Remember when you were a child? You’d receive new toys with no concept that they might someday actually break. You’d tear open that shiny new package, rip out the contents, and start putting your new acquisition through hell. Ah, those were the days.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve begun to question every purchase. “What happens when something goes wrong?” Because something always does.

RVs are like everything else in the world. Over time, they deteriorate. Things break. Machines stop working, sometimes for no apparent reason. When you buy an RV, you sign up for ongoing maintenance issues.

Fortunately, most of our Airstream issues have been minor ones. We’ve had the occasional leak, or the fan that stops blowing, or the door latch that fails. We’ve had well documented tire issues. But for the most part, the thing has been reliable. The air-conditioning has always blown cold, the electricity has always come on, and the plumbing has always plumbed. Airstreams lack a motor, so they also lack all of those motor-related maintenance issues.

Ironically, one of our most annoying Airstream problems was caused by a bad RV mechanic. When checking out the roof of our rig, he left a huge dent in the aluminum end cap. We later repaired the dent ourselves (or rather, Kristy’s father repaired it). But we learned a lesson, pledging to always seek qualified mechanics for service. This leads us to one of the great Airstream dealerships, Airstream of Arkansas. This dealership is located in the small town of Searcy, Arkansas. And it’s one of the top performing Airstream dealerships in the entire country.

Not only does Airstream of Arkansas have an excellent service team, they also have a wonderful smörgåsbord of new Airstreams on the lot. Although we love our 25-foot Classic Airstream, I must confess we were sorely tempted by one of the new models (I won’t reveal which one!).

On this particular visit, we were focused on service. The big item on our agenda this time was the bizarre tire wear issue. Here’s the verdict. It appears that the problem was NEITHER the WHEEL or the AXLE! Upon examination, both appear to be fine. Apparently the issue originated when the previous tire shop MOUNTED THE WHEEL IMPROPERLY by using an overly powerful impact wrench on our Airstream’s ALUMINUM RIM. In essence, they mounted the wheel at an angle, and this caused the tire to wear out very fast.

See what I mean about having qualified mechanics work on your RV? We’re out a new tire and a lot of hassle, all because a previous mechanic did a sloppy job.