Jayco Hybrid Frame Failure

At this point I'd have the unit welded up and get on with life then pursue Jayco at my leisure. Although this is a real PITA it is not the end of the world in regards to writing off this unit - this is repairable.

I'd also check with my insurance company.

Very scary and glad no one was hurt, albeit scared to death. Have been on RVNet and also Hybrid Explorer for about 8 years and this is a first. Guess that's the good news. Re Jayco's response, my feeling is that they've had plenty of time to check this out and you should have had some contact. Very disappointed in their lack of interest. Suggest you send them one more letter, certified, return receipt and firmly but respectfully tell them that you expect a response in X amount of time or that you will be contacting an attorney. Meanwhile, have you kept every piece of paperwork from both dealers? If not, try to get copies and start a file. Document everything. Was there a police report made? Towing company? Keep everything, you may need it.

You stated that it was lightly loaded....any chance you have a weight from the CAT scale?? Granted, I-10 is not the smoothest interstate in the country, but certainly not the worst either. Your trailer should have handled this with no problem.

So sorry you're having to go through all this when Jayco should be stepping up immediately. Please keep us up to date on this. Best of luck from here on.

Sorry to hear of your troubles and glad evryone was okay.

We have a Starcraft trailer (owned by Jayco) and had a few warranty issues. I contacted them through e-mail and was then given a contact person/phone number for follow up. I'm surprised to hear of the no response from Jayco, our experience was stellar. Usually an e-mail will net you a response within 24 hours, have you done so?

Sorry to hear about the lack of response from Jayco. I've never dealt with them directly but have only heard good things about their customer service, such as replacing the roof on our 10-year-old unit for the previous owner due to a leak, even though it was out of warranty....Interested to see how they resolve this for you. Keep us updated. Best of luck to you.

I have a 2007 Jay Feather and have never had a frame failure. Darn near everything else but not a frame. When I had problems on warranty I just took it to a Jayco dealer and after warranty I got a hold of Jayco on their web site Jayco.com. They treated me fantastic. One thing they will probably want too know is if you have a frame equalizing hitch, because if you do and the tension is too tight it will be considered a frame modification and will not be covered. But Jayco should at least get a hold of you and let you know where you stand. Welcome to the forum and good luck.

I am glad to hear so far that no one else has experienced anything similar to this. This would be a tragic and potentially fatal flaw if it was repeated. I just can't imagine what would have happened if the tongue and frame had separated or even failed just enough more to have the unit make contact with the ground. Moving that fast would have caused an explosion of the unit and the level of traffic would for sure have resulted in some level of collisions. Like I mentioned earlier, we feel very fortunate.

I certainly do hope that this was an isolated case. My background is boat and ship construction and mechanical engineering which has helped me to become quite familiar with metal fatigue, quality vs. sub-standard welding etc. Looking closely at this particular failure leads me to the feeling that the thickness of material was not sufficient. The welds did not fail but the material near the welds tore. It could be an incorrect piece of material was used or something caused an initial fracture that led to further damage from the Louisiana section of I-10. I am hesitant to post pictures at this point as there are still open issues with Jayco. This leads me to my next comment.

Jayco has been very disappointing in their response. Both the selling dealer and the dealer we dropped the damaged unit at have been great and as helpful as they can be. Jayco on the other hand has not made a single attempt to make contact by email, phone or mail. We have made several attempts to contact the right person within Jayco but have yet to succeed. It has now been a over six weeks. We have not even been offered use of a loaner unit in the interim so we resorted to hotel rooms and a vacation rental. We are at the point now where we are exploring the hiring of an attorney to get some results.

If anyone has any contacts inside Jayco or other tips to get results, we would love to hear. At this point, we are about ready to call it quits on the brand altogether. So far, nothing has led us to feel good about the company.

Welcome to the forum, always good to hear from new contributors.

First time I've heard of such, on any trailer.

First off, I am glad to hear no one was injured and you and your family are safe. In all my 40+ years of trailer towing, I have never heard of, or seen such a failure happening so I would have to say it was an abnormal failure.
Please keep everyone informed when you find out the exact cause. Once again, I am glad no one was injured.

How is the response and or support from Jayco?


Markiemark

I have a 10-year-old Jayco 23B and have not had any frame issues, and have been on the Jayco forums and haven't heard of that happening before. Sounds like an isolated incident. I hope warranty is taking care of you.