Will my RV insurance cover a cracked frame

jubileee said:

Wow! Those stringers are actually torn/ripped from the frame/support section. Looks to me like the welds held.  IMO pulling it back together and rewelding with gusset support would be a bandaid fix. Something else going on.

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I thought the same thing. The sides of the channel iron has ripped like maybe from overloading. The welds look good to me as far as I can see.

Looking again closer at the pictures you are right looks like the frame ripped. What does the other side look like?

Rene T said:

I thought the same thing. The sides of the channel iron has ripped like maybe from overloading. The welds look good to me as far as I can see.

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I had a certified welder look at the pictures and he said the welding is terrible. Pictures have been turned in to Northwood and we are waiting for their response. If they don't take responsibility, the welder will go with me to the trailer and take a look first hand. If he concludes that it's poor welding, an attorney is my next step.
By the way, the certified welder said that in his opinion, the metal was overheated when they did the welds and that weakened the metal making it susceptible to cracking as it did.
The dealer says they can fix it and they would add gussets on all the joints.

Stan

By the way, the trailer is NEVER overloaded. It has a GVWR of 11,400 lbs and I have never had more than 9,600 lbs in total weight.

Stan

I'd be madder than a wet hen, but if Northwood ops to bail on it, I know, I know, but lawyers are expensive.  Ask your welder guy what he would charge to fix it.  I'd guess a couple hundred dollars, and it costs that just to meet a lawyer.  I'd let a professional welder fix it over a Dealer with a welder.  My 2 cents.  Good luck, keep us posted.

Update on the trailer. As I thought, Northwood is not going to pay for the repairs. My next step is an attorney and a certified welder to state in writing that the welding was poorly done.
Everyone that I have sent pictures to, that are certified welders, have told me that too much material was welded with too much heat causing the metal to break down at the weld.
Sierra RV in Colfax found a trusted welder that will fix the welds for 1,000.00. The total bill will be between 4,000.00 and 5,000.00.
I'll keep you posted.

Stan

stan, I am not a certified welder ?, but I have done some welding in my years. looking at the frame pics you posted ^^^, I can clearly see the welds held fine, but what was wrong ( don't quote me on this !..lol ) was too much heat was used, herby making the frame weak, so now the welds pulled out of the brittle metal, and yes..i could see all of them down through the frame rail were ripping out. yep, attorney time !.  i'd also consider contacting the BBB about this as well ?. make notes of all conversations, keep all emails, letters, dates of phone calls, names, numbers, all of it !. cover all bases. I wish you luck on this .

It looks to me that the main frame rails are box tubing.  The hardest part that I can see is pulling everything back in place before welding and not BBQing anything above the welds.

Well, I have an update for you.
The dealership found the welder to fix the cracks. I met him yesterday at the dealership. Right in front of Steve (our salesman) from the RV dealership, he said it was the worst welding job he has ever seen. He said the reason for the cracking was overheating the metal. This is exactly what everyone that I have shown the pictures to have said. The welder told me how he will fix it and said by the time he is done it will be 10 times stronger and will never be compromised again.
Steve's position was the same as everyone else at the RV dealership, they all said the welding was good and the cause was potholes and/or bumps in the road. Now they are taking a different position and they will be contacting Northwood with the NEW FINDINGS.
At this point I hope Northwood will take care of the costs. If not, I'll get an attorney. An attorney might say based on the welding that the trailer is not safe and tell Northwood to give me my money back. It's not what I'm looking for, I just want it fixed right.

Stan

Thanks for the update.  Hang in there!

donuts said:

Well, I have an update for you.
The dealership found the welder to fix the cracks. I met him yesterday at the dealership. Right in front of Steve (our salesman) from the RV dealership, he said it was the worst welding job he has ever seen. He said the reason for the cracking was overheating the metal. This is exactly what everyone that I have shown the pictures to have said. The welder told me how he will fix it and said by the time he is done it will be 10 times stronger and will never be compromised again.
Steve's position was the same as everyone else at the RV dealership, they all said the welding was good and the cause was potholes and/or bumps in the road. Now they are taking a different position and they will be contacting Northwood with the NEW FINDINGS.
At this point I hope Northwood will take care of the costs. If not, I'll get an attorney. An attorney might say based on the welding that the trailer is not safe and tell Northwood to give me my money back. It's not what I'm looking for, I just want it fixed right.

