Early this month, while off-roading my 1991 Jeep Wrangler YJ at Rowher Flats off-road course just north of Los Angeles, I stumbled upon a $1 Million RV called the 27North Ascender. It was in rough shape. The driveshaft was twisted up like a Twizzler, the winch line was wrapped around the driver’s side mirror, and the camper unit was leaning hard to one side. It seemed to me that the primary problem had to do with too much skinny pedal, too much weight, and too steep of a grade, though the company’s CEO claimed a significant cause of the failure was a defective wheel bearing from Ford. I was skeptical of the claim, and the article resulted in a bit of drama, with the CEO becoming a bit upset with our publication. Now we have videos from YouTube channels Donut Media and Matt’s Off-Road Recovery showing what happened to the over-eight-ton, seven-figure off-road RV.
Let’s recap with pictures. Here’s the vehicle in question:
I wrote a simple blog about what I saw, including this driveshaft failure that appeared to be the main cause of the vehicle’s lack of mobility:
To learn a bit more about the vehicle and what happened, I reached out the 27North. Its CEO, Pavel “Paul” Bosovik, told me that a significant cause of the vehicle’s failure was defective wheel bearings from Ford. Here’s a quote from my previous article:
As for what happened, Paul told me this: “Bearing seized up. That pressure damaged the driveshaft and twisted it. Now Ford is getting it towed back… to their facilities to rebuild the rear axle.”
Paul claims that a failed rear wheel bearing — a part that Ford has allegedly recalled (I haven’t been able to find the recall notice) — caused additional strain on the drivetrain, leading to the factory driveshaft twisting up like a pretzel. “It all came back to defective bearing and Ford’s been covering everything under warranty,” Bosovik told me over the phone.
Bosovik also told me that others in the off-road RV space — including EarthRoamer — have had similar bearing failures as well. In addition, Bosovik said that his team was transitioning from 2022 to newer Ford F-550 chassis, saying the newer models will no longer have these bearing issues. For his part, when asked about bearing failures, EarthRoamer’s CEO Scot Allen told me that his company has had no issues with 2020 and newer F-550 bearings. Allen suggested that a bearing problem on a 2022 chassis — like the one that the Ascender is built on — could be due to an overloaded rear axle.
It wasn’t really a big deal and not the main point of the story, but I was skeptical that a wheel bearing was relevant to this failure at all. The problem appeared to be a driveshaft being overloaded by a heavy machine driving on a rather difficult off-road trail. Here’s what I wrote:
I’m a bit skeptical about this for a number of reasons. First off, who off-roads a truck with a failed wheel bearing? Bosovik claims his team “hired one of the best drivers [they] could find,” so that seems a bit odd. Or did the wheel bearing catastrophically fail off-road? That seems unlikely to me.
[…]
We’ll find out from the media outlet that took this thing off-road how a wheel bearing seizure factored into this whole thing, why they took the truck off-road in the first place with a bad wheel bearing, or if this was just a case of too much weight plus too much pedal equals too much torsional strain on a stock driveshaft.
Well, we now have a bit more information now thanks to Donut Media, the aforementioned unnamed media outlet responsible for the vehicle’s failure. Have a watch:
The video begins with a discussion of the Ascender’s on-road driving experience. “This feels like you’re riding an elephant. Really heavy, steering is like kind of a suggestion,” one of the hosts says. “There’s just so much mass so high that it just pulls you wherever it wants to go,” his co-host chirps before the driver chimes back in: “And when you go over dips it bounces for about a minute in a half.”
Donut tries taking the RV through a McDonald’s drive-through, but the truck is too tall. Then the team goes off-road, and notices the camper section of the truck leaning back and forth on a mild dirt trail. “A lot of flexin’ going on,” one host says.
The team then shows the rather nice interior and power-ejecting stairs, and also notes the Ascender’s decent parking lot maneuverability. There’s a stocked kitchen and a slick screen that turns on various functions. There were apparently some issues getting the stove to work, but Donut figured it out and used it to cook a nice salmon and veggie dinner. As for sleeping, a Donut host says the Ascender is “Better than sleeping on the ground for sure,” and one applauds the fact that he didn’t have to alight from the vehicle to urinate, and that there was no packing needed to continue on the trail in the morning.
Then the video shows the harder off-roading. “This truck is definitely a little bit overwhelming,” a host says after the rather tall vehicle hits some trees. One host compliments the vehicle’s climbing ability, and another calls the machine “sketchy.”
The team notes the relative lack of weight up front, and that makes it seem like “[the Ascender] could roll over.” Ultimately the truck makes a rather steep climb — which a Donut host calls “impressive.” I agree that that grade is rather difficult.
