New 5th wheel. Low miles. Leaf spring breaks

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Lindantexas

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Oct 20, 2018
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Not very happy camper.  Our 17 month old 5th wheel which we paid a lot of money for.  Vilano 325rl.  Had gone about 150 miles. Stopped for stretch. Hubby did walk around as usual as spotted tires on passenger side about 1? apart !  Big flag. He assessed it and decided to make it to the next rv camp available very slowly.  Backing up into spit had loud noise and smell of rubber as tires were so close together . Next day called Vanleigh who referred us to Lippert co. The frame is made by lippert .  They took information and agreed it was still under warranty .  We called a mobile tech and was informed he had just replace two other units for same problem.  He said the leaf spring are too short.  One of the recent rvs he repaired had got frame damage also and brakes.  So plans are for him to come out tomorrow assess all damage and get this fixed .    My stomach has flipped a few times thinking what could have happened !! 
Anyone wanna comment on this as to why would this happen on such a new luxury 5th wheel with only 2500 miles traveled !???  After researching internet. Class action lawsuits on lippert. And now concerned what else will go wrong ?? 
 
Lindantexas said:
Anyone wanna comment on this as to why would this happen on such a new luxury 5th wheel with only 2500 miles traveled !???  After researching internet. Class action lawsuits on lippert. And now concerned what else will go wrong ??
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The US is no longer very good at manufacturing things.
 
SeilerBird said:
The US is no longer very good at manufacturing things.
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Actually, we (the US) are good at manufacturing things.  It's just that things are designed to be barely suitable for their purpose, so maximum profits can be made, and also remain competitively priced to compete with all the other marginally designed crap out there.
 
Have you weighed your rig? It is so easy to get rigs overweight, and I think that can be a contributing factor to the failure.

And I agree with the comment that the US is a premiere manufacturer. As an example, we build the best airplanes in the world. But good manufacturing is defined as making a product meet the specifications of the design. If the design is inadequate, so will the result.
 
kdbgoat said:
Actually, we (the US) are good at manufacturing things.  It's just that things are designed to be barely suitable for their purpose, so maximum profits can be made, and also remain competitively priced to compete with all the other marginally designed crap out there.
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Engineering is part of manufacturing. We can't do either one.
 
We can indeed build very good "Stuff" but as noted many companies are more concerned with out the door profit.

That said. it is possible they got a "Bad Batch".

Report the incident to the National Traffic Safety Folks. and let them investigate. if they find a pattern they have the authority to issue a recall. I don't think our profit mongers have cut their budget yet.. but I'm not sure of that.
 
Your new luxury 5th wheel has the suspension technology of a 200 year old buckboard.  My question would be why anyone would continue to drive with an obvious wheel spacing issue and an easily seen broken spring.
 
Nothing in life is perfect thats why warranties are in place, get it fixed and move on. All this talk of lawsuits for this that and everything is just plane stupid made up by a bunch of greedy fear mongers.

I hope it gets fixed to your satisfaction
 
In my opinion Lippert products epitomize the low ball engineering & manufacturing referenced above, but they do it because RV manufacturers will sacrifice darn near anything to save a few pennies. Lippert caters to their desire for cheaper solutions, and when Lippert takes over a supplier, their products inevitable get cheapened and end-use customer support suffers as well. All in the quest to lower the cost.

One thing RV trailer makers are notorious for is sizing the axles to the minimum legally required. Then the axle supplier supplies a component that only marginally meets the spec. s a failure too often results if the usage is anything but gentle. A few potholes, RR tracks or rutting campground roads and things break.
 
Welcome to the Forum!

I'm very glad you found it and were able to get to a nearby campground before it broke!

Gary explained the economics of how this happens.  Glad you are still under warranty!

While the "few pennies" argument sounds a bit petty, it is part of the system.  If the manufacturer can save $10 on the springs and another $15 on the axles under their trailer, and they make 10,000 units a year, they just increased their profits for the year by a quarter million dollars!
 
Were they Lippert or Dexter or Rockwell American axle.

Broken springs happen even with the best axle mfg.

More than likely some one that didn't know better jacked the axle from a leaf spring.

  In my hauling business its  was a constant battle when I was on the road telling tire shops not to jack my loaded trailers from a leaf spring or with a single jack against the frame. 
 
steveblonde said:
Nothing in life is perfect thats why warranties are in place, get it fixed and move on. All this talk of lawsuits for this that and everything is just plane stupid made up by a bunch of greedy fear mongers.

I hope it gets fixed to your satisfaction
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:)) :)) :)) :))  Life is too short
 
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