This was our third annual semi-southern vacation with our tent trailer.
We always leave from Brockville, Ontario, Canada for a 9 or 10 day trip that
will cover about 1400km (850 miles) one way. We head south towards Virginia
Beach and warmer weather. This year we had our 10 month old daughter, Grace,
and the three boys, Tim 7, Eric 6 and Sam 4 as well as Joanne and I. We've
had our 1992 Dodge Grand Caravan that is blue with some really nice stick
on WOOD siding for over 4 years. This year we decided the kids were old
enough for bikes, so we brought 4 of them with us.
Friday, May 17, 2002
We left last Friday with our van and pop-up tent trailer, and as well, we were
traveling with another family with 3 boys the same age as our 3 youngest. We
were heading towards Virginia expecting to get to
central Pennsylvania the first night....Well, we no sooner hit highway 401
when our trailer started swaying quite badly. I had a bike rack added to
the back of the trailer just before we left (which is another story!!!) We
assumed this was the problem causing the swaying. Well, by the time we reached
the border 30
minutes away, I was ready to ditch the bikes! I tied them down with rope as
tight as I could hoping that would stop them from causing the swinging that
was swaying the trailer. It helped a little, but any bumps or corners at
100 km/h or higher seemed to cause BAD swaying. Somewhere in NY state, I ran
into an auto parts store and bought a tie-down that was better than rope....This
seemed to help a little, as I also took 2 bikes off the carrier and put
them on top of the propane tanks on the tongue of the trailer.
Things seemed a little better, but about 20-30 minutes later the drivers
side trailer tire blew! Smoke and everything, with weaving and some
grinding!!!! I pulled over next to the guard rail which got us about 6
inches off the highway. The other family stopped about a 1/2 mile down
the road as we had radios to talk with. I managed to flag a state trooper
after about 5 minutes, but he was going the other way, and it took almost
20 minutes for another trooper to get to us. Meanwhile, there was no way
to safetly change the tire so close to the road, so just before the trooper
showed up, we started driving at about 2 mph with the flat bouncing and
grinding on the rumble strip cut in the side of the road for waking up
sleeping drivers.....It was painful driving while trying to stay no more
than about 10 inches from the guardrail and 6 inches off the highway.
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