Wheel covers

[604eholston]

My Winnebago Era came with chrome generic wheel covers. They looked OK but I soon found checking the air pressure in the tires was difficult if not impossible. I had a local tire shop install some valve stem extensions which really didn't work well either and I was concerned about the integrity of the air pressure. I found, after a cross country trip that I had a serious alignment problem so I had that fixed. After rotating the tires one of the covers was not reinstalled securely and was lost somewhere on the subsequent trip. Later a valve stem defect necessitated removal of another wheel, this time one of the duallys. Again the cover was not secured properly and this wheel cover was lost going down the interstate.
Enough background, I am seriously considering replacing all four exposed wheels with Alcoa dura-bright cast aluminum wheels with the appropriate accessories. I think further investment in wheel covers is asking for more of this fiasco, and jeopardizing maintaining proper tire inflation. I am pretty anal about checking tire pressures.
I would appreciate any thoughts about my plan.

[BigSkyBob]

The purchase of Alcoa aluminum wheels is an excellent investment considering the issues you've experienced with your wheel covers. I polish my Alcoa wheels once a year and they always look great.

[EShuler]

Originally Posted by 604eholston

My Winnebago Era came with chrome generic wheel covers. They looked OK but I soon found checking the air pressure in the tires was difficult if not impossible. I had a local tire shop install some valve stem extensions which really didn't work well either and I was concerned about the integrity of the air pressure. I found, after a cross country trip that I had a serious alignment problem so I had that fixed. After rotating the tires one of the covers was not reinstalled securely and was lost somewhere on the subsequent trip. Later a valve stem defect necessitated removal of another wheel, this time one of the duallys. Again the cover was not secured properly and this wheel cover was lost going down the interstate.
Enough background, I am seriously considering replacing all four exposed wheels with Alcoa dura-bright cast aluminum wheels with the appropriate accessories. I think further investment in wheel covers is asking for more of this fiasco, and jeopardizing maintaining proper tire inflation. I am pretty anal about checking tire pressures.
I would appreciate any thoughts about my plan.

We lost a wheel cover on a trip also. It has been suggested that I zip tie the covers to the wheels. I now carry a bag of long zip ties with me.

[SSTraveler]

You can get wheel cover/Simulator replacements on ebay from $70-90, https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...a3dfaffff84749, and use heavy duty cable ties, https://www.amazon.com/BuyCableTies-...uty+cable+ties, and you will end any future problems.

[eestork]

I have heard stories of the rear covers on my dually 24 foot sprinter/slideout losing lots of covers. The first thing I did was take them off and store. The second was to zip tie in 2 places the fronts which is easy. This looks fine.

[604eholston]

Well, today had local tire shop mount my new Alcoa forged aliminum wheels, wow! They sure look nice. Had them balanced with beads instead of clamping weights on the beautiful rims.
Trade in value just went up.

[604eholston]

And, I forgot to mention, NO valve stem extensions. These wheels come with metal valve stems that extend to accessible positions and the inner rear wheel stem comes with a stem stabilizer that fits very snugly into the hand hole in the outer wheel. The outer rear wheel stem is almost "U" shaped so dual footed truck style gauge may not be necessary. I think that these valve stems will make mounting sensors for a TPMS on then very feasible.

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by 604eholston

Trade in value just went up.

Probably not in actuality. I did the same with our '02 DSDP, didn't add 1¢ to the value.