Quote:
Originally Posted by robertmparton@gmail.com
It is NOT rare. In fact, I have spoken to 6 different RV shops in IN, TX, OK, TN and they recount hundreds of repairs made over the last 2 years. I personally witnessed a 40KSSB4 in for repairs here in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where the rear cap and endwall fell OFF going down the road.
Our 2016 40KSSB4 first started spitting screws in the trim end cap that covers the fiberglass end cap to sidewall joint in early 2017. We had the fifth-wheel in the DRV service center in Howe and the tech told me it was just road vibration and keep screwing the screws back in. I fought that battle with bent sheet metal, stripped screws etc until the techs here told me what was going on. We removed the rear window, then the fiberglass end cap and discovered that the end wall was attached to the side walls with 12 #6 screws through a 1" x 1 1/2" flimsy aluminum angle and every single screw was broken. The bottom plate of the end wall had been screwed to the edge of the plywood flooring in only 2 places and both screws were broken. The rear ends of both sidewalls were twisted and sheared. Literally, the only thing holding the end wall in place was 6 screws across the top plate of the wall. We added 2x2 angles bolted to the bottom plate of the wall and welded to the floor joist top chord. Them we replaced the flimsy angels with heavier larger angles and heli-arc welded them in place, NO SCREWS. The bottom plate of each sidewall was repaired by heli-arc welding.
Don't ley ANYONErell you this is not a common failure.
This is a systemic structural deficiency in EVERY DRV made and will manifest itself one way or another eventually.
Maybe ours showed up sooner than others because we are full-timers and travel across the US north to south and vice versa at least twice a year.
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I'm sorry to be nit-picky, but can you absolutely confirm that EVERY DRV has that problem?
Terry
Thor Forums
