A-Frame Damage

[OBSPowerstroke]

Hey Guys,

I spent most of yesterday cleaning the inside and outside of the trailer and getting it ready for our big annual family camping trip coming up next week when I came across this unfortunate surprise:





Basically there is a tear forming in the outer wall of the A-frame as it passes through the front crossmember. I crawled under the trailer and inspected the welds where the A-frame connects to the trailer frame I-beams and they look great. The left side of the A-frame is also still perfect with no perceptible damage. My only thought is the original weld on the right side of the A-frame as it passes through the crossmember was bad and compromised the outer wall for the tongue on that side.

I inspect the trailer regularly and when I washed it a few weeks ago there was no visible damage to the diamond plating. I have since taken it out twice and put on about 800 miles, which isn't much for as often as it goes out. What this tells me is that the tear is progressively getting worse and I'm at the point I don't think I can safely tow it until I get this fixed.

Any thoughts? My initial thought is the entire A-frame is going to have to be replaced, but I'm hoping I can at least get it temporarily patched up so I'm not tent camping it the last big trip of the summer. Of course I noticed this damage right as the dealer's service department closed yesterday, so I'm going to call them first thing Monday morning and hope they can squeeze me in to at least patch it up and make it roadworthy.

I don't even want to know what the final bill will be. It's kind of ironic my biggest worry has always been water intrusion, dry rot, and delamination, but instead the trailer frame decides to give up.

Thanks!

[icanon]

Thanks for the follow-up, too.

[spoon059]

Sorry about the troubles you are having, good job catching it before it became catastrophic though! Sounds like your welder has a good handle on it and I hope you are satisfied with the results. How much does a job like that cost?

[djsamuel]

myredracer wrote:


Yes, if in the market, buy any Northwood product or one with a BAL frame like Lance. There's a few other makes/models out there with the BAL frame like the Jayco Whitehawk.

Camplite makes their own frames as well. Reading messages like this makes me glad I made the purchase I did, and also reinforces what I hear about the quality of Northwood products as well as Lance and Jayco.

[djsamuel]

OBSPowerstroke wrote:
Here's an update for you all:

I had to call several places yesterday morning, but found a shop that was willing to work with me on such a short time frame. The benefit of this place is they are close by and happen to specialize in RV collision repair, so I'm guessing they're going to make sure they do the job right.

They didn't want the liability of simply patching it up and risking it coming apart on the road and causing a major accident, so they are going to completely rebuild the A-frame with thicker wall tubing. It is not going to be cheap by any means, but it sounds pretty involved, as they said they are going to have to unbolt and lift the box from the frame about a 1/2" in the front so they have enough clearance to weld without catching anything on fire. They said they'd have it done by Friday, will give everything a nice paint job, and it should look like it's never been touched. Another benefit is the thicker wall tubing should mean I'll never have to worry about the tongue again.

To think this all started simply because I was going to respray the front of the frame to cover up the rock chips. Talk about an expensive paint job! I still feel lucky that I caught it, as I can't imagine the potential disaster had that side of the A-frame completely torn apart at 65 mph on the freeway.

Thanks for following up. Sounds like the best approach to me; fixing it right the first time. Best of luck.

[OBSPowerstroke]

Here's an update for you all:

I had to call several places yesterday morning, but found a shop that was willing to work with me on such a short time frame. The benefit of this place is they are close by and happen to specialize in RV collision repair, so I'm guessing they're going to make sure they do the job right.

They didn't want the liability of simply patching it up and risking it coming apart on the road and causing a major accident, so they are going to completely rebuild the A-frame with thicker wall tubing. It is not going to be cheap by any means, but it sounds pretty involved, as they said they are going to have to unbolt and lift the box from the frame about a 1/2" in the front so they have enough clearance to weld without catching anything on fire. They said they'd have it done by Friday, will give everything a nice paint job, and it should look like it's never been touched. Another benefit is the thicker wall tubing should mean I'll never have to worry about the tongue again.

To think this all started simply because I was going to respray the front of the frame to cover up the rock chips. Talk about an expensive paint job! I still feel lucky that I caught it, as I can't imagine the potential disaster had that side of the A-frame completely torn apart at 65 mph on the freeway.

[OBSPowerstroke]

hohenwald48 wrote:
Is that actually a butt weld? I thought the OP said the A frame passes thru the cross member. Hard to tell from a pic.

The A-frame is a solid piece that passes through the crossmember, which is why it's surprising that the tear is forming where it is, and is also why I think they fatigued the tubing with a bad weld from the factory on that side.

69 Avion wrote:
My bet is that what you are seeing is .125 wall thickness tubing instead of .1875 thickness. I would start with rewelding it. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, check the tension on the WDH bars. It appears to be an inherently weak frame by the way the metal is fatigued.

I was surprised, too, by how thin the A-frame walls were when taking a closer look at it and so was the shop that's repairing it (see my next post for a status update).

I was very careful setting up the WDH bars, and, if anything, I have actually lightened the load I carry in the truck and trailer since I bought it 5 years ago. Since I have a F250, I don't have to torque on the bars to get the truck back within spec with the trailer loaded. In fact, I towed to the shop yesterday without bars to avoid putting any additional strain on the cracked weld and the truck handled the weight just fine with minimal squat; my friend's Raptor sags more hooked up to his Lance 1575 with weight distribution bars installed. The real scary part is my trailer was advertised as 1/2 ton towable, and with a 1,000 pound tongue weight loaded and ready to camp, the WDH bars on a 1/2 ton would have to be tensioned substantially more to level out the truck, not to mention the fact that the tongue weight alone would max out most half ton GVWRs.

[myredracer]

Take it to a frame and axle shop. They will know exactly what to do and if anything else needs attention.

The real problem with frames is that there are no design/construction standards/codes for them. Lippert can and does build them however they want and don't have to answer to anyone. You might consider sending photos to Lippert just for the record and telling them they build terrible frames. They will likely tell you it's your fault for overloading it tho.

We have our own horror story with a Lippert frame and can't talk about it.

Yes, if in the market, buy any Northwood product or one with a BAL frame like Lance. There's a few other makes/models out there with the BAL frame like the Jayco Whitehawk.

[69_Avion]

My bet is that what you are seeing is .125 wall thickness tubing instead of .1875 thickness. I would start with rewelding it. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, check the tension on the WDH bars. It appears to be an inherently weak frame by the way the metal is fatigued.

[hohenwald48]

MM49 wrote:
The problem is the weld design! butt welds are weak. You will need to change the weld design by using fish plates.
mm49

Is that actually a butt weld? I thought the OP said the A frame passes thru the cross member. Hard to tell from a pic.

[MM49]

The problem is the weld design! butt welds are weak. You will need to change the weld design by using fish plates.
mm49

[SprinklerMan]

From the rust it appears that crack goes the entire length of the weld . Take it to a welder . Ask his opinion and how he could reinforce it .

[icanon]

So did you bring your TT or informed your dealer today? If so, what was the out come?
Thanks.

[dodge_guy]

And the NHTSA doesn't think Trailer frames have any issues. Many have tried to get them to listen, but they say it's a small problem!

[deltabravo]

69 Avion wrote:
Once you have it welded, and rewelded, just watch that area and the corresponding areas on the other side for cracks.

You might consider having the other side beefed up while it's in the welding shop... to prevent the same problem from happening again.