Stress Crack in the fiberglass near bedroom slide

[wersqu]

Hi, sorry to hear about your crack issue. Ours was repaired by the Jayco factory and we are completely satisfied. We have has some minor issues. that probably go along with just using the unit and pulling it down the wonderful highways. Other major issues were; The rear axle went bad wearing out the tires in just 7,000 miles. Replaced by Jayco. The furnace was serviced at least 7 times, New circuit board, new gas valve, new sail switch, new thermostat, different power supply to the unit. All this and when we picked it up from the Jayco factory, after installing a new thermostat, it did not work in the lot, they took it back in and replaced the furnace. Squeaky floor around island. This was also addressed by the factory. I believe that we will have to live with a squeaky floor, unresolved issue. We just completed our winter season in our trailer and we had only one minor issue. After two years we hope we have worked out all the bugs. As far as service, we didn't buy locally and have never been able to get into our local dealership for any kind of service. This is Burlington RV in Sturtevant, Wi. We bought 3 trailers from them previously and they will never get another dime from us. Michelle and the Jayco factory has been fantastic although you have to schedule out quite a ways. Finally very happy. Good luck!!!

[EricGlamper]

Thank you for that info. We're at 5500 miles and I'm seriously considering adding a third axle once the warranty is up just because of the axle weights and tire loads. Seems they really should have been at least 8,000lb. axles with 16.5" tires. This crack is really the first issue we've had that I don't want to fix myself, however a friend of ours with a 377 has been plagued by many, many issues (kitchen sink falling out, island coming loose, screw protruding through floor, etc.). That's why asked. I figured our good fortune has probably ran out...lol.

[Kmart]

My 2017 North Point 377RLBH bed slide crack was repaired by local dealer under warranty. They supposedly repaired it under strict guidelines from Jayco which included an expansion joint. The repair appeared flawless. One year and about 1000 miles later crack reappeared. 2 weeks out of warranty Jayco agreed to repair it again at the factory. Factory repair scheduled for the end of August 2020. One week ago I received a call from Jayco wanting to know if I would take a settlement instead of having the repair done. I declined their offer without getting an amount. Thinking about what was paid for the unit, I would rather have it repaired/complete. Thinking about the offer I wonder if they truly have a long term fix for the problem??

[EricGlamper]

Jayco told me to drill a stop hole and fill crack with sealer until they could repair at factory. Problem is, the schedule to repair isn't until June of 2021. Of course they will still honor warranty then but scared of how bad it'll be in a year.

[Joan617]

Originally Posted by EricGlamper

Jayco told me to drill a stop hole and fill crack with sealer until they could repair at factory. Problem is, the schedule to repair isn't until June of 2021. Of course they will still honor warranty then but scared of how bad it'll be in a year.

Our crack was discovered in Sept 2019 and has not spread up to now but we have put only 1720 miles on it since then.

STOP EDIT: As I wrote that last sentence we have just arrived in Tyler, TX after a rough trip across Louisiana on I-20 - Horrible road. I just ran outside and the crack has propagated about 2 1/2". In the photo below, the right finger is on the end of the original crack and the left finger is where the crack spread to today. Lucky we are dropping the rig off in two weeks at Vogt RV in Ft Worth for the repair, and I-20 in TX is in good shape, it appears. Apparently TX can maintain their roads better than they can control Covid-19.


I guess that my new point is that you can drive with the crack and not normally worry if you mind it and take it easy. Today Joan was driving conservatively under the speed limit and we thought we just had some annoying expansion joints coming up, but at one point the steering wheel of the F350 was almost jolted out of her hands. It was the worst interstate road we have ever driven on, with or without and RV.


Take care and good luck.

Angus


edit: photo is flipped upside down, WTF?

[Kmart]

Stop drill it worked for me. Crack has not grown since I drilled it. Approximately 600 miles.

[Big1]

Originally Posted by EricGlamper

Jayco told me to drill a stop hole and fill crack with sealer until they could repair at factory. Problem is, the schedule to repair isn't until June of 2021. Of course they will still honor warranty then but scared of how bad it'll be in a year.

To bad that they want just trade your for a new one if that's the case.

[Joan617]

Dropped off our Pinnacle on Monday for crack repair and a few other minor warranty items, plus some cosmetic repairs on our dime. Proposed repair time was 2 weeks. We stopped by today and they are just waiting for the welder to show. They said that they will likely be done by Monday - one week sooner than promised.


Below is a pic of the aluminum triangular plates to be welded in to the existing aluminum frame. His right thumb is holding the gusset that goes into the triangle created by the frame and the gusset that runs 45 degrees.
The second identical gusset in his left hand goes over the whole thing mirror image 180 degrees to the original, just as he is holding it. Then comes the fiber panel. trim, paint and decal. There is some reinforcement in the propane locker as well.



The dealer is Vogt RV in Ft Worth. They do a lot of these and not just Jayco; lots of other brands, and they claim they have not gotten any back for retro work. So far I am impressed.


The one week advance completion will save us a fortune in cat boarding!
Edit: typical iPhone image rotated 90 degrees to left

[AKRUEBBE]

Nice Angus! Still have my fingers crossed...........got about 7,000 towing miles on it.

