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View Full Version : Disappointed in a Competitor Brand


JRTJH
05-19-2019, 04:49 AM
Yesterday, while on I-80 in Nebraska, there were hundreds of new RV's being towed to dealerships in the west. I suppose I-80 is a corridor from Elkhart to "points west".... Some were on flatbeds, 2 or 3 per flatbed, some were towed by DRW pickups, some by larger trucks. One in particular caught my eye. It was a DRW SuperDuty towing a fifth wheel (about 35-37' long) which had a 30+ foot long travel trailer hitched to the back receiver. Since I'm double towing the Slingshot behind our Cougar, I'm very "sensitive" to loading placed on the receiver that's mounted to our Cougar frame.....

That said, there's simply no way to tow a 6000+ pound trailer with a 800+ pound tongue weight on a receiver with the following WARNING in the owner's manual for the fifth wheel:
Receiver is for cargo carrying accessories ONLY. DO NOT tow any trailer
or other vehicle. Load Limit for this receiver is 300 lbs Maximum.
Use for towing or exceeding load limit will void the warranty. Failure to
follow the instructions can cause the carrier to collapse or items to fall which
could cause an accident resulting in death or serious injury.


Why do I even bring this up? Well, someone is going to buy that fifth wheel, put a cargo carrier with a generator or a bike rack on it, head out for their vacation in their "brand new fifth wheel" and find that the receiver isn't holding the bikes steady, that there's problems with a bent frame on the trailer or issues with the structure (FILON sides) cracking. They're going to blame the trailer manufacturer for building a crappy trailer (we see such claims all the time on this forum) and they're going to be upset when the manufacturer denies their claim for warranty repair..... (something else we see all the time on this forum).

Now, who do you blame for towing at least double, maybe three times the maximum weight rating for the receiver? Who do you blame for towing a trailer with the receiver (against a specific WARNING in the owner's manual?

Is the factory responsible? Who hired the transporter? Who contracted for delivery? These are only the beginning of questions I'd want to answer.

The point of all this: I'd suspect that the fifth wheel will have some significant frame integrity issues in the future. The owner is going to be unaware of the abuse his trailer received before he even saw it. We hear many issues with blown tires, brakes that don't work properly, leaks around windows, cracks in FILON siding, broken frames on fifth wheel upper deck structures and bent/damaged suspension.

If what I saw yesterday is more common than a "Holy smokes, did you just see that?" and is a frequent means to deliver two trailers from Elkhart to Denver, then I can begin to understand why some owners are disappointed with the factory and the factory is claiming "The trailer must have been abused for that kind of damage to occur" and the owner saying "NEVER HAPPENED, you sold me a bad trailer."

I don't know how that delivery driver made it through all the weigh stations/DOT inspections with a load like that hitched to a receiver that's not rated (from the factory) for towing any trailer, much less a 30'+ RV......

I won't name the brand of RV being towed, both were from the same manufacturer, but the brand is often claimed to be "superior to Keystone" by people who have bought them while members of this forum......

Eastham
05-19-2019, 05:15 AM
Must of been a good receiver rated at 300lbs and he's towing 6000lbs .kinda makes you wonder why they rate them so low.

chuckster57
05-19-2019, 05:33 AM
I bet it was the driver that made that decision. We have seen some real “winners” show up! Now that the industry is booming, it seems like the transport companies will hire anybody that meets the minimum requirements, and I doubt the company really checks the loads. Last month a triple axle toy hauler showed up on a 3/4 ton with the back end about 4” off the pavement. Since we are on the left coast that meant he had to navigate the continental divide and the sierras. Last week a driver showed up with a 3/4 ton, no bed. Just the hitch and a couple homemade fenders. Then there is the drivers that should have handicap placards.

Don’t get me wrong, there are quality drivers but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

JRTJH
05-19-2019, 06:08 AM
Must of been a good receiver rated at 300lbs and he's towing 6000lbs .kinda makes you wonder why they rate them so low.

It's not usually the "receiver" that's the limiting factor on RV's. Quite often, the chassis rails, the suspension system (hangers and springs) and the ability to mount the receiver (which might be rated 15,000 pounds) but is welded to the extreme end of a 30' I-beam that's "balanced" 15' from the actual "receiver". As for "a good receiver", what "good" is it if it "holds tight" and the trailer I-beam chassis bends just behind the axle mount?????? Not to mention, what about the fifth wheel "front deck welds" that are being loaded with significantly more "bounce on today's roads" than that structure is designed to hold ?????

Frank G
05-19-2019, 07:17 AM
I bet it was the driver that made that decision. We have seen some real “winners” show up! Now that the industry is booming, it seems like the transport companies will hire anybody that meets the minimum requirements, and I doubt the company really checks the loads. Last month a triple axle toy hauler showed up on a 3/4 ton with the back end about 4” off the pavement. Since we are on the left coast that meant he had to navigate the continental divide and the sierras. Last week a driver showed up with a 3/4 ton, no bed. Just the hitch and a couple homemade fenders. Then there is the drivers that should have handicap placards.

Don’t get me wrong, there are quality drivers but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Transporters are paid low $/mile. You can actually loose money transporting. If you stopped and talked to the driver pulling the RV doubles, I think he would tell you that the first trailer paid the bills and the second was pocket money. If the driver was connected with a transporter the load would have to be cleared through the dispatcher. Right or wrong the DOT looks at numbers, weights, and lengths differently. This is just my opinion, I looked into transporting and ran away as fast as I could.