250 miles down, 7 to go but.................................

OK, our 2003 Starcraft 2047 is now named Lucy, because, well it had a loose wheel obviously. We didn't make the last 7 miles.

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. We bought our 03 Starcraft used two years ago. When we got the trailer it had plenty of tread on the tires, but they were old and I was concerned about UV rot, especially given how we drive....Not so slow shall we say. While the tires had plenty of tread, one had an uneven wear pattern almost as if something had worn away the outer tread on one edge. I didn't think anything much of it at the time, but now I wonder. Anyway, I put on two new of Amazon's best Chinese trailer wheels and tires and repacked the wheel bearings. I seem to recall there was a very small amount of pitting on one of the outer races but I texted you photos to friends and they all said I was being paranoid and it was fine so I repacked it and put it all back together. We have used it many times times inc. a big trip to Colorado plus several up North (we are in SE Michigan) Easily 4K miles.

Last fall in the last trip of the year we had a blow out on the right hand side. At the time I just put it down as bad luck and/or a E36 M3ty Chinese tire and planned on replacing both wheels and tires before our next big trip. Inevitably I didn't and just grabbed on of the old wheels/tires as a spare. LAst week I topped up the tires that had lost a bit of pressure over the winter to 50psi and thought I was good to go. I now think there was nothing wrong with the wheels and tires anyway.

So we head up North, it pulls fine at 75-80 with our new Flex, although we really miss the Ecoboost in our previous Explorer Sport and found the Flex seriously lacking, especially on the hills. No problem on the way their. On the way home we stop after maybe an hour and a half at a rest stop and as soon as I get out I smell something hot. I check all around and find that the right trailer wheel is rubbing on the edge of the wheel arch, just the plastic trim cover. I grab my pocket knife and carefully trim back the plastic. At the time I just assumed that I had loaded it differently for the return trip and had more weight on that side. That now seems like illogical thinking, but I had no reason to think anything else. There was now clearance to the metal chassis, but I could see a big bump it would touch. Off we went again at a (slightly) reduced pace.

Next stop all seems basically well. I can see it must have touched a couple of times, but no issues and other than being shiny where it had occasionally kissed the smooth metal edge of the frame the tire was fine, no evidence of galling or being ground away so again I thought all was well.

Later we got a noise, a rumbling that I thought was the wheel bearing. A-ha, I think, that's whats going on the wheel bearing is failing. I stop and check everything. It still all looks good. A while later the noise gets suddenly and dramatically worse. I get out and check it again. Nothing seems obviously worse and there is still nothing but some shinny marks on the tire. Carry on at a reduced pace. Later still the noise is much worse. Check again and I can see one of the lug nuts is loose. Hmm, weird, they were all fine before leaving to head up there. I think maybe the wheel bearing is moving around making them back off a bit. I go and tighten them all up. A couple were fine, one needed maybe a 1/16th of a turn and was tight. One was snug and needed maybe 3/8 of a turn to snug and the one I has seen needed maybe 2 1/2 turns. This is still all on the right hand side. The left hasn't given a peep and seems fine. Nothing hot, nothing making a noise, no apparant issues at all so I didn't (now foolishly with hindsight) check the lug nuts on that side. Carry on at only 45mph now with the hazard flashers going, but we only have about 10 miles left on on the freeway and 7 miles on surface streets after that.

Finally get to the exit which is where we had met up with our eldest daughter, boyfriend and grandson at an MDOT car pool lot. Just as we are coming off, on the exit loop at maybe 35mph bang, lurch, sparks and I watch the RIGHT HAND!!!! wheel bounce off and across the grass. Bugger. Pull over and walk back. I find the left front corner jack got ripped off as the corner when down and I can see where the wheel bounced in the freshly turned soil (no grass they are doing work) but it appears to have skipped/rolled several hundred yards down a dip, up a much higher bank on the other side and over the on ramp never to be seen again. Thank your deity of choice that it didn't hit any ones car, or more importantly a person. We limped on one wheel to the car pool lot (1/4 mile) and after loosing my temper and considering driving it home like that we left and headed home.

So what gives? Every issue I had and everything I found wrong was on the right had side, but I lost the left hand wheel. All five wheel studs have sheared off the left had side leaving the remains flush with drum/hub assembly so I can't bolt anything on even temporarily until i get it home. I never felt, saw, noticed, heard any issues with that side, but I'm now kicking myself for not torquing that side up when I found one loose on the right, but then again I had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. Have they all been over torqued in the past yielding them? Did an issue on the right lead to an issue on the left? I really don't know.

When I researched the Starcraft 2407 before we bought it all seemed good, but this morning when I googled 'Starcraft 2407 axle' I get lots of threads commenting on how the axle is marginal for this trailer weight. One of the selling features of this trailer (for us) was no bathroom, hot water or AC. I didn't want those due to weight, complexity of things to go wrong and the fact that every trailer I looked at with hot water or bathroom had visible water damage to the sub floor. The apparent downside is they put a marginal axle (2800#) on a 1950# dry unit. The brakes never worked so right now I'm considering just replacing the whole thing axle, suspension, brakes etc. Depends on what I find when I pull it off.

Any known issues or advice before I go and start pulling it appart? I'm heading to a friends house this evening to get his car hauler. It's 6'10" wide while the camper is 7'1", but one wheel is missing and both are in-board by about an inch so It should >>just<< squeeze on.

The left side was probably not loose, you don't get flush-sheared studs from loose lug nuts. Since they were old I'd guess they were severely overtightened at some point - maybe at every point if this trailer was always serviced at a chain shop that zips studs on to 200+ft-lbs and then checks that a torque wrench set to the proper 70 or whatever can't tighten them more.

I had the exact same kind of damage happen on a car once but they were brand new no-name studs, I suspect it was caused by a design flaw - they had no "shoulder" near the base, the diameter just stepped down from the splines to the threads at a 90deg angle. Great way to concentrate stress. There was also virtually no warning. The last couple of turns that loaded that corner felt a bit odd, like the tire was soft, but that was it. Of course in the video you can see that the wheel was wobbling in those last corners.

Well, the whole thing was very sketchy, but we got it back to Ade's house with no further damage:

mental note check popup wheels before heading out on next venture.

Looking at the shiny spots on the mounting surface of the drum, I would say the wheel was moving around on the drum a fair amount.

Massive thanks to Tom (and other non GRM friends) for helping retrieve it. Now I'm the eyesore of the neighbourhood with a busted camper on my drive. It will have to wait a while before I start pulling it apart to investigate further.