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In Bend Oregan and have broken off bolt in Curt coil suspension

harudrich

harudrich

Member
We are out of area on a trip in Bend Oregan and have a broken bolt on the inside shock top attachment of the Curt coil suspension. Bolt is broken off in the bracket. Shock came loose so lost 1/2 of it. Recently had our dealership in So Cal. do the Recall work (25V337) on this area around 7.23.26. should be under warrantee (our date of purchase was 10.30.25). A long story, but when they did the recall work at our home RV dealership the service man applied the wrong tool or something and broke off the bolt and they couldn't get the remaining part out, so they had to weld a new bracket on. This is the same side we have the trouble now. I don't know if it the exact same bolt location. I put in the email to Alliance already this am., which dealership to use in the Bend area? Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks
 

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harudrich

harudrich

Member
I will give him a call, we went to Blue compass in Bend and the service manager Mark was very helpful. We did have the recall work done on the coil suspension where they replaced the bolts because the existing bolts had a tendency to snap off. We did travel about 100 miles down from the Columbia River were the 97 highway meets it down to Bend and had no issues. But if you look at the Curt website it would be very risky to travel with just 1 shock on one of the tires for 1000 miles back to home which is Southern California. We could risk other things going bad over that long hall. At Jerry's RV service they told us it shouldn't be a problem, but now I'm a little leery.
I will call Zach in the morning and see what he says, we're supposed to leave the area on Thursday. It would take Blue Compass into next week to get a new shock absorber sent out. It's a mess trying to get it approved through Alliance maybe I'll just have to pay cash if I don't want to wait around too long. I doubt or have any of you traveled a long way with just 1 shock on one the wheels. Thanks, Horst
 
harudrich

harudrich

Member
Update: Glad I contacted Lippert and I noticed they have 1 of their 4 service centers outside of Salem in McMinnville. They were able to send out mobile Rv servicemen today. They found out that the recall work done by giant RV in Colton CA was done badly. Giant RV did tell me they broke off a bolt on one of the locations that holds the shock. They stated they fixed it, I believe they had to take off the bracket and Weld on a new one.
But we found out today that they tried to extract the broken off bolt but the extractor drill bit also broke off and they just left it in there. The technicians think that they just slipped the top of the shock and the bushing back in place and didn't bother putting a bolt in. Who knows what they did. that's why the shock came loose and it swung down hit the pavement and half the shock was gone.
Technicians had to cut off about 3/8" off the end of the peg in order to get out the broken off components. Then they welded on a nut with threads so that they could attach the new bolts.
Here is a picture of the cutoff peg showing the embedded retained bolt and extractor drill bit and some of the drill bit removed. Glad this was done under warrantee/recall work. They stated that Lippert may go after giant RV to recoup the payment to them to do the recall work. Also, the RV dealership needs to know what happened. Was it a technician who covered up his mistake or is it a bigger problem than that. Won't use them again.
 

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Jwtsg

Jwtsg

Well-known member
harudrich said:
Update: Glad I contacted Lippert and I noticed they have 1 of their 4 service centers outside of Salem in McMinnville. They were able to send out mobile Rv servicemen today. They found out that the recall work done by giant RV in Colton CA was done badly. Giant RV did tell me they broke off a bolt on one of the locations that holds the shock. They stated they fixed it, I believe they had to take off the bracket and Weld on a new one.
But we found out today that they tried to extract the broken off bolt but the extractor drill bit also broke off and they just left it in there. The technicians think that they just slipped the top of the shock and the bushing back in place and didn't bother putting a bolt in. Who knows what they did. that's why the shock came loose and it swung down hit the pavement and half the shock was gone.
Technicians had to cut off about 3/8" off the end of the peg in order to get out the broken off components. Then they welded on a nut with threads so that they could attach the new bolts.
Here is a picture of the cutoff peg showing the embedded retained bolt and extractor drill bit and some of the drill bit removed. Glad this was done under warrantee/recall work. They stated that Lippert may go after giant RV to recoup the payment to them to do the recall work. Also, the RV dealership needs to know what happened. Was it a technician who covered up his mistake or is it a bigger problem than that. Won't use them again.
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🤬🤬🤬 🙏☝️🍀 Thank God you & your family are safe,,,Glad Lippert is working w you & those responsible,,,,,IMHO appears to be a MAJOR breach of all professional ethics & responsilities by the recall repair company at ALL levels. Should never gotten past QC repair certifications before being released. Recommend you consider involving Giant RV’s business insurance company & BBB as well.
 
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harudrich

harudrich

Member
Jwtsg said:
🤬🤬🤬 🙏☝️🍀 Thank God you & your family are safe,,,Glad Lippert is working w you & those responsible,,,,,IMHO appears to be a MAJOR breach of all professional ethics & responsilities by the recall repair company at ALL levels. Should never gotten past QC repair certifications before being released. Recommend you consider involving Giant RV’s business insurance company & BBB as well.
Click to expand...
Yes a terrible breach of Responsibility on the part of giant RV. Do you mean to contact their business insurance company So they know what their practices are like? We definitely lost some money by having to add a few nights reservation in Bend, and cancel other campgrounds that we had already booked with. It may not be much but it could be several $100.
We just know that we lost half a shock going down the road probably at highway speeds and we hope that it didn't hit anybody behind us. Could you imagine if it went through someone's windshield and that is good chunk of metal.
I am debating how to approach this by calling giant RV, because I want them to know what happened and if they have to discipline a repair technician. But concerned why did not a service manager not inspect the bolts. I've come to understand that this is a very rigorous process. They're supposed to take PICs pictures before and after and also put a red dot on the bolt knowing that it was torqued to the correct 20 pounds.
The Lippert technicians made it sound like Lippert is the one who reimburses the RV repair sites who do the recall work. They will most likely be asking for reimbursement from Giant RV.
My main concern is that everybody involved learns a lesson from this and that no unsafe practices are done in the future. Thanks
 
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