About that new Demco Hitch

[moonriver]

November 12, 2019
Mr. Steve Thorne National Warranty Manager Airstream, Inc. 419 W Pike St. Jackson Center, OH 45365
NEF-150KL 19V-753
Subject: Trailer may Detach from Tow Vehicle
Dear Mr. Thorne: This letter serves to acknowledge Airstream, Inc.'s notification to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a safety recall which will be conducted pursuant to Federal law for the product(s) listed below. Please review the following information to ensure that it conforms to your records as this information is being made available to the public. If the information does not agree with your records, please contact us immediately to discuss your concerns.
Makes/Models/Model Years: AIRSTREAM/BAMBI/2020 AIRSTREAM/BASECAMP/2020 AIRSTREAM/CARAVEL/2020 AIRSTREAM/CLASSIC/2019-2020 AIRSTREAM/FLYING CLOUD/2019-2020 AIRSTREAM/GLOBETROTTER/2019-2020 AIRSTREAM/INTERNATIONAL/2019-2020 AIRSTREAM/NEST/2019-2020 AIRSTREAM/SPORT/2019-2020 AIRSTREAM/TOMMY BAHAMA/2019-2020
Mfr's Report Date: November 6, 2019
NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V-753
Components: TRAILER HITCHES
Potential Number of Units Affected: 1,888
Problem Description: Airstream, Inc. (Airstream) is recalling certain 2019-2020 Sport, Nest, Flying Cloud, International Serenity, International Signature, Classic, Globetrotter and Tommy Bahama trailers and 2020 Basecamp, Bambi and Caravel trailers. Due to improper welding, the Demco ball coupler installed on the travel trailers may not provide enough clamping force on the tow ball, potentially causing the coupler to separate from the tow ball.
Consequence: If the coupler separates from the tow ball, the trailer can detach from the tow vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.
Remedy: Airstream will notify owners, and will send a temporary use adaptor that can be slipped over the ball portion of the coupler to allow
owners to tow their trailers. For the final remedy, dealers will add a shim plate to the backside of the ball coupler clamp to put it in position to apply the required clamping force on the tow ball, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin December 20, 2019. Owners may contact Airstream customer service at 1-877-596-6505 or 1-937-596-6111 extension 7401 or 7411.
Notes: Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov. NHTSA is missing critical, required information for this safety recall. This information must be supplied through the NHTSA Recalls Portal within 5 working days of confirming its accuracy:

- Your company's program shall include a plan for reimbursing an owner or purchaser who incurred costs to obtain a remedy for the problem addressed by the recall within a reasonable time in advance of your company's notification of owners, purchasers and dealers, in accordance with § 573.13 of this part. Your company's plan may incorporate by reference a general reimbursement plan it previously submitted to NHTSA, together with information specific to the individual recall. Information required by § 573.13 that is not in a general reimbursement plan shall be submitted in your company's report to NHTSA under this section. If your company submits one or more general reimbursement plans, your company shall update each plan every two years, in accordance with § 573.13. Your company's remedy program and reimbursement plans will be available for inspection by the public at NHTSA headquarters (49 CFR 573.6 (c)(8)(i)). If the vehicles are new and would be covered under the manufacturer's warranty program, please state that in the remedy section of your filing.

Please be reminded of the following requirements:

You are required to submit a draft owner notification letter to this office no less than five days prior to mailing it to the customers. Also, copies of all notices, bulletins, dealer notifications, and other communications that relate to this recall, including a copy of the final owner notification letter and any subsequent owner follow-up notification letter(s), are required to be submitted to this office no later than 5 days after they are originally sent (if they are sent to more than one manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or purchaser/owner).

Please be reminded that under 49 U.S.C. § 30112(a)(3), it is illegal for a manufacturer, to sell, offer for sale, import, or introduce or deliver into interstate commerce, a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment that contains a safety defect once the manufacturer has notified NHTSA about that safety defect. This prohibition does not apply once the motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment has been remedied according to the manufacturer's instructions.

As stated in Part 573.7, submission of the first of six consecutive quarterly status reports is required within one month after the close of the calendar quarter in which notification to purchasers occurs. Therefore, the first quarterly report will be due on, or before, 30 days after the close of the calendar quarter.
Your contact for this recall will be Kristin Lepper who may be reached by phone at 202-366-5227, or by email at kristin.lepper@dot.gov. We look forward to working with you.


Sincerely,
Joshua Neff Chief, Recall Management Division Office of Defects Investigations Enforcement

[GCinSC2]

Moonriver,

Good information. Doesn't affect my rig, just on the sidelines watching.

