repair side wall with a stress/expansion joint

my fifth wheel had the cracks right below the bedroom slide i took it to a body shop and they fixed it using a product call duraglass and the insurance paid for it it cost 600 to have it fixed

To everyone, the crack was repaired using a expansion joint system. It works the same way as the one that the manufactures have installed just below the bedroom slide on all fifth wheel trailers that I have looked at. If I knew how to attach a picture I would.
Thank you for reading my post.

Thanks to everyone for your info.
1. The crack is just forward of the big slide on the left side.
2. I would love to see some pictures of your work.
2. If you have a web site for the Montana's that shows the stress point repairs, please let me know.
I presently have it in a body shop for installation of a expansion joint. If this works great, if it doesn't I don't know what to do next.
Thanks Wayne

newman fulltimer wrote:
if you have movemant to crack the side you better check the frame or wall studs for breaks

This. You should not have so much movement! Find the root cause of the issue before repairing.

When Keystone first started the Montana line they had a lot of trouble with stress cracks , they finally put a relief in the side of the trailer and that ended the problem, you can still see it in the new Montana's.

About a month ago a friend of mine noticed some delamination on the upper portion of the side wall of his fifth wheel, a 2006 Saber. After some investigating by both of us, it was discovered that the lap sealant in that corner had a hairline crack and the EPDM membrane had about a 1/4" long tear in it where it was pulled over onto the wall and stapled, which allowed water to enter and trickle down into the wall. Something that can never be seen unless moldings and lap sealant are removed. A plan was put together to perform the repairs ourselves. That plan being to cut out and remove a two foot wide section of the wall from top to bottom, make the necessary repair and replace that section. After the job began, we found that the delam had started to take place on the rear wall also. After replacing the side wall, we ended up removing the entire back wall, made repairs and replaced the back wall. It came out so good that he took it to a local shop to have the entire fifth wheel washed and detailed. We've had many complements on the job. From start to finish took 3 of us four full days and cost about $300 in materials. He never checked with any RV repair shops but I'm sure it would have cost $3000 or better. The job was not at all bad, just labor intensive, and that's what makes it so expensive when done by a shop. I took a few photos as the job progressed.

Where is the crack in your sidewall? I see many fifth wheels that have an expansion joint below the bedroom slide where the sidewall is very narrow on the overhang. I have a 2006 Jayco Designer 31RLTS that developed several very small (spidery) cracks in the sidewall just below the bottom left corner of the bedroom slide. I have looked at other Designers of the same model and vintage and noted similar cracks. I contacted Jayco and was told that this does not mean the frame or welds have failed. There is a certain amount of flexing and twisting in moving a fifth wheel down the road. I am sure that if you measured the space between the front of your pin box and a reference point on the front cap of your RV you would find movement between being hooked and unhooked. Where is this movement manifest in the coach of your fifth wheel? Perhaps in all the contacts between the various panels and openings. Hopefully this movement is accounted for in the design of the coach. Consequently I just covered my spidery cracks with a piece of trim cut from a plastic venetian blind. Now that I don't see it it doesn't bother me as much.

Moved from Forum Technical Support

if you have movemant to crack the side you better check the frame or wall studs for breaks