Hello fellow Montanaians
We bought a 2017 3950BR brand new in June 2017. In July 2017 we noticed the wall moving/separation when hitched to truck. We happened to be going through Elkhart so thought we'd deal with it head on. Natually, they were booked out and we arranged to have this dealt with this fall once our travel schedule for the year was complete and we had down tIME (we travel in our rig for work and move every 2 weeks or so).
So... flash forward, unit is at dealer. They cut a strip off where the broken welds (in the aluminum) could be accessed and rewelded and reinforced. They are giving us 3 options for the cosmetic end of it.
1. Leaving the cut going horizontal and putting in trim like the vertical expansion joint (aka relief cut) that the factory put in. This is obviously the cheapest and easiest thing for the dealer/keystone to do. They claim however that it is a relief point so that there will be no further cracking.
2. Fiberglassing over the cut and painting and replacing graphics, said it will look brand new. Their stated con to this is that it leaves it susceptible to cracking again since that horizontal relief joint is sealed up.
3. Removing the entire filon (outer wallboard) from the bedroom slide forward. This is obviously the most time consuming and expensive. They say they don't recommend it because it requires removing all the sytrofoam insulation and replacing it and the initial factory application is better. This would also have a relief cut/expansion joint above the slide like they did with golfmedik (I have read that thread).
ADVICE NEEDED: What is the best plan of action? I am also noticing in the 2nd picture that it looks like the wallboard on the inside (probably in the closet) looks splintered. Unfortunately, I am not with the unit to be able to inspect it.
pic 1 - slice in outer wall made to access broken welds
pic 2 - pics of broken welds - look closely at the light wooden board (I'm assuming the back of the closet), it looks splintered.
pic 3 – weld towards front of opening repaired
pic 4 – piece cut out replaced, how to proceed on repair is the question, put seam/trim, fiberglass over, have them remove whole panel from top to bottom forward of the slide
pic 5 – their suggestion, use trim piece (which is obviously not how it comes from factory)
Would appreciate any input. Thanks!
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