outer wall movement/separation

midwestman23 · August 10, 2018, 01:12:22 AM

Thats awesome! I am glad to hear that it was somewhat simple. My dealer submitted my pics to Livin Lite a week ago and I have yet to hear anything. Not sure how close our situations are but they look like it to me minus the slide . Which could start happening as you said. I hope to have some sort of answer soon. Cant wait to see the pics.

ADR · August 10, 2018, 06:52:55 AM

Quote from: Gary M on August 10, 2018, 12:36:18 AM
They're emailing me pictures of everything tomorrow, and I'll post them here when I get them.

Please do! I'm trying to picture the issue- and I am very interested since my 2018 16TBS also had a major factory screwup with the slideout opening being too small...

nhlakes · August 10, 2018, 09:10:39 AM

Quote from: Gary M on August 10, 2018, 12:36:18 AM
Just picked my 21BHS up today, and I'm happy to say they were able to fix it all. The side wall had 15 holes pre-drilled to attach it but they never installed the screws into the holes at the factory to secure it to the floor. The front wall behind the rock guard was never screwed in either. They had to remove the entire rock guard to secure the wall, but its all back together, and re-sealed now. Solid as a rock. Pretty unreal that the entire sections of those walls were just free floating up until this point.

Moving the side wall back into its original place, covered up the exposed gash in the vinyl floor, and also fixed the slide from rubbing on the floor during operation. They're emailing me pictures of everything tomorrow, and I'll post them here when I get them.

Awesome news!

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Steve Sanders · August 10, 2018, 10:12:06 AM

Never installed the screws??? Wow!

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charliem · August 10, 2018, 11:15:31 AM

GaryM,
Sounds like you got caught in the "Early quit on Friday, Late start on Monday" syndrome. Not surprising, but sad. Glad you're getting it completely fixed. You've certainly had your share of problems with an expensive camper.

Gary M · August 10, 2018, 01:20:28 PM

They found predrilled holes along the bottom of the fiberglass that never had screws installed into them. The screws would have been held in place by the lower trim had they just fallen out or had the heads broken off, there was nowhere else for them to go with the lower trim in place. Only 2 screws were there at the very forward part when the trim was removed, and had ripped through the fiberglass because they were too low. The rest of the wall was basically free floating.

They installed new screws that re-positioned the wall back in place, which also covered up the tear in the vinyl floor that became visible when the wall shifted outwards. Re-positioning the wall also fixed my dinette slide from rubbing on the floor during operation. There's now a 1/4" gap at its closest point between the wood, and the floor during the slide cycle.

The forward wall behind the rock guard didn't even have any screws securing the square tubing on the right side, was missing the left screw, and the center screw was hanging out. This was the cause of the large gap and the spongy feeling when pushing on it.

Here's some before/after pics of the side wall, and a couple of what was behind the rock guard/diamond plate in the front.

I'll be contacting customer support this morning for reimbursement of the repairs. They had previously authorized the field repair for this.

ADR · August 10, 2018, 01:42:41 PM

So there must be a piece of Al square tubing running along the top of the floor that the walls are screwed into?

I'm a little surprised the holes were pre-drilled. Every screw I've removed on mine, most of which are stripped, has been a drill tip screw- ie makes it's own hole.
Which is part of their issue with stripping screws, I think the drill tip is too big for Al- more suited to steel perhaps.

Gary M · August 10, 2018, 02:14:05 PM

Quote from: ADR on August 10, 2018, 01:42:41 PM
So there must be a piece of Al square tubing running along the top of the floor that the walls are screwed into?

I'm a little surprised the holes were pre-drilled. Every screw I've removed on mine, most of which are stripped, has been a drill tip screw- ie makes it's own hole.
Which is part of their issue with stripping screws, I think the drill tip is too big for Al- more suited to steel perhaps.

It was thru the fiberglass so they predrill to avoid chipping is my guess. I wouldn't just shove a self tapping screw thru fiberglass.
As far as what they screwed into.. That's a good question, looking closer at the photos I can see the foam from the floor right below where they screwed in. So what did they screw into? hmmm

Gary M · August 10, 2018, 02:17:09 PM

If anyone in WA State needs a good RV repair shop, I highly recommend these guys!

http://www.jrsrvrepair.com/

ADR · August 10, 2018, 03:37:45 PM

Quote from: Gary M on August 10, 2018, 02:14:05 PM
Quote from: ADR on August 10, 2018, 01:42:41 PM
So there must be a piece of Al square tubing running along the top of the floor that the walls are screwed into?

I'm a little surprised the holes were pre-drilled. Every screw I've removed on mine, most of which are stripped, has been a drill tip screw- ie makes it's own hole.
Which is part of their issue with stripping screws, I think the drill tip is too big for Al- more suited to steel perhaps.

It was thru the fiberglass so they predrill to avoid chipping is my guess. I wouldn't just shove a self tapping screw thru fiberglass.
As far as what they screwed into.. That's a good question, looking closer at the photos I can see the foam from the floor right below where they screwed in. So what did they screw into? hmmm

Well they sure shot the selfdrillers into the back outside fiberglass of mine when they mounted the Furrion camera holder.
I took it off to mount a different brand camera- the holes from their screws caused chips and cracks radiating out from the hole.

I'm guessing they screwed into sq tubing which is what they ran the bolts through to the frame outriggers.