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Friday, July 18, 2014

A Not so Simple Transition to Port Townsend, WA

We spent several nights on the outskirts of Seattle, vising with family, taking care of some business and dealing with the insane amount of traffic that that city generates. Auburn, just SE of Seattle, has a campground in the Game Farm Wilderness Park that allowed us reasonable access to Seattle without pulling the fifth wheel through the inner city.

On Tuesday we were off to the Olympic Peninsula. Unfortunately our transition from Seattle to Port Townsend was not so smooth. About halfway into our two hour drive I heard a strange noise and looked back to see smoke and small bits of tire flying...we had a blowout. Hans pulled over immediately, thankfully the shoulder was just wide enough to accommodate us. The right front trailer tire had blown, it was only two years old and Hans had checked the tire pressure so all should have been well.

Fortunately only minor damage to some underskirting on the trailer.

Fortunately the blowout was on the shoulder side of the highway, not the highway side! Vehicles were whizzing past us at 60 mph with no room to spare on the highway side. We were grateful to have the automatic leveling system on the trailer...we unhooked the truck and proceeded to raise the trailer up on its levelers so we could change the tire. We were back on the road within 45 minutes. Scary doesn't even begin to describe those 45 minutes!

No damage to the rim, thanks to quick understanding of the situation and being able to pull over immediately.

We're staying in Port Townsend, at Fort Worden Sate Park. Fort construction began in 1897 and it was active in one form or another until 1953, and became a state park in 1955. Its 434 acres include historical fort buildings, museums, a conference center, two campgrounds, water sports and beach access, hiking trails, all within minutes of downtown Port Townsend. There are 12 batteries left standing on Fort grounds and you can hike to and explore inside most of them. Here's a few photos from our hikes around the Fort:


Point Wilson lighthouse, activated 1879, automated 1976, closed to the public.

Battery Kinzie.
We were fortunate to happen upon this battery when a group of women were singing inside,
the acoustics were incredible!

A 60 inch carbon-arc light was housed in the building at the end of the tracks and rolled out
to light up targets up to 4.5 miles away. Circa 1911.

Battery Tolles.

Port Townsend is a Victorian waterfront town with an artistic vibe. Once a bustling port and fort town, today cute shops and restaurants invite visitors to stroll and spend their money. Thanks to a tip from the helpful staff at the local visitor center, we enjoyed some tasty fish and chips at Silverwater Cafe.

Several docks allow us to get out on the water and to appreciate the town from another vantage point.

Must be a fried egg jellyfish!

Fort Worden State Park is so popular that when we made reservations last October we could not get an entire week in one spot. We spent the first three nights at the full hookup beach campground, with nice large well separated sites; then moved to the upper forest campground with water/electric hookups for four nights, where the sites are much closer together.

On our campsite transition day (today) we took the trailer in to the local Les Schwab tire store to get four new tires on the trailer. We were happy to learn that, as Oregon residents, Les Schwab was able to sell us the tires with no sales tax, it seems merchants have an agreement with the state of Oregon to encourage Oregon residents to shop in Washington...sweet! Port Townsend Les Schwab did a fine job, very friendly, professional and efficient.

Now that business is taken care of we can really relax and enjoy the rest of our week in Port Townsend!



21 comments:

  1. Wow you really made short work of that blowout. Those are scary and I've never heard of one as easily taken care of as yours. Guess when we need tires again we should plan a trip to Les Schwab in Oregon. Sounds like a plan. We were in Port Townsand about 9 or 10 years ago so I'm glad to see it through your eyes. Hate when you have to pack up and move mid stay. Sounds like a really popular place.

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    1. Very popular place, we'll be surrounded by families our entire stay I am sure! It's summer time...

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  2. Wow! No under carriage damage? You must have spotted and stopped quickly! New Rv tires are notoriously sub standard. Sean did a ton of research before he bought ours. Do you have a tire pressure monitoring system? Luckily we haven't had to see if it is beneficial yet! Be safe.

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    1. We were very lucky. No TPMS yet, but Hans is researching them and may get one for his Birthday. We had hoped to keep the original tires for four years...no such luck!

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  3. Last year I had a tire separate which did $2600 in damage to my RV (http://ncmotorcyclists.blogspot.com/2013/03/replacing-power-king-tow-max-rv-tires.html). In researching the problem, I found that this is an all too common problem with fifth wheels. It appears most manufacturers use "E" class ST tires whose maximum weight rating is too close to the weight of the vehicle. I have since gone to "G" class LT tires and to date have had no problems. Lastly, I am in Sumpter, OR because I enjoyed your post about the area. Looking forward to following your future adventures.

