Community Forums

WBBB1 · 08-31-2014, 07:33 PM

We bought a 2013 35 QBA in August of 2013. We took a three week trip from Texas to Red Bay, AL., then New York, NY., thru Virginia, back to Red Bay and then home to Texas. Traveled over some of the roughest road in the US, though my filling were going to fall out. Stopped at a gas station along the way home and while checking oil, water, etc., noticed the front grill only had one screw holding it. Tiffin uses 1 1/2" alum square tubing, one of the alum pieces was completely gone. They sheered off from the epoxy. Two more had sheer off, but were still attached to the grill and one piece was mounted in the wrong place and had no screws fastened to the grill.

I bought some 1" square tubing (cut about 6" long) and two packages of epoxy, roughened up where the epoxy had been, roughened up the alum (as before it was very smooth, and the holes were small), drilled out the holes larger, applied the 5 minute epoxy, clamped in place, let dry and then fastened all of the five screws. Even though I had waited more than 20 minutes, one screw pulled the alum away from the fiberglass. The five fastening points the grill or parallel and flat, the fiberglass cap is curved. I'm going to apply more glue to fill in the void.

If the grill had actually fallen off, It would have ruined this vacation, and could have put us on the side of the road. God was looking out for us!

CHECK YOUR FRONT GRILL, IF YOU HAVE TRAVELED OVER ROUGH ROAD!

Full.Monte · 09-07-2014, 11:52 AM

Good post and good fix. Have you ever noticed that on-the-road repairs are often easiest done by one's self? It seems like whenever I have a problem, the nearest repair facility is over 50 miles away or is closed for the weekend.

Pqsail · 07-08-2021, 05:22 AM

I had a similar incident with my 2016 Allegro Open Road 31SA only my grille actually came off when I hit a stretch of pot holes close to home. I would like to get some insight as to why these grills are glued on instead of bolted on? I was able to recover my grille and am in the process of reattaching. Is there any reason I can’t drill holes through the fiberglass and aluminum tubing and bolt the grille to the fiberglass frame? I have heard that to drill fiberglass successfully you must start slowly with pilot holes and work up to correct size carefully. Is there a reason it shouldn’t be drilled? It seems strange to me to rely on glue holding something so important in place.

Country Road · 07-08-2021, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pqsail

I had a similar incident with my 2016 Allegro Open Road 31SA only my grille actually came off when I hit a stretch of pot holes close to home. I would like to get some insight as to why these grills are glued on instead of bolted on? I was able to recover my grille and am in the process of reattaching. Is there any reason I can’t drill holes through the fiberglass and aluminum tubing and bolt the grille to the fiberglass frame? I have heard that to drill fiberglass successfully you must start slowly with pilot holes and work up to correct size carefully. Is there a reason it shouldn’t be drilled? It seems strange to me to rely on glue holding something so important in place.

No reason at all. If when screwing it on, you use a flat washer and a rubber washer, it will help with future splintering of the fiberglass. Also good if you can get to it to put a regular screw with a nut on the back, that would be even better.

Bikinjim · 07-08-2021, 03:33 PM

The rear lower engine cover grill on my 2017 RED 37PA did fall off. Luckily, the license plate light wires held and kept the grill from falling completely away from the coach and being run over by the toad. And thankfully it landed in a position so as not to damage the rear CAC and radiator. I removed the door and cleaned and roughed up all the Fiberglas and aluminum blocks and rebonded with large amounts of JB Weld epoxy. I believe that an insufficient quantity of epoxy was used during the initial assembly and I used way more than Tiffin did. A year later, the repair is holding tight but I do periodically check the integrity of all the grill bonds. I considered adding some bolts for additional strength but I couldn’t come up with a way that would be cosmetically appealing so decided to stick with just epoxy and periodic integrity checks.

High Road Travelers · 07-08-2021, 10:11 PM

I had to rig our grill on also. At first I used zip ties until I got home and secured it with bolts.
I think Tiffin should be embarrassed to half-way attach a grill in this manner.
Thanks,

bevo7 · 07-10-2021, 07:14 PM

I lost the middle louvers on my 2017 Open Road. Aluminum blocks became unglued. Just got new grill and using 3 M epoxy to attach blocks and will screw into them to attach grill. Terrible design

Donskiman · 07-10-2021, 10:05 PM

Like bevo7 my middle section did come off. 2017 Open Road. We were on a smooth road at the time going about 63-65. It dropped straight down and we ran over it. Fortunately no other damage. We still had 450 miles to drive home.

Just one more thing that's poorly designed and engineered on these things. They don't seem to put much thought into constructing them to withstand travel on the all too often horrible roads we all travel on.