2020 Grand Design Imagine Owner Complaints

I am filing a formal safety complaint against Camping World for structural equipment overloading, unauthorized safety component manipulation, and willful public safety endangerment. On May 29, the dealer hitched a 37' long trailer to my half ton truck frame. This combination violates critical highway stability standards. A 37' trailer requires a minimum 178" tow vehicle wheelbase to counteract lateral wind forces and semi-truck displacement. Operating it with a 157" wheelbase leaves a catastrophic 21" layout deficit, causing uncontrollable highway sway. The tailer's loaded tongue weight (1,223 to 1,529 lbs based on a 10,195 lb GVWR) physically overloads the truck's factory stamped 1,22o lb hitch receiver capacity. Immediately upon exiting the lot on Friday night, may 29, the rig experienced violent highway sway. I notified the sales associate that night, but received no safety instructions. For public safety, I returned the hazardous rig to the lot on Saturday morning, May 30. Instead of resolving the safety hazard, dealership personnel refused to let me speak to the general manager and executed two unauthorized alternations to mask the defects: 1. A technician intentionally over inflated my trucks tires to 57 PSI on the asphalt lot between the propane filling area and the store building. On site personnel explicitly admitted this was done to "stiffen the sidewalls because the trailer was rocking". 2. The dealer installed a Curt 10,000 lb weight distribution hitch (1,000 lb max tongue weight), which is completely overloaded by this trailer rating by up to 500 lbs. Staff took the rig behind a closed gate into Service Bay 2 to make undisclosed tension alterations to force the truck to look level, withholding all mechanical disclosure forms or explanations of services rendered. Staff then abandoned my truck in the drop off lot with the keys inside and ignored us for hours. The dealers blind alterations caused even more violent sway causing emergency grounding.

NHTSA ID

11741571

Incident

May 30, 2026

The frame of the trailer has. cracked in 4 places. Directly behind each wheel. Right in the middle of. the steel. There is a known defect in these frames. Cheap steel? Who knows but I'm one of many that this has happened to. The company has denied any warrranty.

NHTSA ID

11667331

Incident

Aug 9, 2024

All tires failed. 225/75 R15 Took my tires in for a routine rotation and balance cracks were on the tires. Dry rot

NHTSA ID

11618205

Incident

Oct 4, 2024

Frame is cracked. Both sides frame rails have horizontal cracks forming near the leaf spring mount brackets. The structural integrity of our camper is now compromised. If a frame rail were to fail during travel, the loss of control to the tow vehicle would follow, most likely on public roadways. The crack will be present no matter who inspects it. The failure was noticed when I inspected the frame after being made aware of how common frame rail failures are with Grand Design products. Will be following through with attempting to have the manufacturer cover this defect under warranty.

NHTSA ID

11604580

Incident

Jul 21, 2024

The contact owns a 2020 Grand Design Imagine equipped with Westlake Tires, Tire Line: Super ST, Tire Size: 225/75/R15, DOT Number: JULT1CT. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH, the contact heard a loud explosion and became aware that the front driver’s side tire had experienced a blowout. The contact was able to pull over on the side of the roadway. The contact replaced the tire with the spare tire. The dealer was contacted and recommended that all of the tires be replaced. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 2,000.

NHTSA ID

11543493

Incident

Jul 17, 2023

Mileage

2,000 mi

Tire size ST225/75/R15. Traveling on a two lane county highway in Pierce County, WI. Tire pressure as indicated on the Tire Minder i10 TPMS was 82 psi. Ambient air temperature was about 70F. Road surface was dry at the time. Incident began with suspected rupture in tire sidewall. No indication by TPMS prior to incident of increased temperature or decreased pressure. Sidewall failure was followed by separation of tread from tire body, causing damage to vehicle fender skirt, which departed the vehicle. Vehicle slowed under moderate breaking to a stop within about 300 yards. No reports with law enforcement filed. Photos attached.

NHTSA ID

11527789

Incident

Jun 12, 2023

The tire came apart. The tread separated from the rest of the tire and the whole tire separated like it was cut in half. Others safety was at risk because of debris. It hasn’t been presented to dealer yet. It has not been inspected yet. I use a tire pressure monitoring system and all tires were showing similar readings for psi and temperature 70-72psi and 93’.

NHTSA ID

11472029

Incident

Jun 26, 2022

There is currently an rv recall coming out concerning 150,000 2021 through 2023 travel trailers and fifth wheels for a faulty quick disconnect fitting in the propane system, which can crack, leak, and cause fires. I own a 2020 Grand Design, Imagine, travel trailer which had the exact same defect as this list describes. I paid my rv dealership $539 on 10/11/21 to trace the propane leak and replace the same connector which was cracked, with no signs of trauma or damage. This recall needs to be expanded to include 2020 models for sure and other manufacturers such as Grand Design.

