NHTSA Complaint #11473813 — 2021 FOREST RIVER WILDWOOD

On the morning of June 11th, while traveling along Interstate 90, west of Billings, Montana, our travel trailer had a tire disintegrate within a matter of seconds. This unexpected event was alarming and placed our family in a very dangerous situation. Fortunately, we heard the tire blow and were able to pull off onto the shoulder of the interstate immediately. We assumed this was an isolated tire incident and continued with our family trip. Then on June 20th, while traveling through Beaver, Utah and stopping for gas at a Flying J Store, our inspection of the trailer tires revealed that the rear, driver’s side trailer tire was showing signs of uneven wear – to the extent that the steel belts within the tire were visible. Fortunately, the service station had a tire service shop that was capable of inspecting the tires and suspension system. Upon further inspection it was visibly apparent that the leaf springs were overloaded. Furthermore, the springs were deflecting in a manner that was compromising the tire alignment, which likely caused the uneven wear on the rear trailer tires. We had just traveled over treacherous mountainous roads that had very little, or no room to pull off the road. If a spring had broken or tire blown on those roads, my family could have been in a very serious and life-threatening situation. It also concerned me that we could have been sitting on the side of Interstate 15, in a remote area and over 2000 miles away from home. After further inspection we found that the axles which are rated for 3500 lbs per axle are on a travel trailer that is rated to be able to handle almost 8000 lbs. This seems to mean the axles are overloaded from the factory. I believe this is a safety issue not just for my family, but every family that uses this type of unit. I need to add that we took every precaution to not be overloaded, and we still had issues.