Heavy duty skid wheels

[BruteForce]

With all the strange terrains we encounter, we're thinking about adding these to the rear of our rig:



This would prevent any impact of the 5th wheel on imperfect roads. The question is, where to put them? Do I remove the feet on the rear stabilizer legs? I don't see many other structural locations in the rear of our RW to put these.

 

[jbeletti]

If the bottom flat of the I-beams are visible at the back of the coach, I would say that is the best place - behind the electric stabilizers. Consider all steel wheels/bracketry. You may even need to have a spacer between the frame bottom and the wheel plate.

On my last unit, we had these triangle shaped brackets welded to the bottom of the I-beam all the way to the end. The bottom corner of the triangle the pointed down at the ground was rounded. They were really heavy-duty. Then the sides of the triangle were drilled as they were the brackets for the bike rack receiver hitch.

Anyway, they served me well once, going into a gas station with a hugely steep approach. They scraped the blacktop pretty good. One corner of one of the stabilizer feet scraped a bit too. Anyway, the brackets acted as skid plates and saved the day for me.

Disclaimer (sorry): The ideas above are my own, based on personal experience or observation - they are not recommendations of Heartland RVs.

Jim

 

[BruteForce]

Upon inspection, the only I-beam available is currently supporting the rear stabilizing legs. Behind that, there's really nothing solid/structural. All other surfaces are higher up than the legs. Other than welding these things on the very corner of the RW, I'm puzzled as to where to locate these.

My RV parking space at home is uphill and we're at risk of dragging the rear end. To date, we've placed boards under the wheels to raise the rear end up. While this has worked, it's a pain putting the boards down, blocking my street's traffic while trying to back uphill into our parking spot. I'd rather just put wheels on the rear end and just back into our RV space adjacent to our house.

 

[irvin56]

We had them on our old trailer SOB. they worked great for saving the backend. BUT they were the straight castors, not swivel.

The straight will hold more weight without the extra bearings for swivel. you have to remember to get the heaviest ones. your trailer is heavy and will bust out the light duty ones.

They were welded on a plate to bring them down to just below the stabs. Mounted in front of the stabilizers to protect them also. Then were welded to frame the stabs are on.

 

[BruteForce]

We are looking at a pair of straight (not swivel) casters. About $225 for the pair (extra heavy duty for Class-A and 40+' 5th wheel trailers). The issue I'm having is where to install them. My RoadWarrior seems to have only one I-Beam that far back and the rears stabs are attached to it.

 

[BruteForce]

This has turned out harder than I had originally envisioned. Since the frame isn't an option for bolting skid wheels to, the only point that I can weld onto is the center of each leg on the rear stabilizer. To do that though, I would have to brace and reinforce that cross-member so it wouldn't bend when the wheels made contact with the ground.

Seems most heavy duty skid wheels were meant for rear receivers and not for a 5th wheel toy hauler (without a rear receiver).

Anybody else have experience in this?

I've determined that a pair of MAXI 3" Heavy Duty Skid Wheels (weld on) will do the trick, but placement is now a problem. Seems the mounting frame for the electric motor (on the rear stabilizing legs) is the lowest point, so I have to ensure the wheels sit just a bit lower than that.