dragging the rear end of my 30' excella in the skid wheels
I had just purchased a beautiful 1998 30' excella and and pulled into the first gas station I saw when I heard a loud scraping noise as I pulled into the driveway. I found pieces of the small drag wheel littering the driveway and the corner of my new airstream appeared to be accordianed slightly. Since I'm towing this beauty to Cabo San Lucas in Baja this month you can imagine my concern with the low profile. I took the trailer to the local RV service center in Eureka CA and the technician measured the clearance of the frame to the ground front and back and it was equal at about 8 inches. I asked him if it wouldn't be better just to leave it off since the small wheel occupies about half of the available clearance space and he looked at me like I was crazy talking. Was I ? Is this a problem with other airstream owners? What else can I do besides just be dam careful on driveway approaches and anyplace else that the road is uneven. Bigger tires maybe? This could be a serious challenge especially in Baja. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. thank- you, Greg Mellon
Hi 2air', many thanks for the reality check. I'll definitely remove the little buggers and take it slow and easy. Sounds good - I'll post a few pics when I get back. peace out , Greg
I've towed my 30' Excella for the past 30 months and nearly 10,000 miles. I've drug the back of my trailer ONCE! If I had wheels on the bottom of my frame I would have drug it many times.
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Steve Heywood
Waddell, AZ
1999 19' Bambi (SOLD)
1997 30' Excella (SOLD)
Yea, I have a set of thsoe wheels. Brand new still in the box! When putting together our STUFF while waiting for our AS, they looked like a good idea. Once I went to install them it all started making no sense at all. Why would I want to decrease my ground clearance. Anybody want a complete set still in the box?
__________________ J. Rick Cipot Sandi Gould NEUNew England Unit Airstream Life Magazine Proud Member of WBCCI WBCCI #3411 AIR #17099 2009 Silverado 2500HD 2004 22' Safari 1960 24' Tradewind
nope, i'll keep the casters on my roll away tool box.
airstreams have a pair of skid plates at the rear of the frame. they are simply a "c" channel welded to the bottom of the frame.
in my view they are a consumable item, mine are rounded off at the rear from occasional drags. if i ever wear them off to the point of needing replacement i'll just weld new ones on.
john
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you call them ferrets, i call them weasels.
Yes to all of the above! I learned this early and there are some gas station entries that I no longer attempt. Taking it slow will prevent bounce from contributing to the drag. And going in at an angle does improve the geometry. Sorry hearing about the damage.
My skid plate part of the frame on my 77 31 footer are squared off. The first time I tried to back it into my uphill drive I dug a one inch deep groove into the drive (my wife was directing and failed to look down to see the problem). I fairly quickly realized it was taking too much power to back up and got out. No damage to the unit and now I take the W/D bars off before I back in and that gives me enough clearance. I also drop them if I am backing into an uphill camping site. Sometimes the little dips fool you but you will learn what situations to avoid.
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