Tire blew and destroyed storage box

tommymontes wrote:
I have a 2002 Winnebago Sightseer with the Ford chassis. Tire in rear on passenger side blew out last week and destroyed the exterior storage compartment. The storage compartment door is still in tact but the box itself is crumpled. I took a look in the Winnebago catalog but couldn't find anything on purchasing a new storage box. Is this something that can be purchased and bolted in as a replacement part? I'm thinking someone else had to have had a blowout before and incurred the same damage as I.

I appreciate your advice. Thanks.

~Tom

Tom,
Yep, we've had two blow-outs on our coaches. One, a class C Ford going down the front side of the Grapevine in northern LA Cal. The other, about 20 miles south of Bakersfield CA. Both did extensive damage to the wheel well compartment areas and, in the first one, it damaged the shower pan and, the fresh water tank.

Since we carry a high deductible, I did the repairs, on both rigs, myself. On the first one, the Class C, I simply cleaned up the fiberglass shower pan and, laid in more glass. It looked flawless when done. As for water tank, it was made (and some still are) of Poly Ethelene plastic. That kind of plastic can be WELDED. So, since I only have welding equipment for all steels and no plastics, I had to farm that one out. It cost me a whopping $50.00.

But, in both cases where compartments were damaged, those repairs were simple. I purchased the same gauge galvanized sheet metal, in the largest form I calculated I needed. Then, I drew out the sides, bottom and top, calculated the appropriate bends and, headed to the local sheet metal fab place. The sheared it, bent it at my bend calculations and, I headed home with all the correct sized pieces.

I put them all together with rivets. Some sealer in the joints and, it was all done for around, $150.00 and, I had a brand new compartment. I purchased some "under coating" in a can and sprayed the back sides for protection against the elements. Looked better than new when done.
Scott

Those things sure create a lot of damage when thet blow, had a left front blow on mine and what a ride. The compartment wall on mine was damaged but I repaired it with an aluminium sheet myself. On a previous Coachmen I had I went to a fabricating shop with measurements and they built me one from aluminium for around $200 that just slid into opening and I screwed it to the outside frame, worked great, I'm sure any fab shop could build you one. Good Luck with your repair.

Just for curiosity sake... how old are the tires?

Doug

we had a winnebago class c that blew out an inside dually destroying the compartment adjacent. VERY scary! RV obviously not as expensive as y'all describe, but thankfully the insurance (geico) called it an accident and paid to fix. the repairs looked pretty decent and everything worked after that and i don't have to nag DH as much to ck the tires anymore.

Parts are available from Winnebago. We had the factory service department replace the entire Storemore cabinet under the drivers side slide, and the sheet metal behind the storage cabinet doors on the passenger's side. I doubt that you'll find them in the parts manual. If you call customer service they can fax or e mail you a drawing of the cabinets. You can identify the parts you need.

In our case we didn't have to order anything because we took the motorhome to them for repairs.

Not the same PSI in the tire and the blast is smaller because the tire is smaller.

Francesca Knowles wrote:

wallynm wrote:
A half million dollar RV does not have these kinds of problems. It is the less than half million dollar RV that have this problem.

I've never figured out why the "rules" seem to be different for RV's than for cars.

If armoring a wheel well is so bleedin' expensive/difficult, why doesn't, say, a $10,000.00 Hyundai "have this problem"?

My insurance (CSAA) covered the damage from my tire blowout...$12,000.

Check with your insurance company.

Would your insurance cover your loss?

A Quarter inch thick Steel Wheel well would weigh how much?

Maybe a 16 gauge wheel well might make more sense.

In any event the stuff they use is pretty skimpy for sure!

wallynm wrote:
A half million dollar RV does not have these kinds of problems. It is the less than half million dollar RV that have this problem.

I've never figured out why the "rules" seem to be different for RV's than for cars.

If armoring a wheel well is so bleedin' expensive/difficult, why doesn't, say, a $10,000.00 Hyundai "have this problem"?