Possible frame rail, hitch receiver issue..

[willald]

..Was under the Motorhome a few weeks ago, looking at some things, and noticed at the back, where the hitch receiver bolts to the frame, that the frame rails seem to have bent, twisted slightly. I know a discussion like this is worthless without pictures, so I snapped a few pictures, and uploaded them. Here are some pictures of it (hope this works):

..Facing toward the back of RV, driver side frame rail (this one isn't as bad):



..passenger side frame rail:



First off, a few clarifications, to prevent unnecessary 'ranting' posts, or other unnecessary discussion:

Motorhome is a 2012 Georgetown (see signature), built of course, on the Ford V10 F53 chassis. Have owned since brand new, it handles, drives great, same as it did the day we first bought it (have around 15k miles on it now). Have had zero chassis issues, only minor stuff with the coach, that they all have from time to time.

We have towed just two different vehicles with it - Most of the time (and presently), a Ford Fusion, and briefly before that, a Kia Sedona van. Both were towed 4 down (van was towed very briefly at first with a dolly), and both were well under the 5k limit of the hitch receiver. Neither did either bring us even remotely close to the 26k GCWR limit of the Motohrhome. At last weigh-in, Motorhome even fully loaded was a good 1,000 lbs under its 20,500 lb GVWR. Also, a supplemental braking system (Readybrake) was/is always used with both.

After seeing this, I examined the hitch receiver very closely. It is NOT at all unlevel, and seems rock solid. The hitch receiver itself is not what has bent. I have no problem towing with it, and will continue to.


Now, for some questions I have:

Does this look like something I should even be concerned about, something that needs addressing somehow? Or, is this typical, and I just need to not worry about it and move on?

If this is something that needs to be addressed, I'm guessing it'd need to be done by a truck frame shop that can handle welding, etc. Can anyone recommend a good place that could handle such work, around Charlottee, NC area?

Has anyone else seen anything like this, with an F53 chassis Motorhome?

[willald]

Beachme wrote:
I bet the frame was already bent when the Motorhome was made how long do you have it and And was it like this before or is this the first time you were looking under it

No, I remember looking under it a lot when we first bought it, checking it out. I would've noticed that. Was also under it back there a lot when was wiring the connector for towing the car. If it was like that from the beginning, I would've known.

Anyway, I haven't had time to upload photos and post yet, but this is fixed. Holbert trailers did a great job of fixing this Friday, by welding on a 'sleeve' over the last 2 feet or so of the frame. Very stout 'sleeve', too, it looks to be made of steel almost twice as thick as the frame itself! Will post pictures and talk more about this later, when have some time (very busy weekend..)

Will

[Beachme]

I bet the frame was already bent when the Motorhome was made how long do you have it and And was it like this before or is this the first time you were looking under it

[willald]

Update: Well, looks like this is getting fixed tomorrow (Friday).

Met with Raleigh, from Holbert Trailers. Really, really impressed with this group. Family owned operation, been in business for 30 years, nothing but glowing reviews from everyone thats ever dealt with them. Talked with the guy about it for a good hour or two, sent him the photos, etc. He knows this problem very well - He owns a Class A Motorhome himself, had same issue and had to fix it on his. Has been doing welding, truck frame repairs on big rigs for a looooong time, very obviously knows what he is doing. Even offered to come pick up the Motorhome from our house, take it to his shop, and return it after repairs were done, for no extra charge (although we ain't going to let him do that, I got too many trust issues to allow that, haha).

Anyway, he is basically going to take off the receiver/hitch, straighten out the C channel, weld in a piece to basically box in the frame for last few feet and make it muuuuch stronger, then bolt the eceiver back on. He guaranteed we will never, ever have this problem again after he finishes with it.

I've decided to go with Holbert Trailers, due to fact they are considerably closer to us, and because he has done this exact repair on his own Motorhome, he knows Motorhomes. That alone makes me feel much better about him doing this work. The looooong standing reputation they have for quality work in the community and being a great, family run operation, went a long way, too.

Sooo, tomorrow, I bringing it to him early in the morning, and he promises to have it done by the end of the day. Am really glad to be getting this taken care of, and doing so before we tow anything again. We have two more trips planned for this 'season', and glad they'll both be with this frame issue fixed. 🙂

On another note: Thinking back some, I think we know how this happened, and it may well have had nothing to do with scraping when backing in the driveway. Some time ago, we were coming home from Myrtle Beach, There is one particular bump/hump on route 151 in McBee, SC, that I had forgot about, and hit the wrong way. I had slowed down drastically for it, but apparently not enough. That hump shook and rocked the Motorhome soooo HARD, felt like entire MH almost got airborn. Came down and bottomed out soo hard, Angie (DW) swore it felt like entire coach had hit the ground. Jerked and snapped the toad around sooo bad, the 4 bikes we were carrying on the back of toad on a hitch mounted bike rack, jerked so hard it warped and bent up the trunk (bike rack had straps attached to lip of trunk). Ended up having to have the trunk lid replaced (fortunately insurance covered that one). As a result of that incident, we now carry bikes on a roof rack on top of the toad. Would not surprise me at all if that massive bump/jolt, jerked the toad, hitch receiver soo hard, it caused the (weak, poorly designed) frame rail to bend, twist where the hitch receiver attaches to it.

