Cougar 26SAB BUMPER FAILURE!!!!!!!!

[s92pilot]

Yes The title is correct. The rear bumper failed on my 2010 26 SAB which I purchased new in June 2011. I had mounted a 2 bike bicycle rack this past Friday and mounted 2 bikes and headed out for a weekend of camping. About 30 miles into the drive another driver honked and told me my bikes were dragging the road behind me.

While I was finding a place to pull over all I was thinking was I messed up when I mounted the bikes on the rack and just destroyed the 2 brand new mountain bikes my wife and I bought for eachother for Christmas.

As I walked back to the rear of the trailer, I noticed the end of the bumper was twisted about 30 degrees from normal. As I rounded the rear, I saw that the entire bumper was bent down so far that my bikes, still perfectly mounted to the rack, were dragging the road. I could not believe my eyes. I looked at the top of where the bumper was welded to the frame mounts and discovered that the top welds on both sides had failed. A closer look revealed that the bumper had torn like cardboard horizontally from each side of the failed bumper welds about 2-3 inches. This allowed the bumper to bend away from the mounts far enough to cause my bikes to drag the road!! Bad enough to destroy one tire on each bike worn down to the threaded inner cores.

I removed the bikes and bike rack and stored them in the trailer. I was able to push on the rear of the spare tire and bend the bumper to an almost original vertical angle. Being concerned about further failure of the existing welds, I ended up removing the tire and tire mount from the bumper.

I emailed Keystone customer service Monday and they haven't responded so I'll be calling them tomorrow and to say the least, they better have a good response to my warranty claim. I will also be requesting compensation for the damage to my bike tires.

In my opinion the read bumper is made of substandard thickness steel which allowed it to tear where it was weakened at the weld joints. I attached a pic of the left and right side failures.

[Festus2]

After reading your post, I can only imagine how disappointed and upset you must be. Hopefully, Keystone Customer Service will listen to your case and go to bat for you and compensate you in some way for the damages to your RV and to your bikes. Having said that, I am rather doubtful that they will be very receptive to your claims. I say that because of the "out" they have in their warranty exclusions and their obligations to their customers.
If you were to take a look at the "fine print", it essentially says that if you make "any authorized attachments, modifications or alterations to the structure, body, pin box or frame of the RV" then the warranty is void. I think they will say that, by adding a bike rack to the bumper, you have made an "unauthorized attachment to the structure or frame". I am hoping for you that they won't take this tact but don't be surprised if they do.
Again, I really hope this turns out well for you and wish you all the best in your dealings with Keystone to get this resolved. Keep us informed of how the process goes.

[Outbackmel]

For most of us who choose to take bikes along, the severe vibration on the rear bumper would stress anything so cheap in it's design. You need a good welder to look under that rig and find points to weld a reenforcement to support a rack that will not SHAKE free.

Along with the stress of a down economy, our roads have continued to deteriorate. We just left today from Atlanta on our way to Arizona for the winter. I thought the trip to Birmingham, AL was going to break the springs in my TV....man ohhhhh man....shades of PA roads. One BIG pothole.

Regardless, retirement is good!

[s92pilot]

Thanks for your support Festus. I understand that the fine print does become an issue and we'll see how Keystone addresses the issue. If they deny the claim that does not prevent me from addressing this issue in public forums such as this. Customer feedback is a huge issue for businesses now a days and in our computer age, negative feedback can be distributed through the internet in a matter of moments and can hurt a company's reputation much quicker than they can imagine.

In my business, customer discontent has to be weighed against the cost of making that customer happy again regardless of what some fine print may say. We often make exceptions to our fine print to keep our customers happy and returning to us in the future.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I see how they deal with this issue. After all this issue could have had catastrophic results had the other driver not told me about the problem. I'm confident that if he would not have told me, this bumper was not far from falling off. A separation of the bumper from the mounts with a spare tire and bike mount and bikes attached could have resulted in possibly a major accident and injuries. I'm assuming that Keystone does not want any negative issues floating around in cyberspace saying their product has the potential of being unsafe. That kind of bad press cuts deep and the wound heals very slow.

