Just got home from our 750 mile trup to Mears Mi

[longhauler]

We had a great vacation to Mears Mi to Silver Lake, sand dunes and Lake Michigan and some great racing on some go Karts. We stayed at Silver Creek RV Resort which I think is one of the nicest campgrounds I have ever been to. We already made reservations for July 2015.

We only had one problem about 100 miles into the trip I had my first blow out in 15 years of camping. I was very lucky the tread didn't separate and no damage to the camper. I used the handy trailer aid plus and my battery powered impact and I changed the tire in no time (NASCAR has nothing on me), The Trailer Aid Plus worked great and I will always have one with me in the camper, the wife even said she was sorry about giving me a hard time for buying it 3 or 4 years back, but she wouldn't put it in writing that she was sorry.

I changed to the spare and drove into Joliet to a tire place because I didn't want to continue our trip without a spare. The tire place which was National Tire and Battery only had 2 in stock, I was prepared to get all 4 new, but I had them put the two new ones on the side which had the tire blow out. The only tires they had in the size I needed was the TowMax trailer tire. I know these are not the best and if I had the option I prolly would of went with something different, so I will see how they do, I know there's horror stories about all the different tires out there. With all the said I just wanted to share a couple pics of the trip.

[socoguy]

Nice to hear you handled it with ease and did not let it interfer with your trip
Looks like the kids are getting an all around good experience.
Go Well.

[Lloyd]

Nice pics Chris. Thanks for sharing them. We have been to Lake MI. but on the west side. Sand dunes there also.

You were fortunate to not have any damage to your trailer. That doesn't happen very often with a blow out.

[anaro]

We went to the sand dunes when I was a kid and my dad was stationed near Detroit. Wish I could remember which set we went to. I have very few memories of that trip as I was only in 1st or 2nd grade. Every now and then pics from someone's trip bring back my childhood camping memories. Thank you for sharing.

[mark5w]

Beautiful pics. Does it say on the Goodyear tire where it was made??

[Tim D]

She didn't put it in writing she was sorry and she prolly didn't say "you were right" either.

Nice pics. Lucky on the tire blowout. Did you hear it? Feel it? Can you tell us more about that electric impact wrench? I checked my lugs the other day and thought I would break one loose. SOG superman must have put them tires on!

[longhauler]

Mark.... I'm pretty sure it said the tire was made in China, which I figured it would of been the US with it being an 2009 model, but guess not.

Tim..... No I didn't hear or feel the tire blow. It was even on the drivers side and I had my window down. A nice motorist pulled up next to us and let me know something was wrong and luckily I was close to an exit with a Loves and pulled into the parking lot to change it. If the fella wouldn't of said anything it prolly would of been a lot worse, the tire was pretty hot when we got stopped. All in all I was very lucky with the whole deal. I had just told the wife a couple weeks ago that we were gonna get new tires at the start of the camping season next year and now were half way there. Its not the tire I was going to go with, but when you don't have much of a choice it is what it is.
I have a Craftsman 19.2 volt battery 1/2 inch impact. Which like I said it worked great, but I need to get a couple new batteries because after one use it was done. This time I'm going to get the Lithium ones which they say will last 4 times longer.

[Loneoak]

Nice pics! Sorry about the blow-out. We had one on our trip out west two years ago but we heard it go and I saw it from the passenger side. Minimal damage to the rig, which was lucky. I understand very few tires are NOT made in China.

[Ken]

X2 on the craftsman 19.2 volt I carry the drill and the impact when leave the house with the trailer. I upgraded to the lithium batteries it make a huge difference haven't needed the impact on the road yet and hopefully not anytime soon.