Long read, sorry. 

Almost 1 year ago we purchased a 2006 Sooner 3H with full living quarters and a slide out.  We noticed the skin of the gn area popping out slightly.  I spoke to the Sooner dealer at congress who gave me the warranty guy's number. We were on our way home from Quarter Horse Congress yesterday, stopped to get something to eat and the drivers side panel of the gn had buckled into the interior and numerous rivets were gone.  My husband thinks that the welded bracing on either side of the window is gone or was never there.  There is a slight buckle now also on the passenger side.

I spoke to the warrantee person at sooner, who said the trailer had an 8 year structural warranty but was out "basically out of warrantee" because it was purchased new in October of 2005 so it expired at the beginning of October.  I have the original title, showing the purchase date of 10-14-05.  My husband says the warrantee should expire on 10-14-2013.  The sooner warrantee guy says he will cover the costs of the material because he "wants to work with us".  I wonder if I spoke to a lawyer what they would say.  Warrantee transfer is $400, but obviously I don't want to do that if Sooner just denies it.  What do you think?

Also, wondering if anyone else has had this issue and what the costs for repair have been.

Thanks for any input!!

Update:

I have contacted almost everyone involved (dealer/seller, manufacturer, and living quarter company).......the finger pointing has begun.

The trailer is out of warranty. Universal says it had only a 7 year warranty.  My husband removed the living quarters in the gooseneck.  Almost every weld is bad in the gooseneck.  Most of them were only spot welded on the interior surface, not welded on all sides of the verticle beams to the upper and lower beam. 

Manufacturer (Sooner's warranty person) has said they will cover the materials depending on my attitude. I have sent him pics of the welds with no response and asked them to cover more than just the material because of the poor workmanship.

The sales guys at the dealer that carries Sooner pretty much run from us.  We are just trying to figure out what we need to do, we have been nice to all the reps, with the exception of the warranty guy for various reasons. 

A dealer of Sooner's current living quarter company (Sierra) at Congress blamed the failure on the then living quarter company (Harmar) stating they do not properly support the slides they install.  There is no external problem anywhere near the slide.  His suggestions were (in this order) 1) do away with the slide 2) support the slide from underneath with additional i-beam (this was done by Harmar at initial installation)

I spoke to a Harmar owner who gave me some addional information on what he thought we should do.  1/8 inch aluminum welded on the inside of the gooseneck for stability.  There is a piece welded on the very front inside of the gooseneck that is original.  The outside of this area is the only place in the gooseneck there are not rivets popped from the outside.  He suggested on getting a professional aluminum welder.

It's been a tough expensive lesson.  I would have never dreamed a 2006 Trailer would not be road worthy in 2013, but the way it sits, we dodged a bullet for sure.  I sure wish we would have kept our previous trailer, a Cato Classic with living quarters but no slide.  We had the living quarters out of the gooseneck of this trailer becuase we had a leak due to failed caulking.  The welds in our 1998 Cato were intact and had been done extremely nicely in comparison to our Sooner.

When buying a living quarter trailer, I would recommend seeing the trailer before the livingquarters is put in.  I hate the thought of so many people spending major money on a trailer and ending up with such a mess.  It's enought to make me sick.

Any additional experiences or constructive advice are still appreciated. 

Am I to understand that Sooner did not install the slide? While the welding you describe may not be pretty, the fact that after the manufacturer was completed with the trailer, someone else cut a great big hole in the side of it seems to be rather important to me. Or maybe I'm missing something here.

I do know that the skin on a trailer is structurally important. And if it goes "missing", then something else has to take its place. You said there was a beam underneath, but just maybe in hindsight that wasn't enough.

You are correct, Sooner did not install the slide.  The welding has nothing to do with pretty or not pretty, it has to do with the fact that it was not completely welded.  I have seen trailer welds and the way ours was "welded" was pretty shotty.  The skin on a trailer is not "structurally important" but the welds certainly are. 

I spoke to the installer of the slide.  The beam was placed for stability.  There are no indications of sag or structural problems in the main part of the trailer, only the gooseneck. 

The way I understand it, slides are often added by the living quarters folks.  This apparently voids the stuctural warranty from the manufacturer but ours is out of warrantly anyway.  Apparently (according to one of my many sources) the people working in the industry know these things but do not give this info to the consumer all of the time.  

I don't really care who did what when and who was wrong at this point.  We are trying to figure out how to fix our problem and keep our horses safe. We are not rich people.  We invested in something we thought was a worth while investment and it turns out the joke is on us.  We now have a 50,000 hunk of aluminum that is only good as a yard ornament. That does not make us happy consumers.  That being said, I would not buy another horse trailer of this brand (Sooner or any trailer from Universal which includes Exiss, Sooner, Featherlite), or of this interior (Harmar - but at least they were pleasant when I spoke to them and willing to continue to be helpful), or from the original dealer who sold the trailer to the original owner (Coughlin), or from the dealer I purchased this from (Durham Trailers). As I said before, the finger pointing had already begun.     

I don't really care who did what when and who was wrong at this point.  We are trying to figure out how to fix our problem and keep our horses safe. We are not rich people.  We invested in something we thought was a worth while investment and it turns out the joke is on us.  We now have a 50,000 hunk of aluminum that is only good as a yard ornament. That does not make us happy consumers.  That being said, I would not buy another horse trailer of this brand (Sooner or any trailer from Universal which includes Exiss, Sooner, Featherlite), or of this interior (Harmar - but at least they were pleasant when I spoke to them and willing to continue to be helpful), or from the original dealer who sold the trailer to the original owner (Coughlin), or from the dealer I purchased this from (Durham Trailers). As I said before, the finger pointing had already begun.     

And let me clarify I am describing what I see and what we think the failure stems from.  Sooner has agreed to provide materials, of course if they see this post they may change their mind.  I understand you buy a used trailer as is and would fully expect and be accepting of a mechanical failure of some sort.  Warranties really are for peace of mind.  When you buy a car with a 36,000 mile warrantly, you don't expect to only get 36,000 miles out of it.  When you buy a trailer (new or used) with a 7-10 year warranty, you expect to get much more than 7-10 years use out of the item.  My first trailer was a 1982 Lite line, aluminum over steel, sold it 6 years ago and it was still a SOLID and SAFE trailer.  My second trailer was the 1998 Cato Classic which we sold last year to get this one.  It too, was a SOLID and SAFE trailer.  Our current trailer is neither SOLID or SAFE.  That, along with the responses we have got from the other parties,  makes me sad, mad, aggravated and extremely distrusting of the horse trailer industry.