UPDATE--
We left San Antonio June 6th in our new class C Forest River Forester with a new 6 x 10 cargo trailer in tow. I'd outfitted the trailer with a combo Splendide W/D, with my two Honda scooters secured. Our destination was Pownal, VT where we'd reserved a home via Air B&B from July 1 to October 31. An hour into the trip while cruising in pouring rain on I-35 near Waco, with trucks on my left and cars on my right, I saw up ahead in my lane what looked like remnants from a diesel truck tire. Unable to avoid the tire, one front leveler was taken off, now dragging on pavement, tethered by the hydraulic hose attached. The other front leveler hardware was badly bent. Luckily I took an exit into a Buccee's where I was able to remove the dragging leveler from the hose and secure the hose to the frame. When I left I and the parking lot had a good amount of hydraulic fluid.
That day our destination was Frisco, TX, a Dallas suburb. After about another hour on the road, the MB Sprinter engine lost all power. 42 MPH was all I could do on the freeway. So I pulled over, cut the engine and restarted it and the power issue was resolved but only for thirty or so minutes when it happened again, this time with the check engine light coming on. Again I stopped, cut the ignition and was okay once again for about fifteen minutes. This went on until we reached our stop in Frisco, which was my nephew's home. He luckily has full hook ups in his driveway.
The next day we found an RV repair shop who removed the other leveler and hardware. They said it would be best to take care of the engine issue at an MB dealer since it was under factory warranty. I called Lippert who said leveler parts would take a week to arrive. We could not wait that long so decided to continue our trip without levelers. Then, we noticed that each morning, we had a small water puddle on the bathroom floor. Also, the paper thin laminate on the cabinet doors was peeling away. And finally, since we'd downsized from our 2017 Newmar Ventana to a 24' class C, we realized the space was just too limited. So, at our next stop in OKC, we decided to trade in the Forester. Since we were going to Nashville to stay for a few days at my ex-sister-in-law's home, my wife decided we'd drop her off and I would continue on the next day, to make a deal on a 2022 Tiffin Allegro RED 340 38LL coach advertised with 2100 miles we found online located at Optimum RV in Ocala, FL. Our reasoning to downsize was that she could drive the class C since they drive like a car, so no need to tow a vehicle.
So the next morning at 5AM, I took off from Nashville for Ocala, a ten hour drive at best. I stopped just a few miles into Florida off I-75 for the night about an hour from the dealer.
My appointment was made for 1:30. The RED looked new and was being made ready. As I waited, the finance guy found me and he tried to sell me an 8-year "bumper to bumper" warranty with no deductible for $23,000. We almost said yes but said no since it had so few miles and we weren't planning to keep it that long.
Finally at 5:30 pm, my low mileage 2022 RED was ready. It was still nearly 100 degrees as I moved all our stuff from the C to the A. When I finished, I noticed the fuel level was reading slightly above empty. We'd read that every unit Optimum RV sold came with a full tank so I asked and they said that was only on new units.
So off I went to fill up. While at the station, and before I'd gotten out of the rig, I noticed the odometer showed 22,372 miles. What! It was now after 6pm and I was pretty tired but I decided to return to the dealer and make them give me that $23K warranty.
Their first offer after apologizing for their unintentional error was $5000 off the price and a $3000 discount off the 8-year warranty. That was not happening. By now I was getting more angry by the minute and so I called by wife. She was livid and said to cancel the entire transaction, to process our refund and bring our Forester back.
That finally got their attention so they offered to give us that same warranty for 5-years, a $14,000 value. I accepted and was finally on my way back to Nashville.
On the first night at the same RV park in FL, I noticed the bedroom slide was not working, and the large front driver side slide was barely functional, the Truma gas water heater was not working and also the generator was broken.
My wife was not happy but we decided to get to the rented VT home and from there, take it to Lakeview RV dealership in Windsor Locks, CT, about 80-miles from where we were staying. They were an authorized Truma dealer and told us they could fix the other issues too. Luckily, my brother who lives in San Antonio, TX where I live was flying to Albany in July to visit us and he'd rented a car. He followed me to the dealer and brought me back to VT.
A month later, when the warranty work was completed, other friends who'd flown up, took me to CT to pick up the repaired coach. I paid zero and was on my way back to VT.
When we return home next month, I have an appointment at Ironhorse RV in San Antonio because the big slide repair was not completed due to Lakeview not being able to locate a spring and I needed to take advantage of my free ride to retrieve the rig. And, the entry Spyder switch does not work and neither does the master bath Fantastic fan.
All in all, we like the floorplan of the model although it's not as fancy as our Ventana but is 10K pounds lighter which makes the Cummins 340 more nibble than the Ventana 360 was. And, I get right at 10-MPG.
The adventures continue.
Laurent and Candis Perron
