I learned some things about ETI's aluminum alloy wheels recently that other folks might like to know about. When my trailer was less than 4 months old, last September, I noticed very thin rust-red streaks on the aluminum alloy wheels ... around the large holes and around the lug nut holes. I watched the streaks grow over a few subsequent months. A month or two ago, I contacted ETI and asked about the rust-red streaks. Reace replied via email stating he knew about the problem and that it was "not an uncommon issue". He suggested I coat the wheels with carnauba wax. He also said those streaks are "aluminum oxidation" and that the deterioration was "cosmetic".
A few weeks after that, I took the trailer to my local RV repair/maintenance shop in order to ask them about a couple of other things, just for my education. While I was there, I also asked them to look at the wheels and tell me what they thought about the streaks and what I should do about them, if anything. They told me the streaks are rust ... that they are commonly found on HiSpec aluminum alloy wheels because of "inferior coating processes used by HiSpec". They told me aluminum oxidation is white, not red, and these streaks are definitely rust, not aluminum oxidation. They said this is "absolutely not cosmetic" and that the metal is deteriorating and will continue to deteriorate even if I wax them. And they offered to put all of this in writing. Let me point out that this RV repair/maintenance facility does not sell wheels nor would they do the work of replacing the wheels; they recommended that I contact a tire/wheel shop for that work.
I shared this information with Reace and asked him to warranty the wheels and refund the fee I paid for them.
Reace suggested I contact the manufacturer HiSpec, which I did. I was told by HiSpec that they will not warranty the wheels for me because I did not buy the wheels from them. They told me to work with ETI for warranty since I paid ETI for the wheels. They also told me there was no "fix" for the problem. Applying carnauba wax will not replace nor repair the coating that has come off nor will it repair any damage to the structural integrity of the wheels that has already started.
Interestingly, my nine-year-old truck has its original aluminum alloy wheels and they show no signs of deterioration or streaks. I checked with several friends who have vehicles or trailers with aluminum wheels (tho none are HiSpec) ... no rust streaks even on vehicles or trailers much older than my truck.
I continued to discuss the issues via email with Reace. In the end, Reace was most cordial and refunded in full the fee I paid for the aluminum wheels. I will be replacing the ETI-HiSpec aluminum wheels with wheels that have a better track record!
In the end, I was impressed by Reace's communication and response. But I was surprised that this problem has been known to ETI, by Reace's own admission, and yet ETI does not disclose a known "not uncommon" problem prior to selling these HiSpec aluminum alloy wheels to its customers. I wonder if this might be in conflict with USA laws that require a seller to disclose known issues. Hope that doesn't come back to bite ETI in the rear bumper, as it were.
Threaded Mode
