Ok, maybe not the worst...but its rankin up there...
So last night I'm out in Prescott Valley with a friend in the LX who suggests we head out to the trails around Thumb Butte in the area.
We make it out there and start exploring. Not much interesting there as far as trails. Mostly just smooth gravel roads wrapping around and around. Some occasional sections to play in but not much more exciting than a trip through the drivethru at McDonalds..
After we make it to the top scenic view spot we start heading back down on the other side. At some point, we miss a turn and the trail seems like 5x as long as we remembered.
An hour or so later we figure out where we are......Skull Valley? Never been there before...but now we know we're like 45 minutes away from where we wanted to be.
Its around midnight now and we're about 5 miles from the house and then I hear this buzzing sound. It was very quiet and would seem to disappear then come back.
Just as I started listening for it again, I notice more of a pull to the left...a HARD pull.....so I'm like...
2 seconds later............BOOM! The tire explodes all over the highway.
(This is where it gets good.......or bad, depending on if you're you reading, or me its happening to)
So I pull over and check the wheel. The ENTIRE tread is intact...but no longer connected to the sidewall.
I remember back to my thread not too long ago where I was looking for a spare to replace my dead tire from the FJ wheeling trip....and then kick myself for not having one now that I NEEDED a spare.
We walk the last 5 miles or so to the house. I get ahold of my wife back in Cottonwood and tell her I need to have her bring me the flat spare in the garage and my hydraulic jack (Oh how I despise that stock bottle jack). We meet up at the top of Mingus Mountain and get the spare.
My plan was to bring the unmounted spare to a local tire shop, get the cheapest fitting tire I can find for a couple days until I can source a good set of 33s or 35s.
I borrow my friends car and head to Discount Tire - surely with a name like that, they should do the trick. Well, no super deal as they wanted like $240 for the cheapest matching sized tire to the stockers. Next best was like $114 for an optional sized listing (75 instead of 70 or something). I have my 9 month old daughter with me and as I am holding her in my right arm and reaching for my wallet.....I felt a trickle of water spilling onto my left shoe. What the crap?!! Well.....it wasn't water. Her diaper was working as well as my tire did the night before......
So now I'm $114 poorer, and I have a nice wet spot all over my shirt and jeans. I get the new tire loaded up into the tiny Celica hatchback, load up my daughter and pull out my $600 PDA cellphone from my left pocket.
Hmm.....the LED status light is blinking...but I can't get the screen to turn on when I press the little power button.... OH WONDEFUL! She peed in my pocket.....my phone is dead.
Normally, I'd just be upset that if it doesn't dry out I have to pay $50 to insurance to have the phone replaced. Well - I just did that like 2 months ago because I dropped the darn thing and the screen was cracked. Now, I don't think they will allow another insurance claim...
So now I head out to the shoulder of the road on 89 where the LX is waiting for me, shredded tire and all. I get out the spare, roll it to the truck and start loosening the lugnuts. I get the 5 regular ones fine, and then attach the little key to remove my locking nut. It's not budging, so I secure it on there and stand on it to loosen it up. The stupid key proceeds to bend and separate itself in 2. Now I have the round sheath in one hand and the bolt/key piece in another. GREAT! Its worthless now as I can't keep the 2 together, and like 2 millimeters of grabbing ability isn't enough to budge the locknut off.
10 minutes and every curse word I know later, I head into town to beg a mechanic to borrow me a breaker bar and a deep socket. No sockets were deep enough, but a tech at the Goodyear shop did me a favor and welded the key together, gave me a long torque wrench for a breaker bar and a socket - as long as I promised to bring it back ASAP.
Back to the truck - I get out, and now its POURING rain. YAY!
I try the new tools, and no go. No matter how much pressure I put into the keep the key on the locknut, and torque turning it just slips it off...
So now I head BACK to Goodyear. I tell them its not budging and I need a tow. They call their tow guys who say its gonna be at least 1.5 hrs before they could get out there. NICE!
I grab lunch and head back to the truck to wait for the tow guys. 1.5 hours becomes 2...which seems like an eternity with a crying 9 month old in her carseat. GOD I LOVE IT!
I show the tow guys the problem, and they try their magical torque wrench a few times - no go. They slowly pull up the LX on their flatbed and bring it to Goodyear.
As I am typing this...my daughter is crying for her bottle. I get up, go across the room to her playpen, lay her down with the bottle, she takes it....I sit down......she gets up, and cries for her bottle again.
This is the 20th time I've repeated that.
So at Goodyear, they have to roll the truck forward on the strips of rubber towards the building because the air gun hoses won't reach. The older tech guy gets out the impact gun, 2 seconds later the lovely locking nut is on the ground.
I get the new tire mounted which to the eye doesn't have any difference in height, and almost matches the LTX tread.....at least thats done.
$114 for a tire I will use like 2 days....
$600 for a peed in cell phone....
8 hours of ridiculousness trying to get the tire changed....
6 hours of crying baby....
20 minutes of being soaked in what I could swear was bear urine....
Soon to be probably $1000 for a new set of tires....
HOORAY!