[bill3kirk]

That's the same thing they did to ours (at the factory) and it cracked again 300 miles later. Two months later it went back and they added additional supports on the inside of both sides of the structure plus through plated the wall and re-engineered that at the bottom. No issues since Dec 2019

[prm99v6]

Second crack on my 377. First Jayco repair lasted a year.

[Joan617]

Well bill3kirk and prm99v6, your stories are sobering. We are picking up our rig at Vogt RV in Ft Worth in a matter of hours. When I saw it yesterday, the paint was done and they were just about to apply the decals. We are excited because they also ran through a long list of honey-do items on the rig including some other TSB's (Technical Service Bulletins, or "re-calls"). Ironically, one of the TSB's dated August 2018, prior to our unit's build date, includes...

"Reinforce the hitch structure to reduce flexing and potential fiberglass cracking" (TSB 18-012)

Bill3kirk, when I made the appointment last year with, Vogt, I specifically mentioned your post about the repeat factory crack repairs and asked the Service Manager there "what is your secret sauce that you have done so many of these and that you have not had repeat repairs...". He thought long and hard and then answered with something like "...we actually follow the procedures and engineering drawings supplied by the factory.." and that when we assign this repair in the shop "...it's never the new guy..."

Vogt also found a few outstanding TSB's on our VIN# that I was not aware of despite all of my correspondence, phone calls and cross-examination of Jayco's service department.

at any rate we will be will be happy to get on the road again today and start adding more state stickers to our USA map decal. We used to say that we were "chasing 78 degrees" (we're now stuck in TX at 98 degrees) but it seems now that we are "running from Covid-19 outbreaks..."

We'll let y'all know...

Angus

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by prm99v6

Second crack on my 377. First Jayco repair lasted a year. Attachment 61586

Factory or dealer the first time?

[AKRUEBBE]

Angus, are you going to hang out in Texas for a while or move on?

[Joan617]

Originally Posted by AKRUEBBE

Angus, are you going to hang out in Texas for a while or move on?

Moving one county west today, then Wichita Falls, TX for a week. Then OK, KS, CO, NM, AZ and that gets us to January.

[Joan617]

What crack?

[RedHorse1]

Originally Posted by Fr8Train

In a different post asking about this, their may be a correlation between the two. Or. The airbags are causing the cracks

I’ve been following this for a couple of years and my “expert” opinion is, as rigs get longer/heavier the engineering hasn’t kept pace. Same structural design being used successfully for a <14k unit on a >16k unit. The repairs seem to involve adding structural reinforcement to stop the flexing which leads to cracking. Several folks have had repairs done only to have the cracks return, ie: no or not enough reinforcement done.
Our 5th (a ‘13) scales around 13k and I think the 377 scales around 16k (my sample weights above). I’ve not had this problem but it seems the 377 is plagued by it.
I think the 377 is an awesome rig and I’ve thought about upgrading but I feel I’d first need to upgrade the TV to a dually. It becomes a $$$ proposition, so we’re still runnin what we brung.

[prm99v6]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Factory or dealer the first time?

Factory repair first time.

[prm99v6]

Originally Posted by Joan617

Well bill3kirk and prm99v6, your stories are sobering. We are picking up our rig at Vogt RV in Ft Worth in a matter of hours. When I saw it yesterday, the paint was done and they were just about to apply the decals. We are excited because they also ran through a long list of honey-do items on the rig including some other TSB's (Technical Service Bulletins, or "re-calls"). Ironically, one of the TSB's dated August 2018, prior to our unit's build date, includes...

"Reinforce the hitch structure to reduce flexing and potential fiberglass cracking" (TSB 18-012)

Bill3kirk, when I made the appointment last year with, Vogt, I specifically mentioned your post about the repeat factory crack repairs and asked the Service Manager there "what is your secret sauce that you have done so many of these and that you have not had repeat repairs...". He thought long and hard and then answered with something like "...we actually follow the procedures and engineering drawings supplied by the factory.." and that when we assign this repair in the shop "...it's never the new guy..."

Vogt also found a few outstanding TSB's on our VIN# that I was not aware of despite all of my correspondence, phone calls and cross-examination of Jayco's service department.

at any rate we will be will be happy to get on the road again today and start adding more state stickers to our USA map decal. We used to say that we were "chasing 78 degrees" (we're now stuck in TX at 98 degrees) but it seems now that we are "running from Covid-19 outbreaks..."

We'll let y'all know...

Angus

Good to hear. Jayco agreed to repair it a second time. Working out logistics to get the unit to them.

[pabcwlgw]

I have the same crack in my 2018 27.5RLTS. Jayco approved repair at a local truck shop. I showed my dealer your fix, and they passed it on to Jayco. Jayco would not approve putting and expansion joint. They said most units never have this issue. The body shop said there is no question in their mind that it will crack again unless the underlying problem is addressed. I told the body shop that I wanted an expansion joint. He wanted to know if yours is a true expansion joint on both sides of a cut joint or is it jjust attached to the surface??