2670 wheelwell damage

[John 04 2670]

Hello - I'm a new guy but I've been reading your wonderful site and received great info. We are the original owner of a 2004 2670 and very much enjoy it.

Unfortunately, we had not one but two tire failures on the same trip. The second was a tread delamination and it cut the wheel well, and did some damage to the cabinet (drawer slides were mangled).

So, what I really could use some help with it is:

1) What do you recommend to repair a wheel well that is cracked for about 2 feet and missing a piece (approximately 2 inches wide by 12 inches)? The wheel well still has plenty of integrity in my opinion to repair, possibly by riveting in sheet metal, or even eternabond. I would like to replace it but I'm not sure how feasible that will be. I called Stolzfus this morning and they said they normally have a new one fabricated if they need to replace it.

2) Any ideas on the metal slide for the drawers or the plastic peice that is on the back of the drawer that slides in the slide?

You guys obviously know your Sunlines, any help is much appreciated!!

 

[Sunline Fan]

Welcome John,

I say replace it. Those tubs just see so many rocks and water that I'd always worry about the repair. I don't think removing old one would be that difficult. You'd have to remove the fenderskirt and the bottom two or three pieces of aluminum. I'm not sure exactly what holds it in.

I think you could find one of these pretty easily. Best Plastics or Ameri-Kart, both near the Elkhart area, should make something like what you need. Just make sure to have dimensions handy to know what you need. The part itself should be pretty cheap, but the shipping won't be fun. If neither of those places work out, All-Rite in California (all-rite.com) should have or be able to make what you need. But shipping from California won't be cheap...

The biggest reason why I say replace is I think you'll have as much work into getting in there to get a good patch as it would to just put the new one in. An ideal patch would compress from both sides.

I'm not sure of a source for the drawer slide parts. My best guess would be the Coast Catalog. See if you find your parts here, it looks like the bottom of page 170 should be it. Most RV dealers have a Coast account, so if you go in telling them exactly what you need, they'll be very appreciative and may be more inclined to say yes to a better price if you ask for one.

http://www.coastdistribution.com/PD...rdware & Tools/G01_161-172_Hardware&Tools.pdf

Jon

 

[John 04 2670]

Thanks Jon. After looking at it again tonight, the piece seems too flimsy to attach much to it and it is broken at the very bottom, an area that I think will be difficult to see.

I agree, it looks like it can be pulled by removing the fenderskirt and a little siding.

By the way, my tires were Maxxis tires but I think I did a disservice to them by not covering regularly and the two that went (in one day...) were usually in the sun where we park it.

Next time out to the camper I will get the VIN and register it, it was one of the last 2670's made I think since the model wasn't built in 2005 to my knowledge. We actually think it is the perfect floorplan for anyone with younger kids. Plenty of sleeping area, privacy for the bedroom, and a great floorplan. Honestly, we don't even wish for a slide but we are out of the camper most of the time when we camp anyways. We love the lower tow height and weight and pull it with a 1500 Suburban.

Thanks for all you do for us Sunline owners Jon, much appreciated.

 

[Sunline Fan]

Thanks Jon. After looking at it again tonight, the piece seems too flimsy to attach much to it and it is broken at the very bottom, an area that I think will be difficult to see.

I agree, it looks like it can be pulled by removing the fenderskirt and a little siding.

By the way, my tires were Maxxis tires but I think I did a disservice to them by not covering regularly and the two that went (in one day...) were usually in the sun where we park it.

Next time out to the camper I will get the VIN and register it, it was one of the last 2670's made I think since the model wasn't built in 2005 to my knowledge. We actually think it is the perfect floorplan for anyone with younger kids. Plenty of sleeping area, privacy for the bedroom, and a great floorplan. Honestly, we don't even wish for a slide but we are out of the camper most of the time when we camp anyways. We love the lower tow height and weight and pull it with a 1500 Suburban.

Thanks for all you do for us Sunline owners Jon, much appreciated.

Hi John,

Yes, if the crack is on the curve at all, that would make it really tough to create a patch, and especially risk cracking further.

The tires certainly can benefit from being covered, but the age of them probably had a lot to do with it. While the various tire manufacturers have different answers, they all agree on a range age of service between 5 and 7 years. After that it's time to replace, regardless of tread wear. After that time period, the tires begin to really break down internally and can fail much easier. So you're due to replace the original tires at this point anyway.

The reason the second tire failed is likely not because of the sun issue so much. There's a lengthy discussion on this somewhere on here, but basically when your one tire goes, the other tire has to bear all the weight and becomes overloaded until you jack it up/change the tire. This added stress kinda starts breaking the tire internally, and even if you put a spare on and think you're good to go, it's very likely that the other "good" tire will fail shortly thereafter. Some people think that it's a good idea to just go ahead and replace both tires on that one side at the same time for this reason. I think you just got lucky to have both in the same day because the sun exposure and age had already started breaking down the tire quite a bit, accelerating the events.

I'm glad to hear you've had your 2670 since new and are still enjoying it. I think it's a very practical floorplan and it always amazes me the amount of components (dinette, couch, bunks, etc.) that they crammed all in that small space. Indeed 2004 was the last production year for it. I don't know for sure, but I think it was part of the major cuts that occurred when the investment company bought Sunline. They cut a number of ill-performing floorplans and just focused on the best sellers. I actually have no '04 2670s in the registry by VIN (out of 187 known 2004s), but I do know of seven not by VIN. But still, not a huge seller when the 267SR was dominating the same criteria but with a slide in the market then.

Here's a link to an album of pictures for the registry entries. It will help you find everything to make a complete entry. There's captions below all the pictures, and if you aren't logged into Facebook, just click cancel when it pops up and asks you to log in, and then it will let you continue looking at them.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.163678437040074.41026.163659057042012