The Six Hour Pit Stop

Ah, the frost heaves of the Yukon finally got us. We busted a spring on the trailer 120 miles east of Tok and 80 miles west of Destruction Bay – about as far from help as you can get on the Alaska Highway! I was able to strap the axle up and slowly move the rig a ¼ mile to a Jim Cook’s roadhouse and café and strip off the remaining parts and clean things up. A few phone calls searching for a mechanic with the correct spring and Charlie was on his way from Destruction Bay. It took him almost two hours to get to us and with both of us working away we fitted the new spring. This was strictly a cash operation so we were left with literally no cash on hand after paying Charlie $400 in a mix of American and Canadian currency.  We rambled down the road until dusk and tucked into a rest area with six other rigs for the night.

In my own defense I must tell you I was driving slowly through the whoop-tee-do’s. Close inspection of the pieces of the broken spring showed that two of the four leaves had crack through some time before – probably on one of our Mexcio trips would be my guess. You can bet I looked the other springs over as well as I could for cracks. Check your springs right in the center of the leaf stack.

 I only went 50 yards in a great cloud of smoke when the spring let go!

An eagle sat and watched us for a bit as it dried its wings. I took that as a good sign.