While inspecting my spring hangers after talking to friend who had one twist and come partially broken off his Cardinal 5th wheel I found these cracks in my frame....



The cracks were in the same place on both sides. Just forward of the gusset plate on the I-beam above the rearmost spring hanger. The cracks were about 1.5 inches but I couldn't tell how far under that gusset plate they went (turns out they were about 3" and the tech was pretty surprised I found them that early in the failure cycle. He has seen them a lot longer).
I'm working with Lippert on warranty coverage. They are amenable to provide some assistance and may pay for it all. So that seems to be going well so far. They were quick to answer the phone, transform to some specialist folks and email exchanges are quickly replied to.
I found a good welding shop locally (Bend, OR) and took it there. They were quite familiar with the problem and said they see it all the time. They explained that the I-beam twists when backing due to stresses on the wheels, axles and spring hanger. We've all heard about the spring hangers breaking, I had not ever heard of the I-beam cracking.
The fix was to box the frame from about 8" before the front most spring hanger to about 8" behind the rearmost spring hanger (seems to be about 6' long). The formed a "C" shaped plate out of 1/8" steel that fit inside the I-beam on the outside of the beam and welded it in place. The even cut the plate to fit around the welded on extensions on the I-beam and around the openings for the slide out mechanism. They also filled the crack with some welds before boxing the frame.
They dropped the coroplast before welding and put everything back to gather very neatly. I sure am impressed with their work. They even had to work around my brake lines (disc brakes).
I'll put some more photos in the next post due to photo limit.
kalakamods



The cracks were in the same place on both sides. Just forward of the gusset plate on the I-beam above the rearmost spring hanger. The cracks were about 1.5 inches but I couldn't tell how far under that gusset plate they went (turns out they were about 3" and the tech was pretty surprised I found them that early in the failure cycle. He has seen them a lot longer).
I'm working with Lippert on warranty coverage. They are amenable to provide some assistance and may pay for it all. So that seems to be going well so far. They were quick to answer the phone, transform to some specialist folks and email exchanges are quickly replied to.
I found a good welding shop locally (Bend, OR) and took it there. They were quite familiar with the problem and said they see it all the time. They explained that the I-beam twists when backing due to stresses on the wheels, axles and spring hanger. We've all heard about the spring hangers breaking, I had not ever heard of the I-beam cracking.
The fix was to box the frame from about 8" before the front most spring hanger to about 8" behind the rearmost spring hanger (seems to be about 6' long). The formed a "C" shaped plate out of 1/8" steel that fit inside the I-beam on the outside of the beam and welded it in place. The even cut the plate to fit around the welded on extensions on the I-beam and around the openings for the slide out mechanism. They also filled the crack with some welds before boxing the frame.
They dropped the coroplast before welding and put everything back to gather very neatly. I sure am impressed with their work. They even had to work around my brake lines (disc brakes).
I'll put some more photos in the next post due to photo limit.
kalakamods
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