Wheel Big Problems

[Daniel Weise]

Hello, this is my first post. 4 months ago My family and I bought a 2002 Winnebago Vista 21b (built on a eurovan chassis, the same time as the rialta). We love it and have already put 6,000+ miles on it!
Our first trip was about 2000 miles mostly on the highway and we got home with no issues. Our second trip started off good but about 300 miles into it we had a blowout on our rear passenger wheel. road service came out to help put on the full size spare and it turned out the spare was the wrong size... the next thing we realized was that the wheels and tires that were on the Vista were actually way undersized and not load rated for the Vista and were put on with threaded studs instead of lugs so we needed to track down lugs as well...We eventually figured out how to get the tire back on and slowly drove to a tire shop that was able to help us out. We ended up getting 4 new 16"x6" steel wheels and new 16" BFG D Rated K02 tires plus a full size spare. we figured we were good to go. We continued on our trip on that setup all over the Northeast and it was like driving a new RV. smooth and sturdy. We went to Old Orchard Beach, Acadia, Lake Placid, and more... were so excited to have great new tires... About 900 miles into the trip we Boondocked at a farm and woke up with a flat tire on our rear passenger tire.... bummer, but luckily we had a full size spare. We swapped them out and were on our way.500 miles later we were back home and parked the VISTA until the next adventure. I brought the flat tire to my mechanic to take a look at it and it turns out there was a crack in the wheel... weird they said, but happens occasionally. the next day we went out to grab a few things from the VISTA and the back rear tire had another flat. It turns out we had another cracked rim....
A shop put a tube in the cracked rim and it held long enough to get it back to the original tire shop to warranty the 2 cracked rims. The happily swapped them out and we were back on the road. about 500 miles into the next trip. another flat, and another cracked wheel on the back right corner....

We now have it in a shop and they have no idea why the steel wheels keep cracking....
they looked at the frame, and the axels and they are fine. they said the steel wheels should be fine, but maybe we should try and find the original factory wheels to put on it, which they said they couldn't find anywhere... and i can't find them either for under $300+ each...

so we ordered 2 more 16x6 steel wheels and they will arrive in a few days, but i'm not feeling good about getting back on the road.

Question: Are these tire shops recommending the wrong wheels for the Vista?
is this wheel cracking issue a know issue?

any insight would be so helpfull.

thanks in advance!

[mkguitar]

Hi and Welcome


I don;t have any knowledge specific to that model, GVWR or wheels, there are some smart people here though


what brand and part number wheels are these?


many of us use load range E tires (load index 120) - my van is over 9000# loaded.
It's a chevy 3500 and I use the factory wheels



Mike

[booster]

Where are the cracks happening on the wheel, and are they consistently there?


There is a thing in the manual for that RV that you have to use the correct bolts by wheel type. The steel wheels have a freely rotating conical washer built in on them.


Is the load range actually marked on the wheels? If they are the right load range and have the right bolts they should not crack, especially that quickly, and I would be getting a hold of the manufacturer and maybe the file a safety complaint with the regulators. You don't want a wheel to come apart on a big, tall, RV and highway speed.

[Daniel Weise]

the first 2 cracks were right at the weld inside the wheels. We thought it was a bad set of Wheels. but the next set have also cracked at the inner weld. I will check in about the bolts with the new set of wheels when we put them on.

i'm not sure about the exact load range on the wheels, but the rig is small, 21foot - the GVWR is #7275 full. and each tire is rated 1930 lbs per tire.

[Daniel Weise]

i don't know the exact specs on the wheel, but the tire shop said they were sufficient to hold the weight of the Vista ( GVWR 7275lb)

[booster]

If they cracked right at the edge of the weld that can be sign that the steel they used for the wheel and the weld rod/wire were not matching or bad quality. I have seen issues in other products of that problem that traced down to poorly done recycled steel production. If the country of origin is one of the areas that deals with a lot of recycled steel to get low cost, that would be a real possibility. I would think the manufacturer would be very concerned about this, and if you can't manage to track them down to talk to them, that would be a bad sign of their qualifications..

[Peder_y2k]

Probably Made in China wheels. Production parameters specified by US buyer/distributor.
Best quality wheels are ALCOA forged aluminum that are stronger than steel. No welds. Sizing might be an issue.
May need to be selective about country of origin. First world nations are best. Second and third are suspect as they have not mastered the science of metalurgy and mixed metals such as steel and welding wires used in robo welders.

[revcon372]

suggest you get on the Rialta web site People there are VERY knowledgeable about the load rating of VW wheels Cracked welds are indicative of overloading

[Daniel Weise]

@revcon372 yeah that is what i am figuring out... I thought i was in the Rialta forum, but i guess not. do you have a link to the Rialta site you are referring too?

[mikeebb]

https://groups.io/g/Rialta-Tech/topics
You may have to join groups.io and the Rialta-tech group.
It sounds like you may need to look for a different wheel company or country of origin.
Mike
1999 Rialta

[InterBlog]

(1) That vehicle is a Class C, according to the info I pulled up (e.g., here).

(2) Nowhere was the actual weight stated, just the GVWR. This story is so bizarre that the weight needs to be confirmed to rule out any surprises. It should be put on a scale.

[Daniel Weise]

the more i dig into it, the more i realize weight is likely the culprit. The weight of the vehicle is between 6500lb and 7000lb depending on how packed for a trip we are. Obviously quality of the wheels is also an issue, but load rating seems to be the biggest issue. i need wheels with a minimum load rating of 1800lbs per wheel. and finding 16" x 6" or 16"x 7" wheels with the 5 x 112 hole pattern in that load rating is very challenging.

Does anyone have a reccomendation for wheels with these specs?

[Daniel Weise]

Mikebb,
what wheels do you have on your Rialta? the OEM? or have you found something new that works?

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Daniel Weise

...... The weight of the vehicle is between 6500lb and 7000lb depending on how packed for a trip we are. .....

You know this with certainty because you took it to a CAT Scale and weighed it at least one time?

Or are you estimating based on published specs plus gear?

I once gutted my Sprinter of all gear, and then placed each object on a bathroom scale prior to re-loading, so that I could spreadsheet and quantify it. But I've also weighed it on a CAT Scale, because there's no substitute for that data point.

[Daniel Weise]

ha, good question.
i don't know the precise weight, but before we needed new wheels, We actually helped a friend move some items to the dump, and the weight was around 6700 with a broken bookcase and a few bags of garbage in it... so we did weigh it on a dump scale.

[mloganusda]

The 2014 Rialta I owned I had it weighted at truck scale and found I was good on weight for front and rear axel. The wheel bearing on the rear passenger side (where the water tank is) is prone for going bad if too much load on that side of RV. The Rialta site has lots of information on care and feeding of this great RV. I was a member for 10 years until I sold it for a slight larger class C.

MLogan
Smyrna, TN

[mloganusda]

Correction on GVWR weight as it should be 7,495# instead of 7,275# GVWR which is before Winnebago built the camper portion.

MLogan
Smyrna, TN

[vwmaniaman]

You might want to contact Van-Cafe.com. They have wheels in that bolt pattern that are available for VW vans. They also offer 16" and 17" wheel and tire packages. Ask about their weight ratings.