After Donut notes the truck’s lack of dual locking differentials, one host, Justin, decides to get behind the wheel and try the climb. As shown in the screenshot above, it does not go well. The vehicle appears to hop a bit, and then the driveshaft fails, leaving the vehicle immobile right in the middle of the sketchy hillclimb. Donut tries backing and then towing the vehicle out, but the Ascender is too heavy for their tow rigs.
Donut reaches out to Matt’s Off-Road Recovery YouTube channel. Here’s what that team did to get the Ascender unstuck:
According to Matt, “the guy who owns the vehicle” (that should be 27North itself) apparently tried recovering the truck, but ultimately Donut Media asked for Matt’s help.
As you can see in the video, Matt’s solution to recover the machine was to replace the driveshaft. And not just swap it out, but build a new driveshaft from scratch. Very impressive!
Matt’s team brought along a bunch of metal tubes of various sizes, as they weren’t sure of the exact diameter of the Ascender’s driveshaft. The team sliced off the ends of the stock driveshaft so that they could weld those ends onto a pipe and bolt the whole thing up to the transfer case and rear section of the driveshaft (the vehicle’s rear driveshaft has two sections; the front section is the one that twisted.)
Matt’s team then cut the pipe to the appropriate length (after measuring the distance between the rear pillow bearing and the transfer case yoke) and welded on the ends from the stock driveshaft:
After some iteration, the team seems to have done a great job getting the ends on there nice and square:
It’s obviously not a permanent solution, in part because it’s not balanced, but honestly — the team seems to have done an amazing job. For them to drive to California, assess the situation, remove the failed driveshaft section, and build and install a new one within just a few hours — that’s just legit.
This video shows a recovery that involved solely a driveshaft replacement; there’s no mention of a bad wheel bearing. As a courtesy, I reached out to 27North. Bosovik’s response made it clear that he was rather upset with my coverage and refused to provide a comment — presumably in large because I was skeptical about his wheel bearing failure claim.
Now, I’ve been off-roading for most of my life, I have an engineering background, and I’ve seen driveshaft failures before; never have I seen one caused by a wheel bearing failure. Typically wheel bearing failures happen over a long duration. Why would one drive a vehicle off-road with an already-failing wheel bearing? A wheel bearing could theoretically seize up, but this would probably happen at very high wheel speeds, and again, there would almost certainly be signs beforehand. Plus, I also was unable to find a recall for a 2022 F-550 (which is what underpins the Ascender), and when I asked EarthRoamer, its CEO said it had no issues with 2020+ F-550s (15 issues with pre-2020s). It just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Anyway, this little bit of drama is all for naught, really, because the trail was difficult. It’s not like this truck snapped its driveshaft on a newbie trail; that grade is no joke. It failed during the prototype stage, and that’s OK. It happens.
Anyway, Bosovik eventually did provide a comment to The Autopian’s publisher Matt Hardigree, who had messaged him after watching the two videos. Bosovik says that the bearing issue actually happened before the off-road trip, and that this could have caused the driveshaft to weaken. Again, I remain very skeptical that a bearing was the culprit here, but here’s Bosovik’s comment:
We had an issue with a Ford damaged part three weeks prior to the trip, one that Ford covered under warranty, and believed that could have resulted in extra stress on the driveshaft. We are still investigating the issues.
Bosovik further added:
27North Inc., a leading innovator in expedition vehicles, is thrilled to announce the triumphant journey of our 27North prototype truck, which became the first official Class C expedition truck to conquer the formidable 30-degree slopes of California. We take immense pride in this accomplishment as it signifies a significant milestone in our mission to engineer robust and versatile vehicles for outdoor enthusiasts and adventurers.During this groundbreaking expedition, our team gained invaluable insights that will shape the future development of the 27North model. As a result, we have committed to enhancing the vehicle’s performance and efficiency. This includes reducing the weight from the current 18,000lbs loaded to 15,000lbs, ensuring improved agility and maneuverability on rugged terrains. Additionally, we will be upgrading the driveshaft to expedition version and partnering with a leading industry suspension company to double the rear axle’s capabilities. Furthermore, we are excited to announce our collaboration with Liquid Spring, as we transition from an air suspension to a liquid spring suspension system, providing unparalleled stability and ride comfort.In our relentless pursuit of excellence, we are already gearing up for the next round of testing. The upgraded prototype will undergo rigorous evaluation in the fall of 2023, where we expect it to surpass expectations and further cement its status as the epitome of class-leading expedition vehicles. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to push the boundaries of innovation in the world of outdoor exploration.
