2019 37 force lean problem

[Force37HD]

So, I purchased a new 2019 unit in early January , got it home and into storage only to realized it had a lean to drivers side and only the rear portion of the unit, so it was kind of twisted.
I called Dynamax and They said it was airbags and not to worry...even though when jacks were down it didn't fix, after a trip to Freightliner as directed and 2 weeks of emails with factory convincing them it's a serious problem they sent a driver to pick up the unit. What they found was the roof was put on incorrectly and it caused the unit to be out of square, so the fix was the gut the unit and take the roof off and re attach. It's now in line at the paint department to get the repairs painted.
Has anybody else had an issue like this? I am blown away something like this could get out of the factory , if that gets out what else is there?
I have owned the unit for almost 2 months and have only driven it off the lot, very discouraged.

[bclemens]

I certainly hope we didn't use the phrase "gut the unit". As that is not what happened. We pulled the screws loose in the roof and the upper cabinets, we only pull as far as we need for it to slide back into place. Nothing was gutted and the roof was not removed. What happens is, sometimes the cab can be set wrong by MORryde (as it sort of floats). We may have racked the roof getting it installed onto the cab as we square it before it is installed. In almost 4 years now, I have seen something like this twice.

It is fairly common to get a little bit of a lean on these rigs with the air ride chassis and not knowing how they will be loaded and in many cases seeing them air down. 99 times out of 100 we just adjust the air ride and off we go. We normally wait until the rig is loaded first to make that call. In this case it was about 1/2" off. The fact it got out of here, through the dealer inspection and by the you through the shopping process before finally noticing it when it got home is how it leaves un-noticed. It is not easy to see and would normally be chalked up to an air ride adjustment.

I personally went out and looked at it and the PS was 1" higher than the DS...so only 1/2" off. It is being done by the factory with factory paint in a factory booth, so it will come back factory new.

My apologies for the inconvenience, we never like to see any defects, but they happen and so we try to respond accordingly.

[Force37HD]

Thanks for responding, as far as gutting, they told me at one point they have started "tearing into the inside of the unit" I obviously was surprised to hear that term so I asked what he meant by that and he said from the looks of it they are removing the cabinets and items from the walls to re square the unit.
As far as how bad it was out of level, When I put a laser from bottom of unit to the top of unit on that side there was a 4-3/8" difference. And the bedroom slide on opposite side had a 3/4" gap at the top.
Im glad they found the issue and glad they jumped on it when it arrived.
But I'm a little discouraged they can't tell me when I might get it back.

Can you also have them look into the clunking noise on the drivers side shock area? It makes a noise when you turn.

The coach is gourgeus and can't wait to get it dialed in and back home., I'm just looking for a schedule of some kind.

Again thanks for you're prompt response.

[bclemens]

No worries...I often have to have some refresher courses on tactful language and precision.

I asked to see that unit when it came in, since I personally saw the only other one like this. That one the dealer caught on check in and we took it apart MUCH further to identify the issue. This being the 2nd one, we knew what we were doing and how far we needed to go. So we just pulled the roof loose and the screws that went from the cabinet into the roof...we didn't need to pull them down.

I do know it only took them a day or so. I went back out and was surprised they were already done. The bigger part was getting it inline for paint. The one thing I asked my service guy for, was to call and see if there was anything else you needed addressed while we had it here in our possession. I trust that happened...if not I will need to have another unpleasant conversation.

Lastly, I will get you a timeline.

[Force37HD]

Brian, I obviously have the need for the same courses.
As far as if they asked me, I will say they just told me they would do a full inspection once it was complete.
Can somebody give me an estimate on when it might be going into paint?

[bclemens]

That I know they did do, or had planned. I asked about the list and the tech said they would just do a full PDI and take care of anything they saw, list or not.

I did confirm they are aware of the "clunk" concern. The first thing we look at is the sway bar, but I think yours has the newer bayonet style. While asking about that, our test driver mentioned that there is a "clunk" that is common to the Freightliner. Whether it should be there or not, it seems to be a characteristic of the M2. We're going to test drive just to be sure.

As for paint, there is one unit ahead of it....it was getting washed and will be allowed to dry before heading over...It should go in Thursday-Fri at the latest.

[FOURWHL]

Theres a thread about the steering tilt adjustment causing a clunk/wobble.

[37ForceHD]

Brian, you guys have had this for a month and a few days now, I need to know what day it's going to be sent back. I hear it's out of paint. Have not heard from your team in a couple days. Thank you. Spring break is next week...much appreciated

[uh60silverback]

Geez if you found that with a laser level. Perhaps a laser level should be incorporated in the build process as a quality control measure.

[BellaBee]

The good news it sounds like the root cause was found and not just assumed as the earlier hypothesis. Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA) is a critical process that must be followed in order to really get to the issue and solve it. Following that, the process must be reviewed to ensure it doesn't happen again. What I see it Dynamax identified the MORyde supplier process has a gap in the alignment and quality inspection process both from the supply side and the acceptance and integration side at the factory. I would expect the quality manager would be engaged with the manufacturing engineering team to ensure that both processes (supply and factory) now account for this to ensure no further escapes can happen (or at least significantly reduce the probability).

In my business I deal with this (quality escapes) all the time and the RCCA process is crucial in getting things tightened up (e.g. continuous improvement). It seems that Dynamax is addressing your coach issue but unfortunately it's taken awhile to sort out. Awhile is a relative term because to you each hour, day, week makes you more anxious and upset, awhile to the factory is getting it prioritized among all the 100's (if not 1000's of activities in-play). So days or weeks are normalized against months of building a unit.

This is frustrating for the customer experience but it's also frustrating for the manufacture since these kind of escapes impact operations and also brand image.

As numerous posts have stated, these are complex machines with many system integration points and getting everything right is challenging. I work in the Aerospace industry and corrective actions can take much longer given the criticality of the type of equipment. If something goes wrong, someone can be injured or die. This is serious stuff. The auto industry is not far behind. Clearly this is not a critical safety issue but it is a huge inconvenience that I'm sure Dynamax will address in whatever consideration they provide you. The great news is they are responsive and engaged in solving the issue and as evidenced by Brian's engagement, I would expect learning from this and updating their supplier and factory assembly and inspection processes to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Btw, our 2019 Dynaquest XL 37RB is very close to shipping from the factory to our dealer in SoCal...I've been learning so much from this forum, you can bet I'll be taking that PDI to the next level before I accept the coach. I've been boning up on all the factory pictures published on FB each week to learn about the inside of manufacturing process (end-to-end to the degree I can) so I can check out the details "beneath the beauty". Safe travels to all.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by 37ForceHD

Brian, you guys have had this for a month and a few days now, I need to know what day it's going to be sent back. I hear it's out of paint. Have not heard from your team in a couple days. Thank you. Spring break is next week...much appreciated

I'm traveling, but in checking email records it looks like Dan has been communicating with you.

[37ForceHD]

Originally Posted by bclemens

I'm traveling, but in checking email records it looks like Dan has been communicating with you.

Yes, he reached out yesterday. Thanks