Sorry for the long post...but this really is the short edited version:
My previous bumper pull TT (not an FR) I had major axle issues with, and of course, it didn't rear its ugly head until the warranty was up.
This trailer at the time had around 4000 miles on it (including miles transported miles from the Indiana factory to the dealership in northern Colorado) and was just over 2 years old from it's build date.
It started out on a trip to AZ when I heard a loud clunk while going over a bridge that was under construction.
Didn't think anything of it at first, but I drove about 15 miles and pulled in to the next rest area to take a look.
At first I noticed a strange gouge in one of the tires, so I immediately suspected the installed TowMax tires (known to most RV'ers in the know as 'BlowMax' tires) and thought I was having a tread separation in action.
WRONG!
Well, four days later while on the interstate in Phoenix, AZ a car pulled up alongside and started pointing at his eyes, then at the side of the trailer (meaning 'LOOK AT YOUR TRAILER').
As I rounded the exit ramp I saw a huge plume of smoke billowing out from under my camper.
Well, to keep this long story short, I had an axle and spindle failure that almost burned up my trailer on the interstate, which would have made that day a little worse than it already was.
And remember the loud clunk from a few days before?
Well, as it turns out the springs were shot and the trailer was bottoming out on the tires, which is why the one tire had the gouge, plus it was ripping holes into the bottom of a slide and the bottom of the trailer on the other side.
Spent $1000 to get a bandaid fix to finish our trip and get home (over 1000 away), and then the fun really began!
After lots of research I discover one thing about my physical TT...
Looking at a photo of it hooked to my truck across the street from the dealership I was noticing how low to the ground it sat, and looking at the photo of it on the manufacturer's website, their model was raised at least six inches higher than mine was, and I remembered once when I pulled along side the same brand TT in a Home Depot parking lot the myself and the other owner were commenting on the differences in height from the ground.
Thus the fight began and lasted three months!
Turned out that the axles from the factory where rated for less than 1040 pounds that the trailer weighed when it left the factory (dry weight) as I completely emptied that trailer and got a certified weight of the trailer, and the springs had been holding all of that weight the whole time.
And after all the fighting, I got Dexter to give me two upgraded axles (about $350 each for us to buy), and I had to pay for everything else, including new bigger wheels and tires, springs and the whole cazbah!
Out of pocket over $4000 total once all was said and done.
Anyway, my extended warranty (sold to me by the dealership) refused coverage on any of this.
Although they did try to be real nice and offered to pay $150 of the total bill after I paid my $150 deductible, of course.
I thanked them...then told them to keep their money...read the fine print of this warranty 100 time and found a back-out clause, which I used and got the remanding portion of that warranty refunded, which I used as a down payment for my current 5'ver...
And of course I had to bend over for the trade-in and lost my shirt on it.
There is a lot more to this story, including an encounter at the Flagstaff, Arizona Camping World by their service manager that should have caught at least the bearing and spindle failure if he hadn't been more interested in his coffee and donuts!
Oh well...that is another story for another day...
Here is that photo...mine is on the left: