Broken steering Casting caused crash of our Dutch Star w/ Spartan Chassis

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helocfi

Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2014
Posts
14
My wife and I drove our 2003 Dutch Star motorhome with a Spartan Chassis from our home in Missouri to California a couple of weeks ago to attend a nieces wedding. We had entered the Los Angeles basin area and were driving on Northbound hwy 101 in the far right lane at 55 miles per hour. We were towing our Prius on a car dolly behind the motorhome. Without warning the coach violently veered sharply to the left and the steering wheel had no control and was locked in the straight forward orientation. I tried to turn the steering wheel to the right but it would not budge, even with the power steering. There was also a very loud squealing sound from the left front tire as we careened toward the oncoming lanes of traffic. The force of the left wheel dragging the front of the coach hard left while the right front wheel was still facing forward applied too much sideways force on the right wheel that the power steering could not overcome.

It took about 2 seconds to cross the 3 remaining Northbound lanes of heavy noontime LA traffic and all we could see out of our front windows was the oncoming traffic of the four Southbound lanes heading straight for our line of travel. We thought that we would be killed in the impact as well as many others would be injured or killed when we hit them. The coach impacted the center concrete divider at full speed at about a 45 degree angle at the left front which diverted it's path and then the rear slammed around and hit the wall. This caused our tow dolly and new Prius to whip into the concrete wall as well. The motorhome was determined to be a total loss and our insurance does not cover it for the full replacement value so we now have no motorhome due to this failure.

The California Highway patrol took the photo of the skid marks that I have attached. Note that the front right wheel remained in the straight forward orientation while the left front wheel is full left turn to the stop. Also note that the bracket that the left wheel brake air diaphragm is mounted to and is on the inside side of the wheel also impacted the concrete wall and this could only have happened if the left wheel was turned full out to the stop.

I have a CDL and have driven big rigs for over 40 years so I am not a novice. I have also logged over 300,000 miles in my various motorhomes so I know how to drive. This motorhome has never hit a large object or been in any crash before to have damaged the steering arm casting to cause it to break. I have seen a front tire blowout before and yet the driver was still able to control the rig to a stop. This coach reacted violently with absolutely no steering control- it was terrifying.

I have posted this as a warning to others that may have this same steering arm that they may want to have it inspected before something similar happens to them or worse. This heavy steering casting on the Spartan Chassis should not have broken.
 

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What a nightmare! I am so sorry to hear about this. :( So glad that you, are ok though and that no one was hurt.
 
Thanks for the kind words. It was a nightmare and still is. We both wonder if this is going to happen to someone else with more deadly  results. Imagine what would have happened if this part would have separated while driving in the mountains that we just came through or on the open freeway with no center concrete barrier. This still occupies a lot of our thought process but I am sure that with time that will settle down.

If anyone would like to see more detailed photos of what I posted I can add them, the ones I posted I reduced a bit too much to provide much detail. Let me know. I also would like to know what folks think could have caused this heavy casting to just break.

I have very high definition photos that I can email anyone who may be able to shed some light on this break. The forum only allows fairly low definition photos to be posted.
 
There is already a recall on that steering gear - perhaps Spartan or Newmar doesn't have you registered as the owner? At any rate, Spartan knows about the problem. Not sure if they will make good on your insurance loss, but call them to report the accident.

I warned folks on this forum about this risk back in June of last year. See http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=64598.0

I also see that the official recall starts with 2006 models. Maybe it was expended later to cover earlier ones too? See http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchResults?searchType=ID&targetCategory=R&searchCriteria.nhtsa_ids=13V182000
 
Glad you made it out of this wreck without serious injury. 
Is that the pitman arm that broke? Did the police report mention
failure of the steering component?  Have you researched the NHTSA
web site (http://www.nhtsa.gov/) or filed a report yourself.
If there is a recall you may have grounds for legal action.
 
I actually called Spartan immediately following the accident before I was able to see under the coach as it was down flat on the asphalt as the air bags were deflated and the tire was trashed. I told them what had happened and asked if there were any steering issues with that chassis. They told me that there were none with my year model. I told them that I felt that it had to be a steering break because of the violence of the coaches reaction and my inability to have any steering whatsoever. I told Spartan that the reaction of the coach did not match a front tire blowout in any way, they agreed with me.

The Spartan Chassis rep asked me if I could get some photos of the undercarriage. The next day the coach was in the impound lot and up on blocks so that I could take hi def. photos and sent them all to Spartan. I did get a call from Spartan yesterday morning telling me that two Spartan Chassis representatives as well as a representative from the front-end manufacturer were going to Los Angeles to inspect the broken casting parts in person.

I do expect that there will be some sort of recall on this part because it should never have broken. I was aware of the Spartan Chassis recall that was detailed here on the forum but it did not include my year so I felt that we were safe, was I every WRONG!!!! This issue is definitely a disaster waiting to happen and it happened to us. How many others of you Spartan Chassis drivers are in line for the next break and total loss of control of their motorhomes with unimaginable results?
 
The police were not able to see under the coach because it was sitting on the ground. All we could see was the torn and destroyed front left tire and everyone there assumed that it was a tire blowout that had caused the crash. Later that day when I was able to think more coherently I realized that the actions of the coach did not line up with what a blown tire would produce. It was then that I called Spartan Chassis and asked them about what could have caused such a violent loss of control.

