Northern Illinois Airstream Club

Michelin is recalling 1.2 million LTX M/S tires, size LT225/75R16 115/112R LRE, manufactured from January 10, 2010, through June 23, 2012, and supplied for use as original equipment on certain Ford vehicles, and as replacement on light trucks, full-sized heavy duty vans, small RVs and some large pickup trucks. These tires could experience tread separation.

Registered owners should receive a notice after January 6, 2014.  Michelin will replace all tires made within those dates.  If you  do not remember when you put the 16 in. radials on your vehicle, read the date on your tires.

For more information, use this link to the NHTSA website:  http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchResults?refurl=email&searchType=ID&targetCategory=R&searchCriteria.nhtsa_ids=13T012

Dometic recently expanded the recall on its two-door refrigerators. The original recall included some of the two-door refrigerators manufactured between April 1997 and May 2003. The new recall focuses on models manufactured between June 2003 and September 2006. If your year of manufacture is within these ranges, go to the Dometic site to check to see if it applies to your unit. Here is the site address: http://www.dometic.com/enus/Americas/USA/RV-Products/RV-News/Dometic-Recall-Information/

Six million Dill Air Control Products (Chinese made by one co-owned plant) rubber tire valves have been recalled but they have no idea where the valves are. The rubber compound did not contain the proper ozone resistant ingredient and fail when cracks form, allowing the tires to sometimes deflate rapidly. There are no easily identified manufacturer’s marks or lot numbers on the visible outside of the valve, so all you can do is look for the start of smaller cracks on the outside of the valve, usually close to the base of the valve. (The manufacturer’s name can only be seen, if the tire is taken off the wheel.) If you see cracks, or have a tire which loses air repeatedly, replace the valves immediately. At a slightly higher cost, some people are recommending that we use the metal valve stems for our high pressure trailer tires. Update: Per the feds,  There may be up to 30,000,000 defective valve stems out there.

We had two valve failures, and resultant blowouts, on our Arizona trip in 2015. We replaced all 6 tires and valve stems.

A couple of years ago this came up and the GM hitches at the rally were inspected.  We now have some new members and people have put some miles on their rigs.  It might be time to get down under and check them again.  Always hitch your brake activating lanyard to the bumper not the hitch.