Anyway, will try and post some pictures of this after the repairs are done tomorrow, so everyone will know how this one ends. Thanks for all the responses, suggestions, etc. 🙂

Will

[cross21114]

willald wrote:
Update: stopped by and talked to Cummins Atlantic today, a big Cummins truck shop in Charlotte. They don't do that kind of work, but in a case of real good timing, they told me of a guy that used to work for them, that they highly recommend, that now owns his own shop doing exactly that kind of work - metal fabrication, welding, frame repairs, etc. He was sitting right there, we talked about it, I showed him the pictures, etc. He talked about several different ways he could fix it, pretty much consistent with the various ways discussed on here. Everything from straightening out the c channels and reinforcing bottom of C channels with fishplates on top and bottom, to replacing entire frame extension and fabricating a new receiver hitch that would be much stronger.

Anyway, I goog to check him and his company out, DD Diesel. Want to have a look at his shop, make sure it's somewhere I'd feel safe leaving the RV while he works on it. One other place I'm going to check with is Holbert Trailers. They are a much bigger company that could definitely do the work.

This is exactly the type of guy/shop I would want to this type of work. Bigger is not better.

[willald]

StuckinTracy wrote:

StuckinTracy wrote:

willald wrote:
I was thinking of one way I may have contributed to this: I use a 4" drop receiver, to get the tow bar close to level with the toad. Every time we come back from any trips, when I back the Motorhome up the driveway, due to the incline of the driveway and that drop receiver, the bottom of the receiver does scrape a little back there. The scraping seems very minor, but scraping when going in reverse would indeed push down on the receiver, or to say it more correctly: It would put torque on the receiver consistent with direction the frame has twisted. Even though its been very light scrapes, maybe that's been enough over time to cause this. That is only thing I can think of that I've done, that could have caused or contributed to this.

Maybe you missed my previous question?

Just curious, you say you use a 4" drop receiver that slightly scrapes when you back into the driveway. Are you referring to the ball mount that slides into the motorhome hitch? If so can't you simply remove it when you unhitch the toad, before you back in? If you mean the entire motorhome hitch is lowered by 4', then please ignore and forgive my ignorance.

Nope, didn't miss it. You said to ignore it and forgive your ignorance if entire motorhome hitch is dropped (not a ball hitch). And, that is the case, so I was doing what you asked, and ignoring your question. 🙂

Will

[haydoracin]

Based on this thread I thought I better check my hitch/frame. I have a 3500 pound hitch and use a 10” drop hitch in the receiver pulling a 3,000 pound HHR without supplemental braking. I have had to make a couple of “hard stops” over the years and although I am very cognizant of the low hitch I have scraped a couple of times exiting fuel stops. I too would scrape when backing into my driveway but I always remove the hitch from the receiver. I found no problems with the frame rails. Two things to note: 1/my drop hitch has a roller on the bottom. 2/I have factory mounted skid plates on each side of the frame ahead of the hitch to prevent the body work from scraping if I do bottom out. They do show some scrapes so possibly they are scraping before or at the same time as the 10” drop hitch.

[StuckinTracy]

StuckinTracy wrote:

willald wrote:
I was thinking of one way I may have contributed to this: I use a 4" drop receiver, to get the tow bar close to level with the toad. Every time we come back from any trips, when I back the Motorhome up the driveway, due to the incline of the driveway and that drop receiver, the bottom of the receiver does scrape a little back there. The scraping seems very minor, but scraping when going in reverse would indeed push down on the receiver, or to say it more correctly: It would put torque on the receiver consistent with direction the frame has twisted. Even though its been very light scrapes, maybe that's been enough over time to cause this. That is only thing I can think of that I've done, that could have caused or contributed to this.

Maybe you missed my previous question?

Just curious, you say you use a 4" drop receiver that slightly scrapes when you back into the driveway. Are you referring to the ball mount that slides into the motorhome hitch? If so can't you simply remove it when you unhitch the toad, before you back in? If you mean the entire motorhome hitch is lowered by 4', then please ignore and forgive my ignorance.

