Thread: Van/trailer wheels

The Cook and I bought a new van approx 18 months ago and had no end of problems with nearside tyre wear right from very early on.
This was dismissed immediately by the retailer as misalignment and the manu in Melbourne wouldn't even bother answering our queries.
I got an independent bloke to check and the alignment was spot on but the nearside shock was weaker than the offside.
Back to the retailer who wasn't interested so I got WAs Consumer Protection to have a word with them and got new shocks and after a long wait, a replacement tyre.
When I got the worn (badly scalloped) tyre replaced the tyre fitter stated the wheel was very badly buckled and should be used only in an emergency. They had tried to balance it and had used 120gm of weight both on the inner and outer rim.
I got them to check the other 2 wheels and they were less buckled but still not right.
Back to the retailer after sending them an email, this time with a letter threating further action in the small claims court if they didn't pay for replacement wheels plus fitting, balancing and other costs.
The old bloke who started the company just dismissed it and said the wheels had been damaged by "inappropriate use".
No sign of any kind of damage to any of the 3 rims either inside or outside apart from gravel rash.
Now we had paid something in the region of 6 grand extra for an off road package plus independent suspension and had only been down the GCR once which was not as rough as stuff Goldstream show on their own website as testament to the toughness of their vans!
So after the fortnight we'd given them to respond was up off to court we went and took out a summons against the retailer and less than 2 weeks later they advised that Goldstream would settle "but they themselves wouldn't have done"!
Not that I gave a **** what they would or wouldn't do.
We've had new steel wheels fitted and balanced and now we wait for the money to go into our account.
I've given them 10 working days to do it but suspect they'll attempt to get out of it one way or another.
You may not feel the vibrations from the wheels as you would if they were on the car, but they are causing damage to your pride and joy like they have to ours.
We've had window pelmets fall off, head protector over the door fall off, drawer doors open when locked shut and other things like an information plate fall off the chassis which is another thing Goldstream won't even talk about or replace.
Get those Chinese made wheels checked and balanced as it's quite well known apparently for them to be badly out of whack. In fact an importer in WA told a van repairer we spoke to that they'd scrapped a whole container load of 500 rims because of it at one time.
Happy vanning.
AlanH.

Actually we had a wind up Goldstream camper previuosly and had no problems but this has been different entirely. Retailers attitude is shocking especially as we've spent something like a hundred grand there over the last 10 - 12 years.
If they can't fix it with a tube of silicone they couldn't care less. GS don't even answer e-mails from the warranty people (the girls in that section were good but there was only so much they could do before having to get permission from the bosses) at the retailers.
Manu are in Melbourne we're in Perth and they've had our money so why should they bother?
The question as to what else they may have cut costs on is very valid and of course we just don't know, we can only hope bits dropping off are from the unbalanced crap wheels.
We've had great interest in my wheel cover on the Landie with a very clear message to the retailer on it and hopefully it'll result in a few less sales for them.
All documented so they can't complain and if they do we'll go to court and let them wear the publicity.
AlanH.