floor, main frame hump

I purchased a new leftover 2018 2401 Minnie RG travel trailer about six months ago and have now experienced an issue in my floor almost the entire length of the roadside area of the camper. The outside section of the floor from the main stringer frame has dropped down, creating a big hump in the floor going forward from the rear galley cabinets.

The rear galley cabinet has also pulled away from the cleat along the floor. I have done no boondocking in rough terrain and mostly interstate driving for the three trips that we have taken while staying in quality campgrounds.  My slide appears to be binding or the motor is dragging and causing the slide out to not close without some hands on assistance. I am not sure if the two is related. But I have no idea what has happened or even how to correct it, if at all possible .

I felt around and tapped on the floor and it all feels solid in the areas that I checked, unlike what I know with mushy plywood that can possibly give away. I see nothing apparent in the frame like stress sections and the offset gussets leading to the sides all appear to be in tack. I attempted to add pictures but I get a notice saying that the files are too big. Does anyone know what size they need to be or maybe I am doing something wrong

edit by staff - added "Minnie" to the trailer model

Lets try this. The hump that's generated by the sagging on both sides of the main frame is where you walk from the front to the back.

This is the rear cabinet base. I was at the most recent super show in Tampa and visited the 2020 Winnies. I also chatted with the factory rep and picked up their literature . It states that there is a 3 year structural warranty and one year base warranty for what I understand all the add on  bits and pieces. Does anyone know if this covers my trailer even though it was a new leftover model and purchased as a brand new unit?  Yes I purchased it from a regular dealer that has since gave up selling the brand.

Is it a Winnebago product? This is a Winnebago forum. Your warranties should definitely cover it. Your one year warranty should have started when you purchased it and not have anything to do with the model year. Have you contacted the dealer about it?

I attempted to add pictures but I get a notice saying that the files are too big. Does anyone know what size they need to be or maybe I am doing something wrong

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If just 6 months old and you are the first owner, your RV should be under warranty, especially since this appears to be a structural problem.The warranty begins when you take title to a new RV,  regardless of the model year.

Yes its a Winnebago. And yes I am supposed to be the first owner. I have been in contact with both the factory and the local dealer that I purchased it from over the span of four months. But with some previous issues beginning when we purchased it, there has been little help from the dealer in particular. I don't want to get into some of the issues and responses here, but to date I have been on my own. So I was attempting to get some feedback  from a larger community that exists here in hopes that at the very worse I could actually find another avenue that's used to working on these units. We have plans to leave on our cross country trip with a proven trailer possibly in late April, weather dependent of course.

I visited the Tampa Super show last week. But the only people there were salesmen wanting to sell new ones.  Sadly after speaking to a group of rv folks for a week, the entire industry at large are not too interested in servicing travel trailers now. The market is all in the very expensive stuff and the bays are filled with them at the larger outlets that we visited or attempted to schedule a time that was not a month or more out to fix some of the other issues that we have going on.

With a structural problem like that, I would want to visit the Winnebago factory service center if at all possible. Few dealers are capable, let alone interested, in doing the sort of work required to repair a sagging floor or frame damage.  Can you get a Winnebago Towables factory rep to inspect the damage and suggest where and how to get it corrected?  If the dealer is not taking his warranty service responsibility seriously, you need to escalate to Winnebago Customer Service for their towable products.  (574) 825-5250.  I know you say you've been doing that, but maybe not pushing hard enough?


This isn't something you can doctor up yourself, short of tearing the rig apart to get at the subfloor and framing.  You need professional help from a Winnebago-authorizied source. Failing that, you need a lawyer.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

With a structural problem like that, I would want to visit the Winnebago factory service center if at all possible. Few dealers are capable, let alone interested, in doing the sort of work required to repair a sagging floor or frame damage.  Can you get a Winnebago Towables factory rep to inspect the damage and suggest where and how to get it corrected?  If the dealer is not taking his warranty service responsibility seriously, you need to escalate to Winnebago Customer Service for their towable products.  (574) 825-5250.  I know you say you've been doing that, but maybe not pushing hard enough?


This isn't something you can doctor up yourself, short of tearing the rig apart to get at the subfloor and framing.  You need professional help from a Winnebago-authorizied source. Failing that, you need a lawyer.

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I have never found any lawyers interested in working for less than what this camper costs, if you know what I mean.  They only have one commodity to sell, time, lots of it. But yes I have tried to be polite in all of my correspondence with the factory folks and have even offered to bring it to them, Believe me when I say I know its a huge problem. But I also understand getting the bugs out of anything that's new. But what good is any stated warranty and paying extra when buying new when you cant get satisfaction after any lengthy time and exchanges to deal with a simple issue. This is major.

