ATF: Big Country - delaminated wall

[Yves]

I have a Big Country 3250TS 2012.
My walls are in the process of delaminated. I repaired last year by the dealer. Continuous walls from delaminated. The dealer wanted to get it fixed again this year, they saw that delamination of the wall would come from a glue problem. The problem is all over the walls. Is it that I'm the only one with this problem?

 

[danemayer]

Hi Yves,

In many cases, delamination is caused by water leaks. Have you discussed this possibility with your dealer?

 

[Bob&Patty]

X2 with Dan, are the worst places under a window??

 

[Yves]

I don't have water infiltration. All my wall are dry.
When the dealer has repaired the wall of the slide-out, they saw the wall just delaminated further polishing repair. They checked everywhere and they saw no infiltatration water. They think a problem of glue.

 

[danemayer]

Take pictures that show the delamination and call Heartland Customer Service at 877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030. Have your VIN # ready. It may be helpful to also have the dealer contact information handy.

 

[dannman57]

No you are not the only one, Yves. We have a 2011 Trail Runner 22 RBQ that is having outside wall delamination along about the front 1/3 of one sheet metal seam on the drivers side, about 5 seams up. It bulges out 4-6 inches at highway speed and air movement underway causes the panels inside the front bedroom area of the trailer on the drivers side to come untaped and buckle- that's right, the interior panels are held together with tape- no screws, no nails. There's no sign of water- just poor materials and workmanship. We are told all the outside panels below the bad one have to be removed, the bad seam re-stapled to the wooden crossmember, then reinstalling all panels from bad seam down to bottom, including all the involved windows, through-fittings, mouldings, etc. Well over $3000 is our estimate; we were hoping for a little help from Heartland but they are not interested in helping with the repair even though it is an apparent materials/workmanship failure since we are second owners. I will be keeping this Heartland service experience strongly in mind when we replace this soon.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Dannman57, your coach is at least 4-5 years old and you are the 2nd owner. How many time in these years was any or all the chalking checked and repaired/replaced. What were you expecting HL to do for you. Example, what would your car/truck dealer do for you with a vehicle that old and you had a paint problem. What would any other RV manufacturer do for you is a better question. I feel bad for you....but.

 

[schrod]

Dannman57, your coach is at least 4-5 years old and you are the 2nd owner. How many time in these years was any or all the chalking checked and repaired/replaced. What were you expecting HL to do for you. Example, what would your car/truck dealer do for you with a vehicle that old and you had a paint problem. What would any other RV manufacturer do for you is a better question. I feel bad for you....but.

A car or truck manufacturer would stand the repaint job. I know for a fact my dad was second owner on a F250. Paint started peeling and Ford paid for repaint job. He stated there were NO leaks so what makes you jump all over him about water infiltration. Only 4 or 5 years old should definitely not be falling apart. He also stated dealer was working with him repairing and saw NO water infiltration. Poor construction techniques period.

 

[buddyboy]

A car or truck manufacturer would stand the repaint job. I know for a fact my dad was second owner on a F250. Paint started peeling and Ford paid for repaint job. He stated there were NO leaks so what makes you jump all over him about water infiltration. Only 4 or 5 years old should definitely not be falling apart. He also stated dealer was working with him repairing and saw NO water infiltration. Poor construction techniques period.

I imagine your father's truck was one of the ones with a well know issue with the paint used. We also received a new paint job when a former vehicle's paint bubbled and peeled. A glue problem as your dealer related would have affected many RVs made during a period. JMHO

 

[Jim.Allison]

Ram would warrantee a body panel for 5 years 100,000 miles.

But that was really an unfair question, but a fair answer. The problem I have with rigs is that they essentially get light use, and although not warranted for a long time, I expect them to last well beyond the warrantee period. As far as honoring such a flaw, I guess we all read the purchase contract.

 

[caissiel]

I found out after 125 hrs of work on our 2009 unit, that they are made to sell. No foresight of service. Our last unit was 15 years old and this unit has had double the problems the last one had.
Front and rear walls have been repaired so far. Just can't imagine the situation when the side walls start giving us problems.
Every screw has been removed and caulked and replaced due to corrosion caused by humidity behind the screw cover tape. Caulking only seals along the trim edges and not the screw area.

 

[Tundra2084]

NO you're not the only one. We have delamination behind the fridge and it showed up after the fridge had a problem with icing up and getting extremely hot on the back side. Had a body shop look at it. They said doesn't look like water but faulty glue that caused the delamination. Cost to fix the one area that's about 3 feet high and 1 foot wide is $2000.
Complained about it on here and got a call from heartland (they do read the forum). Sent them pictures of the delamination and the inside area behind the fridge that showed NO SIGNS OF WATER. Also sent them pictures of a unit that sits 2 spots down from ours where we store it. Same unit as in a Sundance except it is a year older and it ALSO had delamination in the same spot. Directly behind the fridge.

Went to Goshen Rally and a tech from Heartland came buy, looked at the delamination and said "water intrusion caused it" without even looking at the inside of the wall. It must be nice to be able to see thru walls without looking because I sure cant.
So in other words Good Luck cause it's always water and your problem not theirs.

 

[JohnD]

We have a 2011 Trail Runner 22 RBQ that is having outside wall delamination along about the front 1/3 of one sheet metal seam on the drivers side, about 5 seams up.

The day we purchased our previous trailer (September 11, 2012), a 2013 Heartland Trail Runner TR22RK, we were told that we needed to bring it in as there was a known defect on this trailer and that the top side panel on both sides needed to be removed and the insulation and side panels replaced.

I don't know if this was a similar problem, but we did have them do the work under warranty a couple of weeks after we picked it up.