cellular telephone service here.

 

Hitchhiking is easy though. Back to Taos.

 

Call the mechanic: "Hello, yea, it is the guy with the pathfinder... uh huh the red one. Well, I got a bit past taos and my wheel flew off." "So what do you want me to do about it?" he says. "You can probably put the wheel back on" followed...you gotta be kidding me. "No, I need you to drive your wrecker up here and get me." I patiently replied (as scores of explicatives roll through my head)

 

5 hours later the wrecker shows up, and I get home about midnight.

Oh yeah. Road trippin!

[Oliver]

Holy Jees. :eek: Good that nobody was hurt.

 

So where'd you ditch the mechanic's body?

[vengeful]

Yeep! I would be FURIOUS! :furious: Sounds like the shop is taking care of their...poor job though.

[Pezzy]

Damn!.. looks like you need to check your lug nuts even after so called "pros" look at your truck...

Ive heard a few stories like this lately... scary!

[Precise1]

Glad you, your pathy and anyone else weren't hurt !! I've heard some nasty things about run away tires...

"So what do you want me to do about it?" he says

Thats just too classic... I'd be sorely tempted to thump his melon to see of it is rotten...

I always tell tire places to just snug the lug nuts and park it, I'll tighten them. Its wierd the arguements I've gotten that I cant do that !! I've seen stripped/broken studs and barely tight wheels. I once had to change a flat and the lug nuts were so tight, I snapped my tire star, so there I sat, stuck until I flagged someone down with the right size lug wrench. Never again, I'll do it correctly myself !

Sorry your trip went awry, but glad the event was pretty mild. Good luck with the repairs...

 

B

[Revco]

That's something else! What an experience. I love the detail you provided for the wheel's journey off the road...I could almost see it happening! Glad you & the Pathy are home safe.

 

There are way too many mechanics out there like that. They get in a hurry to get things done & sure enough, something gets missed. Out of dozens of mechanics that I've used over the years...I've only found one that did me right *every time* - sadly, he was driven out of business by a "big" shop moving next door that could offer faster & cheaper service.

Edited November 4, 2005 by Revco

[Crazy Geologist]

Yeah pezzy, you hit on the take home lesson. The funny thing is that thought went through my mind as I was pulling over to take a look, but I reasoned that was the only thing I DIDN'T have to check. Definitely not sound reasoning, but I had climbing on the brain.

[Mr. Pickles]

Wow. I 2nd the question on disposal of the body. Who cares if that's a one time thing, it would only take one time to kill somebody. I'd report the shop to every industry and government authority that will listen. Glad to hear you're ok. I've actually been in this situation on a ski trip due to a buddy that didn't properly tighten his lugnuts on the snow tires. Not fun, but luckily we pulled off. I thought wheel bearing, kicked the tire, and it moved sideways and inch or 2. Yikes!