Fan Bracket Failure

[resullivan]

Wednesday while traveling to the FL Service Center in Gaffney about 20 miles out heard a series of short vibrating sounds from rear of coach followed by an alarm and stop engine, temp was pegged. the cooling bracket that supports the radiator fan had snapped in half and destroyed most everything on the DS of engine compartment including the radiator. The new fan bracket is made of square tubing and is much more robust than the original which has been prone to failure. To the service centers credit, had me towed in, they immediately ordered parts, the whole cooling package on the DS of engine, and had the coach up and running by end of day Friday, I could not have had better service and treatment from the service center in Gaffney.

[willipaul]

very glad to hear about the quick service.....

the rest of the story, naturally....not so much.....

[tom chelbana]

This has happened to numerous Newmar owners with MA, LA, and Essex in the last couple years. Some have reported it happening more then once. When at a large rally were both Spartan and FL have their show chassis one should look at the difference between the two on the brackets for fan drive. You can see that the Spartan is much stronger. If Newmar owners have a FL chassis with the models listed they should check for cracks around brackets to catch the problem before the fan drive goes into CAC and radiator which is what happens when it brakes. Spartan has used mechanical (drive-shaft) fan drives since at least 2002 so they have more experience with what you need to avoid this major problem. Some have had their coach out of service for 6 weeks or more. If we had a FL on our LA we would add extra supports and gussets to fan drive assembly.
Newmar Man

["007"]

Thanks for your thread Sully, I will post under Recalls in this thread, its maybe not under recall but is for us.

[Tigerfan1]

Originally Posted by tom chelbana

This has happened to numerous Newmar owners with MA, LA, and Essex in the last couple years. Some have reported it happening more then once. When at a large rally were both Spartan and FL have their show chassis one should look at the difference between the two on the brackets for fan drive. You can see that the Spartan is much stronger. If Newmar owners have a FL chassis with the models listed they should check for cracks around brackets to catch the problem before the fan drive goes into CAC and radiator which is what happens when it brakes. Spartan has used mechanical (drive-shaft) fan drives since at least 2002 so they have more experience with what you need to avoid this major problem. Some have had their coach out of service for 6 weeks or more. If we had a FL on our LA we would add extra supports and gussets to fan drive assembly.
Newmar Man

NewmarMan you mentioned MA LA and Essex. I am curious if this is also a problem with the DS and smaller 450isl engine. Each time I do maintenance I check the bracket and so far have see no cracks.

[tom chelbana]

Yes we all need to check the brackets for the fan drive if you have a drive-shaft fan drive. It's been 2 or 3 years since both Spartan and FL have gone from a hydraulic fan drive to shaft drive fan for L series side radiator. I haven't heard of any L series fan drive assembly braking but because the end result is so serious one would be smart to check them. It use to be with Newmar's if you had either a 500 HP or 600 HP engine you had the shaft drive fan drive for your side radiator. But as mentioned a couple years ago even the 450 L engine added shaft drive for van drive which is a better system then hydraulic. Just as side radiator is better then rear radiator. We have shaft drive on our 04 Essex and even with a Spartan K-2 500 ISM we added extra plates to brackets. The Spartan K-3 605 and 500 have even thicker and larger metal for the fan drive then the older K-2. Again would suggest even Spartan owners to look for cracks in fan assembly even with no reports of failures. This current problem is a FL problem that FL has to come up with a answer. The last time I looked a FL show chassis it didn't look like there was any difference in the fan drive brackets from a couple years ago. Don't think it's a recall item yet but sure should be. There is a lot of stress on the brackets that hold the fan drive assembly which is why it needs to be very well engineered like Spartan's.
Newmar Man

[Dutch Star Don]

"resullivan".....I wish I lived near a Freightliner repair shop like Gaffney. That was amazing they got that torn apart and put back together in three days. Heck, my dealer takes an entire day to do a ten minute part recall install.

[Tigerfan1]

Originally Posted by tom chelbana

Yes we all need to check the brackets for the fan drive if you have a drive-shaft fan drive. It's been 2 or 3 years since both Spartan and FL have gone from a hydraulic fan drive to shaft drive fan for L series side radiator. I haven't heard of any L series fan drive assembly braking but because the end result is so serious one would be smart to check them. It use to be with Newmar's if you had either a 500 HP or 600 HP engine you had the shaft drive fan drive for your side radiator. But as mentioned a couple years ago even the 450 L engine added shaft drive for van drive which is a better system then hydraulic. Just as side radiator is better then rear radiator. We have shaft drive on our 04 Essex and even with a Spartan K-2 500 ISM we added extra plates to brackets. The Spartan K-3 605 and 500 have even thicker and larger metal for the fan drive then the older K-2. Again would suggest even Spartan owners to look for cracks in fan assembly even with no reports of failures. This current problem is a FL problem that FL has to come up with a answer. The last time I looked a FL show chassis it didn't look like there was any difference in the fan drive brackets from a couple years ago. Don't think it's a recall item yet but sure should be. There is a lot of stress on the brackets that hold the fan drive assembly which is why it needs to be very well engineered like Spartan's.
Newmar Man

I am interested in adding the reinforcement plates you talk about as a preventative measure. You don’t happen to have any pictures of how you reinforced the bracket?

