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Old 04-12-2016, 09:15 AM   #1
Keoni37
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A Warning to anyone with a slide out bumper bike rack.

I have a 2013 Cougar 333MKS 5th wheel with the slide out rear bumper bike rack/spare tire holder (I purchased the trailer new 5/2013). Trailer has less than 10,000 miles on it and we have never, ever used the bike rack feature or stored anything on the rack, only the stored spare tire on the bumper as originally designed. While traveling from Page, AZ to Monument Valley the rear bumper separated from the left and right sliding tubes causing the bumper to sag and allowing the bottom of the spare tire to contact the roadway and be ripped from its mount at 60 mph narrowly missing a following vehicle and then bounding across the highway. Very lucky this happened on a very remote highway and not a busy freeway or residential area where it would have certainly caused a serious accident and possible fatality. In searching the net I find numerous instances of failures of these Keystone slide out bumpers due to metal fatigue. There have been at least two recalls issued by Keystone on these particular bumpers that I can find on the NHTSA site for 2010-2012 Cougar 26SAB and 29RES and 2008 -2010 Cougar and Laredo trailers and 5th wheels. In my opinion ALL Keystone products, all years and all models with this particular bumper design should be recalled. They are a serious safety hazard and I encourage anyone with this bumper to take a look at yours. I had no prior visual indication that the bumper was about to fail. I have filed a complaint with the NHTSA, FTC and BBB. Hopefully issues with this type bumper will be resolved.
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Old 04-12-2016, 10:00 AM   #2
nellie1289
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keoni37 View Post
I have a 2013 Cougar 333MKS 5th wheel with the slide out rear bumper bike rack/spare tire holder (I purchased the trailer new 5/2013). Trailer has less than 10,000 miles on it and we have never, ever used the bike rack feature or stored anything on the rack, only the stored spare tire on the bumper as originally designed. While traveling from Page, AZ to Monument Valley the rear bumper separated from the left and right sliding tubes causing the bumper to sag and allowing the bottom of the spare tire to contact the roadway and be ripped from its mount at 60 mph narrowly missing a following vehicle and then bounding across the highway. Very lucky this happened on a very remote highway and not a busy freeway or residential area where it would have certainly caused a serious accident and possible fatality. In searching the net I find numerous instances of failures of these Keystone slide out bumpers due to metal fatigue. There have been at least two recalls issued by Keystone on these particular bumpers that I can find on the NHTSA site for 2010-2012 Cougar 26SAB and 29RES and 2008 -2010 Cougar and Laredo trailers and 5th wheels. In my opinion ALL Keystone products, all years and all models with this particular bumper design should be recalled. They are a serious safety hazard and I encourage anyone with this bumper to take a look at yours. I had no prior visual indication that the bumper was about to fail. I have filed a complaint with the NHTSA, FTC and BBB. Hopefully issues with this type bumper will be resolved.

I have a similar bumper set up. sounds like you had a failure of the metal vs my issue which is the tire is simply TOO LOW. I raised mine by extending the post because the tire drag, no matter how carefuly you are, would happen eventually. it was already dragged when I took delivery. The saleman simply said "horrible design" . I am frankly scared to pull my bike rack out now.



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Old 04-12-2016, 10:21 AM   #3
Keoni37
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Yes, very poor design. There have been numerous metal fatigue fails with that slide out bumper design and apparently (not as of my 2013 Cougar) Keystone has not resolved or corrected the defective design. You may want to consider not carrying your spare on the bumper. As I explained in my post, there was no prior notice visually or otherwise of the eventual separation failure. The tire was ripped off the bumper at 60mph and could have had devastating consequences. Lucky I was on a "country" road.
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Old 04-12-2016, 10:39 AM   #4
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I had actually taken it "off" until I extended it so the tire was now above the bumper.....and put the spare underneath in storage. Just seems like a stupid design, I echo your sediment. can you tell me where it sperated more specifically on yours so I can look at the welds or whatever?
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Old 04-12-2016, 10:47 AM   #5
Keoni37
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It separated at the left and right side rails that slide in and out. The welds did not fail, the bumper ripped away like a paper rip on both sides and is only now being held on by the weld connection in the center. I believe that the constant bouncing of the spare on the bumper over a period of time caused metal fatigue and the eventual failure.
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Old 04-12-2016, 11:14 AM   #6
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There has been many threads about this problem. On my '07 I noticed when I first brought it home how much the spare bounced around ..... took it off and carry it in the bed of the truck. My rack is always out with two bikes and other supplies for about 25,000 mi.. The only mod I made was adding extra support under the two L brackets that the pull pins go through. You MUST secure everything on the rack so nothing bounces. I use ratchet straps on the bikes to hold them down and they ride solid with no bounce. The spare can ride laying down on the rack but the mount that is supplied has to go. (Too much bounce and leverage on the bumper.) JM2¢, Hank
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Old 04-12-2016, 11:30 AM   #7
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Yep. I had mine almost fail on our first trip. It was not metal fatigue it was the fact that the unbraced L brackets could not hold the weight of the bouncing bumper.
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Old 04-12-2016, 02:12 PM   #8
Ken / Claudia
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Being on the highways daily, I have seen way to many things, mostly spare tires bouncing on the bumper or rack like a bouncy ball. So, when I purchased this trailer I took the spare off. Here's another thing about the pull out bumpers with storage rack. Go grab the bumper and see how much play or up/down movement there is while it is in or out. Think about it any movement at the mounting points is going to be adding even more bounce. I understand the bumper has some weight to it and if you place stuff on it, it may help stop bounce of the play at the mounts. But, how much force is added to the bounce as we travel and that is the most bouncy place on a RV due to how they are made. I tapped into the slide out bars a shim under each side and ended up stopping all that movement or play. There could be better ways to stop the movement. But, stop that and have anything on the bumper or rack as solid as possible and maybe the welds and brackets will last. Another item to inspect before a trip.
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Old 04-12-2016, 03:20 PM   #9
Keoni37
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It is a flawed design and should not be up to the purchasers to find a fix to make it safe on the road. Keystone needs to recall all of these bumpers for a permanent fix.
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Old 03-31-2019, 09:44 PM   #10
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2016 Cougar Fw slide out bumper

