RV Frame Repairs Done So Wrong It's Dangerous

[00:00:01]Hey everybody, this is Dustin, RV specialist.

[00:00:03]So, today I'm looking at a Keystone Voltage, and this is a 2014 build, but it's sold as a 2015.

[00:00:10]And I want you to go check out our longer video on this, where we talked about the unit being totaled.

[00:00:15]It had rat damage in the roof, uh came in for a roof to be resheeted and replaced due to a tree branch, but we found, you know, 13 or plus areas on the roof that's all dry rotted, um rat damage inside the ceiling, which is also going to mean throughout the underbelly, and throughout all the walls, and the interior walls. But during this, um when the owners came in, they said, you know, "Hey, it's been lifted. Is it possible to adjust our pin box?" And let's go take a look at the suspension and see why. So, not that the owners did this, but the previous owners, or previous party that had it, took and put a lift on here. And when we say this is a homemade lift, you know, anybody out there can weld.

[00:00:55]Whoops, catching some spider webs.

[00:00:57]But basically what they did is they added like 4-in drop of metal in here.

[00:01:03]So, you can see that bar.

[00:01:06]They added that in there, and then on top of that, they took and they put like a 6-in drop, or whatever that is, 5.38s, or whatever that tallest hanger is, a drop to extend that. So, now they've basically took the frame, and they've extended that, you know, as my fingers now. They extended that this whole distance. And so, that takes and changes the geometry for the whole coach. Now, they did went ahead and used um like an angle bracket, and they went across most of these leaf spring hangers to try and reinforce that, but that's not the proper way to do that.

[00:01:41]By this thing being extended the way it is, you know, this already has a 12-in I-beam on it, and so, you're taking this pressures, and you're moving this stuff to where it can now fracture the I-beams, it can fracture and warp and distort the actual center of the I-beam and we do a ton of frame repairs down here as it is already for stock stuff. So, this unit, you know, you can tell it's been painted cuz I can see the spray paint stuff on there, but you know, this is technically not safe. I mean, if the highway patrol seen this, they would probably say, "Hey, this is a no-go." Again, here's another view of it.

[00:02:19]You know, I don't know how well my camera's picking it all up, but they literally put a box in there and then just used angle iron and, you know, put multiple cross pieces on that. So, again, that's not that's not what you want to do. Also, this unit has, you know, the old version of the Equa-Flex on there.

[00:02:40]And then, as you can see, the springs, some of the keepers on the springs have shifted um as well as, you know, the springs itself will look like they've lost a little bit of their arch. You know, they're still there and they're still arched, but you'd have to measure it. So, it's it's not it's not a good thing to do you know, just because you know how to weld or just because you think, you know, "Hey, hey, I can just throw a piece in there and I can extend this on there." You're throwing everything off, you know. You're actually causing yourself more damage or to become an issue where it could be unsafe for travel. Um I mean, there's a proper way to do this, but this is not the way that you would normally do that.

[00:03:22]So, um you would make a complete subframe on it. You'd probably go back and reinforce the I-beams. So, when I say reinforce the I-beams, these guys here, you would take those off and you would probably take whatever the distance of that is. Let's just call it an inch. You'd probably take like a whatever the length this is, you know, 100 plus inches, you would take and put another tube across that, stitch weld that all the way down both on the side as well as the bottom to give it more reinforcement to the eye to keep it from walking. May even add additional gussets or whatever up top or outriggers if you want to call them outriggers and then so on. So, all right. Well, stay tuned for more. I just wanted to capture this to let you know, you know, hey, we see all kinds of crazy suspension modifications. Um you know, and some of it, you know, whether it be another shop not knowing what they're doing or just sure I can do that instead of instead of just saying, "Hey, you know, can it be done?" Sure, it could be done.

[00:04:21]But, if that ever caused damage or they got in a wreck from this and they seen that it was modified and it wasn't done in a proper way, obviously, if you called Keystone and said, "Hey, look what I did. Is that right?" They're going to say absolutely not. You know, at that point, if you buy a unit and your unit is not tall enough for your truck and you have some crazy lifted truck, well, guess what? You shouldn't [laughter] be towing something that's this long behind your truck that's lifted in the first place.

[00:04:52]You know, you're talking about getting so squirrely and getting in a wreck. I mean, it happens. We see it all the time on Facebook and you know, TikTok and Twitter and all the other or or X and all the other pro- you know, platforms nowadays. So, all right. Well, stay tuned for more and again, I said this was a '14 build. This is a 2015.

[00:05:14]This thing is a 397.

[00:05:17]So, probably from the pin box to the bumper is probably 40 plus feet and with the cap nose that starts here and extends clear out to here, I would say it's probably close to a 45-footer or 43-footer probably.

[00:05:33]All right. Well, stay tuned for more and thanks for joining us at Dustin's RV Specialists.