How To Repair Georgetown side wall failure

[Eric52]

Well i never thought this could happen. While driving this weekend I noticed my dashboard seemed to be bouncing more than it should be? Imagine my surprise when I looked over to the passenger sidewall and saw the wall moving up and down with every bump or roll in the road. The sidewall was completely free of the frame. The next exit had a lowes so I pulled in, took the trim off the side and tried to unscrew the bolts. They were all free spinning and I could only get one out. There were six bolts from the front of the cab to the door, all them sheared off. The most surprising thing to me is the size screws they use, 1/4x20 self tapping screws counter sunk through the fiberglass framing into the chassis frame. I feel that is much to small to support a wall with no interior support. I guess I am upgrading. 2008 georgetown 350tsse.

[Eric52]

Originally Posted by Iggy

You don't have fiberglass framing but aluminum framing.
So what you are saying is the inner wall on the passenger side came loose from the frame in the wall.
So now what are you going to do?
I would consider wht the motorhome is making the walls shake and come loose. What type of roads do yo drive?
When was the tires balanced or rotated especially on the right side.
Are you the original owner?
How many miles on the rig?

Like to hear more.

I didn't think I would have to explain that there is aluminum framing in the sidewall. Fiberglass framing? Never heard of it.
I am saying the sidewall interior & exterior have fallen off the chassis and was hanging in the wind. It was moving at least 3 to 4 inches. When I crawled under to see what was happening the wall had dropped about an inch. The door trim even popped off.
I feel like it should be carriage bolted thru the frame with at least 3/8". That is what I intend on doing.
Original owner, from new.
12,000 miles
Southeast PA. If u don't live in the area I can't explain how crappy the roads are in this part of the country. Still no excuse in my opinion.

[Eric52]

Ripped the floor out 12" from the sidewall and exposed the floor frame. Next I will have to jack the sidewall up to the original location and then drill through the wall and the frame and bolt it together. Using 3/8x16x5"stainless steel machine head phillips screws with stainless steel nylocks nuts. My countersink bit showed up yesterday but it is 103 degrees in PA. so I am in a holding pattern. By the way I am doing both the passengers side and the drivers side. I will also replace the existing carpet with 12x12 vinyl tiles. I have already done this up to the drivers cockpit. I will post some photos soon.

[Eric52]

Got the floor opened all the way today. I choose to hole saw the drivers side to access the frame. It was alot easier. Good solid frame work. Nice job there. Bolts on the driver side already are rusted. Glad I choose the stainless steel. You can see the screws I used next to factory.

[Eric52]

Finished up the interior and exterior yesterday. Since we primarily use our camper for motocross racing 20+ weekends a year.I decided to use interlocking garage tiles for the cockpit. I have already replaced that crappy carpet in the lining area with the vinyl tiles u see in the photo. Just have a little trim work left to do.

[KyDan]

Great thread and very informative.
The photos really tell the story.
Thanks for sharing.

I'm wondering about the thread title--- just Alert doesn't do it
justice.
What should we call it so others will be able to find it when needed.

Georgetown wall to frame bolts sheared?
Something else??
Let's come up with an informative title and I'll edit to change it.

Thanks again for the photos. They really make this post worth reading!

[Interacsol]

I have a 2009 GTA350 TSSE Diesel with 16K miles. I am facing the same problem although my wall has not come completely off yet.

On a recent trip to the Oregon Coast, I noticed that the dash seemed to move up and down with respect to the rest structure I see from the driver's seat. At first I thought it was my imagination. As I paid more attention, I could definitely tell that it looked like the whole front end was "bouncing up and down" over bumps or heaves in the road -- the dash is not moving.

I can also see a gap of .25" appear and disappear between my dashboard and the side wall.

Then, I started getting a loud (startling) metallic bang during right turns that I can literally feel with my hand on the sidewall. It sounds like someone hitting the inside wall, under the floor and above the left front wheel, with a hammer. Though I suspected a body problem, I took it to the Freightliner service center last week to make sure that there was nothing going on with the suspension or steering since the noise seems to come from under my left foot when driving.

On inspection today, I found the same woefully inadquate self-tapping screws that the OP mentioned. In the coming days, I will be performing the OP's mod plus adding some additional structural support in left front corner.