Gary

[Demco]

Originally Posted by billrector

My concern with a “shim” to fix the problem is that someday, in the future, if the hitch needs to be repaired, some mechanic s not going to know anything about this recall. This shim may be thrown away rendering the hitch right back to where it is now. Don’t know which part/parts are out of spec, but why not replace those parts with in-spec parts rather than supplying a shim. I’m not impacted by this recall, but I would want t know more before accepting this fix.

The shim will be noted in the standard rebuild kit instructions in every rebuild Kit Demco produces going forward. So if the coupler is rebuilt in the future it will not matter where the kit was purchased from it will note that if the coupler had a shim installed the shim will need to be reused or replaced (available from Demco Directly)

[Demco]

Originally Posted by Belbein

As far as Airstream not notifying us, it's par for the course with big business. The game with recalls is to discourage remediation.

As for no notice : theyre required to notify us, and not by public forum. Did anyone get actual legal notice?

Official notice and communication is in the works per NHSTA official requirements by Airstream, the only reason you heard about it here first is because of a joint Airstream/Demco effort to be proactive and address the information presented in this public forum that has the potential to be wrong and mis-informative. As you can imagine public forum information flows faster than information flowing through other channels. The other aspect to this is that Demco is part of the equation in terms of communication and AS is supplying info just as fast as Demco can develop/prototype/test/build ship the kits and methods to fix the situation. I can tell you all hands are on deck at Demco and i have personally fielded many emails and calls regarding this matter in hopes to educate and the provide the best customer service we can. We are working as fast as we can and will continue to do so until every coupler has been addressed that is effected by the recall.

[Demco]

Originally Posted by KK4YZ

I think the intent of the lockout kit is to get you safely to the dealer for checkout and repair if necessary. After that you won’t need it.

The Lockout is only intended to get you to the dealer from where ever you may be as soon as you are able get it there. The lockout is precautionary measure intended to ensure safe towing in all situations. Once at the dealer and the coupler is inspected and/or shimmed and the lockout is not longer needed.

[Belbein]

Josh: I think you guys at Demco have been very responsive. And I appreciate your responses here and to me personally. But the issue about Airstream is a different issue. We didn't buy a Demco hitch--we bought a product from Airstream that incorporated a Demco hitch. Airstream is our seller. Airstream owes us the primary duty.

I'm a 37-year veteran of commercial and consumer litigation. I understand the issues probably percolating in the background between Demco and Airstream. But … it's appalling that Airstream let this bubble up without letting us, their very faithful customers, know. There may not be a more loyal customer base than Airstream owners. We should have been treated better.

I got a call from Airstream by a pleasant young lady letting me know about the recall. She said that the official written notice of the recall will come with the parts. I'm glad that they're finally taking responsibility for this …

… and I'm just hoping that the engineering people who redesigned the Demco hitch aren't the same ones who redesigned the 737 Max.

[moonriver]

I also am very appreciative of Demco's efforts in this recall and for the information they are putting on the Airstream Forum. I realize that a large undertaking such as this recall does not happen overnight. However, the letter from NHTSA and the Safety Recall Report previously posted on the Forum show a "Planned Dealer Notification Date" and a "Planned Owner Notification Date" of Dec. 20, 2019. This caused me some concern so I contacted Airstream Customer Service today. In addition, I received a message from another Airstream owner this morning saying that Airstream Customer Service told him that if the dealer found his coupler failed the test, it could take up to a week for the dealer to receive the repair kit. My dealer identified that we had a coupler problem in late October and submitted a claim to Airstream Warranty on October 30. Our Dealer has not received any parts yet, either for our unit or for the four units they have in their inventory that also failed the coupler test. Airstream Customer Service told me that they are keeping a spreadsheet of those units that have failed and will send the parts out when they get them from Demco. As of this morning, Airstream has not received any parts and do not know when they will.

[Demco]

Belbein, Moonriver,
Let me first start this post with saying that i appreciate both of you gentleman's patience and understanding during the emails and phone calls i have had with the both of you. I understand that a recall like this is very frustrating. Not only in the inconvenience of it all but also the lack of information is equally infuriating . I also understand that you guys didn't choose to be a Demco customer and I apologize personally to any Airstream owner that has had anything other than smooth sailing with a Demco product. In terms of AS and their communication, you have to remember that they cant give information they don't have. They have to wait for Demco to release the info/parts to them. They cannot release recall without the information needed to fix the recall. AS did not design or build the coupler therefore they cannot fix the issue and quite frankly their hands are tied. I can assure you folks that there is no shortage of taking responsibility. Trust me, im on the recieving end of Airstreams daily communication with Demco, there is no lack of concern or urgency on behalf of their loyal customers.
As far as the Dec dates go, i can't speak to them directly. I would assume that a date was a mandatory part of the recall process and there was no line in the sand date to deliver so a estimated date was likely used. We will be providing shims in the next few days and they will be promptly delivered to dealers, like mentioned by Belbein, AS is currently notifying customers and shipping the lockouts.
Like i have stated before, all hands are on deck here at Demco and we are working as fast as we can to deliver. We have dedicated copious amounts of time and testing to develop the best possible short term and long term solutions and we are trying to deliver them as fast as we can.

