Growing up camping, I’ve had plenty of break downs and long days that never seem to end. The famous Backus Road in the middle of the Mojave is still talked about today! Well, Kyle and I had our first “Backus Road” experience today. We started the day cleaning up camp in Loveland, an hour outside of Denver. We were on the road by noon and made it about 15 minutes down the highway before we were flagged down by a neighbor driver. We pulled off to the side of the road to find our trailer wheel smoking and what looked like melted metal splattered all over. We called our roadside assistance and were quickly denied. We were also denied by all the RV repair shops nearby. Apparently they are all booked up for months! After a few more phone calls we found a small auto repair shop nearby wiling to take us. They were only 4 miles away, but with the wheel smoking those were very slow 4 miles. We stayed in the shoulder and drove as slow as possible and stopped every so often to let the wheel cool of.
- The smoking wheel -
At the repair shop they told us that the race had melted away and the wheel bearings were completely gone. They said they could fix it but needed to order a part which would take a few hours. 4 hours of waiting and $400 later we were on the road again. Our goal today is Moab, Utah. Its about 6 hours, 400 miles away and we will hit only two states, Colorado and then Utah.
- At the repair shop -
- Hanging out at the repair shop was pretty boring for Toby -
It was about 5pm when we finally left the repair shop. We knew were going to get into Moab late tonight but still wanted to make the trek. Our drive took us through the I-70 mountains which were pretty treacherous with the trailer. The grades were very steep and put a lot of stress on not just our vehicles but us too.
- Driving through the mountains -
We made a quick stop in some small town to let things cool down. Toby was pretty stressed out too so he needed to run around for a bit. Since it was getting late, and the drive was only getting more stressful, we decided to call it quits and stay at the nearest (pet friendly) hotel we could find instead of driving all the way to Utah. The hotel was about an hour 30 minutes away, we could manage that right? Well we made it a few more miles up the road before we got another flag down from a neighbor driver…
It was dark out, so the driver was trying to get our attention by flashing their lights then eventually pulled in front of us and put their hazards on and slowed down a lot. We were kind of confused because we just got things fixed, nothing could be wrong with us right? We pulled over anyways and one look at the wheel told us we were wrong. It was glowing red it was so hot, smoke was coming out and metal was splattered all over again. The same wheel we just had fixed! So here we are, in the middle of the mountains in Colorado. Its 9:00 PM and pitch black outside. We have no idea where we are or what to do.
- Not again! -
Our first call (as always) is to my dad. We know that there is a town 8 miles away from us, but he helps us decide that its not safe to drive on this wheel anymore. So back making phone calls. We called about 20 different towing companies before we finally found one who had a truck big enough for our trailer and who was willing to come all the way out to help us. Our plan was to tow it the 8 miles to the nearest town, Eagle, and drop the trailer off at a repair shop. The tow truck made it out to us around 11:00 PM and took our trailer to the local repair shop. The repair shop had a night drop box so we filled out our info and dropped the key in the box.
- Dropping the trailer off at repair shop #2 -
Before we headed to the hotel, which was another hour away, I crawled into the closed trailer to pull out things that we would need. On the road again, we were safe and sound in the hotel in Rifle, CO around 2:00 AM. Hopefully we will be able to sleep tonight. I know I’m anxiously awaiting to see what answers tomorrow brings.
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