2004 -2005 valve stem problem

I would like to issue a heads up to all owners of 2004 and 2005 Wildcat fifth wheels...

Recently I was washing the 5th wheel with a large sponge. When I began washing the tires the valve stem broke off at the rim. As I continued to wash the other tires, all four valve stems broke off with very little effort. I removed all four wheels and took them to the local tire shop. The owner of the shop told me my tires looked great (Power King Tires) in terms of wear so I asked him about the cause of the failing stems. I told me that several years ago there was a large amount of imported stems from China that were all bad, he said he had disposed of a ton of these. He suspected that Forest River may have gotten some of these on those Wildcat models.

So... if you have a Wildcat or any Forest River RV from the 04-05 model years, please check the valve stems before your next trip. You may be okay, but I was very happy to know I got mine fixed before I ended up on the side of the interstate with four flat tires.

Thomasbeau

That has been a big issue on the form. If you do a search on the subject you can read lots of post on the valve steam problems. Like you said it is great you had the problem before you got onto the highway.

I trusted the power kings so much I just put four new one 's back on.
If your power kings are over five yrs old,,,, I'd look into changing them out no matter what the tread wear looks like.

Glad you brought the stem issue back up for those that may not have seen the old post on the subject.

And be sure to check the inside sidewalls of the Power Kings. The outside of mine looked really good, but the inside had cracks everywhere. Mine had a good 18K miles on them, and were 4 years old. Would have bought them again, but couldn't find them around here.

When the tire shop replaced the valve stems they had to break the bead to install the new stems. I was able to look at all four tires both inside and out. I only have about 4k on the tires and they are 5 years old. They looked great and the shop owner said he felt they were still in great shape. I hope he's right.

Thomasbeau

Just my two cents worth from experiene. The cost of 4 new tires is a lot less than the cost of repairs to the 5th wheel from 1 blow out at 65 mph. The tire that blew had low miles on it. Jim

Took me a while but I finally remembered that there was a safety recall on tire stems. Here is some info: Stem Recall

John

Thomasbeau did you replace the valve stems with the standard rubber type or the bolt into rim high pressure ones
Sean

Washed my cat and put it away last winter,and when I pulled it out had a flat.It was the valve stem,must of hit it when I was washing it.Looked closer and they were all cracked Only a year and a half old.

I put metal stems on when I bought the 'Cat used and again on the 16" wheels when upgrading last year.

Glenn is right on.... Metal stems are a must.

Back when I first found this problem with the valve stems, I replaced mine with rubber ones, mainly because I didn't know any better. No one said use metal ones before I replaced mine. 3 and 1/2 years later, still used the rubber with no problems.

Fast forward 4 years, bought new tires from Costco and I insisted I wanted metal valve stems installed, you know, the high pressure ones. The manager said, which do you want, the high pressure, or metal. I said aren't they the same, NO was the answer. The high pressure had a brass looking tube, but the part that was in the rim was rubber. They are the high pressure ones.....

Sean wrote:Thomasbeau did you replace the valve stems with the standard rubber type or the bolt into rim high pressure ones
Sean

Unfortunately I only put in the standard ones. I discovered the issue the night before we were supposed to leave for our vacation, so getting the cat ready quickly was my only thought that day. I'm sure that in the short term they will be fine. I'm going to look into new tires before the spring so I will look into the at that time.