Seeking Guidance: BFT wheel under coach

[Escape]

I own a 2008 Build for Two ... love it!

Underneath the back of the coach is a wheel that helps when you goes up or down a hill or driveway. It keeps the rear of the coach from dragging. My problem is that the wheel is just metal. I purchased the coach used several years ago ... I'm guessing (though I don't know) that the wheel probably had a rubber coating that's been worn off. My question - has anyone replaced this wheel (canister) ? what happens in my driveway is that the metal wheel "digs" into the asphalt and it's not a pretty site.

any info would be helpful.

thank you,

Steve Chiocca
Midlothian, Virginia

[Mike Jean Bandfield]

In checking some on-line sources I did not see a large selection or obvious matches to wheel/axle size or bolt configurations. My local farm stores have a wide range of styles and sizes at reasonable prices and I can take an old one to the store and match it up. I'm due to replace mine for the second time in 70K miles.

[jjhepkin]

my 28' rear side bed born free has the wheel you reference and it is all metal with no rubber coating and it came that way.

i doubt if you did find a replacement with the rubber coating/wheel on it, the first time you scraped a driveway it would probably tear it off. that's the reason they are all metal.

john

[jlef123]

The casters originally supplied with Born Free coaches are made of a Phenolic or "plastic" material. I have had two BF coaches and have destroyed those casters on both of them. I then replaced them with steel or iron ball bearing casters with a polyurethane tread. The polyurethane tread has not worn away and they work great. However after I installed the casters on my newest coach I happened to be at the factory and showed them to the production supervisor. John "Red" Trewyn. I was very proud of my casters that were superior to the OEM casters. He advised me that the OEM phenolic casters were there on purpose. They are intended to break if too much force is placed on the back end of the coach as you could bend or break the extension frame on the chassis. I have no reason to disbelieve this but have not replaced my fantastic ball bearing steel casters with Phenolic casters. I am really much much more careful going up inclines. Here is a URL to direct you to where I got my casters. Could not find my receipt for them but I think they were 5 inches so be sure to measure the casters on your coach. This company seems to have every conceivable type of caster available so I am sure you will find what you want here. The plate on the top of the casters matched up perfectly with the holes in the Born Free.
https://shop.servicecaster.com/5-Inch-S ... ur-g-b.htm

[bcope01]

Here are a couple of earlier discussions on this topic:

https://www.bornfreervclub.org/bulletin ... eel#p30417

https://www.bornfreervclub.org/bulletin ... ter#p31726

Harbor Freight has some wheels that may work:

https://www.harborfreight.com/catalogse ... vel+caster

Bill