Welds, and the Lack Thereof

[Central Toast]

I have a lot of fun with the Hawk, but some things irk me. I have to share this one. Not meaning to disparage FWC, but, I'm hoping that the welds are better now in newer campers.

The outer skin on the front wall had torn at the corners of the windows and at the inside corners of the wings. From what I've seen on this camper and on the forum, this is a pretty good indication of frame or weld cracks underneath. I peeled off the skin and indeed found several cracked frame welds along with many joints that were prepped for a weld at the factory and then never welded.



Perhaps they were welded on the other side, but those were cracked, too, because I could wiggle most of the vertical frame members freely. The whole ledger and cripple above the window was wagging around unattached to anything but the very top tube.



The photo above shows a prepped joint on the right and a cracked weld on the upper left.

Also, whoever was running the apparently giant grinder at the factory that day not only ground off most of the welds but also ate into the tubing pretty well. This one has almost no metal left on the welded side of the tube:



For $40 a local welder stitched up the front wall and it is much better...but who knows what lies beneath the other walls. And, I purchased the new skin for the front wall from FWC for very cheap.

That being said, the design concept and functionality of Hawk is unparalleled IMO. It seems that the engineering and construction methods have improved since 2003, and I'm hoping that my next FWC (if I can ever afford more than the beater I have now!) will have a more solid frame.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Hello Central Toast

I have seen that happen before on the older campers off & on (not very common, but it can happen and has).

Back then the camper frames & how they welded the campers were quite a bit different.

We have learned many things over the years on how we used to build the frames, compared to the how the camper frames are built today.

It looks like your camper is almost 11 years old ?

After that many year on & off road, the trucks and campers can have taken a beating depending on where they have been.

With campers like yours, the only small cracks that sometimes typically show up are over the rear door frame, or at the corners of the front window. You probably don't have much else to worry about. Get the cracks taken care of and you should have many more years of happy use from the camper.

On the newer FWC's we are using better welding techniques, better welding machines, are now MIG welding, adding in additional framing, redesigning the frames, and using filet welds on both sides (inside corners) of the tubing (instead of just one side) in as many places as allows. This had made the frame much stronger and has eliminated the cracks over the doors and over the front window. By using a filet welds on each side of the tube has also allowed us to do a lot less grinding. We still offer a full 5 year warranty on the camper frames against cracks.



Hope this helps explain things a bit better.

Please let us know if there is anything we can help with?

Thanks so much.

Stan



.

 

[Central Toast]

Thanks, Stan, I have gotten the sense from pics of newer frames that they are built better now, and I am glad to have that confirmed as I will be buyin FWC again in the future. Mine is a 2003 and was dragged around on a trailer by the prior owner. You guys are always very helpful when I call and that is part of the good experience with this camper so far. Also, don't get me wrong, the camper does most of what it's supposed to do even with the cracked welds--the torn skin will be replaced. The intent of this post is to share info with others who might encounter the same issue.

 

[camper rich]

My 2016 Grandby has developed a hairline crack over the drivers side corner of the door. It runs diagonally from the door frame approximately 2" to where it narrows to disappearing. How should I proceed? Do you think it is a broken frame? It should still be under the five year warranty.

 

[oldhotrod]

Thanks for posting the pics, i will be doing the same so any more pics would really be appreciated...here is a picure of the scale model FWC has in the showroom is So Cal...you can see the vert tubes are doubled up and extra cross brace...

 

[camper rich]

Stan,

My 2016 Grandby has developed a hairline crack over the drivers side corner of the door. It runs diagonally from the door frame approximately 2" to where it narrows to disappearing. How should I proceed? Do you think it is a broken frame? It should still be under the five year warranty.

 

[camelracer]

I've had cracks develop on the upper right corner of the door 3 times. The first 2 times they were repaired by FWC under warranty. Now that the warranty has expired I just sealed it. No sense spending money on temporary repairs.

My camper has the square corner doors which I thought might be part of the problem. It's interesting that the round corner doors are having the same problem.

 

[camper rich]

I will take it down to my dealer and see what he says.

 

[ntsqd]

Years ago I got an informal tour of the Fleetwood facility in Chico, CA. Back then they were only MIG welding the inside corners of their steel frames.The joints on the face were left unwelded so that they did not have to grind them smooth. With the one piece side and their vacuum-bagging process any welds on the face would have left lumps and bumps visible in the outer surface unless they were ground exactly flat. At which point there wouldn't be much weld bead left.