Trailing Arms Cracked on Roadmaster

[Jim Stewart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nonno Not sure if I understand correctly. Jim you said final revision is $1395 plus freight and Bill said he paid $1800 plus freight. Is $1395 a dealer cost and $1800 the price paid by the end user?

Version 1 original price was $1,100.00. Then in Rev 2 they increased the size of the U-Bolts and mounting plates, machined a precision hole in the mounting plate for the alignment pin on the axle and included the shims for the plates (some units need and some do not). This put the price to $1,395.00.

They then went to Authorized Stocking Dealers and the end user price was set at $1,800.00 (this allowed greater availability to the parts quickly, it also lowered the installation price due to experience) . If you were to see the parts in person, you would not likely say they are overpriced. Don't look for or trust any competition. Any competitor would have to be priced near the same and Source is a trusted and tested solution.

If anyone thinks that Source Engineering is anything other than a group of honorable people is well, Nuts! You would have to go a long way to find better people.

[losttj]

No one is complaining about the price. All I did is list the price as requested by others on this thread.

[Nonno]

Jim,

Thanks for the explanation.

Although my trailing arms don't show signs of cracking yet, DW and I have decided to get them replaced, like you, as a preventive measure. MH has 11k and looking at what appears to be a failure in the 17k to 20K range, I could probably go another 6k to 8K but don't want to take a chance. Not thrilled that I have to pay out of pocket when I could wait till they break and have the extended warranty pay for it, but I don't want to take the chance of any additional damage or a trip interruption, which I expect would happen at an inconvenient time and place. Much easier and less stressful if I do it on my schedule rather than wait for the crisis to happen. Besides that we hope to get to FL in Feb and don’t want this or for that matter any problem in route.

Although they haven't done one yet, I'm considering a couple of places close to me in central NH. I plan on speaking with Scott before making a final decision. Would prefer someone with experience but there isn’t anyone in my area. Closest with experience, I believe, is about 400mi away. At this time of year weather can be very iffy so I’d prefer to stay closer to home. Actually for a while I was considering waiting till FL and use the same place you did but I’d prefer our trip to FL be spent somewhere other than a service waiting area.

BTW- Another reason I decided to have it done, here and soon, is that today I was talking to a local dealer I use and he said he got a call the other day from one of his customers that is stuck in CT with broken trailing arms on a 07 Cayman with just over 20k. As we know all too well with Roadmaster out of the picture his 3yr 50k warranty is useless and unfortunately he doesn’t have an extended warranty either.
Again, thanks for the info you’ve been providing.

[jamorton]

Source Engineering, manufacturers of the trailing-arm repair kit, has a website on-line now. it is http://www.rv-chassis.com and they have a complete list of distributors, sorted by state.

The trailing arm repair kit is in the products menu as TRA-1003, and near the bottom of the article, they have a link to the R-Mechanic webiste http://www.r-mechanic.com which has a photo essay of the installation of one of these kits on a Neptune motorhome. The product page also has a list of model years of several lines of Monaco, Holiday Rambler and Beaver motorhomes which are affected by this problem.

Jim

[bkphotog]

Hi Nonno (Bob)

If I might chime in here, I think that you and your wife have made the right decision on having your "trailing Arms" replaced prior to your trip to Fl.

My wife and I came to that same conclusion: to have this thing done prior to the arms breaking. We also have an extended warrenty program on our unit but they will not cover the work until there was damage. WHAT A "CATCH TWENTY TWO". Our 07 Neptune only has 9k miles on it at this time but we make at least 1 trip to Portland OR every year to visit our son and I was not about to make that trip again without the new arms on the MH. We are not full timers just yet - maybe in a couple more years.

Anyways, we paid for this correction out of our own pockets but I do agree with you and Jim that this is important for just the safety reasons. In one of my post above, I spoke about a MH that I saw on the lot of my installer, and it was not a pretty sight. The way I understand it, his trailing arm broke on the passenger side and he lost control and the MH crashed into a side of a mountain on one of our coastal roads here in CA.
It tore out all the doors on the rear basement compartments, damaged the bedroom slide and really did a job on the paint on that side. He is working with his extended warranty company to get some compensation. I do not know much about that process.