The way I am, if they don't fix it, they will never see me again as a Keystone customer guaranteed!

I'll post the results of my conversation with Keystone tomorrow.

[s92pilot]

Originally Posted by Outbackmel

For most of us who choose to take bikes along, the severe vibration on the rear bumper would stress anything so cheap in it's design. You need a good welder to look under that rig and find points to weld a reenforcement to support a rack that will not SHAKE free.

Along with the stress of a down economy, our roads have continued to deteriorate. We just left today from Atlanta on our way to Arizona for the winter. I thought the trip to Birmingham, AL was going to break the springs in my TV....man ohhhhh man....shades of PA roads. One BIG pothole.

Regardless, retirement is good!

Outbackmel, the problem was with the bumper and not the rack. The rack was snug and undamaged. Rack and bikes only added maybe 90 Lbs to the bumper. But as you say, with some road conditions today, vibrations and bumps are a consideration. I had been traveling over a road construction area. But I've been Rving for over 40 years and I have never seen a failure like this even back in the 70s when the quality of the RVs varied drastically from one manufacturer to the other. I would guess that 75% of the RVs I see on the roads today have bike racks mounted to the rear bumpers. You would think that with that many bikes racks out there, there would be more failures of this type.

[rjsurfer]

When I installed my 2 bike "tray mount" rack on the rear bumper I was concerned about the weight issue so I just removed the spare tire mount and tire then ditched the mount and threw the spare in the bed.

I too was concerned about all that weight bouncing down the road. With just the bike rack and two lightweight bikes I now have less weight on the bumper than before. I have no problem throwing the tire up on the bed just in front of the hitch when we go for a trip.

Ron W.

[SteveC7010]

Originally Posted by rjsurfer

When I installed my 2 bike "tray mount" rack on the rear bumper I was concerned about the weight issue so I just removed the spare tire mount and tire then ditched the mount and threw the spare in the bed.

I too was concerned about all that weight bouncing down the road. With just the bike rack and two lightweight bikes I now have less weight on the bumper than before. I have no problem throwing the tire up on the bed just in front of the hitch when we go for a trip.

I am with you, Ron. Those bumpers are intentionally fabricated to hold not a lot more than the rated 200 pounds. The larger spare tire on one of these rigs alone has to be pushing 80-90# and then add the torquing action of two bikes on a bike rack on a bumpy road and I think it is very, very easy to place some heavy forces on the bumper.

My spare will be in the bed of the truck or slung under the trailer this season.

[Johnnyfry]

I certainly agree with Ron and Steve. When I put my bike rack on I moved the spare to the truck bed. In addition I use a cargo strap through the bike frames to the ladder to revlieve stress and damp vibration.

So far it has worked well. Oh yes, I eyeball the welds every night when we stop.

John

[Terrydactile]

Sorry you had trouble. Bumpers on rv's today will not stand up to having additional weight added to them, especially something that hangs in the air and bounces up and down. The welds did not break but the thin metal of the bumper torn away because of metal fatigue from the bouncing up and down. I hope they honor your claim.

[s92pilot]

Thanks for all the inputs. Well guess I should have considered the weight but from past experience I had never had any problems. I had a 32' Holiday Rambler back in the mid 90s where I had a spare and bike rack with 4 bikes. Never had a problem over about 4 years of use Before that was a 21 towlite with tire and 3 bikes. Also no problems over 3 years of use. This one didn't last 45 min. I had figured this rack was a good setup so I went with it.

A keystone rep called today but I was unable to answer his call. I called them back late this afternoon and left him a voice mail. Maybe I'll find out something tomorrow.

[mrxlh]

The weld didn't fail. The weld is still completely intact. The bumper material is what failed. The way it failed is directly related to the additional weight and force exerted by the bike rack and bike weight.

Even if Keystone offers to replace it, it will be the same as what you have now, which will likely yield the same result. Getting a stronger bumper made is what is it going to take to resolve this.

