Flat Tire Fiascos

Sometimes, life happens. There is no exception when it comes to stump grinding. But occasionally, when it does happen, it’s in unexpected ways. By now, I know to expect my machine to go down at least once during a job in one season. But I rarely expect silly things like flat tires to happen. 

Two times I’ve had tire fiascos en route to and from jobs. The first time it happened on my way up to a job in Fort Wayne. I was going down the highway when one of my bent up fenders must’ve caught the trailer tire when I hit bad pot hole. Fortunately I was close enough to i69 Trailer Center who fixed me up with a new tire. I did have to leave my trailer and machine there on the side of 69 which I was not happy about. I would’ve been in trouble if anything happened to it while I was getting the new tire. Fortunately I came back, and after a bit of finagling with my awful emergency bottle jock in my truck, I was up and running again. It only cost me an hour and a new tire. 

The second time came after I had upgraded to my tilt deck trailer. We bought it cheap and refurbished it to be useable again. It had an older style axel that they don’t make anymore for good reason. The tire bolts are designed in such a way that if just one were to fail, the whole wheel would come right off. And that’s exactly what happened. There must’ve been a hairline crack in those old wheel bolts and two snapped right off and that wheel went flying. As I came to a stop, that tire kept right on going straight into the middle of a corn field. All this happening during a torrential down pour. I quickly retrieved the tire, unhitched my trailer leaving it all behind once again to get new parts . As quick as I could, I returned with the parts and my broken bolt removal tool. In the pouring rain, I got the bolts out and put the tire back on and I headed home at last; albeit soaking wet. 

So, lessoned learned: always keep a spare. 

Trevor

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