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I got a little lazy. I should have posted the final resolution a couple of weeks ago.

I was waiting for the local welder to send a guy out to do the repair. There was a two week backlog. After a week and a half I called the welder to confirm. They reported that the one guy they send out for onsite projects had been injured and would be out for several weeks. So I cancelled. I had been very patient, but time was now running out. I have a trip planned for 4/5-4/9.

I called the TM factory, but it was late enough that they were already closed.

I call my local dealer, Stan, at Dinuba RV. He said he had a local welder that he uses for various projects that was more than qualified to do the job, but he was not portable.

Next morning I called the TM factory to tell them the story. They had no objections to my local dealer fixing it, but were very reluctant to cover transportation costs from my house to the dealer, about 130 miles.

I then called Stan at Dinuba RV. I told him the factory would authorize him to repair it but that they were very nervous about the cost of transporting it. I said that if I had a low boy trailer I could haul it myself, but I didn't even know where to rent one.

Stan said he had a transport trailer that he used for attending RV shows, and a few hours later he was at my house loading the TM.

Exactly one week later I picked it up and brought it home.

I can appreciate the factory's position. Under normal circumstances the owner is responsible for towing the TM to the dealer for warranty repairs. However, this particular failure required special handling.

Though I don't fault the factory, I do think they could have done a better job. Quite frankly, I'm a little surprised that the engineers that designed the frame appear to have no interest in attempting to determine what the cause of the failure was. I hope no one else ever has this problem.

I am very pleased with the response from my local dealer. He used his own time and equipment to come to my house to get the TM and arrange for the problem to be resolved. Kudos to Stan and Dinuba RV.

The repair actually included a modest improvement. The way that the factory constructs the swing away tongue, there is a little bit of slop because the curb side pin sits behind a steel plate and there was about 3/32 inch of slop in it. The welder that performed the repair of the crack modified the tongue to move the pin closer to the curb so that it went through a new set of holes in the swing arm and fixed frame. There is now no slop as I brake or accelerate.