I built boats from the ground up. This was the straw that broke the camels back. And this is the reason I decided to seek somewhat inside input on the dedicated Winnie forum here. The banner on the section stated that it was sponsored by Winnebago Industries.  So I said what the heck, it was worth a shot.

Was it manufactured in Indiana? I would think they would give you an appointment at the factory to have it corrcted. I would also push to have the warranty extended from your first request for warranty repair to the time it is repaired. There are advocates for RVers in some of the RV magazines. RV Travel, a weekly newsletter is also acting as a RV Advocate. That is at https://www.rvtravel.com/fixit/

Boat Addict said:

This is the rear cabinet base. I was at the most recent super show in Tampa and visited the 2020 Winnies. I also chatted with the factory rep and picked up their literature . It states that there is a 3 year structural warranty and one year base warranty for what I understand all the add on  bits and pieces. Does anyone know if this covers my trailer even though it was a new leftover model and purchased as a brand new unit?  Yes I purchased it from a regular dealer that has since gave up selling the brand.

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We can all emphasize,  Hope they help you out.

Similar, kind of, I remember buying a new house from Ryland was the Builder. 

They had a 10 year on Structure, so when the Lime stone Arch Separated over my Front porch at the 5 year mark,  I called and Ryland told me the Limestone that went up to the top of my roof was only for "cosmetics" not structure. 

This is back in 2013/ 5 year old house. 

I told the guy, come on man.  I can buy a Fing Mobile home and it will last 5 years without falling apart. 

He told me to wait.  He called me back and said he would repair it, and his only concern was if he could match the brick. 

About 3 weeks later they came out, tore a big part of the facade off my house and repaired it.

I guess if it was my old self, I would have come in trying to grab him by the throat initially, "Figuratively Speaking". 

I am glad I let my cooler self deal with it.  I know that would have been a few Benjamin's to do as my own project.

I was talking to the Stone Mason. 

He told me it was common for the Arch to separate from the facade. 

I was lucky.  The guy doing my house solar install pointed it out or I am not sure when I would have noticed it.

I never used the front door, only the garage.  My dogs are escape artists. Leashes, etc... 

After I saw the lean of the stone overhead I was scared it would fail and be my luck somebody would be standing near and get injured.

"Warranties".... I am guessing there is some vague term in there, "Generally" level or some loop hole for them to wiggle with.

Good Luck, taking on the Goliath. 

Did that problem fail after purchase?  Are cabinet door affected? Hopefully you can beat them up with common sense and they help you out.

Send (email) those pictures to Winnebago Owner Relations, contact info is in the Winnebago Resources sticky thread above. I don't have any contacts in the towable part of Winnie unlike the motorized unit or I would try a back door for you.

Steve Lehto is an attorney specializing in lemon laws, some states also include towables in the laws. See this: http://lehtoslaw.com/steve-lehto/  He has some very interesting YouTube videos including at least one relating to RVs.

X-Roughneck, good stone masons are hard to come back and a rare and dying breed. The same applies to custom woodworkers.

This current problem was not in the unit when I purchased it. I am holding out that this latest problem will be dealt with in an honorable fashion. Of course, as always  hoops must be jumped thru. I do not see how this problem can be corrected without major work.

It is my belief that all of these type mobile vehicles are mass produced and are no longer built to last. If they were you would not see tons of OSB boards, staples, and plastic trim that comes unglued the first trip out.  I am beginning to think that if I cut thru the floor covering I may find moisture, even though the floor hump in particular sounds solid when I tap on it. I believe I have had a long time leak in the underbody from several other issues that's come to light. My cargo doors in the front warped and the paneling has come loose from the side walls in the cargo hole.


It took me two months to deal with that, and ended up handling that directly thru the well known manufacturers of parts for the industry. The best I got out of that problem in the early going was a 1/2" splint to put on door. Yep, that's right. I have finally gotten new door units, and yep the same units even though the manufacturer has upgraded the doors to double the thickness and modified the latches to be secured in the middle portion of the doors in one design. And the list goes on.

I just do not see anything that sticks out at me on the undercarriage beam and gussets . We shall see how this plays out.

John Canfield said:

Send (email) those pictures to Winnebago Owner Relations, contact info is in the Winnebago Resources sticky thread above. I don't have any contacts in the towable part of Winnie unlike the motorized unit or I would try a back door for you.

Steve Lehto is an attorney specializing in lemon laws, some states also include towables in the laws. See this: http://lehtoslaw.com/steve-lehto/  He has some very interesting YouTube videos including at least one relating to RVs.

