Central Toast
Advanced Member
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.
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.