STUCK ON HIGHWAY 59 - Dave and the AAA driver work on the temporary fix for the axle
Yesterday was supposed to be a short travel day, only 90 min drive to the next campground but fate had other plans for us.....
We’d just exited off the Sam Houston Toll Road South in Houston to Highway US 59 South when Dave noticed A LOT of smoke coming from trailer on the passenger side. The burnt rubber smell was nasty! We thought for sure we had a flat tire. Luckily we didn’t have to go far to find a space to pull over on the highway so that Dave could check it out in relative safety.
When he came back to the truck he tells me, this isn’t good. It wasn’t a flat. The trailer has 2 axles and he discovered that one of the welds that attached the 1 axel to the trailer frame, broke. This made the wheel on that axle rub up against the wheel on the other axle (they’re only inches apart normally), thus creating all the smoke we saw. F$%@! Not something Dave could fix on his own and we’re stuck on a busy highway, unable to pull the trailer. It’s just after 1 pm.
So we sat in the truck for a while trying to figure out what to do...it’s not like the trailer could even be towed by a regular tow truck because of the broken axle. We needed a welder but who in their right mind would come weld on a busy highway like that? And it’s Sunday, all the collision/repair places are closed. What the heck do we do?
Finally decided our only option was to call the emergency road assistance number for our CAA, plus RV membership. Took a number of phone calls to figure it all out because if the trailer had to be towed, it needed to get up on one of those HUGE, 18 wheeler flat bed trucks. They were also sending out another truck to help manage traffic. Two smaller tow trucks arrived first, at about 3pm. After looking at the damage, the one driver figured out a way to secure the axle with a big strap he had. Between he and Dave they got wheels back into position so that we could, VERY SLOWLY drive the trailer off the highway. With the one tow truck in front guiding us and the other behind us, we managed the short drive off the highway into an empty industrial parking lot. What a relief to get to a safe place and away from all that traffic that was whizzing by us for over 2 hours.
While we were waiting for tow trucks to come, I used the Garmin (we don’t have a smart phone with WIFI) to search for near by repair places we could take the trailer to, nothing was open! Traveling on a Sunday isn’t such a good idea. Then inspiration hit, used the GPS to find a nearby RV park and called them (GPS has phone numbers too!). Explained our situation and asked if they knew of any trailer repair place close to our current location. She did, but the place wasn’t open (Sunday) but she did give me the number of a guy who does on site RV repairs at their park. He’d been there earlier in the day and she was pretty sure he had a mobile welder in his truck. It was a long shot but called him anyways and left him a message explaining our predicament on his voice mail. Surprised the heck out me when he called back, about an hour later, just when the AAA guys showed up. Said he was only about 15 minutes away from where we were and as soon as we got off the highway into a parking lot, he’d come and do the weld.
Once we got into that parking lot, the huge flat bed tow truck that the trailer would fit on, arrived. Would have been interesting to see how they would have navigated all 38 ft of the trailer up there, but luckily, didn’t have to. Between the 3 tow truck drivers and the welder, we were road worthy in about an hour. Paid the welder $170 cash and gave each of the tow truck drivers (who were all incredibly nice and helpful) a good tip. Can’t imagine what the cost would have been without the CAA membership!!! Wiped us out of all cash we had on hand but it was worth to be back on the road by 5 pm. We were sure we were going to be spending the night in a hotel waiting for the trailer to be fixed.
Got to the Brazos Bend State Park at about 5:30, the weld held, YAY! Once we got set up, had a shot of tequilla and the toast was “Lets never do that again!” Just to make sure, we’re going to get the rest of the welds on the axles reinforced. That’s a job for later this week.
Check out our Axle repair pics.
Looking forward to exploring this state park, it’s apparently full of alligators who should be out in full force tomorrow when the sun returns and it warms up to 75F.