Danbury, CT, Trouble on I84

 We are in a hotel in Danbury, CT. Just less than a mile from our RV. Our RV was towed to a repair shop Friday evening, August 26. 

Check out our approximate route on Google Maps

Click on the link to see where we are in real time via satellite:

https://share.garmin.com/winnefredmulligan

We had an uneventful drive from Bethlehem, PA,  to the border with Connecticut. We crossed into CT at around 6pm and stopped at the Welcome Center there. They have free water and a free dump station so we took advantage! We were actually aiming for a truck stop just outside of Hartford, CT, about an hour away. When we realized we could dump and get water, the Welcome Center seemed like a great stop. We dumped our tanks, filled our water tank and both took hot showers! Nice! Then we dumped our tanks again and filled with water again. We had about an hour of daylight left so we decided to still move on to that truck stop for the night as planned. 

All showered and refreshed, we got back on I84. After only 10 or 15 mins or so, we heard a very loud sound from our rear wheels. We immediately pulled onto the shoulder and drove very slowly to the next exit, maybe a tenth of a mile away? Rear, passenger side wheels still very loud. It was rush hour AND the shoulder was VERY narrow, we barely fit. 

We got off on that next exit... it turned out to be an on-ramp to another highway :-( Again, it's rush hour and we BARELY fit on the shoulder. We hobble to the first exit, again. We are just pulling off on that exit when the sound from the wheels (our RV is a dually, so 4 rear wheels) got WAY louder. We immediately pulled over on to the shoulder, but about 2 feet of our RV was in the actual exit ramp with cars speeding past us. Shoulder was simply too narrow for us. 

Thank goodness I had purchased a separate roadside assistance policy from Good Sam! 

We had to call 911 to have the CT State Police park with their lights on behind us since we were partially in the highway. The police arrived quickly! Our Officer, Officer Smith, was very nice and very professional and we felt a lot safer with his lights on warning other drivers of our predicament.  Not that anyone slowed down of course :-( He ended up calling a tow for us and recommended a nearby repair shop. We called Good Sam, but they were taking too long and they didn't know the area like the state trooper. The trooper said we were considered a "hazard" and had to move out as quickly as possible. We agreed!

So, it looks like, and we are not positive, our inner tire went flat. This put too much weight on our outside tire and well, all of the lugs were sheared off BOTH tires! yeah, nothing attaching the wheels to the RV! Lucky we pulled over immediately!  Those wheels were ready to simply roll off our RV!

Lugs were sheared off completely from BOTH tires!

This is how they looked immediately after we pulled over. 

After a great deal of back and forth with Good Sam, the state trooper called a tow for us. Good Sam agreed to reimburse us for the $650 tow (!). 

The tow was crazy! they sent a regular tow truck, that wouldn't work for us considering that 2 of the rear wheels were completely out of commission. Adam and I were really curious how this was going to work. The towing company called for a flat bed truck for us. I was still curious how this would work, considering the damage etc. 

The tow guys took jacked us up and removed the outer wheel, which by the way seemed ok? 

 Inner tire was completely flat. Not a lug nut in sight. - actually, we found a sheared off lug nut on the ground nearby

You can see the lights of the state police car behind us. 

,

You can see we were not completely off the highway. Not good. 

So the tow guys, put the outer wheel back in place, remember, no lugs to attach it, just put it in place. 

Then, they VERY slowly, inch by inch, winched the rv onto the flatbed. Yes, the tires were in place but not attached and they got very wonky! They managed to barely get the back wheels onto the flatbed, then chained it down and secured it. Very well done! I was very nervous, I thought one of the wheels would pop out from under the RV. Nope. The outer edge of the flatbed was raised maybe 6 inches? and it sort of held the wheel in place, Crazy! 

The inner tire no lugs, and completely flat. 

Look at that rear outer tire, the outer edge of the flatbed is the only thing holding it in place!

Awww poor Winnefred.

Leaning on the flat tire side

They just barely got the back wheels on, they didn't try to move her more forward on the flatbed.

Getting her off was just a reverse of the same inch by inch, slowly moving her. 

So were are settled in at a pet-friendly hotel, 8/10 of a mile away from the repair shop. No car :-(

Yesterday, Adam walked back to the repair place and there were a couple of employees there, on a Saturday morning working on their own stuff. Adam was able to give them our info and they told Adam that they thought the repair would be fairly easy, waiting on parts may delay things though. They said it's possible that we could be back on the road Monday afternoon! That's hopeful!  All in all, it looks to me (and I'm no expert) that the wheels are ok and maybe one tire needs a flat repair, they other tire seems fine? we will need new lugs pressed into the wheels. Fingers crossed!

Lunch in Danbury at a local Whole Foods

So we are catching up on sleep and waiting for news on Monday!