Towed my 30ft 5th wheel from Michigan to Southern Cal and back. Stops in St. Louis, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Nevada, Southern Cal (stayed on beachfront rv park for week), back to Nevada (Vegas), Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, Buffalo Wyoming, Black Hills of SD, Minnesota, Wisconson, then home.

Truck did very good. Had to play with power settings to find sweet spot for towing. Ended up with 135hp, worked best, good balance of power and temps. Brutal heat in New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada almost did her in though. Had serious trans temps and engine temps trying to pull grades in New Mexico and Northern Arizona. Had an engine temp warning, and trans temps went above 250 :eek: . Had to stop for a while. Ambient temps were over 100. Once through Nevada, temps never got too high again. Changed Oil in Cali, wanted to change tranny fluid, wasn't able to.

All went well until...
Had frame welds on 5th break in Minnesota, started to come apart on the road. Long story, short of it is, it is in Minnesota being repaired, bill will be north of 3 grand, and Fleetwood will not cover it since it is 2 months out of warranty. Dealer had frame repaired by Fleetwoods frame supplier who drove in from Indiana to inspect it, claims the kingpin has impact damage (It has NEVER been dropped). So I have to make an insurance claim for "damage" that supposedly happened whenever. Am I upset? Typed words do not begin to describe...

If anyone has never been to Yellowstone, it is a must trip once in your life. Posted a few pics from the trip in off topic..

Sounds like a good time except for Fleetwood's lack of quality control.

I would certainly write a letter to the corporate HQ and let them know about it.

You should start it out with "Luckily nobody was killed or injured when the frame of my Fleetwood fell apart".

They will get a letter from me for sure. Insurance will cover it, but the way it was handled was very bad. At first the dealer actually was told by Fleetwood that they would cover it. After all, were talking about major structural failure, I fully expected them to cover it regardless of the 2 months. It is a 2004 model I bought in 03. What happened is Fleetwood squeezed Lippert *sp* who has the contract on the frames, and they were gonna pay for the repairs in full and come out and fix the frame for Fleetwood. Well, the rep found a slight bend in the kingpin box and immediately said it was hit and they both immediatly went hands off and refused coverage. If I had dropped the stupid thing I would have called AAA and been done with it instead of risking not getting it covered and bringing it in for a factory repair, I'm not stupid, just honest.

So now the insurance co. gets the bill, and I will probably get dropped or have my insurance raised.

I actually had planned on writing a letter thanking Fleetwood for standing behind their product and helping me out (the dealer in Minneapolis has actually been very nice and helpful) now they will get a different letter. We will be buying a diesel pusher Motorhome within the next 2 years, you can bet Fleetwood wont be getting my 6 figures.

Many times the squeaky wheel will get greased.

I was in Kansas 2 months ago touring the New Horizon's plant.

Drew said they were having problems with the frame when the 5th wheel was towed by a truck that was to powerful. It would almost rip out the front frame.

Don't tell the manufacturer that you had a power box on the truck. Just play dumb.

Towed my 30ft 5th wheel from Michigan to Southern Cal and back. Stops in St. Louis, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Nevada, Southern Cal (stayed on beachfront rv park for week), back to Nevada (Vegas), Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, Buffalo Wyoming, Black Hills of SD, Minnesota, Wisconson, then home.

Sounds similar to my trip in June... IL, IA, NE, CO, UT, CA, OR, ID, WY, NE, IA, IL. 7000+ miles in 4 weeks.

Capitol Reef NP
Grand Staircase NM
Bryce NP
Sequoia NP
Yosemite NP
Lake Tahoe
Crater Lake NP
Oregon Coast
Grand Teton NP
Yellowstone NP

What a great country we live in!

Paul.

Fleetwood has had quality problems for years. This is first I have heard of one on the frame. I have had 4 new Fleetwood trailers over the years that had quality issues but nothing real major. Every one of them has had water system leaks of some type. Assembly problems and just poor workmanship issues. Most related to sorry design. They could fix them if they would get a group of users together and listen. The last one is a 2002 Prowler Northwest Edition. Suppose to be a cold weather trailer. Don't believe it. I had problems from the start and then lived it in for 10 months on an out of town job project during cold weather. Nothing but problems due to poor design and workmanship. I went back and forth with Fleetwood and they would fix it but fixing is not the issue, it is a poorly built and designed.

Fleetwood used to be the premier travel trailer. They have went to junk. The Prowler was a good midgrade trailer. Now it is a bad entry level. There sales dropped and the trade in value has decreased to the point that dealers did not even want to trade at one time. I used to see a lot of Prowlers on the road but not anymore.

I will not ever buy another Fleetwood product unless they show remarkable improvement in design and quality. There are many others to choose from.

Are you by chance using a gooseneck conversion on the hitch?? If so that could account for the problems. If you are using a slide fifthwheel hitch, especially a superslide hitch the sliding and inpact of the sudden stop in the hitch slide could lead to a structural problem. No evidence of such but a possiblity.

Tom Cobb

Tom Cobb

I have a Pullrite superglide hitch, but it never has hit the stops. The break appears to have been due to bad welds that support the hangover subframe. They used 3 1" welds spaced apart which all broke. IMO the welds were too short and seemed thin.