My Pod, like a lot of others, doesn't have the diamond plate.  I knew they are plastic, and I've thought about getting some material and adding it to my Pod.  I think it's mostly aesthetic rather than protective, and the protection is more from road tar than anything else.  But it looks nice and substantial.

TT

I used a heavy guage piece of aluminum that I cut to. About  4”x6” . I drilled holes on all sides and painted it flat black. I also painted 6 sheet metal screws(#12x 1”) flat black. After the paint dried, i coated the back of the plate with silicone and screwed it onto the front of the plating. I made sure it was square and plumb and it looks as if it is the cover to a port or something important. Nobody would ever think it was a repair —except  everybody on this forum.

It is not as bad as you think. Make the dealer do what you think is right, but it is an easy and good repair. Maybe you can repair it yourself and get some shop credit or?...

Vann

Apparently, the tech banged the square sway bar into the front of the trailer and put a nice sized square hole through the plastic diamond plate. From what it looks like the inner layer has been cracked too.

I was NOT happy. It was the shop owner who first saw the damage, when he was showing me the new hitch. 'Oh, what did you hit here?', he said.

I was stunned, as there had been no damage the day before when I brought the rig up to the shop. He took photos of the damage and called his tech, who promptly denied any knowledge to it at all.

Fortunately Matt, the owner, is taking full responsibility and said that he will pay to fix the damage, including ordering a new part for the front and having the inner layer filled with resin.

He was not happy either and told me that he would have a 'Serious talk' with his tech about the problem the following day.

My question is this:

Should I have him just order a new plastic diamond plate panel from Forest River or should I upgrade and pay the difference in the cost of the part to have a real 'metal' diamond plate put in?

I didn't realize that the factory plate was only plastic (and the tech probably didn't either).

It seems like, since the factory piece will have to be removed anyway to repair the damage, I might as well end up with something better than what I started with.

I thought it best to ask here, incase someone has replaced this panel before, to get some advice before asking the shop owner about it.

1. Would a real piece of metal diamond plate be substantially more expensive than the plastic part?

2. Can it be substituted without a lot of additional work?

It seems like having real metal in the lower front of the trailer would be better than just plastic, and since it has to be replaced anyway....

The piece measures 15 inches by 6.5 ft.

Thanks for the advice,

ONT