Community Forums

AkTrek · 12-03-2006, 09:02 AM

During some chassis modifications (will post details later) Dick at Precision Frame and Alignment in Elk River, Mn noted that our tires were manufactured in 2004 and suggested that we contact Workhorse concerning putting two year old tires on a new '07 W20 Chassis. There are many good posts here on tire safety and a few (DriVer included) recommend new tires after 5 or more years from the DOT stamp have passed. Not only do we not know how these tires were stored before we got them (outside, on concrete, in the sun?) but we have lost at least 35% of their projected lifetime of use. What is the procedure we should go about using to correct this problem? FMCA hasn't sent our member id number yet so we have not been able to join the Workhorse Owners Club. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!(reposting this in the correct forum this time!)

AkTrek · 12-03-2006, 09:02 AM

During some chassis modifications (will post details later) Dick at Precision Frame and Alignment in Elk River, Mn noted that our tires were manufactured in 2004 and suggested that we contact Workhorse concerning putting two year old tires on a new '07 W20 Chassis. There are many good posts here on tire safety and a few (DriVer included) recommend new tires after 5 or more years from the DOT stamp have passed. Not only do we not know how these tires were stored before we got them (outside, on concrete, in the sun?) but we have lost at least 35% of their projected lifetime of use. What is the procedure we should go about using to correct this problem? FMCA hasn't sent our member id number yet so we have not been able to join the Workhorse Owners Club. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!(reposting this in the correct forum this time!)

Jack Foster · 12-03-2006, 10:09 AM

Denny

What year is your Workhorse chassis? I have a 2004 Mountain Aire, but my Workhorse is a 2003. It's possible that trek had the chassis for a period of time before they built the house on it. I think the 10th digit on the vin tells you what year chassis it is. If the chassis is a 2006 it sounds like Workhorse used old tires. If it's older than that it might indicate that Trek didn't build on the chassis for awhile after they got it from Workhorse. Whether it's Workhorse or Trek I would sure do some complaining to one or both of them because you shouldn't get a new motorhome with two year old tires. I would start with Trek customer service (your dealer) and if you don't get the answers you want, contact Workhorse customer service. Workhorse is the company that actually installs the tires. It's just a question as to when Trek received the chassis and what year it actually is. You don't need to be a member of FMCA to use Workhorse customer service by the way.

As an aside, Dick has done a number of suspension modifications on my W-22 Mountain Aire. (See below) He's great to work with, isn't he?

Jack

**Petro** · 12-03-2006, 11:31 AM

Denny;

I have a 03 Chieftain, the chassis is 02, and the tires were mfg 01. My tires likewise were 2 years old before it hit the dealership. I am not happy also, but I purchased it used and that is it.

Don

DriVer · 12-03-2006, 02:51 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by AkTrek:
Mn noted that our tires were manufactured in 2004 and suggested that we contact Workhorse concerning putting two year old tires on a new '07 W20 Chassis. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>AKTrek, Two questions if you please, What is the 10th digit in your VIN# from L to R and what is the DOT date code on the tires that you can see? The DOT code contains 4 numbers.

GLTaylor · 12-03-2006, 04:46 PM

I have a new 06 Voyage on the W 22 and at the present have 1350 miles on it and it was purchased in July of this year. That was something I would not have though about but I will check the date stamp on the tires tommorrow. I complained about the batteries that were in the coach and they replaced them. They were repeatly allowed to run down and only recharged when someone ran the coach on a test drive. Thanks for the sugestion as I will surely complain. If you get a new house I too agree that they should prorate the tires if they were that old even if not used. Thanks again I'll keep you all informed of the outcome.

AkTrek · 12-03-2006, 05:41 PM

Our coach is a 2007 and the 10th digit in the vin is 6. The DOT numbers are 4104. This means October of '04, right? You guys are awesome! For the record, we are strong Workhorse supporters as this is number two for us.

FreshAir · 12-03-2006, 05:48 PM

This week I talked with Work Horse on another issue and they had me check the 10th digit of the chassis number to see when the chassis was built. They build the chassis and then sell it to the box, body, builder. IE, Work Horse sells an 03 W22 to Fleetwood, whoever, in 03 and Fleetwood doesn't use the chassis untill 05. It's not uncommon to see a 2 or 3 year old chassis on a new MH, I was told. Until this thread I never thought about tire age and would think Work Horse has no control over the age of the tire on a new Rig. Very interesting thread.
Pat

Jack Foster · 12-04-2006, 01:20 AM

Denny & Nancy

Please let us know how this all comes out. I'm sure there are many people who will be interested in the resolution.

Thanks

Jack

Bob (WA0MQE) · 12-04-2006, 03:03 AM

If you ever visit a motorhome manufacturers factory you will typically see uncovered bare chassis' sitting out in the open for months and even years at a time waiting to have a coach body built on them.

This is why if one is purchasing a new coach from a dealer they should look at the details including the VIN # to determine when a chassis was built as well a inspect the underneath chassis closely. I've seen chassis that were completely rusted underneath due to lengthy stays out in the elements.

DriVer · 12-04-2006, 05:05 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by AkTrek: </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Just to let you know I'm working on this.

AkTrek · 12-13-2006, 09:02 AM

Well,... Life just gets more interesting!
Traveling down I-10 last Friday we had a 'little incident' at about 65-mph. Somewhere in front of us a 16" trailer tire broke off a trailers hub. It rolled across three lanes of traffic to hit us under our front right cap and lodged itself under our front end.

I'm not sure how we made it to the side of the road without loosing control or getting hit but we did. The tire, wheel and hub had wedged itself under the frame next to our leveling jack and was unmovable. Good Sam ER was there within an hour and lifted our coach up enough to remove the tire and helped us to inspect the damage to see if we were OK to travel a short distance. The front right tire had extensive damage but was holding air and we decided to limp it the 1/2 mile to local Wal-Mart. After parking and unhooking our toad, we visited three local tire shops and got roughly the same story (sorry, no Michelin XRV 19.5 in stock and we can't find any) we finally found a commercial tire business that tracked one down and could have it to us here in Colton, California in three days.
Long story short, we now have a new Michelin XRV replacing our damaged one and have a matched set all around. REALLY Matched! After mounting and balancing we checked the date stamp and it says ...(drumroll please)... 1404! So our new one is actually older than our original ones!

Our RV Park is only 7 miles from Keith and KC of Redlands Truck Service and they've already started on re-aligning our Trek's front end. They will finish up on Thursday when they get the new full length tie rod in to replace our bent one. We THINK we may get the Safety Plus installed at the same time. Really liked the capabilities of the TruCenter but the new model hasn't hit the market yet and the SafetyPlus has been around for a while and seems to be fairly well liked. After this I-10 experience we really would like a steering stabilizer on this rig for safety considerations. We have had the SteerSafe on our last two coaches and LOVED it's self centering capabilities and, as I am a left arm amputee, this self-centering is VERY important to us. I believe all the steering stabilizers on the market do a great job of control in the event of a blowout but which one has the best centering specs? DriVer, I believe you now have the SafetyPlus but are planning on a change to the TruCenter? What's your input?

bowats · 12-13-2006, 10:34 AM

We have an 04' chassis with 04' tires. Lucked out I'd say.

DriVer · 12-13-2006, 11:42 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by AkTrek:
DriVer, I believe you now have the Safe-T-Plus but are planning on a change to the TruCenter? What's your input? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Well .. about that let me ay this. The new TruCenter has not hit the streets yet so my using the TC is on hold for the moment.

I do like to try new stuff so I can post all my test data here in the forum.