The rest of the story. This is long, but hopefully entertaining…
Sit back and let me tell you a wild west tale of mystery and intrigue. This story has a heroine, her trusty sidekick, a faithful steed, a sage mentor and a wily villain.
The day started without much fanfare; it was moving day. The heroine and her sidekick dutifully provisioned their faithful steed (the Trek) with empty tanks and fuel for the travel that lie ahead. They were headed back east from Quartzsite to Phoenix. Also coming along on the trip was the wily Bruiser, a rugged untamed off-road Jeep. He had been in their company the entire journey providing the means to access remote and treacherous areas. While loading the faithful steed with fuel, the sidekick hitched the wily Bruiser to the back of the steed. The tow bar along with safety, emergency brake-away, lights and brake cables were all properly attached. The transfer case was put in neutral, the transmission in park and the steering wheel unlocked. As was their practice, the sidekick stood and observed that Bruiser was correctly hitched as the heroine urged the faithful steed forward. Everything was hitched properly, the journey down the road was ready to commence.
The trail they were taking to Phoenix was remote and lightly travelled; a short distance down Interstate 10 followed by many miles on Highway 60 through Wickenburg, finally arriving in Phoenix from the north. With the heroine at the wheel the journey began.
The heroine, who while not deep in experience had a steady hand. The sidekick had grown to trust her driving and was busy looking at the map. Sometime after the turn onto Highway 60 the sidekick observed that while they were going straight down the highway the steering wheel in the heroine’s hands was turned about an 1/8th of a turn to the right. That seemed odd. He did not recall every seeing that and asked the heroine about how the steering felt. She said it felt fine. They continued down the road, the sidekick getting increasingly uneasy about the situation.
Suddenly without warning or sound the trusty steed lurched to the right and headed for the ditch! With lightning quick reflexes, the heroine caught the steed before it left the road while braking hard to get it stopped. In seconds, the heroine had expertly wrestled the steed to a stop on the shoulder of the road. The heroine and sidekick sat there stunned at what had just happened. “Something is wrong!”, the heroine exclaimed. “It felt like I blew a tire!”. Having not heard any strange sounds the sidekick knew that a tire had not blown but had no idea what had just caused the faithful steed to lurch so violently. He had never exhibited this kind of behavior before.
The sidekick got out and check the steed and Bruiser. Everything seemed to be in order. No leaking fluids, no broken parts, no strange sounds. “It must be something in the steering”, he thought. Giving the steed a close inspection, testing the steering and crawling underneath to inspect every component of the suspension and steering offered no clues. Because the road was narrow and there was not adequate room to stay parked the heroine and sidekick decided to cautiously continue down the road until they could find a spot to get fully and safely off the road. With white knuckles and a clenched butt checks the sidekick carefully guided the steed down the road. The steed drove fine and gave no indication of what had caused the earlier episode. A few miles down the road an adequate spot was found and the steed was parked.
Now was decision time. What should they do? Should they continue? Should they get a tow to repair shop for a better inspection of the steed. The sidekick decided to reach out to a couple trusted mentor for their advice. Both recommended towing the steed. One of the mentors, a salty northeasterner, Mitch, offered several potential theories that could have caused the observed behavior. “Could it be something broken in the suspension?”, “What about an issue with the steering shaft linkage”, “What about the Jeep wheels getting locked and pulling you sideways” and so on. Sitting there on the side of the road, no evidence was observed to support any of the theories. A tow truck was summoned.
The hot Arizona beat down on the intrepid party as they waited for the tow truck. This was the first time in their journeys that they had experienced a breakdown. Spirits were low as the sidekick unhitched Bruiser and prepared the faithful steed to be towed. Bruiser appeared unscathed and all the hitch attachments, cables and transfer case/transmission/steering configuration were in proper order. Thankful that Bruiser was ok, the party loaded their provisions on him. He was now going to have to carry them the rest of the journey to Phoenix.
Soon enough the tow truck arrived, and the steed was hitched to the tow truck. The tow truck driver did an inspection of the steed and was unable to see anything amiss. After disconnecting the driveshaft and tightening the wheel straps the slow 35-mile tow commenced. An RV repair facility just south of Wickenburg was the destination. Deeply concerned for their steed, the heroine and her sidekick followed in Bruiser.
They arrived at the RV repair facility without incident. Even though it was after closing time a helpful mechanic was still on site and patiently listened to their tale of woe. “Do you have any idea what it might be?”, the sidekick asked. The helpful mechanic had some ideas of what it might be and had seen some similar issues in the past. He promised to look at it the next day and let them know what he found. With hope, the sidekick and heroine left their faithful steed in his care and headed to south to Phoenix to stay with friends that offered to take them in.
The next day, a Friday, the sidekick anxiously awaited word from the mechanic. The day slowly drug on without any news. Just when it looked like there would be no word from the mechanic that day, he called. “Sorry, I was unable to get to your rig until the end of the day”, he started. “I looked over all the suspension and steering components from the gear box to the wheel and can’t find anything wrong”. “At this point I suspect the intermediate shaft, but I’ll have to get to that on Monday”. That wasn’t what the heroine and sidekick wanted to hear. They had reservations and travel plans. Resigning themselves to the fact that they would be delayed for several more days, they made the calls and cancelled the reservations.
Saturday arrived. The heroine and sidekick decided to go visit some friends north of the city. If they were going to be delayed, they were going to make the most of the opportunity and not just sit around feeling glum. Besides the heroine hated to ever sit around.
The sidekick prepared Bruiser for the trip. As was his practice, the sidekick, walked around Bruiser and did a visual inspection prior to hitting the trail. Bruiser was an unpredictable beast and it was best to keep a close eye on him. As the sidekick did his inspection, something jumped out at him. Bruiser’s front tires had significant wear. Not the kind from normal driving, but the kind that comes from bad alignment or being rotated while not in line with the direction of travel. This was new and had not been there when they left Quartzsite! The sidekick’s mind reeled, what had caused this. Suddenly the words of the salty northeasterner rang in his head, “What about the Jeep wheels getting locked and pulling you sideways”. Could it be that there was nothing wrong with the steed and that the entire incident was the wily Bruiser’s fault? Could it be that Bruiser’s tires had gotten turned sideways and then had self-righted causing the faithful steed to lurch? How would the tires have gotten stuck sideways when the steering was not locked? When did the tires get stuck sideways? In thousands of miles of being hitched to the steed, Bruiser had never done this.
Standing there next to Bruiser, the sidekick started to piece together the story. Possibly the slow sharp turn from Interstate 10 onto Highway 60 had caused Bruiser’s tires to turn too far and not track back. The long rear overhang past the rear axle of the steed could have caused Bruiser’s wheels to actually turn in the opposite direction of the steed’s turn. The heroine with her lack of experience or thinking that it is a side wind does not notice the sideways pull of Bruiser on the steed. Down the road they go with Bruiser’s tires getting more worn by the mile. Then suddenly a pothole or bump, a twitch of the steering wheel or something else created just enough movement to let Bruiser get his wheels straightened out. With the heroine having the wheel turned toward the ditch, the faithful steed, free from the sideways pull of Bruiser would lurch to follow the direction of the steering wheel. The story was starting to become clear, but a large question remained. Why did Bruiser’s wheels not self-right?
The trip to visit friends was uneventful, Bruiser behaved well and a small vibration at highway speeds was the only symptom of his now messed up front tire tread. With the faithful steed exonerated, the sidekick is working on a plan to both fix Bruiser’s tires and ensure that he never has the opportunity to pull that kind of stunt again.