Rust

[Mr. October]

It's a little disappointing that for the price of these things they aren't a bit better protected underneath. I've been spending winter weekends crawling under the coach, wire brushing, priming and painting surface rust. There is no way I'll be able to get to it all. Some of it is in some pretty hard-to-reach places. And it isn't just Georgetown. I have access to a dozen coaches of all brands at our storage facility and I crawled under a few of them. Lots of rust. We had our old Mercedes Sprinter-based motorhome for 12 seasons and, aside from some of the black pipe used for gas lines, 0 rust.

[WanderMore]

I think you answered your own question.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by WanderMore

I think you answered your own question.

How so? This is an honest question.

Bruce

[WanderMore]

More care and pride went into the Mercedes based coach. Look at the factory production videoed for the more ‘pedestrian’ brands where they are just cranked out.

[Funengineer]

I hear ya Pete. I’ve seen that on other coaches and trailers.

Our last Rockwood trailer was delivered to the dealer in the winter and sat on his lot till we bought it late summer. It sat all those months with road salt residue on the undercarriage. Needless to say it had started to rust and unbeknown to us they just did some topcoat spraying of the bumper to hide what you could see from above. The frame and stabilization Jack started to rust pretty bad that first year and the bumper eventually did the same.

Fast forward to our 2019 Flagstaff trailer. Built and delivered in the late spring so it didn’t travel on salted roads and it wasn’t on the dealers lot for more than two months. As soon as I got it home and after spending the time to fix or tweak all the little manufacturing and design issues I turned my attention to the undercarriage, bumper and hitch. The only visible rust was on the axle tubes and it was minimal so I used a spray rust converter on those. Then I turned my attention to roughing up the entire frame either with a scotchbrite pad or sander. I used Eastwood’s Satin Chassis Black and their primer and gave everything two coats of spray. It wasn’t an easy task as I’m sure your aware. I covered the driveway with huge sheets of plastic and wore old pants and long sleeve shirt which are now my official painting uniform.

So far we have avoided traveling on any salted roads by storing our trailer in Indianapolis for the fall and picking it up on our way south for the winter. So far no rust but I did notice that the powder coating on the stabilization Jack’s is starting to peal on the edges. I don’t think you can get away from that.

As we contemplate and research moving from our TT to a Class C I have been looking at the various finished conditions of the chassis’s. It appears that most are as you describe.

Good luck with your project.

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by Funengineer

I hear ya Pete. I’ve seen that on other coaches and trailers.

Our last Rockwood trailer was delivered to the dealer in the winter and sat on his lot till we bought it late summer. It sat all those months with road salt residue on the undercarriage. Needless to say it had started to rust and unbeknown to us they just did some topcoat spraying of the bumper to hide what you could see from above. The frame and stabilization Jack started to rust pretty bad that first year and the bumper eventually did the same.

Fast forward to our 2019 Flagstaff trailer. Built and delivered in the late spring so it didn’t travel on salted roads and it wasn’t on the dealers lot for more than two months. As soon as I got it home and after spending the time to fix or tweak all the little manufacturing and design issues I turned my attention to the undercarriage, bumper and hitch. The only visible rust was on the axle tubes and it was minimal so I used a spray rust converter on those. Then I turned my attention to roughing up the entire frame either with a scotchbrite pad or sander. I used Eastwood’s Satin Chassis Black and their primer and gave everything two coats of spray. It wasn’t an easy task as I’m sure your aware. I covered the driveway with huge sheets of plastic and wore old pants and long sleeve shirt which are now my official painting uniform.

So far we have avoided traveling on any salted roads by storing our trailer in Indianapolis for the fall and picking it up on our way south for the winter. So far no rust but I did notice that the powder coating on the stabilization Jack’s is starting to peal on the edges. I don’t think you can get away from that.

As we contemplate and research moving from our TT to a Class C I have been looking at the various finished conditions of the chassis’s. It appears that most are as you describe.

Good luck with your project.

It's a lot of work. So far I haven't found anything serious. Just some surface rust but trying to get on top of it. In hindsight when we took delivery in Feb of 2019 I should have just dealt with getting wet and cold and crawled underneath with the hose and sprayed everything down well.

[nomad297]

Have you ever tried either of these products?



https://www.simoniz.com/Customer-Con...nd-Rustite.pdf

Bruce

[Grdumond]

This (Fluid Film) is a very good product. I live in the road salt/road calcium capital of the world....Northern Maine. It’s easy to apply and really works.

https://www.fluid-film.com/

[TitanMike]

If driving in areas that use corrosive road chemicals for ice/snow you might consider a Rust Inhibiting treatement like Ziebart.

Car and Truck manufacturers treat the frames/unibody for rust prevention by immersing in huge vats Travel Trailer's and Motorhomes aren't although MH frames might have a better treatment than the TT frames.

There are a lot of DIY products but if you go that route be prepared to make a mess. Get some old clothes and lay plastic sheeting under the vehicle unless you are going to rust-proof your driveway too

[HookupAndGo]

It's not just the rust from salt on metal products.

I was under the hood of my MH yesterday to put a new engine battery in (got just shy of 8 years of of the original! ) ... anyway, i noticed one of the driving lights was tilted back. Turns out the screws had rusted out so it was just hanging on by the fact that it was a tight fit. Getting in there and looking closer, the mounting is a fiberglass block with wood interior. Well, the wood was completely rotted out. So the wood rot is what really caused the screws to rot -- too much water retention. So, you all may want to double check your lights as well.

