Plastic Fenders

[Super_Dave]

I'm starting my second season with the new 5th wheel and just brought it home last week from storage. I noticed that one of my plastic fenders has several cracks in it starting from the screw holes. It is obvious that the screws were over tightened causing stress on the plastic. I have no idea whether the cracks started with wind stress while driving or Winter cold making the plastic more brittle. Thought that I would just mention it so those getting new rigs can add one more item to their pick up check list.

[bpounds]

colliehauler wrote:
...Not cheap though, with shipping for one fender was $180.

The price for one of these on the Icon site was $149, and I didn't get far enough to check shipping, but I'm sure it wasn't included. I paid $120 with free shipping on Amazon. And they drop shipped from some place called Keystone Auto, and were here in 2 days. Not sure if that is related to Keystone RV.

frankwp wrote:

I had the same issue with the screw holes being cracked. I just scuffed the back side around each hole & applied epoxy (slow cure, not the 5 minute kind). A stainless steel washer was also epoxied to each hole on the front side. After curing, I rattle can sprayed it with a new coat of white paint. That was over 2 years ago & that fender still looks like new with no cracks around the screw holes.

Probably a good idea. The back side is recessed by 1/8" or so, and something to fill that so you could actually clamp them down would help. Some of that epoxy putty probably would work. I upsized the screws to #10 SS and SS washers.

[frankwp]

Super_Dave wrote:
I wonder how hard it would be to glass the back of them for added strength.

I had the same issue with the screw holes being cracked. I just scuffed the back side around each hole & applied epoxy (slow cure, not the 5 minute kind). A stainless steel washer was also epoxied to each hole on the front side. After curing, I rattle can sprayed it with a new coat of white paint. That was over 2 years ago & that fender still looks like new with no cracks around the screw holes.

[colliehauler]

I had one bad fender where a tree branch broke it. The Icon fit was very close on my Keystone. They have a lot of fenders to sort through to get the correct dimensions. I predrilled the holes in the fender hopefully to prevent cracks. Not cheap though, with shipping for one fender was $180.

[bpounds]

Here is a few pics.

Before...


This was the worst of the tear-outs. Front edge, on driver side.


The clear Gorilla tape worked for a season to keep the skirts from completely tearing loose.


The new skirts had a different radius where it returns under the side.


A little scribing and trimming had those fitting decent.


Not much tire clearance. Maybe these things are intended to be trimmed to fit, I don't know.


A little trimming here made me comfortable with the clearance. Had to do the same thing on both sides of the center drop area.


And after a little touch-up paint, they don't look to shabby. Need to do a little cleaning tomorrow before the tire skirts go back on.


This stuff was a decent color match for blended touchups on the typical RV white.

[bpounds]

Amazon delivered fast and I got the Icon fender skirts installed today. They are not an exact fit. The radius around the wheel opening is not identical. And the radius around the bottom is not the same either, so it needed to be trimmed. But the overall length and width is very close, similar hole spacing, and with a little trimming to improve tire clearance I made these work. I think the thickness of the plastic is very similar, and I would not consider these an upgrade. Pretty much a straight across trade as far as quality.

Just a heads-up if you need to purchase. This isn't a 15 minute job to swap a few screws. You'll spend some time making them fit. They also don't come with the holes drilled, but it was obvious the originals didn't either and the assembly guy just zip gunned them down fast. It's just as well, since I didn't need to try to reuse the existing holes, and had the freedom to place them where I wanted.

[bpounds]

Super_Dave wrote:
I wonder how hard it would be to glass the back of them for added strength.

The only place mine cracked was around the screw holes, and the recesses for the screw holes. I think someone creative could reinforce just around those areas. Glassing the whole back sides IMO would just increase the weight and not help.

I found that my driver side was in much worse shape than the other side. I had assumed that was because that side gets all the sun in our parking location. But today I realized that the struts they used to stabilize the lower sheet metal were worthless, and what little there was had vibrated loose. This is along the slide-out. So today I welded in some real struts to stabilize along that side and I'm expecting to see a lot less flexing in my rearview mirror. The passenger side is not a slide-out, and the sheet metal was well supported, so the plastic fender skirt is well support too.

[Super_Dave]

I wonder how hard it would be to glass the back of them for added strength.

[bpounds]

So now I've ordered a pair of replacements from Icon. Thanks for those who suggested them. Should be here in a day or two. Dang, they've got a slew of them to browse through finding the correct ones. I'll add to this after I've completed the job.

Incidentally, I ordered through Amazon, fulfilled by Icon, and this was quite a savings over ordering direct.

[jrs1871]

I know some folks that attached a piece of aluminum strapping to the back of the fender between the wheels and attached the strap to the frame. That definitely stops the flopping that you see when driving at highway speeds.

[Allworth]

Call Jason at ICON.

[Itinerant1]

Here is a place.
https://www.icondirect.com/categories/RV-Exterior-Parts/Fender-Skirts/

[bpounds]

For those who have, where did you purchase replacement fenders?

[Learjet]

valhalla360 wrote:
Fairly common if you look at used RV's.

It's likely not over tightening but differential contraction when it gets cold. Sidewall of the trailer contracts more or less than the plastic cover, the screws can't move...so something gives...in this case the plastic cover.

Drilling them out a little larger and putting a rubber washer in should help by allowing a little movement around the screws.

Maybe...but in my case it's all the flexing while in motion. If you look in the rear view mirror while at highway speeds... there is some aerodynamic buffeting going on with those plastic fenders.

[jrs1871]

I have seen that happen on lots of trailers from the entry level to the high end. When that happened to ours, we took the fender off and used a fiberglass repair kit to reinforce around the hole from the back side. We drilled the holes slightly larger when we replaced them. Because we hadn't caught it before the fender cracked, one had a fairly large crack but was otherwise intact. That repair held for the remaining eight years that we owned that trailer. So far we haven't had to do that on our new one but we do keep an eye on it.