I know I bought an entry-level coach but this is ridiculous. Although I have been satisfied with the coach in general and the Freightliner/Cummins chassis in particular, I have lost confidence in the fundamental quality of the construction and I will be trading it on a Tiffen Allegro or Phaeton diesel pusher bunkhouse.

[pmsherman]

I noticed the same problem in my 2011 327 on the driver's side. There was lots of squeaking when driving and when I looked at the attachment from the wheel well, I saw that there was over 1/4" between the sidewall and the frame. I could see the threads on the frontmost screw holding the wall to the frame. The dealer repaired this under the factory warranty by replacing the first screw with a bolt and retightening the next 5 screws moving towards the rear of the coach.

The passenger side squeaks too now but doesn't show any space between the sidewall and the frame. This problem was reported before the expiration of the factory warranty and I expect to get it fixed later this year when we return home.

Phil

[Interacsol]

Update:

I completed repairs today. All of the self-drilling screws installed at the factory (3 on the driver's side and 5 on the passenger side) had sheared. I have never driven on anything but paved roads, BTW.

Using the technique described by the OP, I installed 9 stainless through-bolts on the driver's side and 12 on the passenger's side. I had to use a 12-ton hydraulic jack to raise the passenger-side wall back up into place. I also used 50 #14 self-drilling screws to reinforce every place I could find where the sidewall met the floor or firewall bulkhead. The whole project took about 10 hours.

I took it for a test drive today and it felt solid as a rock -- there was also much less body sway when pulling out of parking lots, etc. All squeaks, rattles, and groans have disappeared too. This is how it should leave the factory.

I had concerns about the wall/floor joint last year, before my warranty expired. I described the noise I was hearing to my local dealer and, after a "thorough inspection" they informed me that I was hearing the fire extinguisher by the door squeaking and rattling. One year later the entire front end my coach was close to collapsing to the ground.

To see if your coach has this problem, drive 25-30 mph and pulse the brakes in a rythm to gently bounce the front end up and down on the suspension. Watch the floor/sidewall intersection ahead of the passenger's seat and by your left ankle. My sidewall was moving up and down 1 inch relative to the floor.

This project gave me glimpse of the overall quality of construction. The materials are fine for this level of the market but there was no pride in the workmanship. I won't go into details but I'm not impressed.

[sherman12]

Is this only a problem with the side walls from the front of the rig extending to just behind the driver and passenger seats, about 6ft or so? My 2011 330TS has a bad rattle mid-ship which sounds like it is coming from the floor area under the dinette slide (curbside). The dealer is going to go into the floor from underneath the slide, through the basement so to speak after the camping season ends in November in my neck of the woods.

[pmsherman]

The wall is supposed to be attached to the steel frame that supports the floor. If there's a gap, you can easily fill it with foam but that's not a repair. The screws that hold the wall to the frame probably came loose which allowed the wall to pull free. When this occurs at the front of the RV, it allows the front of the coach to bounce up and down, independent of the lower frame which will only make the condition worse. The correct fix for this problem is to get the wall tightly attached to the steel framing so that it doesn't come loose again.

Phil

[January Storm]

Eric 52,
How's your repair holding up?
We are dealing with Forest River and our warranty dealer Grumbines in Harrisburg PA today with this issue of our 2007 GTX toy hauler. Seems that both left and right walls are detaching. They told us that this would be covered under warranty since it is structural.
We like your fix and thought about letting both these parties see your repair. We question the long term repair of just replacing the self taping screws that it came with from factory. It seems obvious that these screws are unable to hold up under the demands of weight and movement.

[Eric52]

Though it has only been six months, we have driven about 3000 miles and it is still solid. I feel that I have fixed it for good. I wasn't going to have the same screws that the factory installed used again as the fix.

[January Storm]

We too have this same problem AGAIN. 2009 Georgetown 36' toyhauler.
Left and right walls were repaired by dealer early in spring of this year.
Unfortunatly they repaired them the same way the factory built the RV even though we had asked for some upgrading. Well it's now fall and 3000 miles later the left wall is loose again. We are following Eric52's plan of repair ourselves. We are doing both sides. Thanks to the helpful Eric52. Hopefully get this repaired once, well, actually twice and done. I must add though that overall we are very happy with our RV. This is our second RV.
Mechanically it has been reliable and sound for 24,000 miles. I'll update on how we make out. Any suggestions for perfecting this repair?

[Eric52]

The fix I made is solid. It has been nearly 18 mos. and it is still extremely solid.