J-Dub
Well-known member
Well after reading so many good reports from JTF, I decided to try to explore up in the Emory. Well, on the way there, just East of where 40/75 split, I had a flat on the truck. Great. Interstate shoulders are great places to practice being on a pit crew. After a bit of trouble I got it chaged. Once to the ramp, the boat motor wouldn't start. Strike two. So I fished around Ladd landing for a bit and boated two bass, 1 keeper about 2.5 lbs. After enough frustration I decided to put it on the trailer and just for laughs tried the outboard. Fired right up. I drove up into the river just to have a look but didn't shut off the motor for fear of it not starting again. Back at the ramp a guy was testing out his Allison boat getting it ready to drag. Just watching it scared me. Too fast for this 'ole boy! There I met a guy who works at Reynolds Marine in Harriman, I think. Anyway, after a small conversation he told me it sounds like I've got carb trouble on my motor and may get expensive to fix. Wonderful. I'm going to try to take it to him in the morning tomorrow and blow off work for a while. So, back to Knoxville I go. Well, lo and behold, trouble strikes again! Same sound's coming from the vehichle that would indicate a flat. Pull off the interstate (deja vu all over again) but can't find a low tire anywhere. Back on the road but the noise continues. Pull off at the exit, check the tires but see nothing. Drive in the lot slow with windows down and sounds like it's on the trailer. Look closer and all of the lugs on one of the tires were about off. I could spin them with my fingers. The lugs needed a deep tire iron, which I of course did not have so I tightened them as best I could, figured I could crawl the back roads the couple of miles to my house and fix it there. Well, one of the bolts the lugs are on totally shears off just about a mile down this winding back road. The wheel immediately begins to wobble on the hub looking like it's gonna slip off any rotation. I find a place to pull off, catch my breath, let my heart settle back down and call around to get some help. My step dad has a blue million tools and comes over to inspect. We jack up the trailer, tighten the lugs with the proper tire iron and I go on home with a little less hair and needing to get my blood pressure checked. The wheel is now more aerodynamic as it only has four lugs instead of five, thus reducing the drag. So, I had a flat on my truck, boat motor decided not to fire, then had a lug bolt shear completely off on the way home. Who the heck said fishing is relaxing? Maybe karma's telling me to get another hobby. AAAGH!! emoBang Sorry to vent but my hind end is still chapped and that happened 12 hours ago. At the rate I'm going if I can even get the boat to the guy to check it out, there'll be something so bad with it I may be forced to learn a new hobby. Like drinking.
