TubaForum.net

Does anyone know if MTS sells replacement wheels for their older model sousaphone cases?

I was on the site and I couldn't click on their replacement parts list.
Through Google I was able to acces a page for the wheels but there were no prices, and again I couldn't click on anything.

Anyone have any ideas?

I really don't like the idea of buying a new case when this one is still going strong (ok, the latches are cheap but duct taping them down protects them).

Thanks

They've sold them to me...and I had to go to DIRECTLY to THEM - as the closest-to-fitting ones (in the Ohio Travel Bag catalog) are BOTH too short AND the flange is too curved.

I understand not wanting to pay for an intercontinental phone call...

Try either of these:

scott@ (their website name)
crystal@ (their website name)

You'll probably need the huge pop rivets as well (as they are NOT a common size) but your steel back-up plates are probably still in OK condition...but they're probably supply new ones anyway...

Once installed, I'm sure you'll offer the case better care than did its previous owner.

Thanks! I’ll write them or call you.
I imagine I’ll have to drill those pop rivets out?


And, uh, I AM the previous owner.

The case as done quite a bit of flying, as well as being packed on top of flightcases or in buses.
The damage to the wheels is certainly do to old age and definitely the various times I’ve rolled it across unpaved surfaces.
I knew the wheels would wear out some day…and now they have.

OK…
but you didn’t ignore the wheel problem, let it get worse than it is, and simply drag a corner of the case on pavement until you polished away a 6 x 6 x 6 triangle off the corner of the case.
I’ve seen that quite a few times…
… and we wonder why so many people seem to have so much trouble working their way through their lives…

Those wheels are under-engineered for tuba/sousaphone cases, but could theoretically (??) last forever, if really babied… but wheels really shouldn’t require babying. The real problem is that the cases themselves are really not durable enough - structurally - to attach truly durable wheels to them.

I was on tour and hand.
If the wheels were bad at the last airport then I didn’t hear it. In other words I don’t know how far along they were before…
My gig at a palace in Florence. The touring car couldn’t make it up the driveway so we walked it, and that was gravel. After that we traversed more gravel and uneven tiles in order to get to the stage which was placed in the back of their garden.
Beautiful for the wedding I played (rich family from Texas) but detrimental to the case.
For the rest of my travels I tried as much as possible to use trolleys or keep it on on wheel but I’m not an acrobate.
I took my chances.

Gravel is hard on them, but curb-bumping is about the worst.

Your case's frame appears completely sound (solid), so that wheel replacement should end up being as good as new.

This is the info I was looking for earlier.

Holds true for the tuba cases as well.

Thanks for the input.

One of my MTS wheels failed, and I deliberated swapping in a set of rollerblade wheels (we've done this on suitcases, and it's a nice upgrade), but I first called or emailed MTS (was a while back, can't quite recall how I contacted them), and a new pair of wheels showed up in the mail.
It was a straight-forward repair: Drilled out the old pop rivets, riveted in the new units.

Seems as if so long as there is no damage to the frame or structure, that's all there is to it!!