Now to find a good "filler" so i can fill the voids by the dissolved wood to get my light mounted properly. Was actually really surprised it was wood and not just solid fiberglass.

[Mr. October]

Thanks all for the suggestions on rust preventers. I'll probably go back through and apply one of those products once I'm done wire brushing, priming, and painting. On a related note, there is a lot of rust above the steps. I think I'm going to remove them and do that area. While they are out, I'll probably go over the steps themselves well, do some painting, thorough lubrication, and maybe replace some of the hardware with stainless steel.

It looks to me like the steps are just held on by 4 bolts and an electrical connection. Is it that simple?

[Jfkmk]

Originally Posted by WanderMore

More care and pride went into the Mercedes based coach. Look at the factory production videoed for the more ‘pedestrian’ brands where they are just cranked out.

The production of the “pedestrian” brands have nothing to do with the chassis of a motor home since the chassis is provided by someone else.

[NXR]

It's not just Ford and rust. I was looking over the exterior the other day and I noticed that a screw appeared to be missing from a few of those large brackets that hold the slide toppers to each end of the slide itself. I do gently tighten all exterior screws each Spring.

I dragged out a ladder and sure enough, the screw heads corroded off. I gently tightened each one and another screw head came right off.

Given that the shank of each screw is still inside the slide wall, I'm not sure how I'm going to fix these. So I put a dab of sealant in each one that was missing to keep water out. In retrospect, I should have left them exposed because maybe the screw shank inside the wall would just corrode away, making the replacement easier.

Looks like I'm buying a bunch of stainless screws to replace all of the ones I can after we get back. <sigh>

Ray

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by NXR

It's not just Ford and rust. I was looking over the exterior the other day and I noticed that a screw appeared to be missing from a few of those large brackets that hold the slide toppers to each end of the slide itself. I do gently tighten all exterior screws each Spring.

I dragged out a ladder and sure enough, the screw heads corroded off. I gently tightened each one and another screw head came right off.

Given that the shank of each screw is still inside the slide wall, I'm not sure how I'm going to fix these. So I put a dab of sealant in each one that was missing to keep water out. In retrospect, I should have left them exposed because maybe the screw shank inside the wall would just corrode away, making the replacement easier.

Looks like I'm buying a bunch of stainless screws to replace all of the ones I can after we get back. <sigh>

Ray

I get that it's a cost thing, but I don't know why motorhome manufacturers don't use stainless hardware for all exterior fittings. Our old motorhome was the same way.

[Dodge Guy]

I got lucky with my used 2012. The underside looks as clean if not cleaner than my buddies 17 when he got it new. The previous owner never drove it south in winter and it was stored indoors. Same with me currently. Yes going south in the winter would be great, but it’s not possible right now because we’re not retired, at least 10-15 more years! And even then if I do head south it will be before the snow comes and I wouldn’t be back till after it’s gone!

[Mr. October]

I got the steps out. It wasn't overly difficult but it wasn't overly simple either. I need to pick up some long ratchet extensions before I reinstall them. Of course my 9/16" deep well socket broke on the first bolt necessitating a trip to Harbor Freight. Because I didn't have socket extensions (didn't know I needed them before I went to Harbor Freight) I had to remove the stop nut on each side separately to be able to get the socket in place to loosen the outer bolt on each side. It wasn't hard. Just time consuming and a lot of crawling in and out. Ultimately, I think it will be worth it though. There was a lot of rust under there. I may replace the step motor while it is out too. It is pretty rusty. I could just clean it up, but I don't think they are overly expensive. I may replace, then clean it up as a spare. Also, going to replace all fasteners with stainless, and put a serious layer of grease on the gear teeth.

[Jfkmk]

Dang, those steps look like my stabilizer jacks looked after 2 years of use. The paint was coming off in huge chunks. I swear they fell into the ocean on the way over from China and were recovered. Nothing else under the trailer had any rust at all.

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by Jfkmk

Dang, those steps look like my stabilizer jacks looked after 2 years of use. The paint was coming off in huge chunks. I swear they fell into the ocean on the way over from China and were recovered. Nothing else under the trailer had any rust at all.

It was delivered to our dealer in Pennsylvania from Indiana in February and then the we drove it back he two hours home the day after a snowstorm. It was cold but I should have spent some time with the hose underneath.

[robo44]

I had a similar question with my 2019 FR3 Class A , I purchased in Nov 2018 - I got it home and looked underneath, and it showed signs of rust. I asked FR, and they mentioned that in my case FORD delivers the F53 Chassis months in advance and they let them sit in a lot outside in Indiana waiting for space and time to manufacture the MH. there is not a lot of difference between 2016-2019 Ford F53. So they sit in a field. I suspect the same for TT or your vehicle.
My solution was to surface sand the rust then apply Fluid Film all in the undercarriage. Now it's protected like an East Coast vehicle which encounter rad salt and other nasty stuff, (but Im in California)

[Mr. October]

Originally Posted by robo44

I had a similar question with my 2019 FR3 Class A , I purchased in Nov 2018 - I got it home and looked underneath, and it showed signs of rust. I asked FR, and they mentioned that in my case FORD delivers the F53 Chassis months in advance and they let them sit in a lot outside in Indiana waiting for space and time to manufacture the MH. there is not a lot of difference between 2016-2019 Ford F53. So they sit in a field. I suspect the same for TT or your vehicle.
My solution was to surface sand the rust then apply Fluid Film all in the undercarriage. Now it's protected like an East Coast vehicle which encounter rad salt and other nasty stuff, (but Im in California)

To a point yes. But much of the rust (the worst rust) is on the frame added by Georgetown.