When I called TM this morning I found that Ed was out (vacation?) but was connected to Adam (represented himself as another Customer Service Rep). Only took a minute or two of explanation and I was put right through to Michael Hulsey. For those who aren't up to speed on who's who at TM...the founder and President is Bill Hulsey (himself a PhD engineer). Michael is his son and the company's chief engineer (probably also a VP)). Michael was out but I left a detailed voice mail...including a mention of my role here at TMO.
Apparently the voice mail was persuasive...Michael called me within 20 minutes.
He knew who I was (they do indeed monitor this website) and he also found I have substantial knowledge of engineering/metallurgical issues. So we had a rather long, technically deep (lots of talk about concepts such as embrittlement) and exceptionally fruitful discussion. FYI, Michael is the engineer that UtahSue has been talking to. Key points of the discussion:
- He was definitely concerned by two reports of frame cracking in two days. I reminded him there had been the earlier report from PopBeaver as well and pointed out that these were 3 cases that even I knew about and there was a good likelihood that there were more out there in TM land.
- I told him I believed the starting point of the fractures was at the bottom of the frame tube adjacent to the bottom corner of the lower ear of the swing hinge. He concurred and told me that he'd already ordered an immediate change to the construction of all TMs with swing hitches...namely a 2 inch wide, 4 inch long "gusset" to be welded along the bottom of the frame tubes. The purpose of this gusset is to increase the tensile strength of the bottom of the frame tube so these cracks don't get started.
- He asked me to email photos of the crack area on my TM...I sent him several very high resolution images taken with a macro lens (see below for lower res versions of 3 of these images).
- After reviewing these photos, he emailed back that he felt confident that a competent welder could clean up/reweld this relatively small crack and affix a gusset to prevent further cracking. The good news here is that I caught the cracking before it had become very severe.
- He indicated that although my trailer was now 4 years old, he'd give favorable consideration to reimbursing me for my expenses in having the crack properly fixed. Not a hard and firm commitment...and not really a financial biggie for me...but nice to know that at least TM will consider reimbursing me despite the trailer being way out of the warranty period.
As for actually implementing a fix, I'm blessed to have a 10 year casual friendship/business relationship with arguably the best welder in all of greater Colorado Springs. Jerry is a trained metallurgist, is FAA certified for repairing aircraft, and is an absolute artisan with all types of welding techniques. I was able to get ahold of him and after explaining the detail of this crack, he said he fully grasped what needed to be done and saw no problems in fixing it.
Although he couldn't work me in before the weekend (did have to cancel my trip and participation in a RVSEF weigh-in
), he told me to bring the trailer down to his shop
next Wednesday. His shop is only about 5 miles from my house...and Michael OK'd that short a trip with the proviso I not use my WDH spring bars. So, by next Wednesday afternoon, all should be just fine again. Actually better than now since I know that Jerry will be very meticulous in reinforcing the frame tube to preclude any further cracking.
Soooo....appears my problem will be fixed completely and permanently within a few days. AND it appears that new TMs will have reinforced frames to preclude this from happening to future owners. Not bad for a couple of hours of coordination if I say so myself.
Photos: The 1st photo shows an overall view of the side of the frame tube...note the crack is only along the weld for the lower hinge ear. Also note that the paint has cracked off along the weld of the upper ear...that tells me there has been some flexing but no visible cracking along this weld. The 2nd photo shows closeup detail of the crack in the side of frame tube. The 3rd photo shows a close up of the bottom of the frame tube...note that at this point, the crack has propagated (visibly at least) only about half way across the bottom of the frame tube. (NOTE: In case the scale of these photos is a bit unfamiliar/baffling...all 3 photos were taken using macro (aka extreme close up) mode...the lens was only about 4 inches away from the subject in each photo)