Asked if he was surprised by the tone of the video, Bosovik added “[W]e gave them our prototype and said ‘break it so we know what we need to do better!'”
@zachary_diehl There’s no way a $1M truck should do this #27north #ascender #offroadtiktok #overlanding #cartok #campertour
In my opinion, the primary issues that caused the driveshaft failure were these five: 1. Lots of weight. 2. A steep grade. 3. An obviously-not-strong-enough shaft for this application/these conditions 4. The line chosen by the driver and the driver’s limited experience piloting that vehicle and 5. An apparent lack of locking differentials (you can see some front axle wheelspin in the clip above).
That last point is key. In my experience off-roading, axle and driveshaft failure is almost always a product of a wheel spinning up due to lack of traction and then quickly hitting the ground. This instantaneous traction creates a shock load that tends to snap shafts. Including lockers in the Ascender would almost certainly make failures like this less frequent, as lockers would limit wheelspin. For $1 Million, these should be standard anyway, in my opinion.
“This is heavy heavy heavy. You can just feel it,” Matt from Matt’s Off Road Recovery says while driving the Ascender after fixing its driveshaft. “So this rig is a lot of things…I’m not gonna get into what it is. But I’m gonna get into what it isn’t. It isn’t made for this. This is a very, very steep hill,” he says.
“This is a very very heavy rig,” he continues. “I understand why it twisted driveshafts. It’s super heavy. And really really steep hills — any bouncing, one bounce, and BOOM it’s done. Ask me how I know.” He later says: “It just feels like the wrong rig to be here in.”
So anyway, moderate reporting drama aside: impressive work by Matt and his team getting this heavy beast off that steep trail. And you know what, good on 27North for putting their truck through such a grueling test and planning to use it to make improvements.
When the video for MORR popped up in my feed and featured Justin from Donut, it all made sense. I’ll have to give Donut a click as well to find out how it ended up there in the first place.
At least the builder is willing to learn. Somewhat. It seems that figuring out what’s a OEM chassis builder issue and what’s an upfitter issue gets murky sometimes. Still, their first inclination to throw Ford under the bus rather than admit that stuff happens wasn’t great.
Basically these guys are lucky they were not testing this companies submersible? Too much hubris. Overbuild makes it overweight and i see no attempt of proper weight distribution. As mentioned by the experts.
As a side note, anyone see the movie Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy? This truck looks like the mercenary bugs at the end.
Shoulda brought the other Ascender.
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2003-Isuzu-Ascender-SUV.jpg
Thanks for the follow-up.
The whole concept is madness.
Sure the new one is going to be down to only 7 1/2 tons, but that’s still military crazy and I don’t think they’d have done it this way.
Hey. Yeah. I held my tongue somewhat but: yeah, no wonder they’re lying about a wheel bearing recall. (There is one. For an entirely different set of model years.)
Not only does that mean it’s over the rear axle weight limit, that’s over the maximum chassis GVWR. ‘Bouncing’ is also a telltale, to say nothing of it riding on the bump stops with a driveshaft failure.
Per 27North, the Ascender 30A is an F550 203″ WB.
Per Ford, DRW F550 4×4 CrewCab 203.4″ has an absolute maximum 11,900 payload which requires the Payload Plus 19.5k GVWR axle and suspension. Otherwise your GVWR is 18,000lbs or less. And that is absolutely not the 19,500lbs suspension.
“Yeah, well how could you possibly know that? You’re just a hater!” I’m also a person who has eyeballs. And buddy, those are fuckin’ airbags on the back axle. The Payload Plus Upgrade Package (4.88 gears, upgraded rear axle, required for 19,5000lbs GCWR) ain’t fuckin’ airbags.
THIS is a 19,500lbs GVWR rear axle and suspension on an F550 203″ WB.
LEAFS. If you don’t have 4.88’s on a leaf spring axle, your GVWR is 17,500.
Which means that, in fact, they are over maximum payload and over maximum GVWR. See page 6; DRW F550 4×4, 203.4″ wheelbase, 84″ cab-to-axle, without 19,500GVWR package. Which requires the 4.88 gears. Which requires limited slip in the 6.7L PowerStroke. If it’s an open rear gear? It’s the 4.10, 17,500GVWR package.
Came for the rootwyrm commentary, left satisfied.
Dude, at this point no one questions how you could possibly know this stuff. It’s very apparent that you just know A LOT and work in the industry. Your delivery could come across as somewhat harsh if it weren’t for the fact that you just know your stuff.
