EscaPOD Adventures - 2022 edition

The frame and axle designs of the 179s (which were sourced from Lippert) didn't change during that period so I don't think those issues can be attributed to quality control at FR. The floor problems quite possibly can.

We need to remember that most owners never have the frame and axle problems. That means that they are low probability events, likely in the range of hundreds of thousands of miles between them. So statistically one trailer travelling 50k miles is nowhere near enough. You would need to collect data from hundreds of owners travelling tens of thousands of miles to be able to estimate the overall frequency of occurence, let alone differences between model years.

So what do engineers do to identify and correct problems when they don't have access to sufficiebt statistical data to work with? They evaluate by analysis and calculation. Which is what I did.

IOW, you have to trust the math.

I also think there's a tangible difference between the various factories FR uses. I don't believe they transport new trailers over the Rockies (at least not typically), so there is probably a difference between western trailers and eastern trailers.