Damage From Blow Out

[Joe]

Bill,
Here are the instructions; 2 pages in PDF format.
This is the first time I've done this so if it doesn't work, let me know.

[Joe]

Rick Newcomb took pictures when he fixed his. See them at
http://home.comcast.net/~trailmanor/whlwell.htm

[Bill]

Joe from Virginia posted

Bill,
Here are the instructions; 2 pages in PDF format.

and

Rick Newcomb took pictures when he fixed his.

Joe -

Thanks for both pieces of info. I have put them in the TM Reference Library as promised.

Bill

Thanks for the info. I need to get this done before I have a blowout.

Dave

This is off then subject here, but in both Bill's & Joe's wheel well pictures I see a A/C drainage hose between the tire and the TM in the wheel well. I don't see this drainage hose in my 2004 3023. Does anyone know where this hose is on the 3023? We haven't used the A/C very often but when we do the condensate runs off the roof close to the door. Thank you for any help you can give on this matter.

John & Marion

Originally Posted by Texas_Camper

Dang Cheri...
Did you retrieve the mud flap? Was it damaged or just blown away?
...

I retrieved my mud flap from the freeway yesterday. It was in good shape. Apparently the force stretched the holes over the nut heads and that's how it came off. Id say that using big washers would have helped avoid this and likewise would have avoided or lessened the damage to the underside of the trailer.
Cheri

[Bill]

Ouch! I agree that the big washers (fender washers) noted in my post on mud flaps would have helped. Better yet, a strip of solid metal across the width of the flap would have duplicated the way the flaps are mounted on 18-wheelers. Now THAT is a serious mounting! I admit I didn't do the latter, but I think the fender washers would have prevented the stretch-over that you described. Whether that would have prevented the damage is another question, of course.

If anyone else has installed mud flaps with small washers or no washers, it would be worthwhile to go back and improve the installation.

Thanks for the update, Cheri. It is valuable to all of us.

Bill

[B_and_D]

Cheri - sorry to hear about your blowout. They can cause quite a bit of damage underneath. When we had our blowout we had a hole about the size you described to the rear of the wheel well on the same side as you did (luckily we had done the wheel well mod and the wheel well didn't get hurt much, just got kind of banged up). I went to OSH and bought a small piece of sheet metal, cut it to size with some sheet metal shears, plugged up the hole above the level of the sheet metal with some spray foam, and then (can't remember now) either used the pop riveter to attach it or sheet metal screws. The pop riveter was interesting for me, I'd never heard of or used one before doing the ww mod.

Ours was on the way home too, and on a really hot day after traveling for a long while. At least we didn't have our cat with us on that trip.

I'm wondering if a pop riveter might be worth owning rather than renting. It seems to be something needed frequently when repairing the TM

The good news was that there was no loss of control. DH pulled off with no handling issues. That was pretty amazing.

The other good news is it wasn't on the plumbing side!
Cheri

[Bill]

Cheri -

You can buy a pop rivet kit (the tool plus a bunch of rivets and backer washers) at any hardware store. Definitely worth having. At the same time you buy it, get an assortment of rivet lengths (whatever the kit doesn't have) in both aluminum and steel.

Bill