Thor Forums

[Oneilkeys]

I ran across the attached picture and decided to write a post warning about a potentially dangerous situation that happened to me when I first picked up my Vegas about a year ago. As I was driving home on a busy four lane expressway (Florida's Turnpike), I heard a loud noise coming from the right front tire area. I immediately pulled off the road and found that the right front fender skirt had partially torn off and was rubbiing between the tire and firewall. The plastic fender skirt had torn out of the art bottom screw and then tore out if the middle skrew, leaving it flapping. This happened, I believe, because when it was installed the screw was not tightened all the way down and the movement of the skirt in the wind cracked the screw hole and it failed. I was lucky that I did not shred a tire and have a blowout. It was bad enough taking the remaining front screw out and taking the skirt off before I could proceed. Thor sent me a new skirt and when I installed it, I replaced all the automotive screws with stainless screws, washers and/or bolts with double washers and nuts where I could. I also added two more screws or bolts an each skirt, bring the total on each skirt to five. When I replaced the original screws I found that one other fender skirt had a cracked screw hole in the same place that failed. I added a little pice of fiberglass cloth and resin behind that screw hole and drilled a new one. I have checked the fenders regularity since then and I have not had any other problems. It might be a good idea to check and see if your fender skirt scew holes are cracked. As you can see from the attached photo Thor did a "wonderful" job finishing the area under the fender skirt. I had to add several blocks of wood under skirts to have something to attach the screws to.