Steel Wheels Breaking - Montana Owners Club

Sunshine · 07-18-2006, 05:35 PM

Know a Montana owner (2002 3280RL) whose steel wheels are breaking. They are coming apart at the welds. He had two go bad in one day. I saw a post about aluminum wheels on a Big Sky going bad. Anyone have this happen with their steel wheels?

richfaa · 07-19-2006, 02:44 AM

Our steel wheels are not the problem yet but the OEM valve stems are. Had one go bad before we left on this trip and one go bad on the trip..Lost 20 lbs of air. Give yours a good wiggle test and check for leaks or better yet have them all changed out to the steel ones.

jpbcny · 07-19-2006, 03:14 AM

My 2006 329RLS Mountaineer was involved in a "Rim Recall" earlier this year, involving "Tredit" rims. You can read the thread here: Mountaineer Rim Recall

JP

Sunshine · 07-19-2006, 10:17 AM

Thanks for the info. I'll check with him and see if he has "Tredit" rims.

hazmic · 07-19-2006, 10:39 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

Our steel wheels are not the problem yet but the OEM valve stems are. Had one go bad before we left on this trip and one go bad on the trip..Lost 20 lbs of air. Give yours a good wiggle test and check for leaks or better yet have them all changed out to the steel ones.

Do your self a favor and replace the rubber valve steams with the steel ones. Might save your self a tire or damage to the 5ver. Where I get my tires they, say that 80lbs or greater put in the steel ones. When our was new the tires came from Goshen to Iowa and was replaced with Goodyear's and steel valve steams

MAMalody · 07-19-2006, 11:06 AM

I don't know about that. I had all steel in my tires, blew two tires on the curb side in WY (fortunately one hour apart). The stems were missing when the tires were inspected. The next morning when I was replacing tires I had them check the other tires and the other two stems were bad. My guess is that all the stems were bad. I replace them all with rubber. The tire shop said "it was okay." But then again, they don't have to drive on them and I was 1500 miles out still.

hazmic · 07-19-2006, 11:54 AM

The ones I am talking about are threaded and have a nut that you tighten. The nut is on the out side of the rim. How did they come out?

Dustytuu · 07-19-2006, 12:24 PM

We are replacing our valve stems this week. Don did three and has two to go. Also doing the spare.

MAMalody · 07-19-2006, 05:44 PM

As far as I could tell, the metal stems I had were installed similiar to the rubber ones. There were no threads or nuts that I could see, as best I can remember.

Sunshine · 07-20-2006, 10:49 AM

Problem isn't valve stems. The rims are coming apart at the welds.

melnjoy · 07-22-2006, 08:18 AM

We haven't heard anything from anyone concerning the steel wheels being bad, but Mel says it could be caused by many different things, from being factory defect to hitting something or twisting them by makeing a lot of very sharp turns, he said that even if they only have one or two that have gone bad, they should replace them all with aluminum wheels if they can.

As far as the stems are concerned, we too had a flat tire caused by the factory stems, so we immediately had all 4 replaced with Stainless Steel and have not had any problems since.

Joy

richfaa · 07-22-2006, 10:37 AM

We replaced one stem before we left. Had anothet loose 20lbs of air and are replacing all then rest of them with the steel
stems with the lock nut.Our tire guy would not use a rubber stem on a tire rated for 80PSI although the rubber stem removed from the Montana was marked High pressure 80PSI

uhftx · 10-03-2006, 09:57 AM

Well this happened to me on the way back from the fall rally.

Half way across Ohio. Front left was loosing air. Put in 30 Lbs one and a half hour later Lost 20 pounds. Stopped in Milan Ohio at the Travel RV park right off Interstate 90.

[So glad I put that 12V socket inside the refridgerator outside panel) The compressor cord is just long enough to reach the other side of the camper]

Spent the next day going to different tire dealerships.

Bridgestone said they couldn't look at it till tomorrow. (didn't want to wait that long)
Goodyear said they could get to it maybe around 4:30. (this was at 9:30AM)
Firestone said sure come back in 45 minutes. Went and took a drive over to see where Cedar Point was and came back. Sure enough the rim(wheel) was Leaking.

The guys at firestone were great and recomended Warehouse Tire in Norwalk OH off co61. They didn't have a wheel and made quite a few phone calls on my behalf. No one in the area had a replacement Wheel.

I had to put the spare on (a little rusty but was holding air) Now I'm real nervous knowing I don't have a spare tire and knowing the distance I still have to travel.

So I'm wondering where to get a replacement? If this happened to one wheel what about the remaining 4 others. Now I'm leary. The Confidence I had is no longer there.

All this talk about axles and capacity. Its not like I can just run with 3 tires on the ground if this happens again. So what do you all recommend for replacements?

My Tires are:
Am General
LT235 x 85 x 16

I'm assuming that the rims are:
6 Lug
5 1/2inch bolt circle
with a 7 inch width.
Are the rim specifications WRONG??

Any recomendations from the gang here?

noneck · 10-03-2006, 02:03 PM

Hi Chris,
What exactly failed on the wheel? It is not clear in your note...was the air leaking from a bad weld or around a rusty valve stem hole?
I have had bad experience with tire failures due to side wall cracks...learned my lesson as I later determined the side walls failed from being exposed to the sun. One side of my trailer when parked gets all the sun. Since that time have invested in wheel canvas covers.
Chuck-n-Linda

uhftx · 10-04-2006, 12:56 AM

To Clarify,

From what the firestone guys showed me its the metal near where the white spoke portion of the wheel meets the air cavity. Couldn't really get a real good look at where the air was leeking from, due to the seam there.

The spare wheel had the rust. The tire/wheel that had the leak only had rust stains on the edge where the front and rear portion of the spoke meet.

They didn't dismount the tire. If they had I wouldn't of been able to see leak with the bubble solution they applied.

I was assuming that it was a tire bead to wheel leak when I first brought it in. That is what I told them I thought it was. There is no imperfection in the tread nor sidewall. Even the guys were saying how new the tires looked. The valve stem was not the issue.

Now I still need to find a replacement at least for that one.

noneck · 10-04-2006, 02:20 AM

Hi Chris,
Not supporting this website but looks to be not too pricey item http://www.etrailerpart.com/trailerwheels.htm It sounds like your wheel failure (spoke weld to rim faulty) was a Manufacturing defect but like me...trailer way too old to expect it to be covered.
Chuck-n-Linda

LonnieB · 10-04-2006, 04:04 AM

uhftx, I don't know which direction you are traveling. If east there is a company called American Tire Distributors in Pittsburgh - 800-621-8085. They have 3 locations in Maryland, and 1 in Iowa. They sell wheels of all kinds including trailer wheels. Another is American Racing.

www.atd-us.com
www.americanracing.com

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