Then all hell broke out – loud metallic noises, things flapping around the passenger side 5th wheel tires, and water is gushing out of the fresh water (? we are hoping – and finally proven correct) tank storage. We stop and look aghast stunned by the event. The very high temperatures sent us into speed mode to get set up and inside to the air conditioning where we begin to think out the situation. Realizing we need more information, we wait until it cools and do the look-see. Knowing we need to go under the rig, we finally agree that due to the high temperatures (and an excess of grasshopper and black flies) we need to wait until early in the morning to crawl under there.
So, we start looking at the area around the 2 tires. Look at the prior blog entry to see how it’s suppose to look. Here’s how it looks now.
This metal bar was originally horizontal with the ground, supporting the edge of the fender, and attaching the “fender” light between the tires. It is now detached from the “fender” and perpendicular to the ground with the electrical wires ripped from the side light. 
To the left of the wheel the “fender” and its own bar are twisted and broken. The fender has been cut/split and bent out and up. 
Now both Boots and Ruthi take turns crawling under the rig to see what is what – The fresh water sensor (and later identified as quick release flushing switch) is shown here. 
Electrical wires are ripped out of the front tire braking mechanism. 
And finally, something is hanging from the back tire brake. It’s kinda flat ribbony of unknown origin. Now, we begin the serious discussions. We are in Broadus, Montana, population 500 very nice friendly people. We are 150+ miles from our next stop – Rapid City SD (population 67,000). We already have a repair guy waiting to do work on the fresh water tank while we are there. So, we call him concerned not only with the size of the required work but the safety of driving 150 mile with this type of damage (realizing that towing would be very expensive). We disagree on an approach – Boots wants to drive slowly to Rapid City and deal with the problem there. Ruthi is worried that the whole thing is unsafe and worth the money. Boots is more frugal and thinks driving is the best way – plus the fact that even our roadside service can’t tell us if there’s any place closer than 150 miles that does RV repair OR that can tow us. This means a tow truck has to come 150 to get the RV and then tow it back – yowsa!! Ruthi’s wondering just what her life is worth; while Boots worries about the money.
We call our Reno, NV handy woman Connie of “Connie Can”. Much to Ruthi’s disappointment Connie agrees with Boots. Of course, at this point, both of us have failed to see the tire damage (it’s the innermost 1 ½ in. of tread AND it’s dark under there. So when she asks if the tires are ok, we say yes! She says “What difference does it make whether you tow it or a company tows, except for the price?” Ruthi suggests liability. There is no swaying Boots or Connie. So, we start looking for a towing company in Broadus first – thinking it would be faster (no need to wait for them to get here from Rapid City) and maybe cheaper – no luck.
We then think we need an expert opinion – somebody locally that could assess the situation and advise a solution. So, we ask a tow guy in Miles City (about 65 mi. north of Broadus) and he says it’s either Billings or Rapid City (well, Billings if 150 or so miles back west). We call a tire place in Broadus and ask who might we get to help us assess the safety of towing it ourselves to Rapid City. He suggests Grant Trucking & Repair in Broadus. Elwin (the owner) very fortunately has time available and comes right out with one of his team and they crawl under the rig.
Guess what? All of the damage was caused by the treads ripping off of the tires (yep both of them at approximately the same time). The treads pulled the front brake’s electrical connections, the cable for emptying the fresh water tank (hence the flooding), bent the “fender”, broke away from the side light’s wires, damaged the brake housing of one of the tires etc. etc. etc.
So, we need new tires, brake work, and minor body work (until we can get to a Camping World shop) at a minimum to get us to Rapid City. Elwin suggests we drive very slowly to his shop (3 miles) and then stop by Hi-Tech tires and see if they have replacement tires in stock - keep in mind this is Broadus, Montana – population 500 very nice people. We are in luck (maybe) they have 14-ply tires (better than what we had (10-ply) but a smart choice) in stock. Then we spend the rest of today hauling dead tires back to be mounted and staying cool in the air conditioned truck while Elwin and his team make repairs.
Fortunately, Elwin was very accommodating and we were able to stay plugged into land power and could keep the AC on and sleep in the RV that night. We are able to leave for Rapid City (Blackhawk, technically) only about 3 hours behind schedule.