Stan

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I really did not think northwood would own up to it !, they got your signature on the dotted line, thats all they care about. if they were half way decent ?, they should at least split the welding bill with you, this way each party carries some of the cost, them having a poor job of welding, and you being out of warranty ?. thanks for the update, keep us informed !.

donuts said:

The dealership found the welder to fix the cracks. I met him yesterday at the dealership. Right in front of Steve (our salesman) from the RV dealership, he said it was the worst welding job he has ever seen. He said the reason for the cracking was overheating the metal.

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Best scenario is to get that IN WRITING from the welder. Especially if this goes the legal route... or even if it doesn't, and you negotiate a "settlement" of some kind with Northwoods.

Arch Hoagland said:

Thanks for the update.  Hang in there!

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X2, Good luck.  )  At least you know it is fixable.

donuts said:

Well, I have an update for you.
The dealership found the welder to fix the cracks. I met him yesterday at the dealership. Right in front of Steve (our salesman) from the RV dealership, he said it was the worst welding job he has ever seen. He said the reason for the cracking was overheating the metal. This is exactly what everyone that I have shown the pictures to have said. The welder told me how he will fix it and said by the time he is done it will be 10 times stronger and will never be compromised again.
Steve's position was the same as everyone else at the RV dealership, they all said the welding was good and the cause was potholes and/or bumps in the road. Now they are taking a different position and they will be contacting Northwood with the NEW FINDINGS.
At this point I hope Northwood will take care of the costs. If not, I'll get an attorney. An attorney might say based on the welding that the trailer is not safe and tell Northwood to give me my money back. It's not what I'm looking for, I just want it fixed right.

Stan

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Question Does Nothwood make their own frames or was the frame from Lippert or some other manufacture? If the frame is made by a 3rd party then you would have to sue them too.
Mel

I know this is an old thread, but I am researching cracked 5th wheel frames and I always thought Northwood was a step above, apparently not! I have been a certified structural steel welder for over 40 years. The welds didn't fail, the parent metal tore. If the welds would have failed, it would not have torn the tube steel behind it. Structural tube steel is known as A36, it has a 36,000 lb tensile strength. The welding rod was most likely a 70,000 psi tensile strength rod. All of the connections are butt welded and since the parent metal tore, the joint most likely received an impact load greater than the design could handle, possibly and impact from a bad section of road and then subsequent jolts made it continue to get worse. Since all of the failures are on the same piece of rectangular tubing, it is possible that the tubing was defective, but I doubt it. If the tubing would have had some straps of flat bar welded across the bottom to reinforce the joint it would have never failed there. I will throw up the B.S. flag that the metal was over heated based on what another welder said. Typical weld failures are undercut or lack of fusion because the weld was too cold and didn't get enough penetration. Undercut causes failures because the parent metal is comprimised from the weld not flowing to the surface and instead cuts away some of the parent metal making the metal only have the strength of the thinner section where the undercut is present. I don't see any undercut on the welds. The fact that all of the weld tore from the bottom in the same location tells me that a load was introduced greater than the material could handle and caused a failure.

Welcome aboard! Hope you stick around and join in.

We get lots of questions about improving tow hitches and the like. Would be good to have an expert welder's input.

Now I am curious about the outcome. 6 year old thread, but no follow on.

Welcome Malteasejeeper!(#35) I will guess, yes the comprehensive insurance will cover that damage. Of course the final word comes from your ins. co. As to the cause, that again is on the ins. co.

Timely post; this is an example of what Ex-Calif was referring to about helping other members, go to pg 2 of this old thread, it begins a new subject, about loading a 500# rated hitch with a 5550# E-bike. Carrying 550 lbs bike and carrier on 500 lb hitch