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Thanks, I have sent them the pictures and have a long list of exchanges of previous issues . I am not sure if I am ready to lay blame on Winnebego right now until I actually find out the original origins of this particular unit. I think there is a missing piece in this puzzle and that could be the cause of some of these issues.

This is what developed in my doors. The new style doors that's installed in the same unit at the Tampa show are twice as thick with wrap around trim on them.

I feel like we aren't getting the entire story here. Your photos show a rather obvious problem with the floor, yet you report that both Winnebago and the dealer seem reluctant to take action.  Warranty service in the RV industry is indeed slow and dealer service departments often poor in quality, but what possible excuse could there be for such an obvious defect?  What are the dealer and Winnebago saying about your issue?  Are they denying responsibility or simply slow to act?

Gary RV_Wizard said:

I feel like we aren't getting the entire story here. Your photos show a rather obvious problem with the floor, yet you report that both Winnebago and the dealer seem reluctant to take action.  Warranty service in the RV industry is indeed slow and dealer service departments often poor in quality, but what possible excuse could there be for such an obvious defect?  What are the dealer and Winnebago saying about your issue?  Are they denying responsibility or simply slow to act?

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Feel free to contact a Winnie representative for me then, if you feel that there is more to the story. I will not add the individual that I have communicated with, but its in their towable section in Indiana. If you have pull, at the worse case scenario, get them to authorize the trailer to be brought to them this week and it will be brought to their facility by me personally if that's what it takes to get this fixed. But to date I have not heard anything from anyone. They have the pictures and the previous issues created communications beginning the end of Oct. I had to call the door manufacturers directly to get new doors. I have no idea why its so hard for well documented issues with photos supporting everything that I have conveyed. And yes the camper is at the dealer, taken there last week. Nothing is being done. This trailer is not usable, not even the slide will work correctly now over the area, for whatever reason I don't know.

So they haven't refused?  And your primary complaint is that they are slow to take action?    Sadly, that's the norm in the RV industry and owners often have to be a "squeaking wheel" to get much of anything done.  You need to be proactive, because they probably will not.  Keep calling back and asking what is being done and when it will be completed. Tell them you have planned trips and reservations you will have to cancel if they don't act soon.. And tell them you are documenting your conversations too, and make sure you have names and dates for each.

It ought not to be this way and you have our sympathy, but we can't fix the floor problem for you.


PS: This is a classic example of why buying a used RV is not much more risky than a buying a new one.  Warranty repairs are all too common and often difficult to obtain in a timely manner.  There are dozens of tales similar to yours on this site and others.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

So they haven't refused?  And your primary complaint is that they are slow to take action?    Sadly, that's the norm in the RV industry and owners often have to be a "squeaking wheel" to get much of anything done.  You need to be proactive, because they probably will not.  Keep calling back and asking what is being done and when it will be completed. Tell them you have planned trips and reservations you will have to cancel if they don't act soon.. And tell them you are documenting your conversations too, and make sure you have names and dates for each.

It ought not to be this way and you have our sympathy, but we can't fix the floor problem for you.


PS: This is a classic example of why buying a used RV is not much more risky than a buying a new one.  Warranty repairs are all too common and often difficult to obtain in a timely manner.  There are dozens of tales similar to yours on this site and others.

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I have not ask anyone to fix this problem for me. But when someone says there is more to the story, and in this case is on a dedicated section for this brand, I only figured that there are some insiders here that can assist me in resolving this issue.  I understand "slow" for sure. But it is and was my opinion that this was another avenue in which to address Winnie issues, stated directly in the title. That's all that I was getting at and the only reason I posted to this section. I understand about buying used. But I own this one and will have to deal with this one now, That's something that can't be changed or overlooked.

I have read the site for a little bit before signing on in search of add on items that will assist my wife and me in doing a lot of boondocking.  I was out west late last spring and summer with a 21 foot 2014 camper, and spent enough time in campgrounds. But for this trip we are planning to go a different route.  Thanks again for any and all help that I can get from anyone on here.

Boat Addict said:

...  Thanks again for any and all help that I can get from anyone on here.

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Gary didn't mean to dismiss your issue as you only providing bits and pieces of the big picture but both of us have been around this forum for years, we've seen that story played out over and over again.

Somebody will join the forum specifically to vent (or rant in some cases) about a real or perceived issue with their RV and/or with the manufacturer.  I've brought a few issues to my contact at Winnebago and then I hear the other side of the story and it certainly didn't match what I was told, it was embarrassing knowing that I was used.

I think this thread has run its course and we've provided all of the help that's possible at this point unless you have something different to share.