Got Bolted

I was conducting my pre‑trip inspection on “The Beast” and found an anomaly in the passenger side tag axle tire tread.  At first, I thought it was a rock stuck in one of the grooves. I got out my riggers knife and went to work with its marlinspike, trying to pry it out. My efforts were to no avail. What originally looked like a rock, turned out to be a piece of rusty steel. I quickly stopped messing with it.  I did not want to compromise the tire’s airtight integrity.

I went to my tire pressure monitoring systems display to check the tire pressure. It was at the proper pressure for that tire position, 85 PSIG.  That was a good indication that the piece of metal did not penetrate the tire’s liner.  I really did not want to replace a tire.  I budget $1,000 each when I figure in mounting, balancing, tire disposal fees, and taxes.

As The Beast does not have a spare tire or even a jack, I Googled “truck tire repair” and locally found King George Truck and Tire. I called them up to see if they had an opening. They offered to send out a mobile tire technician. Since I was not losing air, I decided to lower my cost and drive the 11.1 miles to their shop.

The tire technician used several different pairs of pliers (I had to look up the plural of “pair of pliers” as it boggled my brain) to pry out the offending object, which turned out to be a lag bolt.  He then inspected the tire and told me that I was very lucky. The lag bolt went in at a low angle and did not penetrate the tire’s belts. The shop did not charge for the technician’s time.  That was a nice gesture.