[jje1960]

Sorry for your trouble, hopefully others will read and not mount bikes and other on the stock bumper mounts without reinforcement. I also had huge headache with bumper ripping, we had a generator mounted on the back of a previous TT and even with extra braces to help with movement, the thing ripped the steel away from the frame, very similar to your pictures. Answer was we welded a new bumper on reinforced with frame struts. The bumpers on most RV's are for protecting low force bumps to the unit, just not made to carry bouncing, hanging weight. Again, sorry you had this trouble on your camping trip!

[s92pilot]

Played phone tag with Keystone today. Maybe something tomorrow. You would think that the documentation to the trailer would state something about the weight limit or at least a caution about mounting stuff back there. Oh well live and learn.

[s92pilot]

Well finally got a response from Keystone on my claim. NO GO. How does a company put out a product with a limitation that is not published. That was their primary defense telling me that the bumper has a 200 lb load limit. They also said that the warranty does not cover for modifications. We if I knew the bumper had a 200# limit I would never have tried to mount the rack bottom line but how was I supposed to know that? You spend $30,000 on an rv you expect some quality in return.

In my business, customer service and providing a quality product is #1. They go hand in hand. If we have a customer who is not happy with the product and you may loose that customer over the issue, you first goal is to keep that customer. If you have to make some allowances and compromises you do it. They wouldn't even entertain any compromise so basically they have no customer service after the sale in my opinion.

Well in the middle of writting this they called me back. A customer relations person, very polite but did nothing to rectify the situation. Customer service is not lip service but is fixing the problem. If you can't fix it, don't lip it.

My wife and I have already talked of upgrading. Once we decide to follow through on the upgrade, Keystone and all of its product line will be out of the running!

[JRTJH]

So sorry that you met the situation you've encountered. My dealings with Keystone Customer Service were just the opposite of what you experienced. They were cheerful, bent over backwards to help me and even overnighted a new referigerator to replace my defective one so we wouldn't miss a family camping trip that was scheduled the next weekend. I wish you'd have had the same kind of satisfactory outsome as me.

There have been literally hundreds of posts on this forum about overloading the back tube bumper on trailers. Not just Keystone, but virtually all trailers. The bumper assembly you have on your Keystone is virtually the same as that found on Jayco, Forest River, Coleman and a host of other RV's. They all come from the same supplier and the almost the entire industry uses that bumper assembly.

On page 6 of the owner's manual, in the warranty exclusions, it says:

"Damage or loss caused in whole or in part by the unauthorized attachments, modifications or alterations • to the structure, body, pin box, or frame of the recreational vehicle including but not limited to trailer hitches for towing, or platforms for supporting cargo;"

Just to double check myself, I looked in my owner's manual and found the following:

"Top heavy loads can cause problems not only in cornering but also in hard braking. They have a tendency to make the trailer “dive” in hard braking conditions. This suddenly increases tongue weight and can decrease tow vehicle front axle loading just when you need steering and brakes the most. Arrange the remainder of the load to act as a counter weight to minimize this effect. Never place heavy objects on add-on devices hung on the rear bumper or placed across the tongue frame. This places heavy objects where they will dramatically effect handling in corners or bumps. Heavy weights placed well behind the axle can also reduce stability. A bicycle may be fine to hang out in back, but not a motorcycle. Use good common sense and to always allow plenty of margin for safety."

I found those instructions on page 57 of the current owner's manual which was published on 4/1/2010.

I hope you get your trailer repaired and have many enjoyable days camping in it or in your replacement RV.

