Wheel Well Flair Cracking on Bighorn

[RoLintwo]

Our BH is now a year old and have a crack on the RH side wheel well flair.
LH side is fine. We stopped for coffee the other day and parked beside a
twin unit to ours and it also has the same trouble.
Seems the screw was put in to tight or not predrilled.
Has anybody else had this problem? What have you done to correct this?
Any and All ideas are welcome.
Thanks

Roy

2008 3055RL s/n 9555
2006 Chevy 2500 HD
D/A,4x4,cc,sb
Airborn hitch & Reese 16K

 

[pmmjarrett]

I usually see this on any brand slide out portions when a brace comes loose on the lower radius skirt and starts vibrating in the wind causing the plastic fender to crack..... Have seen a loose brace even crack the aluminum skirt about 8" in -40F weather.

I know the 3055RL right side isn't on a slide portion but you may want to see if there is a brace disconnected behind the lower radius skirt alowing it to flex.

 

[LSPTpr]

same here

I had that problem (5er is 1 yr old now) where it was cracking in the front and then it was cracking around the screw holes. When pullin the 5er, i could actually see the door side flair fapping. I took it in as a warranty item and the rv dealer made a crude bracket to keep it from flappin. Doesn't look real pretty but stopped the flapping. Only thing i didnt like was they put a white silicon material around the screws on the new flair (filled in the depression area around the screw) and it really looks crappy up close. but so far doesnt seem to be cracking.

 

[DougLynne]

Both of ours have cracks where the screws are. Any ideas on repairing before they get too bad?..../Doug

 

[deee2]

We've only driven ours home for 400 miles so far. But DH did notice there is no brace on that right hand side and is planning on rigging up some sort of brace himself. If anyone else has already done this, please share.

Thanks,

Donna

 

[bsummit]

My door side flair started a crack at the front of the slide and my dealer replaced the flair. I put the new one on myself. The brace lacks a lot to be desired. The bracing could be much better. The whole bottom section of the big slide seemed a little weak. One of the so called support brackets wasn't even attached. I made some more brackets out of 1/8 aluminum and attached them differently and it made all the difference in the world. Heartland could improve a little on that. But I stll love my 3670.

 

[HappyKayakers]

We had ours replaced once under warranty. Watched the second one closely and it also started cracking. I noticed the brace was cracked. Replaced that with an old set of curtain rods that I cut to sized, drilled and screwed. Took the fender off and applied fiberglass repair to back side of holes and cracks. No further cracking on trip from FL to NY. Will wait till we get back to FL in Sep. If it's still holding, I'll figure out what to use to fill in and make it white from the front side.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Autobody shop suppliers have epoxies used for repairing automotive plastics. Some plastics can also be "welded" with plastic welders and the proper filler rods, however, unless you have a hook up in a body shop or you own a plastic welder it's probably cheaper to replace the fender on one of these trailers.

The trick is to properly identify what type of plastic is used to get the correct adhesive. A little help from the Factory would be good here. Most plastic parts have identification marks on the inside of the parts.

Plastic Identification

Clean the part very well, scuff the inside of the repair and use screen as necessary to strengthen the joint.

Hope this helps.

 

[LBallard]

MY 9 month old BH 3370 Door side wheel well skirt has cracks at the front attchment and the screw hole above the Equiflex logo. Plan to take back to dealer in a couple weeks for repair or replacement. But first, 2 weeks at fish camp.

 

[RoLintwo]

wheel flair

Thanks for the Ideas, I have made a repair and I think will work just fine.
First I got some nail glue( for fingernails) and put a liberal amount on the crack. Waited 20 minutes to be sure it was good and hard.
Than a bracket made of a "I" track curtan rod and it's very solid.
If any change I will post again.

Roy