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Old 08-16-2015, 03:20 PM   #61
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seigell. Not sure what all that blubering was about unless they bought their tires at Dollar General or the local discount joint.MJ liked it though.
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Old 08-16-2015, 03:46 PM   #62
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Mpwelch50, I read your original post, and nothing in between. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that almost all rv's are junk, including mine. The build quality is a theme you can read in thread after thread,...post after post. Part of the reason for this is the manufacturers continuing pursuit of low weights so they can advertise it as "half ton towable".
Okay, I get that many of the parts are substandard on the day they are installed including and especially the tires which is the main point of this post. There is no one on this forum who is more diligent than me about tire pressure. I had one of the best tire gauges and used it often. I thought I would be the exception to the "chinabomb" rule...silly me. Bought a second hand Durango 3 years ago. Before I hitched up to it, I pulled all four wheels (2at a time) and had new tires installed.
Oem tires were 215-75r15D. I bought 225-75r15e's. Nope, I'll never have a blowout....not me.....silly me.
So, two years into using this trailer, I had a blowout. Sounded like someone shot a rifle behind me. It happened on a cool fall Friday night during a drizzling rain on a backroad with no shoulders, right after the local high school football game was over. Traffic was ugly, and I had no where to go. So, I did the best I could, got the tire changed and went about my trip, albeit a little on the wet side. Didn't use the trailer until the following spring, and had 2 blowouts in a row....one going to a camp out, and one returning. (I carried two spares!)
So, now three of the "still fairly new" tires have been replaced with new tires, so I go ahead and get one more to complete the set, and trade it in. (We were ready to upgrade anyway)
However, before I trade it in, I found out that my super duper Deluxe tire guage was reading high by about 15 lbs. so instead of having 80 psi, I was airing up to 65. To this day I'm not sure if that was a contributing factor,.....but I'm not sure that it wasn't either.
Anyway, the point of my longish post is to not always trust your gauges. The clues were blowing up all around me, yet, I continued to use the same old guage. I now use a NAPA digital guage, and keep a second digital guage to compare to often. I'm thinking that as long as their readings are close to each other, I'll be okay....or will I?
We enjoy our RV outings, but sometimes they are a pain in the arse....and the bank account! And I'm about to buy 4 Goodyear G614's for $1600.....sheeesh
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Old 08-16-2015, 04:13 PM   #63
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My heart aches for you as I, too, had tire miseries with my second RV, a wildcat (3 blowouts and 1 on my new rockwood. ) Its enough to discourage anyone. Have you considered trying to trade it in? RVing is pleasurable when things go right but not if you have to rebuild it every time you use it. I certainly hope things work out for you.
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Old 08-16-2015, 05:00 PM   #64
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We bought our 2012 FR Crusader 320RLT new off the lot in mid 2013.... It has been one thing after another.... I am so tired of worrying that I will be broke down on the side of the road with 2 four year olds, 2 dogs, and no cell signal... We have spent so much money replacing things on this trailer. 12 tires in less than 2 years... Hinges, doors, blinds, cords, plastic doohickeys, you name it, we have had to replace it...
They started making the 2012's mid-way through 2011 so for a 2012 to be still on the lot in 2013 means veteran shoppers passed it for a reason... However, I'm impressed that you got 10K miles on the original "China Bomb" tires before they went so something must have been right off the lot. However, the fact that the other sets are blowing so quickly means that something happened around the 10K mile mark. Maybe a bad pothole or curb misaligned or bent an axle... Don't blame your DH's driving - sometimes it's impossible to avoid potholes especially when driving through tight construction barrels... I would take it to a 3rd party trailer mechanic - guys that work on commercial landscaping trailers, flatbed trailers, etc. They are more knowledgeable, cheaper, and faster than most dealer's service departments... We had one of these guys replace a rim & although our TT was fine, he said TT axels go out of alignment easy because only a couple U bolts hold it together...

As far as everything else breaking here & there... I wouldn't let it get to you. I lost my balance & ripped a door off of a TT cabinet - something that wouldn't happen with our sturdy Amish-built cabinets at home... However, 5 minutes w/some Gorilla Glue & it's good as new... I also bent a rim (badly) last summer. I found the exact rims that PrimeTime uses for $65 each, so I bought a replacement plus an extra for the spare... I think my fridge is going... The dealer will want $1800+ to install a new one, but I found I can replace the cooling unit with an upgraded one w/5 year warranty for less than $500. Although I am pretty handy, they provide a YouTube video for folks that aren't & it seems easy-enough for anyone with a couple hours to spare...

IMO folks new to RVing are no more prepared for the cost of up-keeping their new "second home" any more than new home owners are... When we were new home owners, I never realized how much everything costs... Now, in our 2nd larger home, the costs still astound me... $6K for a new roof. $3K per year in taxes. $1K per year for DIY mulch (previous owners went crazy landscaping but it looks too nice to downsize...) $1K just for the wood to fix a fence on our property... So $65 for a rim or $400 for a good-as-new fridge w/5 year warranty doesn't seem so bad...
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Old 08-16-2015, 06:31 PM   #65
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I have had 4 FR products, a Sierra, great travel trailer, a Wildcat Sterling a POS, two Cedar Creeks, great campers. The polecat I traded, maybe someone brought it that didn't haul it down the road. If you get a bad one about the only thing you can do is trade it. The Cedar Creek I have now the tires on it are Goodyear G614 and they have TST 507 TPMS. I like to know if I have problem with the tires. I love my FR C/C but should I see another I like, that looks better or this one starts to give me problems then I'll trade it in a heartbeat.


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