Poor quality on fasteners and washers

Hello everyone

My husband and I own a 2016 Cyclone. We have noticed that the fasteners in the awnings, decks, and ramp are all rusting to the point of breaking off. The washers on the deck are rusting too. This is an RV, a high end one. A recreational vehicle used for the outdoors, why aren't these components not stainless??

We went to replace the license plate bracket and ladder bracket and the fasteners twisted off due to rust, not over torqued.

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Using ferrious screws and bolts that rust is a cost saving effort by RV mfgs. Stainless steel screws would cost a few dallors more. Then to add insult to injury they use grade 3 and 5 bolts on the suspension instead of grade 7 like the TV. As a compromise the mfgs. could offer a "build it correctly" option upgrade I would be willing to pay the extra cost to protect a large investment.

It’s not just the RV industry that doesn’t know beans about fasteners and metal properties. While I was still an active member of the county HazMat team, we had commercial trailer for one of our response units. The six underside spotlights that were installed on the aluminum frame used plain carbon steel screws. Needless to say, we almost lost five of them before I realized the problem and reinstalled them with stainless steel ones.

I have some background as a Materials Engineer.


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There are several grades of stainless steel. You will get a better grade from a boat parts store like West Marine them Home Depot.
Don