[moonriver]

Thank you so much for your explanation and information!! I believe you have put many minds at ease tonight.

[billrector]

Originally Posted by Demco

The shim will be noted in the standard rebuild kit instructions in every rebuild Kit Demco produces going forward. So if the coupler is rebuilt in the future it will not matter where the kit was purchased from it will note that if the coupler had a shim installed the shim will need to be reused or replaced (available from Demco Directly)

First of all, I commend you for being on here and providing this information. Since I don’t know what part or parts are out of spec, I am having trouble understanding why you are providing a shim rather than simply providing new parts that are within your specifications?

[panamerican]

You know I never heard of Demco before, then again, don't know the name of my current couplers either.

What I find extremely refreshing and outright insanely great is that here on this forum is the manufacturer stepping up. If I had a Demco coupler and was having this issue, yea, might not be happy about it, but honestly just this thread alone put Demco up high on my radar of great made in America companies that literally stands behind the product both physically and publicly. A lot of companies could learn a thing or two from Demco.

[Phantom98]

Originally Posted by panamerican

You know I never heard of Demco before, then again, don't know the name of my current couplers either.

What I find extremely refreshing and outright insanely great is that here on this forum is the manufacturer stepping up. If I had a Demco coupler and was having this issue, yea, might not be happy about it, but honestly just this thread alone put Demco up high on my radar of great made in America companies that literally stands behind the product both physically and publicly. A lot of companies could learn a thing or two from Demco.

My Classic is scheduled for delivery in December. My dealer says when it gets here they will fix the hitch for me. My question is. Why is Airstream still sending out trailers that they know has a hitch that has been recalled? My hope is that the fix Demco has proposed will honestly fix the problem and not serve as a Band Aid.

[eagletoo]

All,
I have received my Demco Coupling Lockout from AS today. Overnight Air via UPS.

This, after an email exchange with an AS customer rep yesterday (Wed). Can’t beat that!!

Also included in the delivery was the “official” safety recall letter from AS.

The Demco Coupler Lockout is a very serious piece of steel. 3/8 bolts, lock washers, brackets, etc. Very high quality and rust proofed.

[Al U. Minium]

https://www.rvtravel.com/urgent-reca...m-tow-vehicle/

[StephSH]

Moonriver- thanks so much for posting the recall info- mine was built in October 2019, so I think I’m good....

[StephSH]

Originally Posted by Phantom98

My Classic is scheduled for delivery in December. My dealer says when it gets here they will fix the hitch for me. My question is. Why is Airstream still sending out trailers that they know has a hitch that has been recalled? My hope is that the fix Demco has proposed will honestly fix the problem and not serve as a Band Aid.

If you read the post from Moonriver, the recall states it only includes Airstreams built from April 2019 through part of August 2019, so yours is probably not impacted, and Airstream is not using parts they know are defective...

[Phantom98]

Originally Posted by StephSH

If you read the post from Moonriver, the recall states it only includes Airstreams built from April 2019 through part of August 2019, so yours is probably not impacted, and Airstream is not using parts they know are defective...

Time will tell. I hope you are right.

[66Overlander]

Originally Posted by Phantom98

My Classic is scheduled for delivery in December. My dealer says when it gets here they will fix the hitch for me. My question is. Why is Airstream still sending out trailers that they know has a hitch that has been recalled? My hope is that the fix Demco has proposed will honestly fix the problem and not serve as a Band Aid.

By law Airstream cannot ship nor sell a recalled product. It they are shipping, then yours does not have the defective part.

[Phantom98]

Originally Posted by 66Overlander

By law Airstream cannot ship nor sell a recalled product. It they are shipping, then yours does not have the defective part.

I have a question. After reading the Part 573 Safety recall Report it stated that Demco informed Airstream that the hitch back plate was manufactured out of tolerance on one of its welding fixtures. Does this mean Airstream used the same coupler on all models of trailers no matter what size?

[66Overlander]

Originally Posted by Phantom98

I have a question. After reading the Part 573 Safety recall Report it stated that Demco informed Airstream that the hitch back plate was manufactured out of tolerance on one of its welding fixtures. Does this mean Airstream used the same coupler on all models of trailers no matter what size?

The Recall Notice did mention pretty much all the Airstream models, at least from Nest thru Sport all the way to Classic (Basecamp may have been there too, but I don't remember), so I believe the answer is yes.