H.I.T.R. warning

NateGeesaman

NateGeesaman

Donkey
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
272
They put a lot of rocks and gravel on the first stretch of Hole in the Rock Road. I was going around 35 mph and that was apparently too fast for the terrain as I got a nasty flat tire. I don't have cheap tires either. As we were changing the tire a car drove by and said, "That was us yesterday." We noticed at the trail head that 3 of the other 7 cars there had on spare tires as well. Use caution because there are a few tire eater rocks out there on the first bit of road.
 
We talked to a guy at the Subway in Escalante once who said he was a tow truck driver in town...I had the distinct impression that he wasn't above putting nails in the road out there to drum up business.
 
Aldaron said:
We talked to a guy at the Subway in Escalante once who said he was a tow truck driver in town...I had the distinct impression that he wasn't above putting nails in the road out there to drum up business.
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Nails, or sharp rocks... it was wild to see and hear of the other flats. I got the fishy feeling.
 
I have some good friends leaving in Escalante, they told me that this already happened : as they said, the guys who repaired the road added gravel (that can include some sharp rocks) but for budget reasons they cannot do the last part of the job (as they were doing several years before) that break most of the sharp stones and/or throw them away from the road. Thus, during several weeks people driving on the road do kind of the last part of the job at the expense of their tires.
 
Philippe said:
I have some good friends leaving in Escalante, they told me that this already happened : as they said, the guys who repaired the road added gravel (that can include some sharp rocks) but for budget reasons they cannot do the last part of the job (as they were doing several years before) that break most of the sharp stones and/or throw them away from the road. Thus, during several weeks people driving on the road do kind of the last part of the job at the expense of their tires.
Click to expand...
makes sense
 
The tow truck guy called it "Hole in the Tire Road." I at least thought that was a little funny. I have personally had a flat tire on that road and been on it with a friend who also got a flat tire. The weird part is that the road just doesn't seem that bad...I've been on roads that look and feel much worse with no problems.
 
Very common after that kind of road work. Have experienced it and seen it too many times. That crappy sharp gravel is always bad. But the worst is some roads that after being graded the larger country rocks get freshly exposed and stood up. Those are the ones that will shred a sidewall. Have experienced that multiple times in multiple places too.

I have had so many flats, had to replace so many ruined tires, that anymore, fresh road maintenance in certain conditions is a big red flag for me!

- DAA
 
I'll just add that In my experience and many flats, the one factor that will greatly reduce the number of flats under these conditions is reducing the speed of your travel. I generally love bombing down a road as fast as I can safely travel, but where there is sharp, large gravel or fresh grading, I just drop the speed 10-15 mph.
 
Ya know what, I lied. I had a flat once on a forest road up in Franklin Basin (near UT-ID border). It happened right as we came to a stop and we noticed the hissing. Stuck a flat repair in the hole, topped off the air and we were on our way. :)
 
So I'll apologize in advance to those RME guys who have heard my amazing flat story, but I once had 3 flats in one trip out on the Pony Express trail. This was on a Suburban with passenger tires and the PET is famous for tearing up tires. Anyway, the first one, I swapped in the spare. The next one, I borrowed a plug kit. The last one, I was on my own and still miles from camp. I fashioned a tire plug by chewing up some stale cinnamon bears I had sitting in the truck and some string. Stuffed the cinnamon bear-infused string it into the hole in the tire using a screwdriver. Luckily I had one of those cheap compressors to air back up. It got us to camp and was still holding air when we pulled in. After getting to camp, I hiked around until I found some ATV guys who let me use their plug kit to make the fix permanent.
 
I just got back and last Monday there was a dude with a flat tire on HITR about 15 miles in, but he was headed back out to Hwy 12. Because of that and this msg thread, I was ULTRA careful and didn't exceed 20 mph on the fresh rocks.
 
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