Albuquerque, New Mexico - Montana Owners Club

adelmoll · 04-21-2009, 04:37 PM

We pulled out of The Rally in Albuquerque this morning. It sure wasn't our favorite rally and I'm not sure if we would do it again. We have been to The Rally's before and enjoyed them but in Albuquerque we were camped at the Balloon Fiesta Park and The Rally with all the vender's were at the fair grounds. About 10 miles away on freeways that are both under construction. The rally provided busses but eight busses for 7500 people fell way short and the lines were two hours long. Needless to say, nobody wanted to buy things and wait two hours for the bus to transfer them to a tram before they got home. We heard about the lines the first day we arrived so we never did take the bus. We drove to the Expo center daily. That means we bought since we had the truck near-by.

Today we moved a couple of miles down the road to Discount Tires where we found out that the reason our Pressure Pro tire gage warned us that we were loosing air and when we arrived they found two nails in the rear tire on our new Big Sky. We had to replace the tire because it was considered a road hazard. That means we got three weeks out of our tire and even had to pay them to haul it away. Is that a record?

I just had to let you know that we would not have caught this without the Pressure Pro Tire Gage at such and early time and before we had any damage done. The gage warned us that our tire was low and we put enough air in to get us to the shop. A great lesson and money well spent.

Helen

LonnieB · 04-21-2009, 05:02 PM

Those must have been two really mean nails if they couldn't patch the holes. Glad to hear your Pressure Pro system is doing it's job.

jackandh2o · 04-21-2009, 07:44 PM

Helen, my brother is on his way back from the rally and other than the entertainment he wasn't real impressed either.
He mentioned that there was a lot more to see at the last one. I beleive it was in Washington or Oregon.

Ray

Art-n-Marge · 04-21-2009, 08:07 PM

Wow, I'm sorry you did not have a good time in ABQ.

Since there won't be a next time, here's what I would have recommended to you since we lived there some time ago. Locate where OTHER drop off points are located when it's Rally time, State Fairground time or (Balloon) Fiesta time. Such as malls, local colleges etc. These are the places the "locals" would use. Avoid the high traffic touristy areas like the Balloon grounds because there are 100% of bus catchers! At the local dropoffs the attendee percentages won't be as high and my experience is the cattle drives don't take as long. But on the other hand driving down there means better shopping and you don't lug your purchases on busses.

Back to your tire story, I am sensitive to that since I have had 3 problems in my history (2 of them on the same trip!) - but I attribute these cases to inferior tires. I use Goodyear Marathons now. I have not installed a pressure monitor system yet but would love one. I just cannot believe their expense! Being a tech-savvy guy I know what's in there and the cost is because it's a new product but the technology is NOT and I have a hard time putting down the cash to pick a system up right now. However, there are now SEVERAL vendors for this and I am noticing the prices are finally starting to come down.

Regarding the tire. It's a bummer that you had to replace the tire already, but just to make sure you know, there are sweet spots on tires and if an object pierces the tire outside of the sweet spot then that's the time to replace the tire. The sweet spot is the tread part of the tire and on a trailer that's pretty wide because an ST tire does NOT ride on the sides like passenger tires do. I hope they didn't take you for a ride. At least it was only one tire!

Happy traveling!

rames14 · 04-22-2009, 01:05 AM

Helen -

You mentioned "road hazard". I think the answer is "no", but did the Big Sky come with road hazard insurance on the tires? Sorry you didn't have a great time, but I'm sure that a rig damaging blowout on the new coach would have been much worse. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

HughM · 04-25-2009, 01:56 PM

Bill and Helen, We're so sorry your trip didn't turn out like you wanted. We know how much you looked forward to the trip in your new Big Sky. Just be glad that the tire didn't explode and damage that new full body paint job!!!!
Hugh

robb · 04-25-2009, 02:09 PM

We agree with Helen!! This was our last rally!
VERY POOR set up, We were in line 2 hours in the rain one time, did not go back and left the rally Sunday. (the bus was a nonstop rally bus and we were told we could not park on the faigrounds)
First day 3,000 people, 5 bus' 42 to a bus, you do the math!!

Robb

exav8tr · 04-25-2009, 02:34 PM

We did the Rally in Redmond, OR in '07 and it was so commercialized that we swore we would not do it again, And, we haven't. We, too, were out in a field and the busses were running constantly. I did buy my MorRyde hitch pin there for a "show special" and had it trucked to Pendleton, OR where my BIL and nephew helped me install it. We had just done the "Life on Wheels Conference" in Moscow, ID so the seminars were not for us. Nightly entertainment was kind of fun.....

grampachet · 04-25-2009, 07:55 PM

Sorry to hear about your tire problems. We got about 100 miles on our new Montana 3000RK and had two flats on Easter Sunday afternoon last year. We were North of Seattle and no where to go but off I-5 and I was watching the tires get lower and and lower as we were looking for some a place to pull off. I had run over a truck mud flap with bolts sticking up and they got me, I watched it in the mirror. It was a narrow lane during construction and no place to go but over the hazard. The first place I could find to stop was a Sears parking lot. "Wow, look at that there is a Sears tire store, but this is Easter Sunday afternoon." They were open and were able to patch and plug both tires. They would not take them off so I happily did that and one hour later and $50 lighter we were back on the road. No problem with them in the 4000 miles so far. We were just lucky some say, but we always pray for Gods protection as we travel and He sure did not let us down that time.

Art-n-Marge · 04-26-2009, 06:26 PM

Wow Grampachet. Great story about your tires. Most tire stories in this forum are expensive and devastating and start with Mission, or Chinese-branded, or something worse.

I know whenever there's a tire problem it's never good, but only $50, and some time to install patches and you were good to go is always better to hear about.

Happy RVing!

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