Speaking of replacements, Keystone is owned by Thor Industries. So if you're looking to stay away from the Keystone company's products, you might want to keep these companies in mind since they're all have the same parent company:

Commercial Bus
ElDorado National
Champion Bus Incorporated
Goshen Coaches
SJC Industries

Recreation Vehicles
Airstream
Breckenridge
CrossRoads RV
Dutchmen RV
Redwood RV
Keystone RV
Thor Motor Coach (combined Four Winds International and Damon Motorcoach)
Heartland RV

[Festus2]

Dan:
Not the news you were hoping for from Keystone and I can understand your annoyance with them for not being receptive to your claim. We have a pull-out bumper on our unit that, when fully extended, makes a small platform which may be used to carry bikes and other "stuff". Built into this platform is a square post which can be raised to act as a support for bikes albeit a rather Mickey Mouse one at that.
On the platform there is a caution or warning which states that there is a 200 lb limit. Other than that, there is no other warning in my 2006 Owner's Manual about this bumper and its weight restriction. I agree with you that there should be.
I am not sure if your unit has this pull-out bumper but if it doesn't there probably isn't any caution or warning found in the Owner's Manual if it is anything like mine. In view of what has happened to you and to other RV owners who have carried bikes on their bumpers, you would think that all RV manufacturers would ensure that the Owner's Manual would have a warning about overloading the bumper and have a specific weight limit.
In your case, you did what you thought was safe but unfortunately it didn't turn out well at all and that you didnt receive the customer service that you were expecting. I wish you better luck with your next RV - whatever make you decide to buy.

[Russ26SAB]

I joined the forum to late the same thing happen to me, On the same model.and guess what same response from keystone. I had it repair ( re-welded and reinforced). Same as u they are out as I' m thinking of upgrading to.

[Russ26SAB]

It is a shame. My last travel trailer (sunline) had it clear " no more than 100 lbs on bumper". To bad they couldn't spend the money for that one line. That would be a good cust service and avoid anyone in the future from have the problem I did.

[therink]

Sorry about your bumper failure. I have a 4 bike platform type carrier the bumper of my 2010 Sydney fiver. I knew about the load/stress concerns when I installed it two years ago on the brand new trailer. When I installed the carrier, the first thing I did was remove the spare tire and carrier. When I installed the rack, I noticed that the square bumper tube literally started to collapse as I tightened the bike carrier brackets. This is due to the thin gauge used for the tube. I went to Lowe's and purchased 1/8" x 2" x 24" stock steel pieces, painted them and placed them between the upper and lower bike carrier brackets and the bumper tube to provide better lateral support for the brackets (spreading out the weight stress on the bumper). I was now able to tighten down the brackets, providing good firm support without fatiguing the bumper tube. I have carried three bikes on the rack for two years without any issues. I also use ratchet straps to secure the bikes to the rack, which eliminates any movement of the bikes when traveling. I then had a buddy of mine follow me going down the road, and he confirmed that the bikes and rack ride with no bouncing or movement.
I can stand on the rack and bounce my 230 lbs up and down with no movement to the rack and bumper.
I think one problem is that many people use the bike carrier types that the bikes hang from. These are bad because the bikes tend to bounce around on these and the weight stress on the bumper is much greater than the platform type carriers.

[Charli]

We have the same model, just a 2012. Picked it up from the dealer last summer and on the trip home, with only the spare tire on the bumper, the welds failed. The dealer agreed to reweld the bumper and we put the tire back on the bumper and headed out on our first trip with the new trailer. After a week I rechecked the bumper and the welds(or perhaps the metal, not sure) had failed again so the tire went back into the truck bed. Since my intention was to carry 2 mtn bikes on the back we talked to the dealer and he said that the bumper wasn't designed to carry that much weight and suggested they weld a receiver right to the frame under the back bumper. I was dissapointed given that another person at the dealership had told me, before I picked up the trailer, that I shouldn't have a problem. Obviously their opinion changed once they had my money. Due to the type of bike rack I have the spare and the bikes couldn't be on the back at the same time so the dealer installed a winch system to mount the tire under the front belly of the trailer. All is good now but it was all very frustrating and expensive.
This 5er is an Xlite and I suspect changes have been made from earlier generations to keep the weight down (like thickness of the metal in frame and bumper). Given the economy and competetiveness between mfg keeping the price points down is also a major focus and cutting corners on things we don't see while adding more "lipstick" is a common practice.