“How the hell did you do that?!”, was a question I heard 3 times from 3 different people at 3 different shops. To be fair, it was a good question. It’s not every day a guy shows up with brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee aluminum wheel that is completely destroyed, with just a few bits of shredded tire left. The guy at the tire place estimated a good 1/2” of aluminum had been ground away from the rim. “How the hell did you do that?!”

Backing up, we left Lancaster, PA the evening before bound for the Somerset Service Plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a quick overnight nap before continuing on to Colorado. Upon arriving at the Plaza, Karla walked outside the RV to perform a more-than-daily ritual all RVers are familiar with: the walk around, designed to ensure everything looks good with the rig and the tow car. Within seconds she was back in the door, saying “you need to come out here now”, in a tone that implies I need to come out there now. My first sense that was triggered was olfactory: the unmistakable smell of burnt tire. Then I couldn’t help but noticed we didn’t have a front passenger tire on our Jeep Grand Cherokee, which we flat tow behind the motorhome. No, instead of a tire there was a wheel…on the ground…with a few shreds of rubber wrapped around the inside of the wheel…emitting smoke.

Our front Grand Cherokee tire was gone on our towed vehicle

That’s not a sight an RVer wants to see. Incredibly we were quite calm about it and pretty much just went to bed (it was after 11 PM on a Sunday at this point). I debated calling AAA, but realized they would just mount the spare tire and send me on my way. So in the morning I spent all of 10 minutes mounting the spare tire myself and decided to head into the nearby town of Somerset to see if a tire could be had (I didn’t know the wheel was toast at this point, but I suspected it).

First thing in the morning, I swapped out the damaged wheel for the spare tire

My first stop was at a local tire place, where mechanic #1 questioned how such a thing could happen, and before I could answer, proceeded to yell at every mechanic in the shop to come over and take a look at this idiot and his wheel. I attempted to explain about flat towing, but I’m pretty sure they think I got a flat tire and then drove 100 miles on it for, you know, fun. All 10 mechanics shook their heads and said the wheel is junk and asked again how I did this. And no, they don’t have a replacement wheel, but helpfully mentioned they do have a tire should I procure a wheel.

Stop #2 was literally across the street at the Jeep dealer. They too exclaimed they had never seen a wheel in such poor condition before and how did such a thing happen, knowing full well the answer is obviously this guy got a flat tire and then drove 100 miles because, you know, he’s an idiot. And no, they don’t stock wheels that come on a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee because why would anyone ever need a new wheel. They last forever I was told, while looking at evidence to the contrary. The parts manager was very chipper when he mentioned he could special order a new wheel that would arrive in only 6-8 weeks. Then, the first helpful suggestion I would receive all day occurred: another guy at the parts counter leaned over and whispered, “the largest auto salvage yard in Pennsylvania is 10 miles down the road. I could almost guarantee they would have a wheel for you.”

10 minutes later I was at said auto salvage yard, a very modern affair compared to the junk yards of old. No wondering around here with tools in hand. You simply state your desired part for a particular vehicle and after some typing on the keyboard the answer is had: they do have a wheel for my Jeep, albeit a steel one instead of aluminum, for $75. Knowing a steel wheel will get me on my way, I confirm I want it and a few minutes later it’s in the back of the Jeep.

Back at the Jeep dealer (their price on the tire was less than the tire shop), they mounted and balanced the new tire on the used wheel and I was on my way. By 11 am we hooked the Jeep to the RV and we were driving towards CO. Literally this story could not have ended any better. Amazingly there was zero damage to any other parts on the Jeep. No body damage, no suspension damage, nothing.

The replacement steel wheel

So, what’s the moral of the story? I think it’s supposed to be that we should use a wireless tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) on our tow car, monitored from within the RV. Likely the tire did not just blow up. It probably developed a small leak that over time caused a flat tire. Driving on a flat tire for an extended time caused it to blow up. But the TPMS system would have picked up the leak before it became a problem. That’s great in theory. Having owned two such systems, the reality is that frequent false positive alarms (3-4 per year) caused us to turn the system off as every alarm is treated as a potential emergency scenario, necessitating pulling over immediately and inspecting tires, typically on the shoulder of a busy interstate. After you do that a few times and find nothing amiss you ignore the cry of wolf.

Upon returning to Colorado, we finally tracked down a new, shiny aluminum wheel that matches the other ones and mounted a new tire that also matches (the only tires in Somerset in the size I needed were designed for highway use, whereas our Grand Cherokee came with more aggressive all season tires). Now we have a mounted, full size spare tire in case this happens again, versus the stock donut tire that can’t exceed 50 mph or 50 miles.