New Grand Design Warranty Updates: What You Need to Know (2024)

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Published on June 4th, 2024 by Lynne Fedorick

Grand Design Rolls Out New Warranty Updates

Luxury RV manufacturer Grand Design is well-known for its fantastic floorplans and reliable quality. So much so, that Grand Design remains one of the favorite RV brands. And this is even after some of its fifth-wheels had very well-publicized issues with frame flex. (Owners of some travel trailers also complained of furnace and appliance issues). Grand Design’s fifth-wheels have kept their tenure as a favorite because Grand Design has done two things that every RV manufacturer should do in the face of inevitable quality-control problems: It expressed concern and then it did its best to correct the situation.

Grand Design already offered a one-year base warranty and a three-year structural warranty. Then Grand Design added a five-year frame warranty that would cover issues like frame flex due to manufacturing defects. Grand Design also recently announced that all RV warranties will now be offered retroactive to the original date of purchase (beginning with model-year 2020). To go even further to maintaining consumer confidence in its products, Grand Design recently updated all of its warranties to make them transferable to new owners of used RVs.

Component And Frame Flex Issues

Grand Design is certainly not the only luxury RV manufacturer that has had quality-control problems due to frame-flex issues. After all, a luxury RV contains all of the accoutrements of a well-appointed hotel room that has everything you need to relax, or work, in your home away from home. All of this sitting on a chassis that has to be light enough to tow, yet strong enough to carry the RV, all its components, and your stuff. Like almost every other RV manufacturer, Grand Design buys its chassis (and many other components of its RVs) from Lippert, the world’s leading RV part manufacturer and supplier.

What Is Frame Flex?

Frame flex occurs when there is excessive movement of the frame on the chassis of the RV relative to the superstructure it carries. Frame flex causes myriad problems, including:

• Cracks in exterior walls
• Bowed interior walls
• One side seems closer to the wheels than the other side
• Cabinets and trim popping loose
• Doors that won’t close/open
• Warped floors
• Leaky slide outs
• Hitch moves upward when pin is dropped into it due to twisting

What Causes Frame Flex?

It would be easy to place blame on Lippert for supplying the frames that have had flex problems on Grand Design fifth-wheels (and other brands of towable RVs). However, there’s much more to it than that. That’s because RV manufacturers order frames from Lippert according to certain specifications. Lippert then crafts each frame precisely for those specifications. The fit of the RV cabin to the frame is critical to the integrity of the frame and if anything isn’t within the original intent of the frame, things can start to twist over time. The frame and the superstructure of the RV work together to create a unified and solid structure. RV overloading, loose frame-to-superstructure fasteners, an incorrect axle(s), and unapproved pin-box modifications can all lead to premature twisting of the RV frame.

Key Takeaways

As a company, Grand Design has long been known for designing and building luxurious, high-quality RVs. Its variety of floorplans and attention to detail have allowed the manufacturer to create a name that is synonymous with luxury fifth-wheels and travel trailers. The years between 2020 and 2024 have seen many RV manufacturers struggling with quality-control issues, often due to faulty RV components. Grand Design is trying to make things right for its customers with this new set of RV warranty updates.

By extending all of its RV warranties retroactively and making them transferable to buyers of used Grand Design RV models, Grand Design is trying to win back customers with a better standard of post-purchase care. This is great news for anyone who has purchased a Grand Design RV in the last five years. It’s also a standard that other RV manufacturers would do well to emulate in an increasingly skeptical market.

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