Here’s the thing though: whether or not I know my stuff? This is a very serious thing. Breakdowns can happen even to the best built vehicles. But exceeding the GVWR or rear axle weight has extremely significant safety implications. Not just premature failure of wheel bearings or getting stranded.
If Huibert were to throw this out off-handed without the receipts? One, I’d probably yell at him a lot. Two, if you don’t have actual reasonable proof or present sound reasoning, it could be viewed by a court a nothing more than slander. So I’m definitely not going to make the argument that this truck is over it’s GVWR without actual evidence.
And I could still be wrong. I can only prove that the airbags are not factory for the Payload Plus package. Ford might have some unlisted special order package for the 4.88 axle without the LSD.
My guess is no professional engineer signed any of the design.
Plus, how do go over 12k of payload for a camper? You can get 27′ long trailer that weighs less.
they didn’t use enough structural cardboard.
Donut Media thrashing on and breaking a vehicle?! I’m shocked! Well…not that shocked.
To be fair, they were asked to do just that.
Letterkenny To Be Fair GIFfrom Letterkenny GIFs
And they actually owned up to it, which is way, way more than certain other media outlets do. I gotta respect that. They were honest about the driver’s experience level and even gave Autopian’s coverage a shout-out. I can’t hate on anything they did there.
Given that this rig seems squarely aimed at rich goofs overlanding for the ‘gram, putting the least experienced off-roader on the team behind the wheel sounds like the perfect test, too.
“Um, yeah, we uh asked them to break it. Totally what we planned. So yay! Look at how successful we are!”
Yep, 100% sure that was the request going in….
The first thing I looked for once they installed the temporary driveshaft was a locked up rear wheel due to said bad wheel bearing. I did not see one.
I watch shock loading happen a lot on the 4WD 24/7 show, normally it breaks the CV joints/axles and they can replace them on the track. Known issues with such heavy vehicles especially if you bounce them over rocks. Those must be some strong axles to send that kind of pressure to the driveshaft for that result.
I bounced my 78 F-150 over some rocks at Tellico, NC; result was an exploded 9″ rear end (nasty one, blew chunks off the ring gear and broke both bearing caps.) Didn’t help that I was there during a Toyota weekend, so about 20 Toyoters were watching me when it happened. I was able to drive out on my front axle.
Luckily it was a 9″, so I was able to source the diff locally and install it the next day without having to pull the entire rear end out.
Jesse somehow manages to not break axles while full sending it every episode.
Seems to me that across the board with all types of vehicles (except sport motorcycles) vehicle weights have been climbing for years. Builders constantly add more stuff. That 9 ton off road vehicle is really a joke. Certainly a poor answer to a question no sane person is asking.
we need another Colin Chapman or two in our industry.
Thank God Gordon Murray is out there doing the good work. Too bad his cars are out of my price range.
To just about every claim Mr. Bosovik makes, I say “Bullshevik!”
David,
As the owner/driver of my namesake who drives it on offroad trails and occasionally goes a bit too far, this follow-up analysis is an awesome cautionary tale. Thank you!
Thanks for the explanation of the failure mode. As someone whose wheels are always on the ground, I had never pictured the effect of bouncing and landing on a drivetrain, and watching that rig lift the front wheels when headed uphill is now even more alarming than when I first saw it.
In rally we see similar failures when a car jumps and then lands at full throttle. All that weight coming down on spinning wheels which go from zero grip to all grip…the energy has to go somewhere and that’s into the drivetrain. We had a guy grenade his transmission in this exact case. It’s one way to find the weak point in a build.
(FWD Ford Fiesta, for those following along at home).
Yep, I see this regularly with my 10 lb RC monster truck. The wheels slamming into the ground moving however fast they’re moving puts a lot of load into the axles and driveshaft. It’s probably why the gears are proportionally giant and frankly overbuilt to put up with that load over and over again. It’s the nylon bulkheads that break.
I lost a few stock driveshafts drag racing my old Nova until we involved a specialist. They’d always seem to break at the top half of the track. Thank goodness for NHRA driveshaft loops. It is still amazing the amount of damage that can happen at speed. On my autocross Renault 5 it used to shear the splines into the wheel hub until magic parts showed up from France.
Way back when I was a co-driver in a Datsun 510 rally car that lost a half shaft ’cause of yumps. You are right about finding the weakest link, too bad it just exposes the next one.
Thanks for the warning since these days a Ford Fiesta is my four wheeled personal transport, I’ll try not to go for big air over the neighborhood railway tracks. (-;
Go big, and wait until impact before you get back on the throttle. 😉 Much easier said than done though. Yet another reason I have so much respect for the skilled rally drivers/co-drivers.
