Reminds me of a Thump story. I had a buddy with a hunting camp up in Georgia and I'd run up there with him occasionally. One year, three of us traveled together (my buddy, his friend and myself) and we hauled a pretty large trailer up with our three 4-wheelers, coolers, tree stands, etc. We were in a big Ford F350 diesel dually crew cab and when we were ready to head home. my buddy asked his friend if he could drive as he'd never driven a diesel. (He had a Chevy Silverado) Anyway, we headed home early on a Sunday morning and cruising right along with no problems, in fact, my buddy has always been a lead foot and speed limits are pretty much meaningless to him, so we were moving at a good clip the whole trip. Then we came to some small little podunk town and caught a stoplight or two. My buddy mentioned that diesel was a beast, but acceleration from a dead stop was a bit sluggish with that trailer back there. The owner who was in the passenger seat, looked in the mirror and hollered WTF?? Only then did we realize we'd lost a wheel on the SINGLE axle trailer! We looked back up the highway behind us and there was a deep gouge in the pavement for as far as we could see! WTF??? Well, now we're in a pickle, it's early Sunday morning in a little one-horse town and we have a fully loaded trailer with ONE wheel! We asked a local if he had any clue where we might find someplace open that could repair something like that and he directed us to a guy at the edge of town (where we'd already come through) and said he has a shop behind his house where he does repairs on farm equipment, etc. He said we MIGHT find him there, otherwise, we're pretty much fubar!
So, we pulled a u-turn and DRAGGED that trailer back through town to this guy's house. When we pulled up, he was sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair. We told him of our plight and he said he already knew about it. He said he and the family had just walked out the front door, headed to church, when we passed by dragging that one-wheeled trailer! (prolly thinking dumb-assed city folks) He said he sent his family on to church, went inside and took off his suit, put on his coveralls, then sat in his rocker as he knew we'd be coming back sooner or later!
He asked where we'd lost the wheel and we told him we had no clue. He looked at the trailer and we'd been dragging it on the hub so long it was destroyed, but luckily the spindle was still in good shape. He told us he thinks he has a hub that will fit, but doesn't have a wheel and tire, so he suggested we unhook the trailer and he'll work on it while we go try to find the wheel. We just followed the groove cut in the road about 10 miles up the highway until it stopped. Ok, this is obviously where we lost the wheel, but where the "f" is it? There was nothing but cotton fields on both sides of the highway. It's then I spotted a place on the edge of the ditch where it looked like the tire hit and bounced. We headed that direction and followed the trail the wheel cut through the cotton patch for about 50 frigging yards and finally found it! It looked like we'd lost a few lug nuts then the last couple studs broke off, but the wheel and tire looked to be in good shape!
We hauled it back to the old farmer and he already had the new hub and bearings mounted on the spindle awaiting our return with the wheel. He mounted it up for us with new, PROPERLY torqued lug nuts and sent us on our way. I don't even remember what he charged us, but I do remember it was minimal considering the circumstances.
Reply With Quote
