The silver lining to an expensive weekend (long post)

[roostwear]

Think the price of running your boat is high? Wait 'till shit happens! Took off Friday around 7 for the house in BHC. All was good until about 5 miles north of the 10 on the 62. I look in the rear view mirror, and cars are flashing me. WTF? I look a little closer, and it looks like I'm kicking up dust from the shoulder. Problem is, I'm not NEAR the shoulder! A car come up behind me and the headlight hit just right...... holy shit, the trailers on fire! The whole time I'm stopping, I'm going through the drill..... "as soon as you stop, unlock the hitch, and push it away to burn.... at least you can save the truck". This must have taken a whole ten seconds, but time had REALLY slowed down. I get it stopped and out of traffic, and hop out and notice the smell of burning rubber. The smoke goes away,,,,, cool, no fire.... did I smoke some bearings? Uh, no. Here's what I saw when the smoke cleared.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/896stop.jpg
look closely under the front axle. Yup, It snapped. Less than a minute later, a CHP shows up. Looks at it and asks if I'll need the auto club. "Yup, pretty sure I will". This was at 9:15pm. Flash forward 3 hours....
After 1 company refused to answer the call, Dave's Towing in Palm Springs sends out their first truck. After a while it's obvious his flatbed is too narrow. The owner (Dave) brings out the big flatbed and we proceed to load it up. Here's a scary shot of how we had to tow it.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/896go.jpg
Dave asks where I want it towed, and hell I don't know, to a welder open on Saturdays would be cool. He takes me to the guy that does his welding, and drops the boat off in his driveway at 1am. "Does he know my boat's in his driveway?", I ask. "No, but he will when he gets up!", Dave says. We find a Ramada in Palm Springs at 1:30 and get the good guy deal because the clerk feels sorry for the family. "I'll make it only $139 for the night" he says. What a guy. 8 am, I call the welder. his name is Owen Kiely. An ex boater, biker, you name it. 2 acres of the coolest vintage stuff. He says, "I've got it jacked up and I'm checking it out right now. Give me 2 hours and you'll be good to go".
To be continued........

[Lightning]

The anticipation . . . . come on - finish the story

[roostwear]

OK, where was I.
I ask Owen to check the rear axle, too, because if one let go, the other isn't far behind.
We go for breakfast before heading over to Owen's, and wind up there about 11:30. He's on a creeper underneath and I walk up and stick my head under the boat. "Well, how bad is it?" I ask. He slides out from under the boat and stands up. Owen is a bout the same height as me (6'1), gray, and a mustache that makes mine look small. "Don't I know you?" he asks. "Nope, first time breaking down in PS", I tell him. He tells it it's a good thing i had him check the rear axle, it had a crack too. He's got a little more work to do, so we go to the mall a little ways away to kill time.
We get back around 12:15 and he's just finished. "I set the camber for ya" he says. "That why they both cracked. When they built the trailer, they set the camber, but never welded the top plate on the beam". Damn..... if it broke an hour later, I'd be in the middle of Bum**** Egypt in a world of hurt. Not many places to fix a trailer between 29 Palms and Amboy. Hell, the cell probably wouldn't have gotten a signal either.
We're ready to go and the big decision is, do we head home, or keep going? F it, I have a boat to test, and it isn't going to happen in the driveway at home. The inner sidewalls took a beating when the axle snapped, but they were holding air, so let's hit it.... I've got a spare.
We pull up to the house in BHC at 4:30, and I'm more interested in a cold one than launching. There's always tomorrow. 14 hours late. It's good to be at the river.... finally.
The tow bill, the repair bill, and the hotel bill all added up, but it's like I told my oldest son. This really wasn't that bad. We lost 14 hours, and a few hundred dollars, but met some really great people. Even the CHP was cool.
Bottom line is, if you ever need a tow in Palm Springs, call Dave's Towing. If you need welding in PS, call Owen at OK services. Good people, period. Good people have to support good people.
All in all, it was a great weekend. Tested the boat Sunday, and it ran great. See the thread in Just Jets about that.
It's good to be back at work, too. Now I can get some rest.......

[summerlove]

glad it worked out w/o any major damage! Next time, leave the boat there, it'll make the travel trip seem so much faster.....

[roostwear]

I don't have anyplace secure to store the boat out there, so I be towin'. :frown:

[AZmike]

roost
That shit can put a serious damper on the weekend. At least you got to run the boat and nothing else went wrong.
There nothing worse than breaking down before or when you first get to the river.
take care,
mike

[Debbolas]

good thing you and your family are safe....that sounds pretty scary....we have been stuck by the side of a freeway, at night, with the big ole trucks rolling past, not fun.

[locogringo]

glad to hear there are still good honest people in the world!

[MudPumper]

We lost a wheel bearing towing out to Laughlin 4 yrs ago. Happened just before hitting Barstow around 4 pm. Bearing ate itself and the axle and everything else in the hub. Wheel was half off the trailer when we pulled over. Anyway, only found one guy that could fix it before morning and he charged us about 500 bucks for two new bearings, 1 seal and to weld on one new axle and check the other bearings. He basically ****ed us because he could and pretty much admitted it to us. I'll be checking my axles tomorrow. Glad nobody got hurt.