broken chassis rail

Hi,
We have been living in our 2006 31qbh for two years in New Zealand. In this time, it has been towed by an Izusu medium truck (Forward 210) for 20000km, via an Airbox hitch . New Zealand roads are quite narrow and bumpy compared to the US freeway/interstate system.

During the last voyage, we notice that the nose cone was sagging up to 8 inches over the pinbox, when the landing gear was retracted. We slowly drove to a structural engineering shop, pulled off the bottom panel for the overhang and found the chassis rail that runs accross the front of the unit and attaches to the front of the pinbox was cracked vertically in four places. The beam was flexing so much that the cross beam that attaches to the rear of the pin box was also starting to crack. The opinion of the engineering crowd was that the material of the front cross-member was at least two millimeters too light for the job it was doing. They straightened the beam, welded the cracks and reinforced both cross members mentioned above.

Has anyone ever heard of a Wildcat cracking in this fashion please?

Wow,,,, thats the first time I've heard of it... =

First off...Welcome! We're glad you found us.

I have never heard of any frame cracking on a Wildcat either. I have seen it on another brand. I also tend to agree the framework is probably a couple of mills too small.

AVid

If the materials are as bad as you describe, then it is only a matter of time before we hear of more incidences.

I'm glad you caught the problem when you did and not let it get any worse. That could have been a major issue if the hitch would have broken loose. Glad you've got the problem fixed and thanks for the heads up.

You are not the only one out with a broken chassis rail. Our unit, '06 RKDS broke this Spring on our way to KS from Alberta. We got as far as Macklin, SK when we noticed our 5ver was riding very close to our truck rails. We had just gone through a dip in the road. Like you we removed the bottom panel of the overhang and found our chassis rail was broken two inches beyond the pin box on both sides. We contacted Forest River and Lippert with the problem. Forest River was accommodating while Lippert started looking for a way out. When they saw that we had lowered our pin box by one set of wholes, that was all the excuse they needed. It was our fault because we made an adjustment. Forest River then started pointing fingers as well. A way out.

The local machine shop inspected the damage and determined that the chassis rail member was, like your repairer said, far toooo light for the job it was meant to do. The rail broke - not the welds - but the rail itself. The only part of the rail that wasn't broken was the bottom. This kept the trailer from crashing into our truck bed. We had it repaired enough to take us back to Edmonton - 300 Km. It is currently where we bought the unit and in for repair. Insurance said they will cover the damage resulting from the breakage but the broken chassis rail was deemed a manufacturing defect and is not covered by insurance. We will see where this leads.

Others, one way to check for possible troubles is to check the bottom panel of the overhang. If it is loose, some screws have pulled out or the heads broken right off, you have a problem. Since our break we have checked several trailer types and found a least 3 instances where the bottome panel was loose. In these three cases the trailers were Wildcats. Another way to check is to look in your rear view mirror while you are motoring down the road and if the front of your trailer seems to be bobbing out of sync with your pin-box you have chassis flex and possibly the start of chassis rail breakage.

Hope this helps. We're hoping that Forest River will help with the chassis rail repair.

WxTravelers

WxTravelers wrote:When they saw that we had lowered our pin box by one set of wholes, that was all the excuse they needed. It was our fault because we made an adjustment. Forest River then started pointing fingers as well. A way out.

to the forum!


That is interesting. Are we not supposed to adjust the pin box?

Scott,
I'm pretty sure the dealer adjusted the pinbox when they installed my
hitch, can't see how the factory would know exactly how high the hitch
is for the tow vehicle you know. I do know when the pinbox was replaced it certainly required an adjustment.

So does that the dealer/repair joint who adjusted/installed the pinbox
are responsible for the defect in the frame should it fail? I
don't think so and there'd probably be a lot of dealers who'd argue
that too.

Welcome to the forum. I have the flex your talking about while driving down the road and it has bothered me. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it.

It's another argument against the gooseneck adapters....

Big Dave,

Go out to your trailer and see if you can lift the front of your pin box up and down by hand. It sounds crazy but before I fixed mine I could move it a 1/4". I think I've got some pics in my photo album so you can see what the problum was.

Does the trailer have a Zieman tag on the pinbox frame? I believe the Aussie/Kiwi version with the door on the wrong side are made in the Dallas, Oregon plant. When I toured the plant a few years ago, they were making a few reverse floor plans. The frames are outsourced to Zieman (a Lippert company) just north of Dallas. I've talked to the plant manager there and he said the 31QBH frame is rated at 15k with the 6k axle/wheel package (12k axles, 3k pin). If you have this frame tag, I'd call Mike Oden there to share. (503) 472-4671‎.

I had the same exact problem, but mine was due to the gooseneck adapter. The dealer put 1/4" steel back in instead of the 1/8" that comes from the factory.

We don't have a gooseneck, but I think this will be put on the list of stuff Scruffy checks before each trip.

1/8" steel doesn't seem adequate in my opinion.

Tater

Tried to move mine and it's solid as a rock but I've seen the front of the Cat bob up and down on rough roads.

Bob

When you got the 1/4" rail put in did the dealer have to move the sides out to effect the change?

Wx Travelers

My mistake. That should be Brad not Bob. I'm a little dislexic or something.

Wx Travelers

WxTravelers,

Let me take this opportunity to you to the site. I hope your camper issues get resolved.

Sorry I haven't replied, been out camping. No, I do not have the bedroom slide, so it was not an issue on mine.

Had mine repaired. Insurance covered the first $3500 and I covered the other $3000. Put in 3/16" better grade tubing plus had the pinbox boxed as well. Insurance said it was manufacturing defect. FR and Lippert said, Ho Hum.
Trailer pulls much better now. No more chucking and only flex's 1/2" instead of 1 to 3" or more as before.
If your belly panel is loose - the screw heads missing or screws loose. I would look really close at re-inforcing the chassis rail. It will cost a bit but might prevent a lot more cost later on.