Yep. I had mine almost fail on our first trip. It was not metal fatigue it was the fact that the unbraced L brackets could not hold the weight of the bouncing bumper.[/QUOTE]

A HUGE thank you to this forum and especially this post. We are using our slide out bumper for the first time to haul our new e-bikes. Was looking for a better way to secure them and came across this thread. We walked out and looked at our bumper at the end of our first 200 miles. Sure enough, that L bracket was bent and the bumper was sagging. The bikes are now in the truck and that bumper is useless. Bummer but thank goodness nothing happened.
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Old 04-01-2019, 06:50 AM   #11
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Used mine only on one cross country trip. No problem with the welds. Had about 100# plus the spare on the bumper. At one point about 1000 mi. into the trip I noticed what seemed like a bit of a sag on the extension rails. Some careful measuring showed the pullout rails had actually bent about 1".
I attribute this to the spare tire oscillating way back there as opposed to the weight on the rack.
Bought a BAL hide-a-spare, put the rack back in, replaced the 3/8" pins with 1/2" bolts and never to be used again.
Very poor design. New one has the drop down rack. Says 225# max load. I'm thinking lawn chairs at best. JMO YMMV
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Old 04-01-2019, 09:17 AM   #12
Ken / Claudia
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Your likely right about your thoughts. I see I was poster #8 when this was newer. I will add I still see spares and other stuff on bumpers and pull out bumpers bouncing like a rubber ball at 65 mph. Last week I noted a smaller kids size ATV mounted on a bumper that was solid. They get a great job with what ever they welded up to carry that load.
Here's another point about what I see. Bicycles mounted in a bike rack using the hitch on the rear of a pickup/SUV. Many do not bounce much, but most when seen on the rear bumper of a RV mostly bounce like crazy. I think it has to do with where the rear wheels are located on a TV vs a RV.
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Old 04-01-2019, 10:49 AM   #13
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You are right Ken. If one of our engineer members reads this maybe they could enlighten as to the formula/reason for this action.
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Old 04-01-2019, 01:02 PM   #14
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Well for 2019 they made a few changes. On my Cougar 30 RLS 5th wheel it has
a fold down storage rack with a metal pole you can use to stabilize bikes on the
rack. The only thing I've carried on it so far is two Honda 2000i generators that
each weights about 45 pounds. I believe it has a weight max of about 250 lbs.
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Old 04-01-2019, 06:35 PM   #15
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Not sure what people mean when they say sliding bumper. My 2019 Limited bumper is welded to the frame. Bike rack on back with no issues. After reading and getting fairly skeered from these types of posts, I asked the service mgr about hauling 2 bikes on the bumper, he said perfectly fine. In fact, I even called the frame mfg and talked to an engineer about it. He said it is designed to hold up to 200 lbs, as long as not a huge arm hanging way out back.
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Old 04-02-2019, 08:13 AM   #16
Ken / Claudia
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It was listed as a pull out bumper. It is held in place with pins. If you want extra storage or carrying something outside on rear of RV than you remove pins and pull it out. Repin and you have a plastic tray that says it can hold several hundred lbs. It comes out about 2 ft. It has a bicycle post that can be extended up to hold them. Now the bad news, it is weak, just grab it and lift, it
goes up and down it moves several inch's That is what they do over every bump in the road they bounce up and down, are not flexing they have that much play. To be real useful they need more welding work. I use mine as a outside tray when camping to hold a cooler etc. not during travel. The brackets that hold all that out there are L shape and light weight. As said the L brackets can be down and than the bumper drops on the road. Some have said the welds failed and caused the same results. Idea is good but, really needs more work to do the job.
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Old 04-02-2019, 11:26 AM   #17
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Interesting. My bumper is just welded to the frame and sticks just past the rear wall. I attach my bike rack to that and it bounces a bit too. May check the welds and add some more meat if required.
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Old 04-03-2019, 12:09 PM   #18
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Bumper Bike Rack
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