RV Dealers Upset Over 'Pathetic Quality' of Current RVs

[jmltech]

Youtube video by lawyer Steve Lehto on the current state of RV quality.

 

[MapNerd]

As usual, he ain’t wrong.

 

[FL-JOE]

As with any new RV my current fiver has had a few "issues". But because of Covid it has been more difficult dealing with them.

First of all, since my selling dealer was in Texas and we weren't traveling close to TX in 2021 I was trying to locate a Heartland dealer to address a couple minor warranty issues. No go. Two of them had the same answer, understaffed.....but if I wanted to just drop it off they would try to get to it at some point. Not what a full time RVer needs to hear. The factory was zero help.

So I was forced to be a unpaid Heartland warranty repair tech this year. Two issues I repaired were the direct result of Heartland having untrained/unskilled replacement people on the assembly line during 2020.

My residential frig had the water line hooked up straight to the ice maker, bypassing the pump. Any 12 year old shop student could see this was wrong.

The second issue was when an untrained/unskilled assembly line worker installed my stove top he/she ran the propane flex line against the sharp edge of the oven mounted below. This created a nice hole which caused propane to leak into our kitchen last week. The first time we smelled the "strange" smell the DW lit a candle to cover the odor temporarily! We are so very lucky the place didn't explode! I now have replaced the leaking line and routed it correctly.

Two days ago I emailed Heartland Corporate advising them of the above. You would think with a safety issue such as this someone would have gotten back to me immediately. Haven't heard a word from them.

My conclusion is not only has Covid reduced the already poor quality of RVs being built, but with prices sky high the top dogs could care less about building junk and are only thinking about Covid as an opportunity to make more money faster.

 

["EZ"]

Sorry to hear about the non-response Joe. Glad you guys didn't blow up too!

 

[91CavGT]

I picked up a new Coachman Chaparral 360IBL almost a month ago for full timing. Quickly found the 12v fridge was not even plugged in, the coax cables were all plugged in the wrong places, and the A/C duct sealing was so horribly done that there was virtually no air flow out of most of the vents. Very minor things so far, but when you pay money for ANYTHING, there is an expectation that everything will work the way it is supposed to.

 

[Old Bubblehead]

Ultimately the market will correct itself. Consumers will either keep buying substandard product, or stop. If they stop and profit drips, the manufactures will have to deal with it.

I'm not an advocate for looking for government intervention to help, as I have yet to see that manifest in a sustainable positive fashion.

In the last two years I have had multiple conversations with vendors and manufactures of many different products when I felt the CV19 impacts excuse was being used to mask poor customer service. An informed and reasonable consumer is a more powerful foe than an uninformed/ unreasonable one, so I tried to remain focused on facts/ agreements/ contracts etc. Rather than letting my emotional side drive the conversations.

With our coach, I am partially complicit in facilitating less than optimal performance. I let time constraints drive me to push the manufacture to expedite delivery, even though the objective data showed CV19 impacts were impacting construction and fit out. As all pain avoiding creatures do, the factory responded to my frequent and urgent communications to deliver what I was asking for. I didn't query about what QA systems were compromised, or if staffing constraints were delivering higher defect rates. I lost my objectivity, elevated the level of pain, and "ASSUMED" normal build quality.

Does our coach have a higher than normal defect rate? Can't answer that as I don't have pre CV experience with this manufacture. Do we have some issues? Yes. Have they stopped us from using the coach? No. Is it aggravating? Yes, but anger is focused on myself as much as them.

 

[RKins]

As with any new RV my current fiver has had a few "issues". But because of Covid it has been more difficult dealing with them.

First of all, since my selling dealer was in Texas and we weren't traveling close to TX in 2021 I was trying to locate a Heartland dealer to address a couple minor warranty issues. No go. Two of them had the same answer, understaffed.....but if I wanted to just drop it off they would try to get to it at some point. Not what a full time RVer needs to hear. The factory was zero help.

So I was forced to be a unpaid Heartland warranty repair tech this year. Two issues I repaired were the direct result of Heartland having untrained/unskilled replacement people on the assembly line during 2020.

My residential frig had the water line hooked up straight to the ice maker, bypassing the pump. Any 12 year old shop student could see this was wrong.

