USAFBILL wrote:
Could have been done at the dealer when they prepped the unit if the tech used a high pressure grease gun and it was his last day of employment..JMO
Agree. Not as uncommon as one might think. Happened to us on our current TT and a previous TT too. Dealer wanted to charge us $1K to fix our current KZ Spree!! They kept insisting it wasn't a warranty problem so I phoned Alko and they said they would make sure it would get covered and they want the dealer's phone number which I gave them. I learned the end of following season that they just slapped ours back together as-is. Our blown seals were nowhere as bad as that. Wow. There's no way it should be like that in a year or less.
I doubt Lippert would accept responsibilty and would pass you on to Dexter or Dexco or whatever they call themselves now after Dexter bought Alko a couple of years ago. If it is was Lippert's fault, they typically use excuses to avoid liability. BTDT. You need to get in touch with the axle manufacturer (look at tag on axle). Do not wait for an email reply. Get on the phone and call as many times as needed until you get to talk to someone in the know. It's really sad that the dealers, manufacturer and frame builder pass an owner onto a 3rd (4th?) party like they do for you to duke it out with. If you are sending an email to Lippert, I'd also be sending a copy to the TT manufacturer, dealer and axle manufacturer along with photos.
Now for the warning... If they do happen to agree to fix it, even if the dealer says they fixed it, do not believe them. Pull the drums off when you get it back home and verify they fixed it, and fixed it properly. If they did nothing or only did 1/2 a job, then it'd be fraud. We were thinking of going after our dealer legally but it just wasn't worth the aggravation and cost. I would notify the factory and the dealer in writing.
Before you take it apart, take lots of photos. If you find different types of grease, keep one of the bearings or something with both on it. Are there 2 colors/types of grease by any chance? That's a sign that that "somebody" pumped grease in after it left the factory, plus the fact that there's sooo much in there. The somebody could only be the dealer. Our dealer told me that they do that on all their PDIs.
It's not really all that hard or expensive to do a bearing repack, replace the seals and replace the brake shoes. I would consider posting on a forum specific to the brand and on RV forums what happened as a warning to others plus the manufacturer probably won't like that.
We went through 3 TTs in 3 years. The same issue of blown seals and grease everywhere inside also happened on our first TT. The dealer kept insisting it was our b/c. After one full year they finally reluctantly agreed to take the brakes apart and rebuild them under warranty and it was finally okay.
