After losing a wheel off our fifth wheel, experiencing a blowout on our truck, and making temporary fixes to get to our subsequent destinations, we wanted to restore the condition of our vehicles to what it had been before those incidents. That required a couple of tire swaps.

Thankfully, the truck tire rupture didn’t cause any significant damage. We did, however, discover that the rotating tire shreds hit and impaired the front of the driver-side running board. It appears to be cosmetic and an easy fix, but we haven’t addressed it yet. Here’s what we did address.

Finding a match

When the front truck tire disintegrated, we lost the tire pressure monitoring sensor from it, along with the hubcap. Before we could replace either part, we needed a new tire that matched the other truck tires, which we had purchased from Discount Tire. Not only would it look the same as the others, but it would also tend to ride more uniformly with them.

Since there are no Discount Tire stores in Massachusetts, our first stop after the incident, the company told us it would reimburse us for the purchase of a new tire up to the price we originally paid for one. 

Removing and reinstalling

Bob took the truck to a local tire shop with the spare on the front driver side and the shredded tire in the bed. A tech at the shop removed the damaged tire from the rim that matched the others and installed the new tire in its place.

Then he swapped the new tire for the spare on the driver side and hoisted the spare into position underneath Gulliver. The process went smoothly, and Bob was in and out of the shop pretty quickly. 

He didn’t want to put the new hubcap on the wheel, though, until we got the replacement sensor installed, as that would require removing the tire from the truck again.

Dismounting one more time

Once the sensor arrived, Bob took the truck back to the shop. A tech there deflated the front driver-side tire, squished it down to expose the back side of the stem, attached the sensor, and then reinflated the tire.

Bob got the truck home and put the new hubcap in place to keep dust out of the innards and complete the job.

Saving a spare

The trailer tire swap was a little more involved. If we didn’t want to run the ugly white spare tire rim, which was housing a never-used tire that matched the others and had become the front passenger tire on the fifth wheel, we needed to replace it. Bob did some research and found a rim that looked similar to the other three, so he ordered it.

When we lost the trailer tire and wheel, we purchased a new wheel and tire to use as our spare, as we didn’t want to risk another incident without a backup tire. Our original plan was to trade the new wheel, secured underneath the trailer, for the original spare wheel. But upon examination of the new wheel, we learned it was manufactured to handle the weight of our trailer. So we decided to keep the spare on it and save a step and some hassle.

Prying challenge

On a day off from work, we closed the trailer slide-outs and connected the rig to the truck for increased stability. Bob jacked up the trailer and removed the front passenger tire. We loaded it into his brother Bill’s car and headed back to the smalltown tire shop with it and the recently purchased rim.

The same tech who had helped with the truck tire came to our aid. He had some difficulty getting the tire off the original spare rim. After much effort, he finally succeeded and then was able to put the tire onto the new rim.

Torquing lug nuts

No longer needing the old rim and not wanting to drag it across the country, we left it with one of the shop workers, loaded the newly mounted tire and ourselves into Bill’s car, and headed back to Tagalong.

There, Bob reattached the tire to the trailer, lowered it to the ground, importantly torqued the lug nuts, and we opened the slideouts to reset up.

Adding a finishing touch

We still needed to repair the trailer fender skirt, which had cracked and flapped in the wind to alert us of the missing tire in the first place. Bob ordered a replacement fender (the third for that side due to other incidents). 

To simplify the installation, he took time to hammer out some dents and reshape the metal that would support the fender. With that done, he cut a piece off the fender to attach to the stationary side of the trailer by the door. The majority of it would attach to the living room slide-out.

Bob screwed both pieces onto the rig, restoring our truck and fifth wheel to the way they were before our tire mishaps. The only thing we forgot was to install the cap over the trailer tire. We have it, but putting it in place requires removing the tire yet again. We’ll have to wait until we’re parked on more stable ground than grass to take care of that. 

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