We were on the way from south NH to central NY on July 8th and were barely 1/2 hour along the way when we heard a horrible noise and shaking from the trailer.  I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw debris flying onto the freeway.  OH NO!!

Our trailer’s rear tire on the passenger side had come apart, throwing the tread up into the trailer floor before it spun off into the roadway.  The damage that tread caused inside and outside the trailer made it look like a bomb had gone off!

Just above the wheel well is the shower stall, a cabinet containing the water pump and inverter, and a small cabinet housing a bbq.  The shower stall was demolished!  The floor part (pan) was blown apart and from the bathroom you can see the ground.  The bottom of the cabinet next to the shower was blown apart and the water pump was dangling, with electrical wires and water pipes hanging out.  The cabinet containing the bbq which is in the living room had blown apart, throwing insulation and debris all through the living room.  The bbq was damaged and bent.  The skirting on the outside of the trailer just behind the wheel was gone, it’s now somewhere along the freeway.  The wheel well skirt was damaged.

The tire itself still held air, which was very surprising.  Just the tread had come off and had caused all that damage.

So, major change of plans!  AAA came out and put on the spare tire (we don’t have a jack that will lift the trailer), and the AAA guy and Jeff determined that the trailer could still travel after some hanging debris was cleared away.

We contacted a local RV repair shop and took the trailer there.  He was surprised at the amount of damage as well.  We also contacted our insurance company and two days later as I write this we are still waiting for the insurance computer to send someone out to inspect the damage and make a determination of whether they’ll cover it (I sure hope so!!) and how much it should cost.  We’re expecting that it’ll take 2-3 weeks to get all the repairs done.

In the meantime we’re staying at a motel nearby – we had to travel about 20 minutes from the RV repair shop to find a reasonably-priced motel that takes a big dog without charging an exorbitant extra daily rate of $20.  We found one and for a while we’ll be living out of an even smaller space.  Luckily, it has a small frig and microwave, so we aren’t stuck eating 3 meals out every day!

Update: it took 4 1/2 WEEKS to get the trailer repaired!  The insurance adjuster took 1 1/2 weeks to get out there to inspect the damage and then write his report.  Then, it took over 2 weeks to get the parts ordered  and then when they arrived a major part was damaged and had to be re-ordered.  We stayed in that motel room for 32 days!  Luckily, the RV repair place did as much work as they could while waiting for parts, and once the parts came in just a couple more days to get it finished and back to us!  See my review of New England RV Repair.

Here are some pictures of the damage to the trailer, including a couple showing the rip in the floor after the debris was cleaned up: