Kitchen and Bathroom floor cracking

[alaska dodge]

Has anyone had any issues with the vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom cracking and spidered out like a car windshield? I dropped mine off at a RV shop to get the heater worked on and they called me and told me that my floor had exploded; they told me that this is normal because the factory doesn’t glue the floor down. My question is, is this covered under warranty? Because now I have to replace my kitchen and bathroom floor and my 5th wheel isn’t even a year old.

Bill

 

[Toy1Ton]

I thought they dident use vinyl anymore

 

[cookie]

alaska dodge, to bad about your vinyl flooring. I think that if it "exploded" I wouldn't call that normal. Also if it is still under warranty my guess is it's covered. I am not the factory but that is just my thought. If it were me I would opt to just install a nice looking laminate. Do a search for Ray LeTourneau's mods. He put down laminate and it looks great. Again, just my thought. But then again I think too much.
Peace
Dave

 

[jbeletti]

Bill,

Please call or have your dealer call Heartland Customer Service in the morning.

Jim

 

[Pulltab]

Never heard of such a thing. First time for everything I guess huh? Heartland will take care of it no problem if under warranty.

 

[leftyf]

Has anyone had any issues with the vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom cracking and spidered out like a car windshield? I dropped mine off at a RV shop to get the heater worked on and they called me and told me that my floor had exploded; they told me that this is normal because the factory doesn’t glue the floor down. My question is, is this covered under warranty? Because now I have to replace my kitchen and bathroom floor and my 5th wheel isn’t even a year old.

Bill

No it is NOT normal. Did they take the rig from -30 below into a warm shop? If so...guess what.

What's the temp in that area right now? This probably would only occur in Fairbanks because of the 0% humidity and low, low, low temps. Being Jan...the temps are definitely below zero....probably hovering around a -20 unless you have some unusually cold weather. But, even coming from a -20 into a shop at 50 or 60 or higher...there's your problem right there. The dealer did it...and now, he's trying to blame it on the factory. Vinyl ain't too flexible below zero.

Ask me how I know.....

lemme know.

 

[alaska dodge]

Jim,
The dealer I bought it from is closed for the winter, I have tried when I had the heater issues and the business office took a message for someone to call me back and that was last month and I have not heard from them. I now have it set up and the wife is living in it fulltime while she goes to school. I talked to Chris about it at the number you gave me the other day and he wasn't sure that it would be covered but was going to check. I have not heard back from him on it, he was also looking into the front of my unit on the sides because it has separated when I am hooked up to the truck and now has cracked some of the fiberglass. He needs me to send him some pictures which I am going to take tomorrow when I get a digital camera. I have owned other units and have not had the issues I have had with this one. I am not to satisfied with my dealer, when I am ready to buy my Cyclone or Landmark I am going state side.

Bill

 

[alaska dodge]

Lefty,
it was -40 in Fairbanks when the shop pulled it into there warm bay, and they told me that they heard load poping and when they opened the door my floor was gone. I am now living in it in Anchorage and it is -20 at night and -11 during the day, we are suppose to warm up to +20F by thursday. They told me that the factory doesn't glue the entire floor down and in the cold that is what happens, and sure enough there is no glue under the vinyl.

Bill

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Bill, the way I understand the gluing of the vinyl flooring WILL cause cracking in extreme cold. For that reason, no RV manufacturers glue the vinyl. I wish I had an explanation that made some sense but I don't. I do feel that Heartland will do the right thing if it's under warranty. I hope everything works out in your best interests.

 

[alaska dodge]

Ray
Do you have pic of what you have done with your floor?

 

[cara1256]

Vinyl floor cracking

Bill,

We just checked our 2007 3400RL, and found our kitchen vinyl floor cracked from the bedroom stairs to the sink cabinet--that's approx. 6 feet long. We live in Iowa and had one night that tied the all time record of -34 degrees. It was parked next to our garage and hasn't been moved and no one had walked in it. We're now trying to figure out what we will replace it with (when it warms up!)

Cara

 

[beardedone]

Before we bought our Augusta I had a Titanium and before that a Travelaire, which are both owned by the same company in Canada. They glue the full surface of the lino down to the sub-floor and I never had an issue with once. Also we use all our trailers a lot in the winter. I would prefer the floor being totally glued down. When we go out to the Augusta we have to carefully tread around the heaved up lino and turn the heat on until it goes down. Usually takes 1 - 2 hours.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Ray
Do you have pic of what you have done with your floor?

Sorry I missed your request. Here are a couple pictures of the laminate we installed

 

[alaska dodge]

Cara,
I contacted the customer service and they are going to have a local shop put down new lino.

 

[HRAI]

cracked lino

Beautiful work on the floor there Ray. I might do something like that in mine down the road.

I have a brand new Sundance which I brought in for warranty work. It was down around 0 F when they brought the trailer into their warm bay. When I went back to look at warranty work in the unit after it was put back outside, I found a crack in the lino in front of the furnace!

The dealer says he will fix it under warranty.

hrai

 

[leftyf]

Lefty,
it was -40 in Fairbanks when the shop pulled it into there warm bay, and they told me that they heard load poping and when they opened the door my floor was gone. I am now living in it in Anchorage and it is -20 at night and -11 during the day, we are suppose to warm up to +20F by thursday. They told me that the factory doesn't glue the entire floor down and in the cold that is what happens, and sure enough there is no glue under the vinyl.

Bill

Bill, that vinyl is nothing special. It's the same flooring that is on a lot of kitchen floors in the lower 48. It was not designed for those temps. It explains a lot. Things that work down here, won't work worth a poop up there. I've seen guys snatch the door handles off their trucks at those temps. I got pictures of me driving a nail into a 2X4 with a gallon of prestone at -35 degrees another of a 55 gallon of 30 weight...cut the bottom and top off. Lifted up the sides of the barrel..whamo petroleum jello! Looked just like brown cranberry sauce.

I'll bet you that the floor does it again unless there is some linoleum that is designed for those temps. Those extension cords that are guaranteed to be flexible at -35...become totally inflexible with the plastic sheathing cracking and falling off at -36...if you picked it up and shook it. 20' of electric sheathing in 3,000 pieces of the ground outside Market Basket. On your flooring bringing the trailer from -40 below outside into a 60 degree garage may have damaged other parts too. the one hundred degree difference between inside and outside...and warming it up too fast was what messed you up.

I'd talk to a flooring dealer in Fairbanks and see what they recommend before you get the linoleum replaced. If not, you may get to do it all again before breakup.

Man, that would be really frustrating.