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12-22-2022, 10:08 PM
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#21
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Member
Join Date: May 2020
Location: DePere, WI
Posts: 55
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Cheap Rubber Valve Stems
I had similar problem. Forest River really screws us. We pay big bucks for a RV and they supply crappy rubber valve stems. And they are so short we have to put extenders on so we can check air pressure, and add air. Eventually the flex of the rubber stem causes leaks. Yup, usually when you are far from a tire shop.
The tire shop I limped into told me to get rid of the valve extenders. When I said I couldn't check the air pressure without the extenders, he said "that's because you have cheap wheels". Thanks for all the help, bud. He didn't have steel valve stems so I had to let him install another crappy rubber valve stem.
So I found a rubber gromet type thing you slide over the valve extender. The gromet seats in the hole in the wheel, thus preventing the valve extender from flexing. This should help, but the real fix is to install steel valve stems.
I thought about getting steel stems installed when I got back home but my friendly local tire shop wanted something like $80 per wheel to install them.
I'll make the change when I buy new tires. I carry a set of steel valve stems in my tool box so if I have another rubber one fail before I get new tires I can at least have the tire shop install a steel stem.
This whole situation is a statement on how the MotorHome supplier screws us, and how tire shops don't help out. Scum bags.
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12-22-2022, 11:20 PM
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#22
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Site Team
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Northeast Louisiana
Posts: 33,960
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Niels Jensen
This whole situation is a statement on how the MotorHome supplier screws us, and how tire shops don't help out. Scum bags.
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Just a FYI: A motorhome chassis will usually come with the tire/wheels already installed and then FR will put the box on it. If you still have your Sunseeker MBS, then Mercedes Benz provided the wheels/tires on their chassis. 
https://www.mbvans.com/en/vehicles/b...er/cab-chassis
__________________
 2011 Flagstaff 831 RLBSS
A 72 hour hold in a psych unit is beginning to intrigue me as a potential vacation opportunity.
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12-23-2022, 08:50 AM
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#23
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Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 13
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Thanks
Again thanks to everyone who has been posting.
Seems to be a more common problem than I thought.
A lot of great information.
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12-23-2022, 03:04 PM
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#24
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Fla5er
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: DeLand, Florida
Posts: 199
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Tireman9: Thank you for the information on metal tire stems! I visited your blog and found it informative.
The missing piece of information I need is this: Will these metal tire stems fit the standard wheel on my '05 GMC 2500HD Diesel? Or would I need to buy another type of wheel. Since I'm not a tire professional, I do not know the diameter of the hole for the standard wheel, and therefore don't know which metal stems to buy/install.
Thanks again for your blog. Good information!
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12-23-2022, 04:34 PM
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#25
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Member
Join Date: May 2020
Location: DePere, WI
Posts: 55
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Valve Stem Problems
You are correct that FR buys the Sprinter chassis from Mercedes, and it includes the wheels. I'm not sure if Mercedes supplies the tires. I don't think they do. But even if Mercedes supplies the tires, and in that case the valve stems, FR has the responsiblilty to provide the customer with a good product, and in this case good valve stems.
For example, if you buy a house and the floor joists warp, the builder can't push you off by saying its the lumber company's fault. The builder should buy good product. So I blame Forest River for using crap valve stems.
Of course, we all have our motor homes and need to fix the problem. I appreciate the tips on Borg Metal Stems, also Bolt-in Stems from O'Reilly. I have metal stems that I bought from Amazon in my took kit, but maybe the Borg or Bolt-in are better. I sure don't want to be caught out in nowhere with tire problems!!
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12-23-2022, 04:46 PM
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#26
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2012 Solera
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 1,824
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As I commented above (post #4 in this thread), at least on my 2012 most metal bolt-in stems won’t work with the factory Mercedes rims. Valve hole is in a fairly narrow “countersink” portion of the rim which is too narrow for the nut on the stem to be properly installed. Aftermarket companies do now offer metal bolt-in stems that fit these rims.
Don’t know if more recent Mercedes rims are different and more compatible with bolt-in stems.
__________________
JLeising
2012 Solera "S"
Calif SF Bay Area
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12-23-2022, 04:58 PM
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#27
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Site Team
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Northeast Louisiana
Posts: 33,960
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Niels Jensen
You are correct that FR buys the Sprinter chassis from Mercedes, and it includes the wheels. I'm not sure if Mercedes supplies the tires. I don't think they do. But even if Mercedes supplies the tires, and in that case the valve stems, FR has the responsiblilty to provide the customer with a good product, and in this case good valve stems.
For example, if you buy a house and the floor joists warp, the builder can't push you off by saying its the lumber company's fault. The builder should buy good product. So I blame Forest River for using crap valve stems.
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To accept your logic in the last sentence....since it is actually Mercedes Benz that has these valve stems installed on their wheels/tires and chassis when FR purchases the product from them......then FR should not buy these chassis from Mercedes with their bad valve stems.
FR in these cases does not "use" valve stems, they buy a chassis with the wheels and tires already installed back at the Mercedes Benz factory. So FR needs to tell Mercedes to quit 'using' such.
However, since Ford, Ram, GM also use these same type stems on many of their duallys...it is an industry standard.
__________________
2011 Flagstaff 831 RLBSS
A 72 hour hold in a psych unit is beginning to intrigue me as a potential vacation opportunity.
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12-25-2022, 12:43 PM
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#28
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Commercial Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Bristol, IN
Posts: 19,005
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I'm not sure why someone would assume MB supplies the wheels and not the tires.
Mercedes-Benz supplies the wheels and tires and valve stems. We have no options on the matter. ONCE we start messing with their stuff, the liability then falls on Forest River for their chassis, so we try not to mess with anything they provide...and we try not to mess with taking their tires off of their wheels.
having said that, TPMS has been widely requested as well as aluminum wheels. Since Aluminum wheels save us weight and the option uptake was about 75%....we went ahead and made them standard.
So starting a year or two ago, aluminum wheels became standard. Since we were already breaking the wheel and tire down, we put on banded TPMS (made that standard) along with longer metal valve stems.
Nothing is free...so the base price was increased to cover the cost of these items.
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12-26-2022, 06:08 PM
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#29
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Upstate (Albany Area) NY
Posts: 832
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They may be expensive, but the best supplier of top quality valve stem extenders that i've found is YourTireShopSupply.com. They are recommended by TST Technologies for use with their external TPMS sensors.
https://yourtireshopsupply.com/produ...stems-dl1ftcfr
__________________
Fire Instructor
2022 Coachmen Leprechaun 319MB
2022 Ford Ranger toad
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12-26-2022, 06:11 PM
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#30
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 4,330
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire Instructor
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Thanks for the link. Good to know. For the OP of this thread, they’d want the Sprinter page: https://yourtireshopsupply.com/categ...sprinter-class
__________________
2020 Sunseeker 2440DS on 2019 Ford E-450, Trekker cap, Topaz paint
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