[willald]

tropical36 wrote:
Whatever the case here, I'd get it fixed and double reinforced.
Also have my toad hookup reviewed for any flaws, whatsoever.

Well, I think the only 'flaw', is the fact I've been using that 4" drop receiver, which causes scraping every time I back in the driveway. Regularly scraping like that when going in reverse, when you have a drop bar in place that multiplies the torque applied to the hitch receiver when scraping.....is not good, and is almost certainly what caused this.

Solution: After we get this fixed, going to quit using the drop receiver. Just gonna have to live with tow bar being a bit less level. Like I said before in this thread, its a case of having to choose the lesser evil. I think what happened here clearly shows which one is the worse evil.

[tropical36]

Whatever the case here, I'd get it fixed and double reinforced.
Also have my toad hookup reviewed for any flaws, whatsoever.

[willald]

Update: stopped by and talked to Cummins Atlantic today, a big Cummins truck shop in Charlotte. They don't do that kind of work, but in a case of real good timing, they told me of a guy that used to work for them, that they highly recommend, that now owns his own shop doing exactly that kind of work - metal fabrication, welding, frame repairs, etc. He was sitting right there, we talked about it, I showed him the pictures, etc. He talked about several different ways he could fix it, pretty much consistent with the various ways discussed on here. Everything from straightening out the c channels and reinforcing bottom of C channels with fishplates on top and bottom, to replacing entire frame extension and fabricating a new receiver hitch that would be much stronger.

Anyway, I goog to check him and his company out, DD Diesel. Want to have a look at his shop, make sure it's somewhere I'd feel safe leaving the RV while he works on it. One other place I'm going to check with is Holbert Trailers. They are a much bigger company that could definitely do the work.

Thanks, everyone, for your input, suggestions. Will let you know what happens, how we end up fixing this. Reality is we probably won't fix it until later next month or maybe September.

Will

[wildmanbaker]

Willard, you might try a portable welding service to come to your MH and do the fix. Just explain what the problem is and give some measurements so they can bring the required metal for the repair. The channel that was added was probably made from mild steel plate and pressed formed, not real high strength metal, or they could not use a press to do the forming.

[DryCreek]

willald wrote:

RLS7201 wrote:
Another possibility is, steep tow bar angle and a panic stop, with no auxiliary toad braking.

Only way that could be the case, is if the towed vehicle was higher than the receiver, and tow bar was angled up, toward the toad. Very rare, its almost always the other way around.

With both of our toads, it was the other way (toad was lower), to the point I've always used a drop bar to level it out some.

Now, I can think of a handful of sudden stops I've had to make, but, there has always been a supplemental braking system in use (Readybrake).

Will

Except for the other day. I was sitting and waiting for a green light on the way home and was admiring a large DP that was coming to a stop at the intersection. That's when I noticed the steepest towbar angle I've ever seen! The Jeep Wrangler being towed was lifted, and if I had to guess, there was at least 6" rise from the hitch to the toad's bumper!

I sure hope they had a supplemental braking unit for the toad!

[StuckinTracy]

willald wrote:
I was thinking of one way I may have contributed to this: I use a 4" drop receiver, to get the tow bar close to level with the toad. Every time we come back from any trips, when I back the Motorhome up the driveway, due to the incline of the driveway and that drop receiver, the bottom of the receiver does scrape a little back there. The scraping seems very minor, but scraping when going in reverse would indeed push down on the receiver, or to say it more correctly: It would put torque on the receiver consistent with direction the frame has twisted. Even though its been very light scrapes, maybe that's been enough over time to cause this. That is only thing I can think of that I've done, that could have caused or contributed to this.

Just curious, you say you use a 4" drop receiver that slightly scrapes when you back into the driveway. Are you referring to the ball mount that slides into the motorhome hitch? If so can't you simply remove it when you unhitch the toad, before you back in? If you mean the entire motorhome hitch is lowered by 4', then please ignore and forgive my ignorance.

[4x4van]

Another option is the remove the hitch, jack up the frame rails to get them back straight. Then, drill matching holes in the top of the frame rail and replace the hitch mounting bolts with longer bolts (grade 😎 that reach all the way to the top rail. Nuts on top & bottom of the top rail, another nut on top of the bottom rail. That will tie the top and bottom rails together and distribute the hitch weight across both. No welding needed. Or could also use a section of pipe between the top & bottom rails with the bolt going through it and just one nut on top. Wouldn't really need to do all 3 on each side, just the one bolt at the rear would likely be enough.

[FlintlockCG]

Will,

The Freightliner factory in Mount Holly, NC might be able to direct you to a qualified repair shop. Their main phone number is 704 822-7000.

Let us know your resolution-

Thx