Towing a Grand Design RV This Summer? You May Want to Check This Recall First

You spent months planning the route, packed the RV with mathematical precision, and made sure your truck was ready for another few thousand miles. The last thing anyone wants at that point is a suspension recall.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what owners of certain Grand Design Reflection fifth-wheels are now dealing with.

Grand Design RV is recalling 1,111 trailers after a supplier identified a potential problem with shock retaining bolts used in the suspension system. The affected population includes 202 model-year 2025 Reflection trailers and 909 model-year 2026 units, according to an official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall report.

So, if you recently hitched a shiny new Grand Design behind your 2027 GMC Sierra 1500 and started pointing the hood toward somewhere without cell service, checking the VIN before leaving may be a very good idea.

A Few Bolts Could Ruin a Very Large Vacation

The problem is remarkably simple. According to the NHTSA filing, certain shock retaining bolts may have been over-torqued during assembly, potentially causing the bolt heads to fracture. Grand Design's supplier, Lippert Components, notified the RV manufacturer about the affected shock system in May.

In other words, someone may have loved the torque wrench a little too much.

It is a remarkably small piece of hardware for something capable of ruining a remarkably large vacation.

If a bolt head fractures while the trailer is moving, the bolt head and retaining washer may loosen or detach and become road debris. A washer sounds fairly harmless while sitting on a workbench. Highway traffic tends to feel differently about metal parts arriving unannounced at 65 mph.

Importantly, this recall does not cover every Grand Design RV. It specifically targets certain 2025 and 2026 Reflection trailers built with the affected components. That distinction matters for owners and shoppers looking at other models, including the Grand Design Imagine.

NHTSA estimates that roughly 3% of the 1,111 potentially affected trailers actually contain the defect. There is also no identified warning before a bolt head may fracture.

What Grand Design Owners Should Do

The good news is that the fix is considerably less dramatic than the problem sounds.

Dealers will remove the existing shock retaining bolts and replace them with Grade 8 fasteners designed to tolerate a wider torque range. The repair also calls for Blue Loctite or an equivalent thread-locking compound, with the replacement bolts torqued to between 20 and 30 lb-ft. Grand Design began using the replacement fasteners in production in April.

Owners should check their VIN and contact a Grand Design dealer if their trailer is included in the recall. The NHTSA filing shows that owner remedy notifications were planned between June 29 and July 3.

Nobody plans a summer road trip around a dealer service appointment. Then again, nobody plans on their fifth-wheel shedding suspension hardware onto the interstate, either.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jul 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 9:24 AM.