Catalytic Converter gone, Brand New Allegro Open Road 32SA

[Manicman]

Hi All

I also had an attempted theft on my class C. Thief put a floor jack under the side of my rv, damages were 5000$, and they didn’t get the converter. Someone startled him away. My rv is parked right in my backyard. Left his floor jack and hat under my rig. I have since installed motion activated security camera in the backyard.
I personally feel that something needs to be done to the buyers of these items to try to curb the demand. Make it illegal to buy them, with very stiff fines. Idk what the answer is, but it is a huge problem all over USA and Canada.

[Johnny Bravo]

Sounds to me like they owe you for your loss while they had your motorhome. I too had my catalytic converter stolen off my rig. Rather then purchase another one and have it stolen again, I welded a straight pipe instead. Then registered it in another sate that doesn't do smog checks as my state does. My rig is 20 years old so I didn't have the constraints you did. But in the future this my be a good alternative for you. Sorry you got ripped off.

[505scott]

Sorry for your troubles! May I suggest Small Claims Court could be an answer? Lots of folks will assert they have no liability, a judge may see things differently. There is a reasonable expectation customer’s vehicles will
be returned in good condition after repair by a authorized factory agent.

[Lee Bornstein]

Lost ours last may $2500 replacement cost at ford truck center. 2021 Thor Class C.
We drove from home to Ford - noisy but not too bad.

[djbmsu]

The places taking these cats in should be required to have the proper information as to the vehicle the cats came off from such as the registration etc. And record the persons name address and phone number.

[rlfine]

@BonRon, to your question: "are you telling us you don’t have a tow service, like Coach-net or Goodsam?", yes that was a key point in earlier response: "I do not have roadside assistance , never have - I believe it's a scam (personal opinion, your mileage may vary)." Roadside assistance service companies shop around at time of need for lowest price offers for the service at hand. Cheap was not what I was looking for...

We have State Farm insurance, and have for past 42 years (multiple cars, homeowners, umbrella, boat, motorhome, etc). We have never made an auto claim with them in the past 42 years but seems like State Farm would pay whatever the cost - in fact I talked to our agent and then the claims adjuster on the day we were notified of the vandalism. State Farm position was get it fix and send the receipts or bills to them.

Ours was a brand new motorhome, we have never used it - so ours was an emotional response to the Vogt cold-hearted knee-jerk "not our responsibility" response. We are going to small-claims court with our bills on the total out of pocket expenses. If I lose there, I'll send the bills to State Farm, but Vogt needs to make changes and I can think of no better way to influence them..

Again, as I mentioned earlier, only reason for post was to alert others that garages, repair and service centers, and the like, may try to push all damage repair and restoration responsibilities back to the motorhome owner for damages that was caused by others while your motorhome is in their care. Vogt had no notice of limited liability posted none such in any docs we signed.

All of the well intentioned advice is much appreciated, but advice was not what we were looking for.

In closing, there is finally some good news. We received message from the Ford Service Center late Friday afternoon. Our motorhome will be ready for pickup Monday afternoon (today). In addition to catalytic converter replacement, we needed to get new vehicle inspection for State of Texas registration, and that is being performed today - yep motorhome was so new we had not yet had time to get the inspection, we were still driving on dealer plates.

[bgkoontz1]

A straight pipe in the place of the converter will solve that problem permanently. Is it illegal yes but if the government can’t get their butts in gear on criminal behavior then I will take matters into my own hands. I refuse to take money out of my pocket for the govt

[TeJay]

Saw a post on another thread about Cats being stolen. It seemed this guy was crushed to death when the jack he needed to get under the vehicle failed. Some do get justice for doing wrong.

I agree with the fact if these thieves can't fence what they are stealing there is no market. These materials are expensive and can be recycled. That makes sense and created the current market. What does it take to get the platinum, palladium and rhodium rare earth materials out of the CAT and into a form that can be legally sold to a dealer or company that is then allowed to buy them.

That can't be easy and should take some specialized equipment to process into a usable or sellable product. If these materials are so expensive there have to be some controls on who can process them and who can sell them. Who are the buyers and for what legal reason.

I understand when something is not legal it's because a lot of $$$$ is involved. Laws should be out there that can control or at least slow down this type of market.

Many a pot grower was discovered by heat signatures given off by the grow lights. Or just the sale of those grow lights and or heavy use of electricity at an address that couldn't possible use that much electricity under normal conditions.

There has to be something or some way the processors can be slowed, stopped. The CATS have been around since at least 1980. Some CATS were used by some manufacturers before 1980 hit. That's over 40 years and just now it's becoming an issue.

[RickB33952]

Originally Posted by rlfine

@TeJay - I could have gotten the job done a lot cheaper - but cost was not a factor. I took the motorhome to an Authorized Ford Commercial Truck Service Center with instructions to but it back in brand new OEM condition - like it never happened.

Likely I could have saved a lot money taking the motorhome to a muffler shop and getting an aftermarket or used catalytic converter welded on. That approach could potentially raise chassis warranty concerns down to road.

A lot of folks drive motorhomes a decade or so older that are out of warranty, and if we keep this one, we may be in that group down the road. A weld-on aftermarket catalytic converter may be a good option for that case. For me, today, it wasn't...

Ours was brand new last week - we've not yet flushed the toilet. I did not want to start the adventure of a lifetime with a patch-fixed motorhome. As it is, the exhaust system will be back to OEM new from headers to exhaust tip when we pick it up next week - like it never happened.

When ours was replaced our mechanic welded front and rear plates which make cutting off take way more time. If your mechanic didn’t do that you might consider going to a third party shop and have both exhaust Cat(s) welded with plates that are just scrap metal sheeting.

