Where do I look?

[Bwana]

It seems that somehow the lug nuts came loose on one of my camper tires during this year's inaugural outing so now instead of being parked in my yard, my camper is sitting 60 miles away at one of the ranches we turkey hunted on last weekend. I need to replace the lug bolts, lug nuts, and the rim but am having difficulty locating a 15" 6-hole rim for a 2002 Keystone Sprinter.

Any of you folks on here have any ideas as to where I could locate a replacement rim?

So far my searches have all proved fruitless.

[Thumper]

It's most likely an aftermarket wheel for a light truck ... but may be exclusive to the RV market, who knows? I'd think the first place to check would be Keystone.

Keystone RV Company
Customer Service
2425 Davis Drive
PO Box 2000
Goshen, IN 46527-2000
Phone (toll free): (866) 425-4369

Maybe they'll be honest with you and tell you who the manufacturer is and what they interchange with ... but they'll most likely give you the number for one of their parts/service dealers for a replacement wheel. If you can get the bolt pattern and offset, you could probably match it if you want to go through the hassle.

[Thumper]

BTW ... most ALL trailer manufacturers will suggest checking lug nut tightness every X-amount of miles. If there's any flex at all in the wheel, it'll loosen lug nuts. Not many people follow that advice (including myself) ... but it's a common suggestion on trailers (and vehicles for that matter).

[BarryBobPosthole]

Wow. ALL of them? I've had one or two come loose on a boat trailer that was pretty much at its upper limits weight wise, but to have all of the, work loose at once is pretty rare I'd think.

BKB

[Bwana]

Not sure what started the whole process but in the end two lug bolts had snapped, the lug holes on the rim were oversized, and of the remaining four lug nuts only one required a wrench to remove.

[Thumper]

It only takes one Posty. A loose lug will allow the wheel to "flex" or move around a tad and eventually loosen all of them. It'll then wallow out the holes on the wheel and strip the threads on the lug bolts ... then if you let it go long enough, eventually the center of the wheel will break apart, or the lug bolts will break, or the nuts simply fall off and the wheel goes with them.

[Thumper]

Opps, I kinda repeated what Bwana said happened.

[Nandy]

Bwana, it might be cheaper to buy the tire and rim. It has been my experience anyway. Walmart might have your tire, Northern Tools has a good selection of trailer tires. As a word of caution, do not use automotive tires, they are not built the same and flex way more.
Etrailer usually has real good price on tires with rims.
http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Tire...c-15_Inch.aspx

Good luck!

[Thumper]

Yep, the tire/wheel combo already mounted is usually the cheapest way to go. Nandy, I think what the hang-up will be is to be able to match the other wheels on the trailer. I doubt he'd want to go the ghetto route with mismatched wheels on a nice looking camper. That site you posted has quite a nice selection.

If they're just the basic spoked trailer wheels, Wally World, Northern Tool or Tractor Supply may have a match. I'd say to start with Keystone and see if they'll shoot straight with him on where to find the best deal.

[Nandy]

Unless he has done something different all those trailers come with the regular white or white/strip wheel. At any rate, seems he has to buy 2 since he does not have a spare, so he can buy a pair that match and use the tire that dont match as the spare tire.

[Thumper]

I'm not positive, but I believe he has tandem axels (4 wheels).

[BarryBobPosthole]

Man, that sounds like a pain in the old proverbial ass. Glad you figured it out while you weren't under way! That could be dangerous. We've had enough trailer fun with our membership for all of our lifetimes with Archer's boat passing him on the highway and Johnboy doing endos on the road pulling his big trailer.

BKB

[Thumper]

You forgot Bucky and his non-greased wheel bearings.

[Thumper]

Time for a Thump story.

One weekend I went up with a buddy of mine to his Georgia house/deer camp. We rode with a buddy of his who had one of those huge ass Fords (250 or 350). It was a diesel and we hauled a trailer with us that had our 4-wheelers loaded on it, along with all our gear and a couple big ice chests to haul all the beer up there ... and all the meat back! On the way back home on Sunday, the truck's owner asked my buddy if he wanted to drive back, which he did. We hit the road and he's one of those "peddle to the metal" type guys, so we hauled ass! We'd been on the open road for quite a while (2-lane county highway) and finally came to a small town where we stopped at a redlight. As we left the light, my buddy made a comment to the truck's owner that his truck ran like a bat out'ta Hell once it got rolling, but it was pretty sluggish from a stop with that loaded trailer back there.

That's when the owner glanced in the mirror outside his door and said, "Damn Eddie ... PULL THIS THING OVER!!" We got out and the trailer had lost a wheel/tire and we were dragging one side with just the hub grinding into the street! There was a deep gouge in the asphalt that stretched as far behind us as we could see! Some old timer came by and stopped, so we asked if he knew anyplace in town where we could get the trailer repaired. He said it's Sunday and everything is closed, but there's a farm house a couple miles back and the old guy there could maybe fix it. We made a u-turn, dragged the trailer back to the farm house and there was an old dude sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair sipping on a glass of iced tea. We told him of our problem and he said he already knew and he'd been waiting for us. He told us he and the wife had just walked out in the driveway when we flew by, sparks a'flyin'! He told his wife to go on to church as he'd probably need to stay behind and work on those city-slicker's trailer!

We dropped the trailer back by his shop/barn and decided to follow the gouge in the highway to find where we'd lost the wheel. We followed that dang gouge for something like 10 frigging miles!!! When the mark stopped, we started hunting for the tire. We saw where it jumped the ditch, bounced off the other side and disappeared into a large peanut field. Somehow, we managed to find it and hauled it back to the farm house. He had already done a bit of welding, replaced the hub/bearing assy. and had that trailer ready to mount the wheel. He said we were lucky because he happened to have all the parts he needed, EXCEPT a wheel and tire! He bolted on the tire, we paid him what he wanted (very reasonable as he said it was all used parts!) and we headed on our way. As far as I know, that hub is still on that trailer.

[Bwana]

Thanks for the link Nandy but no match for the ones on my camper. It's looking like I might end up having to buy two rims so things match up on that side though MAYBE my spare is a match. I'll have to check when I get back to the ranch.

Thanks to everyone else for their advice.

Thumper is right in that there are two tires on each side of the camper but even so I am REALLY glad I noticed things before we left as 25 of the 60 miles I had to go to get home are winding, hilly gravel roads and dropping a tire on that stretch would NOT have been good!

[Nandy]

Lets hope the spare matches!!!!