After reading way too many posts about Solitude frame problems and watching too much YouTube, I did a thorough (as I could) analysis of the health of my frame on my 2021 310GK. I took several videos from multiple angles of the pin dropping on the hitch as well as the bedroom fixtures to see if anything was moving. I looked at every area that was mentioned as a sign of failure such as cracks, wrinkled decals, and broken filon screws. Knock on wood, I don't see any overt signs of a problem.
My next thought was, of course, what if anything can I do to prevent problems. Not wanting to drop the filon to check for cracks (yet) I decided that the one best thing I could do is to make the change that seems to be in the TSB going around, upgrade the bolts inside the bedroom (upper deck in my case). For anyone wanting to take on this task for themselves, this is what I did. Decide for yourself if you should do this.
I started with the easy side under the dresser. The dresser can be removed by taking out the drawers and the 20 or so screws holding it to the wall and floor. Next was the carpeted box that I had under the dresser. I thought I was going to have to remove the billion staples from the carpet to get at the screws, but GD seems to pre-build these boxes with the carpet and screw them in after. It just takes a bit of feeling around to see where the screws are that hold the box to the wall. Once it was removed, the steel box beam from the upper deck that attaches to the side wall is exposed as shown below.
I have seen/heard several stories about missing bolts in this area. I had one visible bolt missing, and they were all the standard 3/8 x 3 inch from the factory. The TSB has the dealers swapping these out with 1/2 x 3 lag bolts. The really puzzling thing to me was that the holes in the steel box section are drilled for 1/2 inch bolts, thus allowing the 3/8 bolts to move around in the hole and eventually loosen up as some of mine had. The old bolts are shown next to a new one below.
I tried one as a test. Drilled the hole in the sidewall out carefully with a drill appropriate for a 1/2 inch lag, and put the new bolt in. It felt snug and tightened up very nicely. Now I was off and running, I had to do the rest. I had read that there was an accessible hole in the closet near the plumbing for the WD. Sure enough, after removing a section of the raised floor in the closet, I saw the empty hole and added a bolt. When drilling the holes, make sure not to go deeper then the bolt (3") or risk drilling through the outer wall!
Now onto the bed side. This wasn't as bad as I thought. After removing the platform, there were only five screws holding the head of the frame to the slide. After removing those I was able to slide the entire assembly towards the dresser to gain access to the panel in front of that box beam. It wasn't apparent to me how that panel was held on so I opted to cut access holes in the panel with an oscillating saw. I was able to estimate where the bolts would be based on the measurements from the dresser side. It was quite close.
There was one bolt missing on this side as well. It was the aft-most bolt in this case. More of the factory bolts were loose on this side, I assume because the slide-out hole allows more movement. With the exception of one bolt access hole, all of them will be concealed by the bed assembly, so making the job look nice wasn't a concern. It was very satisfying how great the bolts felt after tightening them.
I wanted to document this for anyone else crazy enough to do this. It was daunting and took a good 6 hours to do. I don't trust a dealer to do this properly or in a timely fashion. I have this vision of them using an impact to tighten the bolts and stripping them all out like the factory seems to do. I hand-tightened every one. I hope this is helpful to someone out there. I feel as though I have at least done all I can do structurally to avoid problems. If I drop the filon and make improvements in there I will document that as well.
Best,
Brian
My next thought was, of course, what if anything can I do to prevent problems. Not wanting to drop the filon to check for cracks (yet) I decided that the one best thing I could do is to make the change that seems to be in the TSB going around, upgrade the bolts inside the bedroom (upper deck in my case). For anyone wanting to take on this task for themselves, this is what I did. Decide for yourself if you should do this.
I started with the easy side under the dresser. The dresser can be removed by taking out the drawers and the 20 or so screws holding it to the wall and floor. Next was the carpeted box that I had under the dresser. I thought I was going to have to remove the billion staples from the carpet to get at the screws, but GD seems to pre-build these boxes with the carpet and screw them in after. It just takes a bit of feeling around to see where the screws are that hold the box to the wall. Once it was removed, the steel box beam from the upper deck that attaches to the side wall is exposed as shown below.
I have seen/heard several stories about missing bolts in this area. I had one visible bolt missing, and they were all the standard 3/8 x 3 inch from the factory. The TSB has the dealers swapping these out with 1/2 x 3 lag bolts. The really puzzling thing to me was that the holes in the steel box section are drilled for 1/2 inch bolts, thus allowing the 3/8 bolts to move around in the hole and eventually loosen up as some of mine had. The old bolts are shown next to a new one below.
I tried one as a test. Drilled the hole in the sidewall out carefully with a drill appropriate for a 1/2 inch lag, and put the new bolt in. It felt snug and tightened up very nicely. Now I was off and running, I had to do the rest. I had read that there was an accessible hole in the closet near the plumbing for the WD. Sure enough, after removing a section of the raised floor in the closet, I saw the empty hole and added a bolt. When drilling the holes, make sure not to go deeper then the bolt (3") or risk drilling through the outer wall!
Now onto the bed side. This wasn't as bad as I thought. After removing the platform, there were only five screws holding the head of the frame to the slide. After removing those I was able to slide the entire assembly towards the dresser to gain access to the panel in front of that box beam. It wasn't apparent to me how that panel was held on so I opted to cut access holes in the panel with an oscillating saw. I was able to estimate where the bolts would be based on the measurements from the dresser side. It was quite close.
There was one bolt missing on this side as well. It was the aft-most bolt in this case. More of the factory bolts were loose on this side, I assume because the slide-out hole allows more movement. With the exception of one bolt access hole, all of them will be concealed by the bed assembly, so making the job look nice wasn't a concern. It was very satisfying how great the bolts felt after tightening them.
I wanted to document this for anyone else crazy enough to do this. It was daunting and took a good 6 hours to do. I don't trust a dealer to do this properly or in a timely fashion. I have this vision of them using an impact to tighten the bolts and stripping them all out like the factory seems to do. I hand-tightened every one. I hope this is helpful to someone out there. I feel as though I have at least done all I can do structurally to avoid problems. If I drop the filon and make improvements in there I will document that as well.
Best,
Brian
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