Poll: How many of you have had your grease seals fail?

[Chiefblueman]

My axles have a build date of mid November 2016. All 4 brakes were well greased. I have received great customer service from GDRV on this and another issue. I have also spent considerable time correcting many other faults that I won't go into here, maybe I will in another thread. I will say that I would rather be the recipient of a quality, well put together unit at the outset than the recipient of good customer service after unnecessary failures.

[bartlett]

Emily : can you video tape the rear bearing being packed on a 12" hub without telling the person there being taped ..... would like to see this being done in real time ...

[RGMutchler]

I have seen some posts congratulating Mr. Martin and Ms. Stahley for stepping forward on this issue. I have spoken several times with Ms. Stahley and found her to informative and helpful. But I would point out that Mr. Martin only posted after a email to Don Clark and a phone call with Mr. Martin in which the suggestion was made that someone from GD should address this issue on the forum in a thread with over 500 posts. Mr. Martin did post but did not say much of anything. Just out of curiosity I went back and looked at posts by Mr. Martin in reference to this problem. I don't think I missed it but the recent post by Mr. Martin was the first on this thread and the first to address this issue. Looking through his other posts I find a post talking about a lack of grease in the suspension, a post about a suggestion regarding disc brakes and a post about a suggestion regarding self adjusting brakes. Based on the information provided by Ms. Stahley in her post, I find it interesting that Mr. Martin said to me that the problem was solved in the third quarter of 2016 and he did not mention that the machine that would standardize the hub assemble was not in service yet.
Ms. Stahley posted and struck me as being very honest about the problem and what they plan to do about it, she didn't tell us that the problem had been solved in the third quarter of 2016. This is the type of information that I would have expected from GD. I agree with a lot of folks that GD does a good job of customer service but what we have seen on this issue, that is much more serious than a water valve that leaks, is a lack of involvement and there seems to have been no sense of urgency to solve the problem. Why this is I don't know but I don't think many congratulations are due to GD where this issue is involved. Willingness to pay for a defective process or product is not the same as customer service in regards to solving the problem.

[steve gravelle]

1) Mr. Martin did post but did not say much of anything.

2) He does very well in acknowledging owner input on many subjects.

3) Beyond sentence 2, refer to sentence 1.

[BabyBober]

Question to the group. Lci said that a machine for 10" hubs is going into service and in the future the same goes for the 12" hubs. Do any GD units use 10" hubs?

[Tom&Joan]

Tom&Joan
In reading your response I am extremely sorry that you feel this way. We at LCI are aware of the concerns that are being seen, and we are continually trying to improve our manufacturing processes. The FAQ and the other documents that Bill shared are the same documents that I share with people when they reach out to myself direct, or our call center team. Reading over the FAQ/documents, I can see where there would be some questions that some may have in regard to our wording, or the info shared. In that case, myself or any of our team would be happy to answer those questions for you. You are always able to reach out to us. I would encourage you to please call me at 574-537-8900, ask for Emily Stahley when you reach the operator and I would be happy to answer any and all questions for you. Like the rest of our team, I will be open and honest with you and answer everything I possibly can for you. If for some reason you have a question I cannot answer, I can promise you I will FIND the answer. LCI and Grand Design value the relationship that we have built together, as well as the relationship we have built with the Grand Design owners/family. We want to be sure that relationship can continue. I personally enjoy speaking, and meeting with many of the owners in this family, and I look forward to what the future holds for all involved.

Thanks for your time

Emily

Emily, Don't sit by the phone on my account. Vehicle mechanical experience aside, I have considerable manufacturing experience in engineering and quality control. Something to consider, automotive brakes nearly identical to trailer brakes have been made for how many years, with the same consideration for lubing bearings, and you folks are just starting to figure this out?
I am a mild mannered person but I'll admit, I've not calmed down yet.

[livinthelife]

Just curious how widespread the problem is with grease leaking from the axle seals and getting into the brakes. And BTW, my seals failed within 1,000 miles and I had grease on the brakes.

Please don't vote "no" unless you've pulled your hubs to check because some people had leaking axle seals that hadn't yet flinged grease on their wheels and/or brakes. If you haven't actually checked your seals, please vote "I'm not sure".

Thanks!

I voted, yes, but the brakes didn't fail. We had the dealer check what we thought looked suspiciously like what was being described here before anything happened. And, surprise, we got a call from the service department asking if we had packed our axles ourselves. Um....no.

[bartlett]

I herd from Emily today and my brakes are being shipped. I do give credit to them for working with us to get us on the road. Still think its way past due for the cure. thanks emily.

[Canyonlight]

Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall when Don read or someone shared Ralph’s email with him. Not sure if Don talks like a sailor (no offense Jim & Ginnie) but one side of me says that I hope Don was not pleased to hear about greasy and dangerous brakes STILL being a highly charged and volatile issue. Or maybe he does know and it was just mildly talked about (again) among Don and some of his team members and then Bill drew the short straw. Or maybe Don probably thought it had been resolved by LCI months ago. Well….not so much.

In any event for whatever reason(s) Ralph’s email did get Don’s attention and then in more often than not typical GDRV fashion, expediency to respond to owner issues happened. As I recall, Ralph was not pleased with the areas he had to deal with on his 303 over the years and the greasy brakes may have pushed him over the edge. It took an unhappy and concerned (for his and other’s safety) former GDRV owner communicating with the top leader to get GDRV (and even LCI) to jump on the forum thread and try to cool the raging fire.

In Don’s leadership role he certainly would not like to see this become a bad trend of folks jumping ship from GDRV (like Ralph did) especially in part for a topic that has been “talked” about ad nauseam with apparent snail’s pace action and results to correct for more than 2 years. Yes, Ralph is staying with the mother ship having moved to a motorized Winnebago product which is good news to Don.

Ralph-- thank you, for taking the time to contact Don…….your email got folks attention at GDRV and LCI……we’ll see what happens next.
Bill and Emily--thank you, for your time communicating on this years old problem……can’t believe we are still kicking this can down the road.

It will be interesting to see what transpires in the weeks/months ahead on this issue. Does LCI become more active (maybe even proactive….hint hint) in communications and actions to achieve and sustain effective results to finally correct this issue with some greater sense of urgency and focus or will it be just business as usual after the dust settles of the last few days…….after all it is just a 1% problem isn’t it.

Dan

[Tom&Joan]

In an effort to tamp down my emotions on this, and reflect on it objectively, many thoughts have crossed my mind. I recently read about Ford's production figures in their early years. 100 years ago (1917) Ford was producing over 2000 cars per day. I'll bet they developed a method for packing the wheel bearings consistently somewhere along the way. So although 7000 axles seems rather astounding, keeping it in a historical perspective, not really. And Lippert"s point regarding the 3500/day? Maybe that it is difficult to produce that many defect free assemblies a day? When I worked in industry, any production problem was addressed immediately. If any assembly somehow got out the door, production was stopped right then and not resumed until the problem was corrected. And by the way, any employee could stop production if they saw anything wrong. I will say that a defective part or assembly would not have put anyone's life in danger.