Major highway problem averted.

[Atlee]

Thanks to the eagle eye of DW, a potential (and eventual) major problems was averted.

DW noticed a thin nail imbedded in the sidewall of the left rear trailer tire.

It wasn't sticking into the tire through the tread, nor was it sticking through the sidewall into the tire. It is similar to how a splinter is. Under the skin but parallel. As far as I can tell it hasn't punched through the inner sidewall yet. But it's just a matter of time.

It's one of those things that if neither of us had noticed it, the air could leak begin to leak out, the heat build up in the tire would begin, and at some point, the tire would come apart.

Then there would be another Good Year Chinathon horror story to report. :E

This is going to cause me to move up or, more correctly, add urgency in replacing all 5 tires. At this point, the replacements will be Maxxis ST8008. Even with the 205/75R14 LR-C size, I feel I have more than adequate safety margin, or margin of error. Trailer GWVR is 4950#. The total max weight load for the tires is 7040#, or 1760# per tire.

[Tachdriver]

Good reason to inspect your tires before hitting the road!!!

[powderman426]

It sounds like luck was with you. Just keep a watchful eye on your TPMS in case it did penetrate the casing.

[naturist]

It's always better to find potential problems before they erupt into major events. Kudos to DW for paying attention to stuff like that, and congrats to you for jumping on the nail thing, as well as having the good sense to have picked such a sharp spouse in the first place.