2010 Dutchman T@B Frame Failure

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Refrigerator Power?.

Dalehelman

@RME46_
I noticed you have a 2010 T@B have you seen this posting on the T@B Facebook page?

T@B Disaster. Warning to all 2010 T@B owners for potential frame failure. 

     Last summer while towing the T@B on a 2 lane highway at 55 mph we heard a horrendous screeching and looking in our mirrors to our horror we saw our beloved T@B, which we have owned since new, dragging down the road detached from the truck and then flip end over end and land right side up. Thank God it decided to veer off the highway and not into oncoming traffic and no one was hurt. My immediate thought was the trailer became unhitched from the truck but when we got to it there was no hitch! It was still attached to the truck along with the safety chains. The frame had failed and completely sheared on both sides of the trailer. 

     It turns out Dutchman (they no longer make T@Bs, nuCamp does and their frames seem very strong), in the last year of production, ran out of the original T@B frame and used a substitute on the last year's production run rather than ordering a whole batch of originals. The frame is obviously of inferior quality. The metal seems extremely thin for a travel trailer. If you have this frame please inspect it! There was some rust on the metal where it cracked so it had been failing for a while. 

    Anyway, no one was hurt, Dutchmen reimbursed us somewhat for the loss and now we have a brand new Boondock Edition ready to take over the travels. The old T@B was obviously totaled but due to it's tough construction and round shape it didn't get completely destroyed. We flat bedded it home where I was able to pull the walls back together and get it weatherproof by filling the cracks with expanding foam and it is now a very nice garden shed.

ChanW

Whoa! That's a really clean 'break'! It doesn't seem to look stressed at all.

Must've been a dang scary experience for them.

Dalehelman said:

@RME46_
I noticed you have a 2010 T@B have you seen this posting on the T@B Facebook page?

T@B Disaster. Warning to all 2010 T@B owners for potential frame failure. 

     Last summer while towing the T@B on a 2 lane highway at 55 mph .....

jkjenn

In addition, there seems to be a rash of Dutchman T@bs with rotting floors, which can cause bigger issues. 

Any idea what year nuCamp started putting in non-plywood floors? 

Verna

@jkjenn, nüCamp started using Azdel instead of plywood in the floors of the 2016 T@B models. 

jkjenn

Verna said:

@jkjenn, nüCamp started using Azdel instead of plywood in the floors of the 2016 T@B models. 

Thanks @Verna. I will need to budget for a new floor sometime down the road.