A travel trailer’s safety chains are the last thing between it and the road if the hitch lets go, and on 148 Grand Design Imagine trailers the chains were rated for less than the trailer weighs. NHTSA campaign 26V667000 covers 2026 and 2027 Imagine 25DBE trailers built between July 21, 2025 and July 22, 2026. Grand Design’s filing says the cause was a weight rating that moved up while the chain specification stayed where it was.
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The chain is a backup, and that is the point of the defect. If the primary hitch connection fails on a trailer fitted with underrated chains, the filing says, the chains may not retain the trailer, which raises the risk of a crash. The filing identifies no warning to the owner before the condition would matter, and it lists no crash, injury or death. The exposure exists only in the scenario the chains are there for, a primary coupling that comes apart on the road, which is also why the defect could sit unnoticed in a trailer that tows normally every time.
A weight rating raised from 7,593 to 7,995 pounds
The mechanism in Grand Design’s Part 573 safety recall report is a paperwork-to-hardware gap. The gross vehicle weight rating, the maximum loaded weight the manufacturer certifies, was increased from 7,593 pounds to 7,995 pounds, with the change dated July 15, 2026. The frame for the 25DBE floorplan, part number 20102610, came from Norco Industries of Elkhart, Indiana, a tier-one supplier, and it kept the original safety chain specification. Trailers with a rating below 7,600 pounds are excluded from the recall.
The filing does not state the load rating of the chains themselves, only that it is below the trailer’s rating, so the size of the shortfall is not public in the document. All 148 trailers are counted as affected, and the company estimates that 100 percent of them carry the underrated chains. The NHTSA campaign record lists the make as Grand Design, the model as Imagine, and model years 2026 and 2027 as the two groups.
Found on a show-prep unit, not by an owner
No customer discovered this. According to the chronology, a technician noticed the problem on September 15, 2026 during maintenance on a unit being prepared for a show, and the frame supplier was notified that same day. The issue reached Grand Design’s product safety and compliance group on September 19, when an investigation opened; the company found no warranty claims and no customer contacts. On September 29 the Brand Action Committee referred it to the Product Safety Committee, which determined on October 2 that a safety-related defect existed and directed a recall.
That timeline runs 17 days from discovery to a recall decision, and the report went to NHTSA on October 9. The agency’s campaign record shows it received the filing on that date, which supersedes the October 5 date that appeared in an earlier summary of the entry. The dataset query covering reports received October 8 through October 15, which lists campaign 26V667000 at 148 trailers, is available through the agency’s open recall data, where the entry reads that the chains are underrated for the gross vehicle weight rating.
Replacement chains now, a corrected frame later
The remedy is a straight replacement. Dealers will swap the safety chains for chains rated at or above the trailer’s gross vehicle weight rating, at no cost to the owner. Grand Design customer service can be reached at 1-574-825-9679 with the company’s recall number, 910069. The filing says the interim owner notice is not planned, so owners will hear first through the recall letters, which the campaign record says are expected to be mailed on November 19, 2026, with the report giving a mailing window of November 19 to 25.
Production is a separate matter. Norco will implement a corrected frame specification at the next scheduled 25DBE production run, though the report gives no date for that run. The dealer notification dates in the filing are also internally inconsistent, listing October 19 to 23, 2026 while the dealer field reads that there are no dealers, and the report does not give a date on which owners can search a VIN. Owners can check a specific trailer through NHTSA’s recall page for 26V667.
The same week, a different Grand Design fix
Grand Design filed a second, unrelated campaign the same day. Campaign 26V668000 covers 53 model-year 2027 Transcend trailers whose tire information label may list the wrong tire size and cold inflation pressure, which would put the trailers out of compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 110 on tire selection and rims. The agency’s record says the wrong label can lead an owner to fit the wrong replacement tire or run the tires underinflated, and Grand Design’s remedy is to replace the labels free of charge.
The two defects have nothing in common mechanically, since one is a hardware rating and the other a printed label, and the Imagine problem was not tied to the Transcend by any document. They share a manufacturer, a filing date and a notification date: letters for both are expected on November 19, 2026. The Transcend recall covers only the 2027 model year, while the Imagine campaign covers 2026 and 2027, and each carries its own recall number, 910070 for the Transcend label and 910069 for the Imagine chains.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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