The steel fender liners are kind of a cost/ benefit decision.
Basically, less than 0.001% of TT & 5th wheel trailers ever suffer a blowout and damage from that shredded tire. For every blowout/ damage you hear about ten thousand people have no issues.
But the cost of adding steel fender liners would likely add $1,000 to the cost of rig new, and likely cost you a couple hundred pounds of carry/cargo weight capacity.
Sandia Man wrote:
Open Range aka Highland Ridge has these mounted above their tires on the majority of their product lines, I would believe there are a few other manufacturers that do the same.
Hard to say if it will mitigate 100 percent of the possible damage that occurs from a catastrophic tire blowout, it should at least help minimize overall destruction when such an event occurs.
Friend had a tread separation on his Open Range Mesa Ridge 316. $3,200 damage from the tread flapping and tearing completely off the fender liner, damage to some of the exterior fiberglass and some wiring for the slide. But the alligator did not penetrate the underbelly or the cabin.
Since the tire never lost pressure, the TPMS did not alert. They did hear something strange and got stopped and off the road when it was safe.
Important thing they did - when the heard the strange noise, they were on a two land road with no shoulders - so they had to drive about 2 miles at 15-20 mph to get to a safe area to check the rig.
That might have caused more damage, but the alligator was found back near where they first heard the noise. Either way, it was a lot less damage than having another vehicle plow into the back of a stopped 5er.