Many people believe that a theft is abandoned when it is simply made harder to accomplish in both time and effort.

Sorry that you went through this because it cost you money and also prevented you from enjoying your new MH.

Rick

[TeJay]

Just did some research on CATS. Seems there are CAT recycling centers that accept CATS. Some of these were or are junk yards that now also recycle the CATS. They probably just remove the CATS and sell them to a facility that can safely recycle them.

The process to get the material out of the CAT and recycled is very difficult. Also there's a lot of care needed because most of the chemicals used are hazardous and need to be controlled based on how deadly they can be to the environment. It's a very dirty process that needs to be controlled so more damage isn't done to the environment.

Based on how complicated the process is to remove the materials it does not seem likely the average joe blow would attempt to go to that much trouble to set up a system to get the material safely out of a CAT and then try to sell it in a market.

Not saying it wouldn't be done just not as easy as one would believe. From what I read the CATS are processed by adding very specific chemicals to the CATS as opposed to tearing the CAT apart to remove the material.

The amount of material gotten out of one CAT would be very small so you'd have to know the chemical process.

The elements are very rare, very expensive and can be reused if correctly recycled. Platinum is now about $2,500 or more an ounce. When a salvage yard is recycling CATS they are taking them from junks that are being sold to the salvage yard. That's fine.

On the other hand If some guy just drives to the yard with 30 or 40 CATS in his truck tor 3 or 4 in his back seat they know these are probably stolen and are just turning their backs to the theft part of it. If they are recycling centers they probably take the CATS to a facility that can do the processing.

The average guy does not have the knowledge nor facility to properly remove the rare earth materials. The CATS are well known to be very lucrative if sold through the correct path. A recycling CAT yard will buy at a reasonable price. They will in turn take the CATS to a facility to be processed and get more than they paid for the CAT. The facility will correctly process the CAT and get even more $$$$ when they sell the rare earth elements to a company that will recycle them. That's how business is correctly done.

The recycling centers are probably the major weak link at this point. As usual the thief who is the first step in this process is taking the biggest risk with the lowest return for his/her efforts.

Some undercover work needs to be done.

[Empty nest]

First of all I want to say I completely agree with the OP. That is exactly what I think I would have done. We have 2014 Allegro Bus and it is the largest investment we have ever made and I’m very adamant about OEM parts on it and very particular about who touches it. As far as the repair facility being responsible for the damage; you’ll find out in court. No need to let that bother you at this time. I like the idea of paying for all the needed things upfront and getting it done. Take care of your stuff and then find out who’s at fault. Good job!!! I’ve been researching this cat theft problem for a while and normally the thieves (low life pond scum) will get anywhere from$50 to $500 per cat for their effort which makes me think it’s meth heads taking them for drug money. Some states are working on laws to require proof of ownership before any salvage or recycling center can purchase them from individuals. The word is to engrave or etch the vehicle’s VIN or license plate number on the cat. That too can be defeated with a wire wheel or brush I guess but that’s the advice by law enforcement as I heard it. So sorry to hear about your misfortune. I think maybe you and I could be related because this sounds exactly like something that would happen to me.

[soberskier]

I have had AAA since I was a 20 something single mom, driving Dad's car to visit my sister a couple hundred miles away. 3 hours from home, still 2 hours from destination, the car broke down. Kids and I ride in tow truck to service facility as car was being towed. I have had several of my cars towed, sometimes more than 50 miles, and had flat tires changed along interstate highway, etc over the last 50 some years. About 11 years ago I married an RVr and I added RV to my AAA package... That rig has been towed a couple of times. (First time was a "doosdy" ...DH put the back wheel in a ditch, so deep tires were not touching bottom, back of rig was sitting on frame, crushing tail pipe. It took not one, not two but THREE tow trucks to get it out of of the hole. One of those tow trucks got to to take it to the shop about 45 miles away. At no time have I been charged so much as a penny over the cost of membership.
You may think it is a rip off...me I think of it as a God send. Give me my AAA towing service every year until I give up driving.
Oh, by the way one of those car tow jobs was from a ski area, we hole I was riding with a friend in try heir car. After being dropped of at my car, tow continued another 35 or 40 miles. Yeah, I love my AAA.

[rlfine]

@soberskier - my apologies if I offended you or anyone else. I mentioned road side assistance offerings were a scam, and that may have been a bit harsh.

However, one or two anecdotal success stories does not serve to justify the service or product for everyone. In my opinion, that applies to roadside assistance and extended warranty programs; I don't rely on either of those. It sounds like you have been towed a lot of times, so a road side assistance program is probably a good deal for you, and that's cool. I am 75 years old and have been driving since I was 17 or so, and have never had the need for road side assistance - until this event. And, for this event, I will more than likely get reimbursed for the tow charges.

To each his own, and for me with my towing record, paying $70-100 every year for a separate road side assistance package (I am not an AAA member) would be a waste of money; i.e. putting $4,000 in some one else's pocket. On pure services rendered vs cost, I'm ahead of the game. For someone that places a premium on peace of mind; knowing there is a helping hand there for the unexpected, the annual program cost is likely much less objectionable.

Just to be clear about my previous tasteless and/or offensive comment regarding my thoughts on road side assistance programs being a scam - my intent was to convey my position; I can get the same road side assistance when and where I need it without an annual service plan. I keep a few bob stuck in a sock for emergencies. In that respect, I'm self-insured regarding road side. assistance.

[keef033]

"I keep a few bob stuck in a sock for emergencies. In that respect, I'm self-insured regarding road side. assistance"

Where are you from originally Ray? Have not heard that saying for sometime.

Keith.