Frame cracks on freedom express 246 rks

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by MaineCampingFan

Perhaps, however I believe the OP's unit as well as mine have the stiffeners in place and are outside the recall. Given that the apparent solution is not working as intended, maybe it is time to expand the recall.

Good luck with that!

[miss kathy]

The same thing happened on my 2015 wildwood 27rkss

[MaineCampingFan]

Originally Posted by miss kathy

The same thing happened on my 2015 wildwood 27rkss

Can you post pics?

[Nickrenfro]

Yes the angle iron IS the factory fix...But my problem lies a short distance away..Haven't heard back from the forrest river yet to see is this is covered by warranty ..It should ,i think.

[dbarr]

Originally Posted by Nickrenfro

Yes the angle iron IS the factory fix...But my problem lies a short distance away..Haven't heard back from the forrest river yet to see is this is covered by warranty ..It should ,i think.

Great. Now water can sit and rot the frame.

[MR.M]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

Good luck with that!

Why should FR care ? they are out of warranty now . seems it would be better to wait for a catastrophic failure , maybe loss of life or limb before they waste money for just a crack in the frame . I say tow at your own risk ,if you saw it and did nothing then FR shouldn't be responsible if it causes an accident or major loss of life , since it's out of warranty it's not their problem . hahaha

[louchy47]

looks like cracks started at welds end. To be safe take a small drill 1/8 inch and drill at all crack ends . This called stop drill. this can help frame from cracking more but it should have a steel plate welded over whole crack but do not 100%weld aroumd plate ,it will crack again. don't weld to corners of plate

[phillyg]

I'm not familiar with your RV, but I'd guess too much RV house built on too little frame. The recommendations to weld on mending plates is good. You're way out of warranty, but I'd still contact FR to see if they will help.

[MaineCampingFan]

Originally Posted by MaineCampingFan

Have contacted FR and received a very quick reply with a request for additional photos, so they could contact LCI. Have to say I was impressed with the quick reply.

As a follow up, both FR and LCI have been prompt and easy to communicate with and both seem eager to solve this issue to my satisfaction, despite being out of warranty. Here is how the process went:

After having read several accounts of frame cracking, it looked like contacting FR first was the step to take. So, I contacted my dealer first to ask who at FR to contact. So, got that and sent an email, with photos, written in a calm and reasonable manner. I had a reply within an hour directing me to a contact at Lippert. I sent the photos to LCI, they replied same afternoon asking for specific photos. I sent them off and received back a reply asking me to get an estimate using "any service center or dealership that you choose to work with, we will work with anyone that you feel comfortable with".
So, it went to my dealer where it was purchased, they had their fabricator look at and formulated a plan of repair. Estimate was submitted and approved by LCI, they will cover the repair.

For all the negative comments, horror stories and endless "experts", I can only say that Forest River, Lippert and my dealer Harvey RV's have stepped up and put up. Period. This isn't to minimize those who are having issues....we certainly know how fast these units are produced. It shortened my season by about a week, a minor inconvenience in the whole scheme of things. The repair is scheduled, I'll have it winterized at the same time, with a heavy travel schedule for work, the season is over for me.

[phillyg]

Well, that's excellent! While I had significant issues with my Wildcat, FR was going to take it back to the factory and make my payments for three months. Repairs did involve the frame, too.

I decided to sell it instead and bought a Keystone product. I didn't have near the problems with it, but I can tell you KS's dealer, KS's lack of willingness to even listen to me about warranty service and their poor overall service, was the pits. FR was head and shoulders above KS. This is not the first time I've heard about FR doing the right thing, sometimes even out of warranty.

[dward51]

Let me toss my 2 cents in here. Our 2015 Freedom Express 246RKS had frame cracking issues. The first clue was when we saw the front axle shifted about 1 1/2" street ward when returning home. Found several frame cracks and outrigger welds cracked. We were the trailer's 2nd owner and it was out of warranty.

