Cheri, Sue (border collie), Moonbeam (mini-aussi), Nala (cat), Gagit (fat cat) and I did our Spring drive north from Spring Hill, Fl to Bradford, NH. We towed a 16' enclosed trailer that houses 4 motorcycles and a few bicycles ....and one spare tire( I'll get to that).

We left Florida on Thursday the 20th and headed up the scenic way on Rt 19, the coastal route. We intended to make the first night stop at a campground in Cedar Key, but no campgrounds could accommodate our trailer so we ended up in Perry, Fl at a Walmart. Next day we made it to Cheri's sister's house in Oxford, Alabama, a regular stop for us. We stayed in the field behind her house for two nights and then headed on up to Tennessee where we stayed at Rocky Top campground in Bristol. Rocky Top was great and highly recommended.

Monday morning we headed north up to I-81 and encountered a flat on the trailer on our way to Woodstock, Va. Fortunately I carry a spare, although I didn't actually know if the rim fit, but luck was on my side and we were off to the Cracker Barrel parking lot in Woodstock.

Tuesday we were headed for Gettysburg, PA where I was to leave Cheri and the clan and ride my motorcycle into Baltimore for some business I needed to attend there. We stopped in Waynesboro, Pa at a Walmart for Cheri to get groceries and I was lucky enough to get my tire replaced there too. I remember thinking I was sure I had had my one flat for the decade so why bother, but better safe than sorry.

Cheri stayed at the Gettysburg Campground for two nights, I spent one in Baltimore and commuted into DC traffic on my BMW which felt a lot like a Mad Max movie at times. I saw few bikes around there and now I know why. People in DC drive worse than anywhere else in this country!!! They think they all have diplomat plates and can do whatever they please at any moment (sorry Lee). I also decided that blinkers must be an expensive option there that no one buys. I did survive and got back to the campground on Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday we headed north up I-81 again and heard a loud pop, another trailer tire had blown. I did a NASCAR style pit this time as I was getting good experience changing the trailer's tires. Gee, I'm glad I got the tire replaced at Walmart.

Somewhere along the route I experienced something that has never happened before, upon quick acceleration, the engine just died. I won't go into details as I posted about this already, but it is worth mentioning that I was pretty freaked out and all sorts of very bad thought about why this happened went through my head. It's funny how a lack of knowledge can stress you out until you understand the physics of what's going on. This condition happened three more times and I casually just put the transmission in neutral, restarted and drove on without losing but a few miles per hour once Bill and others explained what was likely happening. Knowledge is power!

Back to the trip....heading up I-84 (or "The 84" if your a Californian)and were through the big hills of the Poconos and getting into "Bill Country" or Newburgh, NY and POW! another trailer tire has blown. I pull up to the toll bridge and the girl in the booth has to radio someone to let me pass because a blown tire can do some damage to something I didn't quite understand. If your counting, this is trailer tire three and now I have no spare!!!

Pulled into the Fishkill, NY Walmart and now we have a problem, no ST205/75R1 trailer tires. No trailer tires at all, in fact. And none as far as we can call around at least until morning when the legitimate tire stores open. I now have a decision to make, stay in Fishkill overnight or head out on three tires on the trailer???

I decided to head out and go no faster than fifty. My logic was that I wanted to be on the other side of Godaweful Hartford before Friday morning traffic which would be compounded by Memorial day traffic! I believe all people around Hartford are required to learn to drive in DC! My brand new Goodyear tire is taking up the single side and it's new after all, so I'm hoping it will hold. This is akin to an all or nothing bet as another blow out could strand us right in Hartford or one of the major city areas around there.

The bet pays off
we make it all the way to Holyoke, Mass that evening and stay all by ourselves at another Cracker Barrel. We get to a Tire Warehouse in Deerfield, Mass in the morning where they change all the flats and the one remaining original tire on the trailer. Bill thinks UV degradation is the culprit and the tire store says tires last 6 years regardless of miles. The trailer tires were date stamped 04 so six years old and about 6000 miles. They looked like new and had no sidewall cracking - go figure!!!
The new ones are filled with Nitrogen and I have no idea why that is an advantage, but I was going all out to change tire Karma on this one!

Day 9 we cross Vt on I-91 and head over the mountains into NH then home. Not the most casual trip, but nothing a credit card and a few aspirin couldn't alleviate, so I'm happy.

"Any landing you can walk away from counts as successful".

Glad you made it with only minor events!

BTW, I'm not cnvinced there is any advantage for mere mortals to use nitrogen. Up to now, you've been using 80% N.

Pulling trailers through cities sure can be stressful. Cracker Barrels and Wallmarts? I've seen plenty of rigs stay overnight at Wallmart.

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Pulling trailers through cities sure can be stressful. Cracker Barrels and Wallmarts? I've seen plenty of rigs stay overnight at Wallmart.

Amen to that!

We really like the Cracker Barrels as they have security cameras all around and they only invite
RVs, whereas Walmart usually has lots of tractor trailers making lots of noise. We try to patronize as much as possible and always let the managers know we appreciate the generosity (good marketing).

So what size are your trailer wheels? 13,14,15 inch? or smaller? It never ceases to amaze me to see people that have boat/quad/utility trailers that have little dinky wheels going down the road at 60+ miles an hour. When i bought a utility trailer my first criteria was that the wheels were the same size as the ones on my jeep so that they would be going at the same speed and cover the same distance. If you have a difference in size, the smaller one will be making a lot more revolutions per mile than the larger one which means a lot more heat and wear. So one mile on the larger tire might mean 3-6 or even more "miles" of wear on the smaller. No wonder you see so many trailers along the road with flat tires or bad wheel bearings.

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So what size are your trailer wheels? 13,14,15 inch?

Mine are 15" ST205/75R. I know what you mean about the little 8" wheels and such. My Barth has 22.5s, but basically a 15" tire should be able to maintain anything up to 100MPH consistently, so it has nothing to do with size in this case. One curiosity is the shift to radial tires on trailers, while I understand the logic on cars (better handling) a trailer just follows along and it seems like a radial tire has no advantages. Anyone understand this better?

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People in DC drive worse than anywhere else in this country!!!

.....Ya think their driving is bad?..... Ya ought to watch them try to legislate

Remember, if ya get in a jamb in the DC metro area, I'm just a phone call away!

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People in DC drive worse than anywhere else in this country!!!

It's hard to drive when you have your hands in other people's pockets.

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Remember, if ya get in a jamb in the DC metro area, I'm just a phone call away!

Thanks Lee!

We considered spending a few nights a Cherry Hill, but tried out the Gettysburg area just to see what was there. Pretty touristy in Gettysburg, but pretty countryside.

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tried out the Gettysburg area just to see what was there.

As a Civil War buff (Correction: War Between-the-States buff), we do the Gettysburg thing a couple times a year (90mi). Lots of nice campgrounds, but for pure convenience we prefer Artillery Ridge Campground. http://www.artilleryridge.com/index.html

It's across the street from a battlefield entrance, near Little Round Top, and about a 20 minute walk on a side-road to the new Visitor's Center and Museum. Just a mile or so off a Rte 15 exit, you can avoid all the tourist traffic in town......

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we prefer Artillery Ridge Campground

I think we went by that campground, but didn't stop or anything. I took my motorcycle through the town and went on the auto trail. Not too sure where the auto trail was leading, so we eventually got off it. They could do a lot better job marking things in Gettysburg, but it is probably better when you have the whole day and are on foot.