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Originally Posted by utahsue
I do not have a WD hitch. That was the first thing the engineer at the factory asked me this morning when he saw the photos. He is familiar with this issue, but says that our crack is the worst of all and we are the first who did not have a WD hitch.
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I don't believe this to be accurate. I do not have a WD hitch and my crack was three quarters of the way around the frame. I will admit that your crack seems to have separated more than mine did, therefore being a worse crack, not necessarily a longer crack.
I spoke directly with the TM factory regarding my 2005 TM 2720 earlier this year. See the beginning of this thread for details. I started this thread.
I do not use a WD hitch, and never have. A year ago I was advised directly by the factory that I would not need a WD hitch as my TV is large enough to not require it. They actually recommended against it. It was never off of a paved road, other than dirt roads in the campground loops at low speed. I reported this to the factory in a conversation. Maybe they did not take notes.
My TM was still under warranty. The factory wanted me to locate a local company with a portable welder to come to my house to fix it. After 2 weeks of trying I was unable to find a welding company. It is very tedious to go through the yellow pages calling them one at a time hoping to get lucky and find one. I found one, waited a week, and then they flaked out of it. I had to start all over.
My dealer, Dinuba RV, came to my house, over 100 miles, to take it back to their shop on a transport trailer. I don't know if my dealer ate the cost of transport or if they got reimbursed by the factory. They had a local welding shop that they have used before perform the repair. I towed it home after the repair was complete.
The repair consisted of cleaning out the crack, twisting the frame back to the normal position if necessary and then welding the crack closed. After that a piece of strap is welded on the bottom of the box tubing to add additional strength.
Some engineers at a Navy stress analysis lab looked at my photos and strongly suspect that the crack originated at the weld for the bracket that is the hinge point for the swing tongue. But this was based on looking at the photos, not looking at the actual trailer. My brother in law, a certified welder, suspects that the weld got a little too hot and there was too much penetration. He is now legally blind and was unable to inspect the weld. His opinion is based on my description of the failure.
I was disappointed that the factory was not very interested in having their engineers examine the failure in an attempt to understand the cause. The factory told me that I was the first reported case of a cracked frame at the weld of the swing away tongue.
In my opinion, there ought to be a modification to the current design as 3 failures is too many. This is not a random event. There is an underlying problem that ought to be addressed.
I don't recommend NOT getting the swing away tongue if you have a need for it. However, I check mine every time I stop. I still don't fully trust it. Maybe in a few years I'll feel better.
I check all welds I can get my head in to look at once a year. This requires climbing under the TM with a flashlight. It makes me nervous that there is a significant safety related failure with no known cause, that has now occurred at least 3 times in less than one year. If the factory could determine what the cause was, and correct the problem, then I wouldn't have to perform an annual inspection. Until such time as I am notified that there is an engineering change I'll just get a little dirty crawling around under the TM once a year. I'll sleep better that way.