Community Forums

StanD · 01-25-2017, 11:20 AM

I almost made a deal on a 2005 Tioga 26Q located in another town about 2.5 hours away. The deal was subject to a successful inspection by me prior to purchase. I have a nephew that lives there and asked him to take a look and let me know what he thought. He took some phone pictures and sent them to me. When I loaded them in my computer I could distinctly see some cracks in the rear cap, one running in an S pattern from the left clearance light to the bottom of the cap. The second one also ran in an S pattern from the right clearance light to the bottom of the cap but also upward to the top of the cap. Both cracks appeared to have been sealed with silicone. The rear cap runs the width of the rig and is about 8 in. high. I assumed these to be stress cracks caused by an underlying problem and backed out of the deal. What could be the cause of these problems and is there a way to correct them without really tearing into the structure? Have any of you seen this type of cracking. If so, what did you do to correct it? My assumption is that if I patched it with fiberglass I would then end up a cracked patch as well. I would assume there to be some shifting between the rear wall and the roof where they are joined but maybe not. Maybe it is an improperly attached rear cap? This Rig is on a consignment lot and is a Repo. Which brings up another question: if an owner couldn’t make payments would he spend money on maintenance? The rig has under 50000 miles, is on an E450 chassis and otherwise appears to be in good shape. I’ll see if I can post a picture. Thank you
Stan

StanD · 01-25-2017, 11:43 AM

Not having any luck with picture

StanD · 01-25-2017, 11:47 AM

Well it did come through. Instructions could be a bit more intuitive though.
Stan

Mich F · 01-26-2017, 07:09 PM

It is probably fairly easy to remove that cap and fix the cracks from the under side. They could be from screws for the clearance lights, being tightened too much. Doesn't look like that big of a deal to fix.

StanD · 01-26-2017, 08:27 PM

Mich
That was my thought at first . I can blow that up pretty good on my computer and I can see that there are two screws holding each light and they are near the outer edges. The cracks are at the center of each light. They could be caused from drilling the holes for the wires in which case the cracks may be confined to only the cap. If that were the case it would just be a matter of patching the fiberglass cap. As it is the crack to the right appears to run over the top of the cap and it is possible that if the cap were to be removed it may come off in two pieces. Even then it would be fixable. But if it is not the case and there is shifting between the end wall and the roof then a person would be looking at a lot bigger job and buying the rig at nearly high book would not be a good deal at all. Class C’s are pretty scarce in this area right now. I have a buyer for my Class A and he is going to want it as soon as the snow is gone. Also I need an E450 in order to tow my CRV which weighs almost 3700 lbs. and there haven’t been many short C’s available on a 450 chassis. Thank you for taking the time to look at this and send an answer.
Stan

Mich F · 01-27-2017, 10:53 PM

I hadn't blown up the picture til just now. It looks like it had a rear view camera, with all those (what looks like) unsealed holes. That could be an issue ?