Broken welds around pinbox

[Bob&Patty]

This is not a rant at HL or Lippert. The Lippert frame issues on older 1621HD frames finally bit us. It is in the shop now with the filon and front cap removed. It has several broken welds and both front corners of the frame the body sits on has torn away from each other. The shop called me today and had me go to look at the damage. The front wall of the closet is buckled and of course all the frame damage. They hooked up their forklift and showed me how much the pinbox flexed when lifting the Horn. 5" is a tad much so, now I know why it rode and pulled bad.

It is now being fixed at my and the insurance companies expence. Sad but true. The cost is a little north of $4K with with our deductable to pay. I paid $200 for new Mor/Ryde #5 rubber spring 2 years back thinking the rubber spring was bad and installed myself. Didn't help....so I guess the frame failure has been going on for sometime little by little.

I'm glad I finally had it looked in to but only because the front filon was breaking at the corners. This happened on a 1K trip earlier this year. I am happy it did not break completely on that trip. That would have been a big mess. Trailer broken and the bed sides of the truck smashed. Not happy with Lippert right now. Maybe better engineering is in order.

My message is...if something does not look right....find out why before something bad happens.

 

[boatto5er]

Did you contact Heartland about this? They have repaired several rigs with this problem.

 

[jnbhobe]

They did mine the first of April. Bob; was there any movement of the side walls right at the turn under where the bedroom slide is??

 

[Bob&Patty]

John and Gus, the Horn was built in July of '06. We bought it in September of '07. So I doubt if anyone cares now. I'm sure our insurance company would be thrilled if HL paid the bill....in fact so would I. It is already taken apart and I surely would not want to tow to Goshen in it's present state. It seems that anything built after 2010 year model with a 1621HD frame has not had any issues. It appears that the very front corners of the frame at the cross member are very weak. I guess I could call Coley...and jump up and down. Besides it would cost me more in fuel than it would be worth. What is it from here....1800 miles times 2 at $4.00 a gallon for fuel at 10 mpg average?? It's only $500 out of pocket for the deductable.

The sad part of the whole thing is....if my insurance company had totaled it. We would not have a trailer anymore. Just some cash after the loan was paid off. No one will loan people $60K living on SS and a savings account. Ya gotta have a job making money.

The one thing that ruffled my feathers was that someone pulled the cork out of the breaker away switch and ran the battery down, I hope it did not smoke the brake solenoids.

 

[jnbhobe]

Bob; The reason I brought it up was mine had broken studs in the walls too. Mine was built 2/ 08 and they covered it so you mite call and send pictures.

 

[wdk450]

Bob; The reason I brought it up was mine had broken studs in the walls too. Mine was built 2/ 08 and they covered it so you mite call and send pictures.

Having gone through the frame flex repair process with Heartland, I am pretty sure that they limit their involvement to repairing the units they deem to have the problem from photographic and measurement proof, by ONLY REPAIRING THOSE UNITS AT THE FACTORY. Units still in the initial year's warranty are transported to Elkhart at Heartland's expense (new units have reenforced frames with triangular metal gusset plates at the stress corners and should not have this problem). Units out of regular warranty must be transported to Elkhart at the owner's expense. In all the years this problem has been discussed, I have never heard of any compensation from Heartland or Lippert.

 

[TravelTiger]

Having gone through the frame flex repair process with Heartland, I am pretty sure that they limit their involvement to repairing the units they deem to have the problem from photographic and measurement proof, by ONLY REPAIRING THOSE UNITS AT THE FACTORY. Units still in the initial year's warranty are transported to Elkhart at Heartland's expense (new units have reenforced frames with triangular metal gusset plates at the stress corners and should not have this problem). Units out of regular warranty must be transported to Elkhart at the owner's expense. In all the years this problem has been discussed, I have never heard of any compensation from Heartland or Lippert.

True, I have not heard HL reimbursing someone, but you could still call and ask. I would not jump up and down, but be polite and respectful. Ours was 2010 ElkRidge, built in Oct 2009, purchased Mar 2010, and was repaired at the factory in Mar 2013.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Erika, just kinding about Coley. In fact just talked to him last week. He is helping out with somethings with our rally. Coley is a good and friendly person. When he comes to Socal for the RV shows...we always talk about things. Now, jumping up and down on someones desk at Lippert...that is a different story.