FIRST
Myredracer, you said something which gets to the heart of my original question:
What I really hope to be able to sort out is how much if any improvement there has been with this problem area for 2018 trailers over earlier models. myredracer wrote:
The frame on these (unless they've changed recently) is made from 3 pieces of 1/8" sheet steel and welded together. It flexes a LOT more compared to the more common 1-piece rolled beams. Fatigue cracks can develop above the spring hangers and I know someone with a KZ who has had this happen.
I note from your profile that you have a KZ Spree 262KS, which coincidentally is also rated at 6800lb GVWR like the 261RB in my pix. This makes a really good point of comparison from 2014 to 2018.
( Sorry, I'm mis-remembering here, I know you have a custom frame. Do/did other ~26' trailers have the 3pc 1/8" built up rails/) I spend a lot of time using the paint.net free photo editor. One use for this is in making measurements from photos. I constructed a center point for one of the wheels in the 3rd pix , and measured the radius of the 14" wheel to the bead point. In arbitrary photo units it is 6.19". I measured the thickness of the frame flange, 0.18". 7"x(0.18/6.19)is 0.20". I expect some error in my measurements, but the flange thickness looks a whole lot closer to 3/16" (0.1875) than it does to 1/8". The real proof of this will be when I can physically measure some of the current KZ frame member thickness soon.
Hopefully this frame is thicker than earlier units, so that is one confidence building point in proceeding with the purchase.
The splan going forward would be to keep a real close eye on the known problems area of spring mounts, wheel alignment, and tire wear, starting with 3 point tread depth measurements of all 4 tires during my PDI. Its about 1300mi from the KZ factory to here. That should be far enough to assess the state of alignment of the wheels. If I see problems developing, I may decide to implement some of the fixes listed in this excellent post
TT Spring Hanger Stiffening (Long, lots of pics) One item that I could see adding without touching the frame would be a bolt on side to side rail like this
Click For Full-Size Image.
Forewarned is forearmed.
SECOND
Soundguy, I want to make sure I understand the timeline of broken frame repair of your 2014 FE. If you purchased the trailer in 2014, I am seeing 12 month warranty, so it would have run out in 2015? Oct 2017 would be something like 2 years out of warranty. That seems to me quite good that Lippert would fix your frame this far past the warranty. How much was your dealer responsible for pushing Lippert to make good on this?
Its a double issue for me, because if I was to undertake actual reinforcement mods to the frame, wouldn't that kill any chance of a Lippert fix later on?
BTW, nice looking electrical work in your profile pix. I am guessing you're an electronics guy like me. I thought as much from "soundguy" which I have actually called myself occasionally. 20+ years NAV Canada Airport tech with concurrent sound system moonlighting.
Thanks everyone for helping me on this.
Ian