The second issue was when an untrained/unskilled assembly line worker installed my stove top he/she ran the propane flex line against the sharp edge of the oven mounted below. This created a nice hole which caused propane to leak into our kitchen last week. The first time we smelled the "strange" smell the DW lit a candle to cover the odor temporarily! We are so very lucky the place didn't explode! I now have replaced the leaking line and routed it correctly.

Two days ago I emailed Heartland Corporate advising them of the above. You would think with a safety issue such as this someone would have gotten back to me immediately. Haven't heard a word from them.

My conclusion is not only has Covid reduced the already poor quality of RVs being built, but with prices sky high the top dogs could care less about building junk and are only thinking about Covid as an opportunity to make more money faster.

Glad it didn't explode. Didn't the LP leak detector go off? If not, that should be another priority fix.

 

[Jim]

The second issue was when an untrained/unskilled assembly line worker installed my stove top he/she ran the propane flex line against the sharp edge of the oven mounted below. This created a nice hole which caused propane to leak into our kitchen last week. The first time we smelled the "strange" smell the DW lit a candle to cover the odor temporarily! We are so very lucky the place didn't explode! I now have replaced the leaking line and routed it correctly.

Two days ago I emailed Heartland Corporate advising them of the above. You would think with a safety issue such as this someone would have gotten back to me immediately. Haven't heard a word from them.

That's real scary stuff FL-Joe. If that coach had filled with gas, and then someone/something introduced a spark, WOW!
If I owned Heartland, you would be receiving some dedicated attention, and quickly too.

 

[FL-JOE]

The propane/gas detector is hardwired in our model down by the floor, which is where it should be. Problem was is it is about 5' from the stove/oven and around the bottom kitchen cabinet also. I have ordered an auxiliary detector which will be placed with about 3' of the stove/oven.

When we were smelling this, and just prior to me going online and reading it could be a propane leak, the DW had tired burning a scented candle on the kitchen counter top. Why the place didn't go off right then and there is beyond me. We are thinking the a/c's were running and moving just enough air.

 

[FL-JOE]

Neither one of us recognized the odor as being propane. I know what natural gas smells like, or at least the additive they add to make it smell. Maybe being in an all electric coach for 3 years and not being around propane didn't allow us to even consider it, I'm not sure.

 

[Neal]

I understand your point but there are some common terms used on RV communities you may not be aware of. And yeah, it took me a while to figure them out too so we all understand. DW refers to the wife. If someone wants to list known terms and educate others feel free.

 

[Neal]

Several posts were removed as they were off topic and attacking one another. Let's keep the thread on topic please and cool down those involved. Thank you.

 

[Neal]

Let's move discussion about RV community "slang" to another thread and keep this thread professional and on topic. Thank you.

 

[RKins]

The propane/gas detector is hardwired in our model down by the floor, which is where it should be. Problem was is it is about 5' from the stove/oven and around the bottom kitchen cabinet also. I have ordered an auxiliary detector which will be placed with about 3' of the stove/oven.

When we were smelling this, and just prior to me going online and reading it could be a propane leak, the DW had tired burning a scented candle on the kitchen counter top. Why the place didn't go off right then and there is beyond me. We are thinking the a/c's were running and moving just enough air.

I have an on/off switch above the door for the detector - you can bet where it is most of the time since it is a parasitic draw .... until I remember to turn it on. I bought a new detector while at Newmar Parts and I'll be darned if I can find it now. They were actually competitive with other online vendors.

 

[redbaron]

Remember propane pools at the floor. You need a detector at floor level.

 

[sanda]

I picked up a new Coachman Chaparral 360IBL almost a month ago for full timing. Quickly found the 12v fridge was not even plugged in, the coax cables were all plugged in the wrong places, and the A/C duct sealing was so horribly done that there was virtually no air flow out of most of the vents. Very minor things so far, but when you pay money for ANYTHING, there is an expectation that everything will work the way it is supposed to.

I think the dealer should be blamed for not checking the unit out before selling it.

 

[FL-JOE]

In my case I believe the detector was installed too far away from the stove/oven. It is mounted at floor level which is okay but it still has to come from 4' up from the floor level and fall down that far, plus travel about 5 feet and another foot around the corner.

I should be receiving the auxiliary detector today which I will plug in about 3 feet from the stove/oven and at approximately the same level. In addition, since I have a residential frig there is no reason to have the propane even turned on while traveling.