Co-drove a 510, that sounds incredible! To race one of those now you’d likely have to buy an old factory in Japan just to source parts.
The 510 was in 1975 there wasn’t much of the original car other than the shell. It was a couple of young guys having fun in what then was the Ontario Pro Rally Series and the occasional higher tier event. I came into it by after the original co-driver didn’t work out after the first event in the series. I had driven and navigated for club rallies was asked and said yes. We did rather well because the driver was a genius and I didn’t scream or cry.
That season was the end of it for both of us, despite making it to the awards banquet and some interesting offers, both of us ended going back to school and my only occasional involvement with rallying was in a service van for Bjorn Anderson’s Toyota.
Some of my good early motorsports memories.
I’m pumped to see this update. It’s funny that they got salty when you pointed out that wheel bearings don’t smoke driveshafts, but overloading does.
Probably part of the reason there aren’t lockers is for fear of axle shaft issues. Lockers can up to double the torque borne by each axle shaft, and when it’s already really borderline heavy……. I think the solution is just be cautious about where you take it.
Something of this size and weight kind of just needs military axles. You know, the only ones around that are designed for actually serious offroading in seriously heavy vehicles.
When you are paying Dr. Evil level of $$$ for an off-road truck, it should at least have Rockwells under it.
Saw the videos pop up and IMMEDIATELY came here. This is why I love this place (and Rowher)
Hey, take it out and see if you can break it. You broke it? It must be Ford’s fault
(oh what the hell, I’ll repeat my joke on Slack here…)
They just need to change the name to Didn’t Quite Ascend ‘Er.
ascender? I hardly know ‘er!
I had watched both videos earlier, and Matt’s “Heavy heavy heavy” seemed to be a diplomatic way of saying it’s a huge, top heavy, wallowing pig.
ok well “Pavel” is one of a new breed of bullshitters who get very testy when they are called out. They just CAN”T BELIEVE you’re being such an asshole for not going along with their nonsense. “How dare you imply that I’m obviously lying!”
You idiots just don’t understand his awesome vision.
Hey, at least he’s not making submarines.
Too soon?
Unless the driveshaft was made with eggs, I think you meant “yoke”.
Matt’s team then cut the pipe to the appropriate length (after measuring the distance between the rear pillow bearing and the transfer case yolk) and welded on the ends from the stock driveshaft:
It does look scrambled.
Between watching Matt’s Off Road and Project Binky videos, I have learned there is nothing you can’t fab with a side grinder sporting a cut-off wheel and a welder. Maybe throw a [claw] hammer in there too! 😉
Nice article David. I appreciate the challenge of diplomatically covering the competing issues. You handled it very professionally.
That was my thought as well. The Donut video showed the team on the highway en route to the off-road area, and there was no telltale wheel bearing noise. Zach Jobe (an actual mechanic) probably would have noticed it.
The story about how the driveshaft failed due to a wheel bearing issue is not plausible. If we put the pieces together, that guy’s position seems to be that the bearing seized, the driveshaft twisted, and then somehow the bearing became unseized before the repaired driveshaft was installed, allowing the vehicle to be driven.
Maybe it was Schrödinger’s wheel bearing: seized and unseized at the same time. 😐
Sounds like the CEO wasn’t actually aware of the situation on the ground, gave a statement based on his incorrect understanding of what happened, and was too quick to blame Ford for a failure he could have easily owned.
I have seen dozens of tapered roller bearing failures, and never one single bearing that seized. I’ve seen failures where the rollers were broken in pieces and some where the roller O.D. was a fraction of the original size. Never one seized up.
My understanding is that the vehicle didn’t have locking diffs?
If a wheel were to suddenly seize, power would simply be diverted to the other wheel, so no driveshaft failure.
The CEO is currently scrambling to do damage control after the widely viewed Donut review which was obviously a miserable failure.
This kind of press could spell doom for such a tiny company.
Seems like this is a SlackTales (ooh-OOH-ooh) candidate. I’ll bet there was a lot of behind-the-scenes debate about tone and exactly what and how much to publish/reprint!
…Which, on second thought, is exactly what would preclude your revealing it, even behind the wall. Nevermind, I’ll go read about libel, bridge-burning, well-poisoning, and feedhand-biting instead.
Thanks, now I have Duck-Tales stuck in my head
Maybe the right tire pressure was 1.5psi off of the left?
Damn those analogue gauges.
Pants on fire for sure. I knew that lack of lockers precluded such a BS explanation.
“Sir I am having much difficulty believing you… given you are wearing pants which are currently on fire”