Forest River 2703 skirting

[pauljackie]

When they install the skirting, they need to add more support braces. During our extended trip driving at night I happen to notice looking back via my mirror that half of the side skirt was loose and flopping in the wind. I pulled off and took a flash light to look only to see that the bracket had been pulled off from the skirt and the skirt pulled off or out of the top piece of trim that hold the skirt. Luck I had screws and a power screw driver to refasten it. Then later on the same trip the other side of the trailer skirt came loose. This time braking the support bracket and pulling the skirt loose. Funny only one bracket was used for this length of skirt. It was a good thing that when the other side broke I bought some flat aluminum and made a couple of brackets. Again fixed on the road! Just one note when these brackets and skirting broke it was very windy with a lot of cross wind.
My point is if Forest River would have had one or two more supports the cross winds would not have wobbled the skirts back and forth and finally broke and pulled the screws out. In both cases things could have been worse I could have had the skirting pull completely out and bend in half.
So check your braces and reinforce as needed😊

[wamafi43]

Originally Posted by pauljackie

When they install the skirting, they need to add more support braces. During our extended trip driving at night I happen to notice looking back via my mirror that half of the side skirt was loose and flopping in the wind. I pulled off and took a flash light to look only to see that the bracket had been pulled off from the skirt and the skirt pulled off or out of the top piece of trim that hold the skirt. Luck I had screws and a power screw driver to refasten it. Then later on the same trip the other side of the trailer skirt came loose. This time braking the support bracket and pulling the skirt loose. Funny only one bracket was used for this length of skirt. It was a good thing that when the other side broke I bought some flat aluminum and made a couple of brackets. Again fixed on the road! Just one note when these brackets and skirting broke it was very windy with a lot of cross wind.
My point is if Forest River would have had one or two more supports the cross winds would not have wobbled the skirts back and forth and finally broke and pulled the screws out. In both cases things could have been worse I could have had the skirting pull completely out and bend in half.
So check your braces and reinforce as needed😊

I found this out when I drove home from the dealer (new 2015 Sanibel 3250.)
At home I looked at the fenders from the wheels back and they where very loose.
Bought some aluminum material and made 4 more brackets.
Forest River uses smal self tapping screws to screw this supports to the frame. These small screw heads hold nothing, by using penny washers underneath the screw head and slightly rotating the support, the supports get very stiff .
I repeated this with my home made supports and the fenders are now stiff as they should be.
I mentioned this to forest river and the dealer, they would do nothing about it.
As I said, I really would like to talk to the designers of these trailers, I had many trailers over the last 40 years from pop ups to travel trailers and now 5 ers.
Have not found the "perfect" trailer yet, how hard can it be......
The main thing for all manufactores should be is quality control and customer satisfaction.