Oh Boy, Frame Flex problem??

[Sunshine]

Rich, At the time we bought our used 2000 3255, the service manager at the dealership pointed out the caulking at the bottom moulding on the front cap, curb side, and told us we should watch that area and recaulk if necessary. Don't know if the dealership had ever heard of frame flex & broken welds at that time - as new Montana owners we hadn't. We thought a certain amount of flexing was part of towing and didn't have any major problems until we unhooked the trailer at the rally last year in Goshen. There was quite a gap between the moulding and the bottom of the outside wall. We spent the last day of the rally at the service center while they fixed broken welds, reinforced the framing with 2x2's, rewelded the pin box area, and put everything back together with loooooonger screws. No charges whatsoever. I'd definitely be sure Keystone/Lippert are aware of your problem.

[richfaa]

We may not have a problem at all. We removed the caulking.It had been, for the lack of a better description, slopped on at the service center when they removed our front cap to replace wiring that had burnt. There is no gap between the molding and the bottom of the outside wall at all. Everything looks as it should.Think it was cracking and flexing of improperly applied caulking that looked to me like a gap in the molding. Under the caulking all looks good. We are going to investigate further tomorrow but I think we are ok..Because these things fail so frequently we sometimes get a bit paranoid about what we think we see.

[mobrownies]

Rich, ours was flexing enough to open up the caulk just like your first note mentioned. We had noticed water coming out from behind the fifth wheel hitch and thought the cracked caulk might be the problem. I have not noticed any interior problems. I called Montana and they told me I had to take it to a dealer for them to inspect and for the dealer to call Montana. The dealer took it apart and did not find any broken or cracked welds, but agreed that it was flexing. They took pictures, contacted Montana and Lippert and nobody would do anything. I was told that the movement had to exceed 1/4 inch or the welds had to be cracked before they would do anything. So much for preventive maintenance.

The Dealer caulked it up good and charged me $150. I now have it on record as you mentioned. I still think there is a problem, but I don't think it is a big problem yet... We will keep a close eye on it.

I just can't understand them having this problem for so long and not being able to find an engineer to fix it for them. I think it is due fatigue and I think it is more of a problem now because Keystone doesn't know what their king pin weights are and due to extended hitch boxes that have more torque on them. It is not rocket science.

[lwcdg]

I don't like our court system as it seems broke. I also don't like the thought of sever bodily harm when one of these frames decides to come apart in th "wrong location". It seems to be a very bad problem waiting to happen. Who will be left holding the bag. Owner first then everyone else will be pointing fingers. It seems that this is going to be another (ford firestone past) -> (lippert keystone future) mess somewhere in the future. I only hope lippert keystone get their checkbooks and cpas together into a meeting and realize it is better to fix everybody across the board as to have a catastrophe and then deal when the law suits etc. Maybe that's what they want as we're all worth on "x" dollars. CPA mentality, yuk.
Chuck

[richfaa]

I am no expert. but I would think that a small amount of flex would be normal on that overhang.(so I am told by experts.It is good to live near a NASA research center).. bridges flex, Buildings flex roads flex a certain amount of flex is designed into most everything.. My question would be IS the small amount of flex a Design feature. My confidence level is not very high in anything the RV industry does so IMO anything more than the "suggested 1/4 inch of flex IS a problem. We are not there but will keep a very close eye on it..