Our exceptional good luck, since we bought our coach, continues to hold. We had a wheel fail on our tow dolly, but it could not have happened at a better time. Must be all those years of living right...
We left Q and went to visit relatives in Ventura, CA. They have a spot out front of their house where we can park, so we did. Woke up the first morning after we got there, and I find a flat tire on the tow dolly. It was OK when we arrived, so it went down overnight. Got out my jack and tools, removed the wheel, aired it up and used a water hose to check for leaks. None found...in the tire. My brother-in-law suggests maybe the valve stem? Ran water there - it's OK - but we hear air bubbling (loudly) through the water. FInally discovered the air is leaking from a spot where the center section of the wheel is joined to the rim. There are welds at the union of the two steel wheel sections on the back side, but the air is coming out the junction on the front side. HMMMmmmmm...
Called Demco (tow dolly manufacturer), the customer service guy says this is a "known problem" with the Carlisle chrome wheel. Demco bought the wheels and tires together from Carlisle when they built my dolly (2014). Don't know if they still use the same supplier...hope not. Anyway, he referred me to Carlisle customer service - said they'd take care of me. In case any other Forum member ever has this same problem, here is the contact info:
Ms. Sandra Waters
sandra.waters@carlstargroup.com
I emailed Ms. Waters, and a half hour later she called me! Said "Sorry you had trouble...blah, blah...how can we help"? I said a new wheel would be nice. She says "No problem - we'll ship one out - should take about a week". This in spite of the fact the wheel/tire was 2 years old and any warrantee long expired. I said wait until we get home, I'll call you, then you can ship it. So I guess that is pretty good customer service, and about all I could ask of them in this situation.
I carry a brand new spare wheel and tire that I bought with the dolly. Same chrome wheel. I put it on, which gets us back in operating condition. My brother-in-law knows a shop nearby that "does everything", so we took the wheel over and let them look at it. They have seen this before. First we looked in their catalogs for a replacement trailer wheel, but couldn't find anything with the correct "offset". Then the guy says he could demount the tire, and try to weld the wheel from the inside of the rim. I figure nothing to loose, so that's the plan. Waiting this morning to hear if he had any luck.
SO, I just wanted to bring this problem to the attention of the members, especially those who have a Kar Kaddy SS. I have resisted, up to now, installing tire pressure monitors, but I suppose this particular failure is a perfect argument for their fitment. If we'd been driving when the wheel failed and lost pressure, it could have been nasty. I will now think hard about TPMS, especially for the dolly and rear towd wheels.
I'll post again when I hear from the tire shop about their repair attempt.
I love hearing about good customer service.
Welding repair of the hole in the wheel was seemingly successful. For $20, it is holding air. We will use it as our spare wheel on the trip home, then replace it with the new wheel when I receive it. All problems should be this easy to fix!
Glad to hear you made it to Ventura Chuck. Sorry for the additional issue, but sounds like customer service will take care of it.
There's 14 at the Q now (5 more new ones). Hope to see you here next year!
The "Other" Chuck
I can see it now a Demco dolly with 4 spare tires mounted on it !
Have a safe trip back home we need all the Texans we can get,
Carter-
Thanks, I'm going to check my welds. I think I may have had a very small leak.
We're leaving Ventura Monday morning (30th) and retrace our route back to Q. We'll stop over there at the Gathering spot for a night or two, before we head back to TX. Glad to hear there is still a Forum contingent present...save us a spot!
Chuck, you don't want to travel across the San Fernando Valley on the 101 until after 10AM unless you don't mind gridlock.
Thanx for the tip! In spite of our best efforts, we hardly ever get on the road before 10AM, so we should be OK.