So again I think you are making a good decision. Good luck and be carefull out there.

Bill

[JeepTJ5]

I also had my HR Neptune done at Cummins Crosspoint in Normal. Il. I was very impressed with both the quality of service and the quality of their treatment of their customers. When they went to take off the old trailing arms they could not get the old shocks off without damaging them. They called me and informed me of the problem and I told them to install new Bilstein shocks. They did and all they charged me was the price of the shocks, no additional labor to remove the bad ones and install the new ones.

On my 120 mile ride home I think the coach was more solid and less movement around because of wind. The trip was too short to tell for sure, but my impression is that it does indeed ride better. Seems more solid. Time will tell.

I am really happy that I don't have worry about the back falling out of my coach now. My price was the same as losttj's except for the addition of the two shocks.

[flwandrin]

2004 Safari Cheetah 40PBT....arms replaced under the recall in July 2005 at 17K miles. In Mar 2009 both arms were found to be cracked. A replacement set was obtained from Monaco but before installing them the tech at Josam Truck Repair in Orlando suggested that they be beefed up because in his opinion they did not look strong enough to carry the coach. Because Josam is well known for its quality work on truck and RV suspensions I felt comfortable in agreeing to this suggestion. He cut a piece of high strength 1/2 inch steel to the width of the arms and about 2 feet long. This was then shaped to match the curvature of the arm and then welded and clamped to the bottom of the arm. After the arms were installed the rear end was aligned and ride height adjusted.
So far the arms have not cracked but I only have about 2000 miles on them.
In addition to the arms the tech also found that there was a crack in the frame rail where a bar from the top of the differential attaches. I believe it is called a track bar, the tech had no idea what caused this. He welded the crack and then reinforced the rail with a steel backing plate. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and could it be related to the cracked arms?
One last thought regarding Navistars liability on this issue.....prior to the bankruptcy Navistar owned 51% of the Roadmaster chassis division. It would seem to me that as majority owner before the bankruptcy they should still have some liability now in spite of the bankruptcy....just my humble opinion.

[Jim Stewart]

I believe that others have had Track Bar failures that were detected prior to the detection of the cracked Trailing Arms. In a Chicken and Egg scenario, it seems that the Trailing Arms crack or break first and can also take out the Track Bars. It seems that they discover the Track Bar failures because it is easy to spot and miss the cracks in the Trailing Arms, often not until the Trailing Arms totally fail is the defect spotted.

Although Navistar did own 51% of Roadmaster, they also bankrupted that separate company at virtually the same time as the Monaco Bankruptcy. In my personal opinion, that was the final reason for the way both bankruptcies came down. They knew they were in deep do-do and the recall would have been both horrendously costly and would have held a huge potential personal liability issue. So it was easier to take the Cowards way out and file bankruptcy. Saved a boat load of money.

Who would have thought that the true reason for the bankruptcy may have been our little Trailing Arms. I don't know about anyone else, but my Daddy said a Liar will always be a Liar, I will never trust them again!

[Nonno]

Nov issue of FMCA magazine has a safety update about the trailing arms. It's on page 65 and the link is here Roadmaster R4R And RR4R Chassis Safety Update

[EngineerMike]

Jim- I thought the Cowards were busy running Country Coach so well. No?
Or is that the Howards?

[Jim Stewart]

Mike, birds of a feather flock together, at least in Oregon that is. I believe many feel that have been "flocked" by the "birds"!

[soberjoe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nonno Nov issue of FMCA magazine has a safety update about the trailing arms. It's on page 65 and the link is here Roadmaster R4R And RR4R Chassis Safety Update

I would love to read this, but FMCA won't allow it without being a member. Can anyone post the text of it here?

[Nonno]

Quote:

Can anyone post the text of it here?

Not sure if FMC allows that.

For anyone that has been following this thread or other discussion groups, there isn't any new info. However it will get the word to any FMC member that had no idea about this safety issue.

The article is replying to members that contacted them about the trailing arms problem. It talks about the reason for the recall, the failure of the recall fix and the remedy Scott Zimmer of Source Manufacturing is providing.

[soberjoe]

Thank you for the recap.