The part that broke might be called a pitman arm. The front wheels are about six feet behind the front of the motorhome and the actual power steering box is mounted up front just below the brake pedal area. From the steering box there is an arm that goes back to a pivot on a vertical axel that has a heavy casting with three arms, one arm attaches to the link from the steering box/pitman arm, one attaches to the ball joint that is on the right wheel steering tie rod and the other arm, the one that broke, attaches to the ball joint of the left wheel steering tie rod.
 
The actions of the coach do indeed point to something other than a flat tire... I had that happen to me once in a car with a few differences....

1: The tire did not blow
2: Not on the freeway, in fact I was coming out of a low-speed turn so I was likely down around 30-40 MPH.. Crossed onto the left shoulder of the road.

Walked home, picked up a tractor with a hoist on it and a beam,, Hooked everything up and towed it back home where I could inspect.

This ride had McPherson Strut suspension (You will have leaf spring) and a bushing on one of the control arms broke.
 
Glad to see that you or anyone else was not injured. This must have been a nightmare situation.  One question:  You mention that you hit the wall at full speed.  Was there not enough time for any braking action or was the accelerator also jammed?
 
Of course everything happened very quickly but I do remember standing on the air brake pedal but it did not seem to do any good. The coach was equipped with air bag suspension and an Anti-skid Braking System. The ABS system may have seen that the front tires were skidding due to the very different orientation between the two. I am not sure how the system works but even if the brakes were operating at full application they had little effect considering the reaction time to apply the brakes plus the less than 2 seconds it took from the casting brake to the wall impact. We did the math and measuring the skid marks and accounting for the initial speed of 55mph it took less than 2 seconds to travel the distance, considering about .5 seconds for reaction time that it would take to realize that braking was needed to applying them (there was absolutely no warning to alert us to a problem prior to the violent left turn which felt like we had bit hit in the right front side by a freight train) then the brakes would have had less than 1.5 seconds to try to slow the coach. That is not much time for a 34,000+/- pound coach and tow car on a dolly to slow down much.

Those 1.5 seconds were certainly long enough for my wife and I to realize that the 4 lanes of Southbound traffic traveling at 65 to 70mph were directly in our path. That concrete wall saved a lot of lives that day.
 
Gary, as I understood the recall it was for a steering bracket weldment that was cracking. The part that broke on our Spartan Chassis is an actual casting and not a bracket. It seems that this is a totally unrelated part than that covered in the recall.
 
That is a different part from the one Gary referenced in the previous thread.

That broken arm appears to be from a sudden shock rather than a crack developing and spreading over time. Perhaps it broke from the impact with the concrete wall. That would mean something else failed (bracket?) to cause the loss of control initially. Seems that a thorough inspection should be made in any case. You may have some recourse if the failure is related to known issues.

Glad everyone is OK. Thanks for posting, you never know who could be saved by seeing this.
 
dave61 said:
That broken arm appears to be from a sudden shock rather than a crack developing and spreading over time. Perhaps it broke from the impact with the concrete wall. That would mean something else failed (bracket?) to cause the loss of control initially. Seems that a thorough inspection should be made in any case. You may have some recourse if the failure is related to known issues.

Yes, the picture does not show a progression of failure of the casting and the small cracks there also do not show a progression.  If it has been occurring over time, rust should be present.  I suspect another cause so the recommendation for a good inspection by a qualified accident investigator should be done.  Just my opinion of course but I investigated many failures for cause while working.
 
Jim, I also considered that the break occurred when the coach hit the concrete but that leaves me wondering about the following:

1. I would think that if the casting was intact when we hit the wall then those forces needed to break the casting would need to be transmitted to the casting by the tie rod and as you can see in the attached photo it appears to be straight with no deformation. I would think that those forces would be more than enough to bend the tie rod.

2. What would cause the motorhome to veer so suddenly and violently to the left?

3. Why was the steering wheel locked up solid even with power steering so that I was unable to budge it during the wild ride?

4. If the casting broke as a result of the impact with the wall, Why was the left wheel in the full left turn position when the wall was hit as evidenced by the scaring on the bracket that holds the air brake diaphragm which is on the inside of the wheel. I can't see how this hit the wall without the wheel already being full left at the point of impact?

Hopefully Spartan was able to do the inspection today and will let us know what they found.
 

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All of those considerations are valid and need to be checked by someone who is an expert in accident investigations.  With the quality and size of the pictures, I can't begin to evaluate butt he picture of the break show it was recent and had not been exposed to the elements for long.  Beyond that I can't even guess.
 
I should mention that I have no formal expertise there either. My reply/observation was probably best described as "thinking out loud." Looking at pictures vs the actual piece can be quite different. In one of the pics it seems like there might be a void in the casting, but again it is a small pic.

Very interested in hearing the outcome of the inspection.
 
Dave, I have reduced the photos to 20% so that they will load onto the forum. These will show much more detail.
 

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Are you or Spartan going to employ a metallurgist? It would be interesting to see a metallurgical report on the cause.
 
The void is rust colored.  Won't rust without oxygen. How's the oxygen getting in there? Logic says faulty casting. Court wouldn't listen to a word of it without"expert" testimony.

Bill
 
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