2010 5th Wheel with a broken frame at Pin Box

millsi wrote:
The welds have broken away from the frame and the steel has torn on either side of the pin box.

My trailer is a 2010 Keystone Cougar XL-Lite 27SAB Fifth Wheel. I am the original owner.

We were planning on going camping this weekend. I noticed the trailer was sitting a little funny when I hitched up at our storage yard.

I thought maybe it was just the way it was sitting in the gravel lot. Towed it home. For some reason I decided to look around the pin box of my 5th wheel. Thankfully, I did.

Scary what I saw as we have just recently return from Myrtle Beach as 16 hour drive from our home in Canada. We had made 4 trips to SC and 2 to Walt Disney in Orlando. We are usually out 40+ nights a year. I know this is not going to be a cheap repair but we love camping. If it can not be repaired. We will likely sell it to someone for a seasonal lot and not be able to afford a new one. Up until now, the only repairs/maintenance, we have done is swap out the water heater this year and tires and lube the axles.

For now it is sitting in my driveway and not going anywhere.

I have contacted a few RV dealers but since I just noticed this on Thursday evening and this being a holiday weekend. I will have to wait until Tuesday to see what to do.

2 of the RV dealers near me are suggested I take it to a trailer manufacturer/welding shop (cattle/equipment trailers).

Anyone else have a similiar experience and would like to share their advice.

Insurance? I assume not likely since it is a failure/wear and tear.
Lippert? Going to send an email/call but not likely since it is 10 years old but worth a try.
Keystone? Same as Lippert.

Video descriptions my problem exactly from a 2009 Cougar:

2009 Keystone Cougar

I will upload photos once I figure it out.

Junk build by Lippert and zero QC inspection at the Keystone factory, made this a real issue. Check with insurance, but they'll likely call it a design defect and not cover it. LCI and Keystone will likely just laugh at you, mumbling "sucker" under their collective breaths. There are any number of broken frame issues posted here, but you're likely to have to search in the "archives". Things =have= gotten better, as I haven't seen a broken frame post in a while.

What some people have done is work both with a dealer =and= a 3rd party welder. Dealer does the "exterior" work, removing the skin and any interior stuff, then the welder comes in, fixes the breaks/beefs the frame up, then the dealer replaces the "exterior". Was an excellent thread last year, IIRC, of a guy and some family members doing their own fix. Lots of pics and good descriptions.

Lyle