Did my own repair after tire blowout damage

We bought our Ashland last December but did not get a chance to use it till Mother Day weekend. We went to see my Mother In Law in Roswell, NM and stayed at Bottomless Lake State Park. When we got there we found out we had a blow out on the door side front tire. It tore up the wheel well and the fenders, running light and all the brackets were gone. I also lost my ground connection for the running lights from that location on back to the rear. When I checked with the dealer and the local repair shop they quoted me a few thousand dollars but worse the repair would take many weeks. Last time they said weeks it turned into 2 months. Decided to do the repairs myself so called Heartland parts and also contacted Ron Scarberry out of Heartland Service. Ron gave me a list of parts to order and it took a couple of weeks to get the parts. Total cost was about $397.47 but that included a $149.93 shipping charge for the package was 14 feet long. I removed all the mangled side metal and then started rebuilding the inside of the wheel well. All the parts fit fine but you get a generic piece of side metal that is 14 feet long and has the curve on the bottom. I used the mangled metal as a template and had to cut each panel out by hand. Really was not that hard. Total time to do repairs was 3.5 hours and I am not done for I still need to repaint. The paint is on order and will complete when we get back from taking the boys to Disneyworld.

Here are the pictures.//heartlandowners.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=37439&stc=1//heartlandowners.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=37441&stc=1//heartlandowners.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=37440&stc=1

When I complete the paint and touch up will post the final pictures.

Fred, if that was a Goodyear tire that blew out, I have read elsewhere on this forum that they are pretty good about picking up the damages caused by a failure of their tire.

Fred,
Have you submitted a claim with Goodyear? When we had a blowout last October Goodyear paid for all our parts, we also did the the work ourselves, though our damage wasn't as bad as yours, hate putting the trailer in a shop if I don't have too.
Vince

pegmikef said:

Fred, if that was a Goodyear tire that blew out, I have read elsewhere on this forum that they are pretty good about picking up the damages caused by a failure of their tire.

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The tire blew because the rim had a very large dent in it. It was dusk when we believe the tire blew and it looks like some major road debris hit the tire and rim. Not sure if Goodyear would cover that but thanks for the advise for if another one blows out I will see if I can get reimbursed by Goodyear.

Fred, your situation is THE definition of a "road hazard". Definitely give GY a call.

Sorry about your damage, but congrats on the good looking repair. Quality work!

From previous experience. Your motor vehicle insurance will pay (minus the deductible) to cover the damage. I have had the same damage on our previous Landmark (repaired myself also) but Goodyear reimbursed me for the damage and got us a new tire. But if the damage was due to hitting a pot hole Goodyear would not cover that unless you had road hazard coverage on your tire. But your truck insurance should cover it. Check with you insurance agent. We have had claims both with Goodyear and with our vehicle insurance on different occasions. Also check with TASCO Inc or another auto paint company and they can match the paint and then you can take the J-wrap (sheet metal) to a body shop and they will paint it. Good luck. BTW did you have a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)? If not you might want to invest in one. It would notify you of a tire failure (sometimes after the fact). We have the TST System and love it.

Sorry about your misfortune and nice job of repairing it. I didn't see it mentioned above, but if you drove for a while with a blow-out, I would definitely replace both tires on that side of the rig. Trace

Very nice repair.