So last night I'm out in Prescott Valley with a friend in the LX who suggests we head out to the trails around Thumb Butte in the area.
We make it out there and start exploring. Not much interesting there as far as trails. Mostly just smooth gravel roads wrapping around and around. Some occasional sections to play in but not much more exciting than a trip through the drivethru at McDonalds..
After we make it to the top scenic view spot we start heading back down on the other side. At some point, we miss a turn and the trail seems like 5x as long as we remembered.
An hour or so later we figure out where we are......Skull Valley? Never been there before...but now we know we're like 45 minutes away from where we wanted to be.
Its around midnight now and we're about 5 miles from the house and then I hear this buzzing sound. It was very quiet and would seem to disappear then come back.
Just as I started listening for it again, I notice more of a pull to the left...a HARD pull.....so I'm like...
2 seconds later............BOOM! The tire explodes all over the highway.
(This is where it gets good.......or bad, depending on if you're you reading, or me its happening to)
So I pull over and check the wheel. The ENTIRE tread is intact...but no longer connected to the sidewall.
I remember back to my thread not too long ago where I was looking for a spare to replace my dead tire from the FJ wheeling trip....and then kick myself for not having one now that I NEEDED a spare.
We walk the last 5 miles or so to the house. I get ahold of my wife back in Cottonwood and tell her I need to have her bring me the flat spare in the garage and my hydraulic jack (Oh how I despise that stock bottle jack). We meet up at the top of Mingus Mountain and get the spare.
My plan was to bring the unmounted spare to a local tire shop, get the cheapest fitting tire I can find for a couple days until I can source a good set of 33s or 35s.
I borrow my friends car and head to Discount Tire - surely with a name like that, they should do the trick. Well, no super deal as they wanted like $240 for the cheapest matching sized tire to the stockers. Next best was like $114 for an optional sized listing (75 instead of 70 or something). I have my 9 month old daughter with me and as I am holding her in my right arm and reaching for my wallet.....I felt a trickle of water spilling onto my left shoe. What the crap?!! Well.....it wasn't water. Her diaper was working as well as my tire did the night before......
So now I'm $114 poorer, and I have a nice wet spot all over my shirt and jeans. I get the new tire loaded up into the tiny Celica hatchback, load up my daughter and pull out my $600 PDA cellphone from my left pocket.
Hmm.....the LED status light is blinking...but I can't get the screen to turn on when I press the little power button.... OH WONDEFUL! She peed in my pocket.....my phone is dead.
Normally, I'd just be upset that if it doesn't dry out I have to pay $50 to insurance to have the phone replaced. Well - I just did that like 2 months ago because I dropped the darn thing and the screen was cracked. Now, I don't think they will allow another insurance claim...
So now I head out to the shoulder of the road on 89 where the LX is waiting for me, shredded tire and all. I get out the spare, roll it to the truck and start loosening the lugnuts. I get the 5 regular ones fine, and then attach the little key to remove my locking nut. It's not budging, so I secure it on there and stand on it to loosen it up. The stupid key proceeds to bend and separate itself in 2. Now I have the round sheath in one hand and the bolt/key piece in another. GREAT! Its worthless now as I can't keep the 2 together, and like 2 millimeters of grabbing ability isn't enough to budge the locknut off.
10 minutes and every curse word I know later, I head into town to beg a mechanic to borrow me a breaker bar and a deep socket. No sockets were deep enough, but a tech at the Goodyear shop did me a favor and welded the key together, gave me a long torque wrench for a breaker bar and a socket - as long as I promised to bring it back ASAP.
Back to the truck - I get out, and now its POURING rain. YAY!
I try the new tools, and no go. No matter how much pressure I put into the keep the key on the locknut, and torque turning it just slips it off...
So now I head BACK to Goodyear. I tell them its not budging and I need a tow. They call their tow guys who say its gonna be at least 1.5 hrs before they could get out there. NICE!
I grab lunch and head back to the truck to wait for the tow guys. 1.5 hours becomes 2...which seems like an eternity with a crying 9 month old in her carseat. GOD I LOVE IT!
I show the tow guys the problem, and they try their magical torque wrench a few times - no go. They slowly pull up the LX on their flatbed and bring it to Goodyear.
As I am typing this...my daughter is crying for her bottle. I get up, go across the room to her playpen, lay her down with the bottle, she takes it....I sit down......she gets up, and cries for her bottle again.
This is the 20th time I've repeated that.So at Goodyear, they have to roll the truck forward on the strips of rubber towards the building because the air gun hoses won't reach. The older tech guy gets out the impact gun, 2 seconds later the lovely locking nut is on the ground.
I get the new tire mounted which to the eye doesn't have any difference in height, and almost matches the LTX tread.....at least thats done.
$114 for a tire I will use like 2 days....
$600 for a peed in cell phone....
8 hours of ridiculousness trying to get the tire changed....
6 hours of crying baby....
20 minutes of being soaked in what I could swear was bear urine....
Soon to be probably $1000 for a new set of tires....
HOORAY!
that was a bad day.
Buy my tires!
