Damage From Blow Out

I was debating on where to post this.
We had a blow out yesterday. It damaged the wheel well, put a hole in the under side of the TM and punched into and out through the veneer of the cabinet beneath the stove. (I don't have an oven there) sucking various items out and onto the freeway.

Does anyone have a good repair for the hole (about the size of a fist) in the under belly of my TM? it seems to be just in aluminum skin, exposing the foam.

We will now have to do that wheel well mod. Thank goodness it was not on the plumbing side.

By the way, my new heavy duty mud flap just blew right off of there.
I am not a happy camper.
Cheri

PS
The tires were at 50 PSI. We had been driving with a completely empty trailer on cruise control at 60mph for about 4 hours and the tires are 1.5 years old.

I could not retrieve anything. I was on the freeway and 30 min from home after a weekend away. I got to view remnants of it on my way to work this morning and will likely run over some of them on my way home. But retrieve it...not likely. I drempt about it all night.
Cheri

[Bill]

Cheri -

I'm so sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, it seems that that was the standard result with the square-wheel-well TMs. The tread gets jammed up in the square corners of the wheel well and punches up through into the trailer as the rotating wheel tries to force more tread into the wad.

My guess (or my personal hope!) is that a round wheel well would have ejected the wad, and the mud flap would have deflected the flying pieces, before the plumbing or the underside of the trailer got bashed. But of course that is a hope, not a guarantee based on experience.

As for repair of the underside damage, that seems reasonably straightforward, if annoying. Trim the edges of the hole to get rid of ragged edges. Prepare a patch of aluminum flashing cut to size, hold it in place by hand, and driil it to accept rivets every couple inches along the perimeter. Squirt some expandable foam into the gap, slap the patch into place, and rivet it in place while the foam expands.

Bill

Originally Posted by Texas_Camper

Dang Cheri...
That is both very sad and very tough....I guess the tire shreds did the damage. Did you retrieve the mud flap? Was it damaged or just blown away?

While I did not identify my mud flap as I drove home tonight, (just tire parts) I checked when I got home and found that all the bolts that held it were still in place as if there never was a mud flap. It must have just blown right off of there. Maybe bigger bolt would have helped. Who knows. I have an email in to TM to see what they reccomend to patch the hole in the underbelly behind the tire. I'll share when they reply.
Cheri

Originally Posted by Bill

Cheri -
As for repair of the underside damage, that seems reasonably straightforward, if annoying. Trim the edges of the hole to get rid of ragged edges. Prepare a patch of aluminum flashing cut to size, hold it in place by hand, and driil it to accept rivets every couple inches along the perimeter. Squirt some expandable foam into the gap, slap the patch into place, and rivet it in place while the foam expands.

Bill

Thanks Bill. Tha'ts along the lines of what I figured.
I am so discouraged with trailer tires. Maybe I ran over something but there was no evidence of that. Why can't trailer tires be as safe as car tires. I don't get it.
Oh well. Thats a conversation for another topic area I guess.

Cheri

http://www.casitaclub.com/forums/ind...=0&#entry65393

[Leslie & Nick]

Originally Posted by 2bcs1jrt

Thanks Bill. Tha'ts along the lines of what I figured.
I am so discouraged with trailer tires. Maybe I ran over something but there was no evidence of that. Why can't trailer tires be as safe as car tires. I don't get it.
Cheri

Cheri,
Sorry to hear about your tire mishap, and glad there was no other major damage. I think I remember reading here that you did get new tires a while ago. Not that it makes a difference, but what brand of tires did you get for the TM back then?

I'm in agreement with you regarding trailer tires. Based on what I've read, there seem to be a disproportionately high number of trailer tire failures versus the millions more used for passenger vehicles. The Goodyear Marathon tires on my TM are almost 6 years old so I want to replace them, but I'm still in a quandry with what I should replace them with.

Nick

My tires are 1.5 yrs old. Big O had to order them and came up with a brand called Titan. They were $80 each. I found out that essentially, they are are Goodyear as are most trailer tires even if sold under a different name.
Cheri

I bought my TM used a couple of years ago and need to do the wheel well modification before I have a blow out. I have two questions:

1. I can't seem to be about to find the message that show how to do the mod. Does anyone know where it is?

2. Has anyone ever modified the wheel wells on a 3326 with the dual axle?

I did replace my tires right after I bought the TM so they are only two years old.

Thanks
Dave

[Bill]

At one time, Hal Swanson ("Hal") had a writeup on it. This is the kind of thing we would like to put in the TM Reference Library (TM Info You Won't Find Anywhere Else), so Hal, if you would like to send me a procedure, I'll make sure it happens just like we did your last contribution.

Bill