Before fixing it at a local commercial trailer welding shop, I called both FR and Lippert (using the number from the NHSTA frame recall on the 2013-2014 models). Long story short after about a week of trading emails, sending detailed photos, etc... Lippert agreed to send a technician out to do the repair at their expense. It was out of warranty, 2nd owner, etc.... but they offered a "good will gesture" which I greatly appreciated.

Their tech knew his stuff, was very polite and arrived in a marked Lippert mobile field service and welding truck that was well stocked with parts. He spent 2 days working on my frame and did a great job. The welds were first rate work. In addition to plating and welding the cracks, the frame was "tubed" with a 1x2" 7 gauge square tube welded over the axle area (about 8' or so). And then thick angle steel was welded from the hangers on one side to the other. Also the hangers were replaced with thicker steel models. When done, alignment was spot on.

I have nothing but good things to say about how both Forest River and Lippert handled our frame cracks. My only expense was the removal and replacement of the underbelly which a co-worker and I did. I ended up buying new coroplast underbelly material as getting those power driven nails out was a pain and we ended up just cutting it out in sections.

So if you have a frame crack in your trailer at least try calling FR and Lippert to see if they can help you out. You can count me as another owner who they treated right (and this is the sort of thing people tend to remember in a good way!!!! I know we will....).

[Cardaddy73]

My wife and i have a 2014 312 BHDS. I inspected it after you all started talking about this and sure enough ours is cracked also. Not as bad as some others but enough to worry about. I contacted FR and Lippert and both replied that ours was not involved in the recall but stated they would pay to repair it. They (Lippert) authorized 3.0 and would supply the frame stiffener/reinforcements. The next day i received email though saying the stiffeners they had were not the correct size for our frame and we should out source the supplies and they would reimburse for the costs. They sent a diagram on were they are to installed. Seeing what else has been posted worries me since the original repairs were the same thing they want me to do and this appears to not be enough. I thank them also for quick reply but after getting 2 estimates 3 hours will never fully cover our costs. The welders also said that it needs more than that to make a good repair. Have you all had the coroplast down? I have and I do not look forward to it again. When the trailer was new the black tank bracket broke and it feel down luckily it had a cross member under the big outlet pipe and it caught it. Needless to say i am concerned.

[rockfordroo]

Since it's out of warranty, I'd have it fixed correctly and send them the bill. If they cover it all, great; if not, take the 3 hours and move on.

[dward51]

The NHTSA recall was due to those stiffeners not being installed when they should have (so it's a Lippert screw up from day 1). I don't know that they have much of a choice if they had an employee who forgot to weld in a required stiffener. From the photos, your frame does not look to be compromised, but eventually rust creeping in that crack, combined with road forces will make it worse. I'm no expert, but you may only need the stiffeners from the lower cord to the upper in the I-Beam. Good thing you caught it early. What is the welder saying needs to be done in addition to the vertical stiffeners being installed?


And yes, taking the entire coroplast underbelly off and then putting it back on is a major problem. Especially for us old farts!

[dbarr]

The same F grade engineers that designed this garbage also designed the fix. Mine gets repaired every other year and last year was so severe it ended up back at Lippert. It’s been sitting since getting it back in September in a dry storage building bleeding rust stains from all the exposed bare metal that can’t be reached with paint.

If you don’t need the underbelly, leave it off.

[Cardaddy73]

Ours is back from welder! I will post pictures ASAP, he ground the cracks and installed 1x2 stiffeners as per bulletin. We found the crossmember at the frame is actually where it cracked but my welder said it is for sure frame flex at spring hangers. Some one posted they installed stiffeners similar to a internal tsb at Lippert so I showed him that and said that would help. I need to rebuild the spring hangers any suggestions on best way to go?

[dward51]

I had cracks where the cross members mounted to the frame on mine as well. They ground, welded, and over plated all the cracks. The Lippert tech who fixed mine cut off all the old hangers and after installing the tubing under the frame, installed new hangers on the tubing. The new hangers looked a little thicker and longer than the original ones (I did not take a side by side photo though). Once he verified the alignment was good, he welded steel angle from one side hanger to the hanger on the other side of the frame.