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    1. Thanks for reading the blog! Yeah, we had read the horror stories about tires but also got the impression things were getting better so we were simply diligent in monitoring our tire pressure. We made sure our new tires are not from China!

      Glad to know you liked our stories on Sumpter...the bears sighting was the icing on that cake!

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  4. I am so happy there was no major damage to the fifth wheel. After our first long trip with the 5er we had tread separation on one tire, and cupping on the other three after 14,000 miles. Turned out that we had one defective tire, but worse, our axles were not 90 degrees to the direction of travel AND the wheels were not totally in the vertical. So, we averted a terrible problem, but we were closing in on it. Les Schwab is the best. They are the ones that told us to loose our braided valve extenders on our current RV. We like them! Glad you are done with it, and can now relax. Carmageddon started an hour ago - should be interesting!

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    1. Ooooh, sounds like quite a mess with your 5er, it's a good thing you caught all that before disaster struck! We got special valve stems with the intention of getting a TPMS in the future.

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  5. We had Goodyear Marathon load range E tires, that are known to have some problems. I had hoped that the issues in quality had been resolved and since we were on the light side of some of the Montana fifth wheels as we only have 2 slides, that we would be OK, but I was wrong. We went with a 14 ply G rated LT/Trailer tire that Les Schwab recommended and said they sell a lot of them without any issues. They even gave me a $40 dollar trade in on the 3 goodyear tires, saying that some farmer would buy them for their farm trailer. Then as Lisa mentioned, no sales tax, since we are Oregon residents, it turned out to be a good deal. The new tires are... http://geostartrucktire.com/tires/steerhighway/geostar-g574?tab=details

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    1. Hans, good choice on the replacement tires, same load range, etc we put on our Montana when the originals failed. Glad you escaped without major damage, blowouts can be really messy.

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  6. Too bad about the blowout but at least all turned out well. It's always terrible having to pull off on a busy road. If we meet you guys we will tell you about our TPMS experience. We're on our second one.
    I was looking at the reservation site for Fort Worden just yesterday. Looks like we'll give the fairgrounds a try.
    Gayle

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    1. Yeah, that's why we hadn't gotten a TPMS yet, too many stories of them not working! There is also a campground along the water at the edge of downtown, don't know the name of the place but you can see it on Google Maps.

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  7. So happy that you were able to get the tire changed and out of there safely. Sounds like a really scary experience! We foolishly tried to stay at Fort Worden a few years ago without a reservation. We only got to stay one night, and I would love to go back someday. Next time I know to reserve early! Enjoy your stay.

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  8. Seems like the co-pilot system worked nearly as quickly as a TPMS! Hearing singing coming from that old Battery must have been surreal :-).

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  9. Oh, my, goodness! So very glad that you caught the problem right away AND were able to get off the road. It was your lucky day:) Sounds like all is okay now. That ripped up tire looks scary.

    I love that fried egg jellyfish! I've never heard that one. So pretty!

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  10. Welcome to the blow-out club. We had a blow out a couple of months ago and had over $4000 damage to the trailer. I to had just checked the air pressure. These tires were about 2 years old. I had replaced all of them after the blowout I had then. You can't find a trailer tire that isn't made in China. I did a lot of research and couldn't find one. Again I replaced the rest of the tires. I am going to mount a tire pressure monitoring system before we head out this fall.

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  11. I am so glad that you and Hans are ok and the trailer is too.That is definitely a "Whew!" We also had a blow out once on a tow behind trailer on an interstate and it was on the highway side. Not fun and very scary! I am making notes as you travel...sounds like an early reservation is needed for this time of year. That is one of the bad things about summer and traveling. Enjoy!

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  12. OMG, glad to hear that you are now back to normal and can exhale. Whew. A blowout is always a scary event and that picture just says it all.
    Hearing the women's voices from the battery must be something.

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  13. Yikes. We had the same thing happen 2 years ago. Uniroyal (Michelin) warrantied the one tire since the tread peeled off but the tire was still fully inflated, and they paid for all the damage to the trailer, but we had to buy the other 3 tires out of pocket… I'm pretty sure our model of tire has been recalled since then… ugh! Glad you're back up and running!!

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  14. Wow, that tire totally exploded!! So glad to hear that you're safely on the other side of that scary event. We replaced the tires on our trailer last year and I was really happy to get rid of the original disaster-waiting-to-happen Goodyears. We also bought our new tires from Les Schwab -- such a great company. We love Port Townsend -- I'm sure you're discovering all the great bike trails!

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  15. So glad to hear that you did not have more damage to your rig with the blowout. Terry lives in fear of a blowout, always checking air pressure. Given the looks of that tire, it's a wonder you didn't have more damage. Port Townsend looks like a wonderful place to explore.

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