To make a long story short, the noise that I was told by the dealer that was coming from the hubcap, was actually being caused by the the metal struts supporting the floorboard on the driver side. It's finally fixed, as I had to do it myself. I still have one concern the the noise may come back as where they mounted the strut actually contacts another piece of the frame (red circle) and after some miles and more chassis flexing it could come back. At least this time I'll know how to fix it!
Step 1 - left vehicle at dealer for warranty repair, they found no problem.
Step 2 - left vehicle for warranty repair again, this time I had the dealer bring the RV over to a local Ford dealer who does truck repair to have it looked at. The dealer got it back and told me it was the hub cap. Obviously it was not after driving it home. I called Ford dealer directly to ask them what they found and they told the RV dealer that it was the running board.
Step 3 - After the next trip and having to endure the noise for the entire ride, I took the RV back to the Ford dealer myself. This time I had them show me exactly what the issue was. All the guy had to do was get on the running board and jump and down a bit and it was obvious the problem was the running board. One reason I did not find this myself is that I am considerably lighter than the Ford tech so it was much easier for him to diagnose the problem.
He did offer to fix the problem for me but told me they would have to charge me since this was a motor home manufacturer problem which I understand. Finally, I have to give a big shout out to Yocum ford as they were awesome and went out of their way to try and help.
Step 4 - Having no confidence in the dealer to fix this problem I decided to to do it myself. This weekend I had some time as our trip got cancelled again because of the continuing AC problem (another thread).
Step 5 - I removed both struts from under the driver side running board. As it turns out, the 2 bolts at the top had started to pull through the frame on each strut probably because they were not sufficiently sized to handle the constant stress of people getting in and out. FR only used 1/4 inch self tapping screws when they probably should have drilled out the holes and used larger bolts which is exactly what I did (see pic). I also put some grease on all the metal to metal parts between straps, struts and body/frame to try and minimize squeaks from coming back. I also used washers on all the connections which where non-existent on the factory install.
So for now, the noise is gone. I bought some extra bolts just in case this starts happening on the passenger side as well.
Finally, I am pretty sure that if I had persisted with trying to have the dealer fix this issue, I would have burnt up at least $100 in gas and tolls over multiple trips not to mention the time and just maybe it would have gotten fixed.
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