Slow Leak? Keep looking

franco-bolli · August 23, 2020

I've had the Arctic Fox 25W for several years, and always needed to put air in one of the tires when it sits for any time.
Thinking it was the valve stem, valve core or a screw (or something else) in the tread, I coated the tire and wheel with a soapy water.
Nothing obvious showed up.

Next filled the portable cooler with water and set the tire in it so that it was submerged, well at least a portion of it at a time was submerged.
Nothing obvious in a 360 degree rotation.

I'm thinking, no bubbles seen, but yet there is a leak.... So, then I started looking a lot closer at the rim, instead of the tire AND

as the pictures show, there was a pinhole in the rim on the back side of one of the spokes!

Such a tiny hole! Have a look at the green circle in the image. I'm presuming this is a casting issue. It doesn't look like a crack to me.

Any thoughts?

I wonder if it's repairable?

By the way, have you every tried to find an exact replacement for just one of your trailer rims? Best of Luck!!
I haven't found one yet. Based on one response from a local dealer, as a guestimate, he said $200+ if the manufacturer had one!

No trailer scrapyards within 200 miles of me..

Replacement rims that handle more weight than the ones' I have, can be found for less than $150 and I'd be proud to see them on my rig.

Cheers

FB

Kirk W · August 24, 2020

I have heard of such rim issues but have not experienced one. When it comes to an exact replacement, you probably could use the spare for a replacement if you are OK with the spare tire having a different wheel.

bobsallyh · August 24, 2020

Not that uncommon at all. It would be interesting to know if the wheel was manufactured in Brazil. Tire shops that were located near heavy RV traffic were very familiar this problem. Replace the wheel and keep an eye on the others. Better yet replace all with Alcoa wheels.

franco-bolli · August 24, 2020

Thanks for hte replies. This one has "Made in China" molded into one of the spokes.

I'll have a look at the Alcoa wheels, I've never really liked the Black with silver star pattern with this rig.

@Kirk W You are correct, the spare is a steel wheel that not even close to the original design. It's ok for getting home but it would look odd for normal use. I've written to a contact at the Northwood Manufacturing plant for Arctic Fox(3 hours from me) to see if they would consider replacing it, or get a new one at a reasonable cost.

Thanks again for the replies.

DaveL · August 27, 2020

I have had this happen before on a car many years ago (1991 Honda Accord). Was my daughter's college commute car. Several tire dealers looked at it and couldn't find the slow leak. Finally bought some professional leak detection soap solution (Big Blue) which I found can find just about anything..... found a small pin hole leak in the aluminum wheel casting. Took a small punch and peened the hole (hit it with the tip of the punch and mechanically fuse the metal together) and stopped the leak. Then took my time looking for a replacement wheel on the chance that the flaw was more significant than just the pin hole flaw.

bigjim · August 27, 2020

Had a similar situation with a Chevy rim once. If the wheel happened to end up certain when parked. Made me question my sanity a little for a while. Mine was a 64 chev impala and I didn't have an issue until the early 80's.

Kirk W · August 28, 2020

Our RV spare has the same wheel as do those on the ground. I probably wouldn't do that swap if the spare was different. I guess that is one advantage to an RV with cheap, standard wheels. 😄

franco-bolli · August 31, 2020

UPDATE: I contacted Northwood who makes Arctic Fox about this issue and they recommended that I chat with Tredittire.com where Northwood gets the rims for their products, at least that's who they used for the 2017 model I have. I believe that seeing is believing because they didn't question the issue when I had sent the pictures and they have scheduled a new rim to be shipped to me.

I also checked into having the rim repaired by one of the local wheel repair stores I've used before, and was estimated that the repair would be $200. Considering I can't find a replacement wheel here in the area, and ordering one would probably be as costly, I may get this defective one repaired and use it as a spare.

Thanks for the comments! I originally started this to inform that being persistent can sometimes pays off.