DGS
Member
Upper Deck Frame Cracking Under Bedroom Floor
I have an 08 Bighorn that I have owned for about 2 1/2 years. Just love the trailer and has been good times on travels. No issues and the wife and I have enjoyed fixing it up on the inside. Coming back from our fall vacation hit some pretty ruff roads that I believe may have finally broke the frame on the upper deck under the bedroom floor. As you can see from the attached pictures the frame is ripped. Not cracked, and no failed welds. May discover more when I pull up the flooring under the bedroom. From the visual inspection performed after removing the filon in the pin box and under hung area. The door side wall is moving about an inch and a half. Pic 822 shows how much the wall is moving. The other pic's show how much the upper deck is dropping. Enough to bend the aluminum frame and actually broke it in several places. I am asking the group if anyone has had such a failure like this, and was there any modification or guidance from Lippert on this type of repair. Any help on the repairs that you may have done is greatly appreciated.
Update- Thank you to those that have responded. After removing bedroom floor to expose the frame and upper deck area. See attached pictures. I will be able to confer with Lippert on the area and type of repairs to correct issue and hopefully reinforce so this does not reoccur. Of all of my searching on many forms and the internet I have not found any related frame cracking issues in this area. Many on pin box area and spring hangers. The pin box area of this frame is very well reinforced and structural sound. All 2X6 box beams in the pin box only transfers load to two 2X6 Vertical beams that are the support back to the vertical upper deck structure that is tied to the 8 inch frame. What I found interesting is that all of the 1X2's six in total that are tied to the rear of pin box 2X6 to the upper deck horizontal 2X3. Were only shoulder welded at the 1 inch side of the material and not a 100% weld, on either side of the structure. Seems that there is not enough structure front to back. Horizontal 1X2's just don't supply enough structural support in my observation. I'll know more when I discuss with Lippert. I am hopeful that they have encountered similar issues with other frames and are truthful and forthcoming to me about the remedy.
I have an 08 Bighorn that I have owned for about 2 1/2 years. Just love the trailer and has been good times on travels. No issues and the wife and I have enjoyed fixing it up on the inside. Coming back from our fall vacation hit some pretty ruff roads that I believe may have finally broke the frame on the upper deck under the bedroom floor. As you can see from the attached pictures the frame is ripped. Not cracked, and no failed welds. May discover more when I pull up the flooring under the bedroom. From the visual inspection performed after removing the filon in the pin box and under hung area. The door side wall is moving about an inch and a half. Pic 822 shows how much the wall is moving. The other pic's show how much the upper deck is dropping. Enough to bend the aluminum frame and actually broke it in several places. I am asking the group if anyone has had such a failure like this, and was there any modification or guidance from Lippert on this type of repair. Any help on the repairs that you may have done is greatly appreciated.
Update- Thank you to those that have responded. After removing bedroom floor to expose the frame and upper deck area. See attached pictures. I will be able to confer with Lippert on the area and type of repairs to correct issue and hopefully reinforce so this does not reoccur. Of all of my searching on many forms and the internet I have not found any related frame cracking issues in this area. Many on pin box area and spring hangers. The pin box area of this frame is very well reinforced and structural sound. All 2X6 box beams in the pin box only transfers load to two 2X6 Vertical beams that are the support back to the vertical upper deck structure that is tied to the 8 inch frame. What I found interesting is that all of the 1X2's six in total that are tied to the rear of pin box 2X6 to the upper deck horizontal 2X3. Were only shoulder welded at the 1 inch side of the material and not a 100% weld, on either side of the structure. Seems that there is not enough structure front to back. Horizontal 1X2's just don't supply enough structural support in my observation. I'll know more when I discuss with Lippert. I am hopeful that they have encountered similar issues with other frames and are truthful and forthcoming to me about the remedy.
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