Cracks in siding

[camelracer]

I was working on the camper today and noticed two cracks in the siding at the upper door corners. Quite awhile ago there was a post about the same problem around the front window. I can't remember if it was caused by broken frame welds or not. Has anyone else had problems like this?

Question for Stan - Is this covered under warranty? The camper was delivered in Oct '06.


Thanks - Dick

 

[pvstoy]

Hard to tell what is going on under the skin. At the end of the crack on the second picture, you can drill a small hole at the end of the crack and apply some silicone to stop the crack and seal.

Below is what is on the FWC site, Stan should advise or FWC. Good luck with the fix.

 

[the fisherman]

The Door Comes Out Easy

Just a lot of screws, I painted a Granby last summer with the same cracks, I know that the camper was used hard off road, it wasn't mine so I never looked, if you want to plug the cracks, I would tape either side, then work as much 3m 5200 as you can smear in the crack, if you tape it right you won't see them much at all.

 

[Bajabinder]

Cracks = Broken framing

Hey Camelracer, I just had to deal with those same cracks on my '06 Grandby as well. First I got a crack on one side, then the other side appeared.....then the door fell off in the desert! I took it to FWC, where they had to fix/ replace the framing above the door and replaced the door. My cracks looked identical to yours, and it's a bit strange that they are the same year Grandbys as well. Anyway, the folks at FWC did an excellent and timely repair job. I dropped it off on a thursday a.m., went to the foothills for a moto ride/ camp overnight, and picked it up the next afternoon. Upon inspection, it was determined that the framing was all busted up, so they replaced it with stronger material. By the way, this all happened on my first trip with a relatively new/unabused Grandby. I hope '06 is'nt a bad vintage! My first FWC was a '78 that lasted for years of abuse....even a few high speed jumps! After the recent repair, I headed down to Baja for my usual surf and turf, and the camper/ framing is doing fine. Give the FWC service dept. a call, and make an appointment.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

hello camelracer


just give our shop manager a call when you have time

His name is Chicali

800-242-1442

let him know whats happening and he should be able to get you taken care of

Thanks


===============================


Question for Stan - Is this covered under warranty? The camper was delivered in Oct '06.




.

 

[masterplumber]

Camelracer, I have cracks around my front window that I may have mentioned in a post. I'm pretty sure I have cracks in my framing but since my Granby is an '87 that has seen lots of twisting & fourwheeling it certainly isn't the manufacture's fault, although I wouldn't complain if they wanted to cover it under warrenty LOL. I have it off the truck right now so as soon as I get some time & warm weather together I'm going to pull the front window & take a looksy. Still looking for new siding if anyone has a line on a good source - that & a good new door & front slider window - both ends af mine are much larger than they use now.

Doug

 

[camelracer]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll give Chicali a call next week as Stan suggested. Hopefully I can put this off until the weather warms up and snow melts in norcal. I hate to spend that much fuel money just for a drive to Woodland. Maybe I can get it done on my way to the pig party. I'll post the results when it's done.

Dick

 

[Bajabinder]

I posted earlier in this thread that I too had those cracks and had them "fixed" at FWC. I 'm sorry to report that I just returned from another Baja adventure and found a crack above my door again! This is in the new material that was replaced at FWC. I am very unhappy about this...I never had any problem like this before with my original FWC, and I beat the snot out of that one. Please note, that I have NOT beat upon this current Grandby....maybe I should.

 

[camelracer]

No more cracks

After the pigfest I had a appointment with Chicali in Woodland to take a look at the problem I reported earlier plus another crack to the right of the propane door. A day and a half later I picked it up and all is well (I hope).

Chicali said there were cracked / broken frame members above the door and by the propane compartment. They took the rear of the camper apart and replaced the broken pieces. He said they replaced the top 1x1 and 1x2 pieces with three 1x1 pieces. I hope this is stronger. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it while it was apart but I did get a picture of the frame in their yard that might help explain what was replaced.

At the pigfest Marc showed me a similar problem he's having with his ATC and I've read other reports on this site. Instead of just patching the siding as suggested I would look into it further. When Chicali first saw the siding cracks he seemed to know it was more than a simple repair. I assume he's seen it before. Luckily I was still under warranty so no charge. I was happy FWC stood behind their product with a fast turnaround.

While I was getting the camper put back on the truck I got to meet Keith. He's got a really nice new one with the skylight, new frig & etc. I wish I had remembered his avitar so we could have talked some Jeep.

Dick