[resullivan]

FWIW, The replacement fan bracket is a much more robust bracket of square tubing and has a larger mounting plate and more attachment points than the original bracket. As my fan bracket broke at 23K miles and did not break at the welds, but mid span on the round tubing, suggests to me in my case at least this could have been metal fatique caused by harmonic vibration in the bracket. Also I have personally seen two 450ISL with shaft driven fans with the same bracket failure.

[tom chelbana]

First I have heard about FL with ISL engine breaking fan drive brackets. What we did was add gussets ( triangles ) to all metal connections on brackets for fan drive brackets. On the 18 LA with Spartan k-3 605 you don't need add supports. This would go for all Spartan chassis at least from 2016 forward.
Newmar Man

[lrose44]

Fan bracket cracked bad enough on my 2015 DutchStar 450 the Freighliner folks said not to drive it the 17 miles home while they ordered parts.
I was over 3 weeks getting the right parts.

[resullivan]

Just to clarify, the new replacement bracket is multiple pieces of mainly heavy duty formed channel that is bolted together with grade 8 bolts, I see no welds on it. From just a visual of the pieces and then the assembled bracket in place, it looks like it is HD enough to mount the engine with it! There is no comparison to it and the lighter weight tubular version it replaces. OBTW, Gaffney did the complete change out starting at 8:30 Thursday am and we were driving the coach at 5:00 pm Friday. Dave Shears, the shop manager, waited on us Wednesday evening till the tow got us in about 6 pm to verify which parts would be required, had the radiator overnighted, as this was the critical part to get. Oh, and did I mention that they did my complete 36 month scheduled service, the PDM recall, and serviced the dash air during this time. While I am the first one to say this issue was caused by a poorly designed bracket, their response to address the issue was excellent, as it well should be. While this is not a stated recall at this time, if I owned a coach under warranty, and with the original factory installed bracket, I would if possible schedule an appointment at Gaffney and request that it be changed out for the new bracket, just saying.

[tom chelbana]

This fan drive bracket major problem has been with FL since 2015 and there are still Newmar owners almost every week having this problem. It's sad that FL didn't do their engineering well but what is really a bigger issue is how FL owners are still having to deal with this. FL should look at Spartan's fan drive assembly and just copy it. Just a warning to FL chassis owners to check their coaches on all shaft-drive fan assemblies. When it brakes you travels are over and your Newmar is going to be towed away and hope you have a tow. How many FL owners have had this happen too? There was one FL chassis owner who it happened twice too. Will hurt resale value if this isn't taken care of by FL.
Newmar Man

[ewlee]

Originally Posted by resullivan

Just to clarify, the new replacement bracket is multiple pieces of mainly heavy duty formed channel that is bolted together with grade 8 bolts, I see no welds on it. From just a visual of the pieces and then the assembled bracket in place, it looks like it is HD enough to mount the engine with it! There is no comparison to it and the lighter weight tubular version it replaces. OBTW, Gaffney did the complete change out starting at 8:30 Thursday am and we were driving the coach at 5:00 pm Friday. Dave Shears, the shop manager, waited on us Wednesday evening till the tow got us in about 6 pm to verify which parts would be required, had the radiator overnighted, as this was the critical part to get. Oh, and did I mention that they did my complete 36 month scheduled service, the PDM recall, and serviced the dash air during this time. While I am the first one to say this issue was caused by a poorly designed bracket, their response to address the issue was excellent, as it well should be. While this is not a stated recall at this time, if I owned a coach under warranty, and with the original factory installed bracket, I would if possible schedule an appointment at Gaffney and request that it be changed out for the new bracket, just saying.

I discussed this very issue with both FL Gaffney Service Center and Gaffney Engineering about having mine replaced before it goes KABOOM. Their response was yes, I could pay for it to be replaced. Their response to me about a recall was that the failure rate has not exceeded the estimated cost of retro-fitting all chassis on the road. They would rather wait and replace a few radiators, fans, and whatever else gets smashed when it does. Not a very customer friendly company.