Bumper tore off at the welds..

I was driving back home through New Orleans from our weekend trip when people began flagging me down. I pulled over to see that the bumper had broken at the welds and was barely hanging on. I had to take my bikes and rack along with my spare tire and store them inside the camper so as not to lose the bumper. Has anyone else ever heard of a bike rack causing the bumper to fail??? I only had two adult bicycles and a childs bike on there.I am really starting to regret purchasing this wildcat. I will try to get some pictures up this week.

I don't think that my warranty will cover it since I added a curt bolt on bumper hitch. I am thinking about building a new rear end that will incorporate a basket as well as hitch and bolt it to the trailer frame. It really is a shame that the rear bumper is so flimsy that it can't handle 40-50 lbs of bikes. The bumper on my last TT was much sturdier.

I watched my Brother-In-Law Layton trailer do the same thing years ago, I was following behind him as I watched the welds let go and all the bikes hit the road. I think the problem was the weight of the bikes and the leverage from the high bike rack rocking back and forth caused the welds to fail. I would install a 2" receiver hitch on the frame and either build or buy a bike rack for the receiver.

Here are some photos:

Broken bumper: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2131317350056654887MivDRk

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2512272220056654887WYZJsc

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2265965980056654887nhGktv

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2534829370056654887hsZHer

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2274360590056654887KeaSYI

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2122730960056654887vFFYXw

bsmall2800

It is the steel one. It tore right at the welds on top of the bumper on both sides and has about a 60 degree tilt right now. It is like you would have taken a can opener and opened it up all around the weld about 1/2" away from the connection point on both sides.

I tore mine off too. The welds were very poorly done and only had penetration around half the weld. I installed a much thicker bumper with reinforcements and while I can no longer store a sewer hose in it, I'll never be able to rip this one off.

My end caps fit so loosely that they were lost on maiden voyage home from the dealership. I store my sewer hoses in a rubber made container in the fwd pass through. I want to build about a three ft platform extension with removable side rails that will be bolted to the trailer frame and have a 2" receiver incorporated into it. My tires should be fine with extra weight back there as my trailer came with the 235/80/16 load range E tires rated at 3540 lbs each at 80 psi. Only problem is this rack will not be ready for my next few trips.

This thread sure has us thinking about our bumper. We have a spare tire mounted to the bumper - the Cat came that way. Anybody have any problems with a spare tire carrier (with tire of course) causing this problem?

I am sure the spare is fine back there. Mine came that way to. It was the addition of the bike rack with hitch extender to clear the spare that was the culprit. It put too much leverage on the bumper and after a several trips down the highway with the bike rack bouncing the metal just fatigued. I would have never thought that would happen but it did. Also I did make one trip with a 5500 watt generator strapped down to a hitch basket that I am sure didn't help. Then again if forrest river had used 1/8" wall square tubing instead of a gauge metal extrusion this would have never happened.

BayouDude. I have been there and done that with my last fiver. Had two adult aluminum bikes and one childs bike. It is not the Wildcats fault. I imagine that most trailers and fivers have the same gauge bumper on them. After going through it I am pretty confident that it is not a matter of if something will fail but a matter of how long it will take when using one of the bumper bolt on receivers. I was traveling through Ct. a few years ago when someone flagged me down. I pulled over as soon as I could and walked around and found one bike missing and the second one ready to let loose. It wasn't welds that failed but the steel bumper actually tore at the welds. There is a lot of stress with that weight bouncing up and down and it seems our roads just keep getting worse. I am pretty sure that when I purchased the receiver that bolted to the bumper that they had a warning paper with it that indicated that the bumper should be reinforced. Shame on me for not heeding their instructions. When I purchased the Cat I took it right from the dealer to a fab shop and had them fabricate a hitch receiver that was welded to the frame. It cost about $350 and was cheaper than losing one of the bikes. I still inspect the welds occaisionaly.
KH

Thanks for the input Khuber. I am hoping this is the last kink in the wildcat for a while. I am getting real tired of fixing things after every trip. The ceiling fan also went out on this trip but thankfully it is something we can live without. Not sure if I feel like making the 1-1/2 hr trip to the dealership just for the fan. As soon as I get a break between trips I will bring the Cat over to my families shop and see what their fabricators can come up with.

Check out rdsknfn's cargo rack. THAT's what you need to build!!

http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/wildcat-owners-gallery-f4/changes-since-2006-t2872.htm

TC