NHTSA ID

11465019

Incident

Oct 11, 2021

225/75R15 tire Load Range E tire experienced complete tread separation and I have retained the majority of the tire remaining for further inspection. The tire information tag afixed to the camper specified 80 psi max cold pressure. After sitting overnight prior to morning departure all 4 tires were checked and set to 78 psi cold pressure and inspected visually on inner, outer and tread surfaces. 19.3 miles after departure on FL I-75 traveling at speed control 64 mph at about 11:30 am a tire pop was heard, the tread separated and lodged between the hub and spring, debris was seen flying to the rear in the side mirrors. Traffic was heavy in front and back, no road debris was seen, other cars in front followed straight paths and the outside temperature was 84 degrees. We maintained a steady slow down to the side of the road and could not tell what the following cars experienced due to flying camper and tire parts but we did not collect full pieces of damaged camper parts or the entire tread. No police report was made. Lionshead, the company contracting with the RV manufacturers to supply tires and manage warranty claims, after reviewing pictures and the incident, has issues a $105 tire replacement reimbursement. Finally, there is picture, date & name documentation of other similar failures (some 30+) over two years in our RV social media group.

NHTSA ID

11462163

Incident

Apr 15, 2022

The contact owns a 2020 Grand Design Imagine 2600RB equipped with westlake tire, tire line: unknown, tire size: ST225/75R15 and the DOT number was unknown. The contact stated while the trailer was being delivered to his residence, the rear passenger side tire blowout. The driver was able to replaced the rear passenger side tire. The contact stated a few days later the front driver side tire had a blister. The contact stated he replaced all 4 tires. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure.

NHTSA ID

11461750

Incident

Feb 1, 2022

OUR PASSENGER SIDE REAR TRAILER TIRE BLEW OUT ON OUR 2020 IMAGINE 2800BH. THIS WAS A LIONSHEAD WESTLAKE THAT CAME ON THE TRAILER AND HAD ABOUT 4K MILES ON IT. PRESSURE WAS 80 PSI WHEN WE LEFT OUR SITE AND 88 PSI WHEN IT BLEW ACCORDING TO THE TPMS SYSTEM. OUR SPEED AT THE TIME OF THE FAILURE WAS 60MPH. I'M NOT SURE WHAT CAUSED THE TIRE TO FAIL BUT IT WENT OUT WITH A BANG AND THE TREAD SEPARATED FROM THE TIRE. THE TPMS NEVER INDICATED LOSS OF AIR OR OTHER ISSUE. I PULLED OVER IMMEDIATELY AFTER I HEARD THE BANG BUT THE DAMAGE WAS ALREADY DONE. I WENT OUT AND REPLACED ALL 4 TIRES WITH GOODYEAR ENDURANCE TIRES. IN DOING SO THE TECH AT THE SHOP FOUND ANOTHER TIRE THAT HAD BEGUN TO HAVE TREAD SEPARATION AS WELL.

NHTSA ID

11374172

Incident

Nov 1, 2020

Mileage

4,000 mi

WHILE DRIVING BACK FROM A FAMILY TRIP IN NEBRASKA ON 6/30/19. I NOTICED THAT THE TRAILER WAS PUSHING THE TOW VEHICLE TO THE RIGHT WHILE BREAKING HARDER THAN NORMAL. THIS HAPPENED MULTIPLE TIMES DURING OUR 4.5 HOUR TRIP HOME AND UPON ARRIVING AT OUR HOUSE IN LONE TREE, CO. I DISCOVERED THAT THE LEAF SPRINGS ON THE PASSENGER SIDE OF THE TRAILER HAD FLATTENED OUT. THE TRAILER IS 2 MONTHS OLD AND THE WEIGHT WAS MINIMAL AS NONE OF THE HOLDING TANKS WERE FILLED AND HALF OF THE CABINETS WERE EMPTY AS WELL AS EMPTY FRIDGE. I CONTACTED THE MANUFACTURER AND THEY AUTHORIZED REPLACEMENT OF SPRINGS. MY CONCERNS IS THAT THE MANUFACTURER IS USING SUB STANDARD PRODUCTS AND THIS CAN LEAD TO A TRAGIC ACCIDENT AT SOME POINT. I ALSO BELONG TO A FB GROUP OF IMAGINE OWNERS THAT HAS 12,500 MEMBERS AND THE TOPIC OF FLATTENED LEAF SPRINGS IS A DAILY OCCURRENCE. SOMEONE SHOULD BE LOOKING IN TO THIS BEFORE A TRAGIC ACCIDENT OCCURS THAT COULD OF BEEN EASILY AVOIDABLE BY MANUFACTURER USING BETTER QUALITY PRODUCTS AND OR HIGHER PRODUCT AS WELL.

NHTSA ID

11229851

Incident

Jun 30, 2019

Mileage

700 mi