Taking on Water
BLIMEY! She be flashing a warning flag. All hands on deck. Come about and drop the sails me hearties. Arrr, looks she sprung a leak; she be bilged on her anchor. Scurvy dogs and filthy bilge rats.
Well, 1 hour out from our destination, the low tire light comes on. The pressure is dropping in the right rear and there is an exit in 1 mile. Pressure stops dropping so I get a move on and exit off. Stop at a gas station by air-pump and walk around. I can see the right rear is low. Another car also pulls up to the air-pump. They too have a low tire, probably ran over the same thing I did...not sure what, but something. I put air in; 40 psi. Sure enough, I can hear it leaking out. Getting dark so hard to see. I make the decision to put on the spare...this is the part where I learn the OEM lug-wrench doesn't fit my lug nuts. ARRRRRGH! I checked over everything...but didn't bother to check if the OE wrench fits the lug nuts! I'm going to have to discuss this with the dealer since they put them on. Well, lucky for us there is a tire shop right behind the gas station. Unlucky for us, they are closed. Neither gas station had any thing so I call the tire shop to see if they have an after hours number. Ring-Ring, "Hello"...someone answered! I explained the situation and that i'm right by his shop and he says "Give me 15-20 minutes." Woo Hoo!
The guy shows up and he has me pull in front of one of the doors. He turns on the lights and we are going to change out the spare. When the tire is off, I see a gouge and a hole that I could fit my pinky finger in. Well, I'm going to have to buy a tire for a spare. I check all the other tires and they look good...then I see the back left with a bad spot like the right....not sure what we ran over, but it damaged both back tires. I checked the tires before I left, even took to tire shop. My brother and tire shop all said the same;
Put tires on before winter which was my plan all along. So now I have one bad and one iffy and have to buy a new tire for the spare.... "Hey, what do you have for new tires" I ask. He told me he was not planning on making a sale but showed me the options. Keep in mind, I already had budgeted this year for new tires; plan was October to put new ones on. He had 3 options in my size. Didn't want the truck tires or the cheap China tires....the others will be just right for my Suburban and MN weather.
2 hour later, 4 brand new tires mounted and balanced, $400 under budget...life is good. This guy was awesome and we are very lucky and very grateful. He said this happens 2-3 times per week. We arrive at our hotel in Smyrna, TN...they gave our joining room away! Arrrrrrrgh! No other rooms available...and to make things worse, our room smells like someone spilled cologne in it.....it's late, we are tires, the kids were in the car for 20 hours...bed time. I'll deal with HIE later....Good night.