The first few months with your new motorhome?

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jymbee

jymbee

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Joined
Feb 20, 2018
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Location
Upstate NY
Given all the horror stories I've read online regarding troubles with new RVs right off the lot, I'm wondering about the experiences folks here have had after purchasing their new (or used) RV-- especially the first few months? Seems to be the consensus that there will be issues given the relative complexity of these rigs, but some of the sagas one reads about makes you wonder just what percentage of new buyers have had few problems.
 
My experience has been great! All depends on the care and research. Educate yourself, get an inspection, set a budget etc...
 
We've bough two used motorhomes plus one brand new one.  The first used one had no problems at all on delivery and only the usual ongoing stuff while we owned it. The second one [new] had 40+ issues  when we did the pre-delivery inspection but 98% of those got fixed by the time we took possession 2 days later. It suffered another 17 problems in the first 10 months & 15k miles of ownership and we ended up going back to the factory to get it squared away. The third used one worked pretty well except for a defective leveling system that the factory later replaced for free under a service campaign.

We've also bought several used trailers and had few problems.
 
You get a lot more RV buying used than new. Typically the used ones have the warranty bugs all worked out.

If you get an RV it's critical to use it right away and test all systems so you know what you are dealing with.  ;D
 
We purchased our motorhome new, and after a few months use we had a punch list of about a dozen items. Nothing serious, and we had no issues with warranty service. I was disappointed at the time, but all things considered, not a big deal.
 
We have bought three motor homes over the past 10 years. The first was 12 years old and never a problen. The second was about ten years newer and had no problems either and finally our current dp that was purchased about 1.5 years old (4, 000 miles) and also had no issues fer he first couple of years.

Incidentally, the first two were the only ones we looked at during the buying process and the third was bought sight unseen although we had looked at a similar new unit and actually shopped for it.

Ernie
 
We have had many towable RVs new and used.  We bought our motorhome used, and truly the only "horror" stories we had were the Dealer - Camping World.  Some things were broke they hid from us (frozen ice maker solenoid), some things broke during the PDI, and some things were found broken when we got home. 

In our one return trip for "we owe" on the contract to fix the AC, we were truly treated as sub-fungus.  After 30 days of getting beat on by them, my smiling attitude left me and the DW and I decided to take on a new posture and never look back:  I cancelled the lame warranty through them, took the rig from their shop, and never returned.  Our experience since then has been fantastic with our used rig.  I fix things myself, I do my own improvements, and it stays in a garage when I'm not using it rather than a Dealer service lot.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
We've bough two used motorhomes plus one brand new one.  The first used one had no problems at all on delivery and only the usual ongoing stuff while we owned it. The second one [new] had 40+ issues  when we did the pre-delivery inspection but 98% of those got fixed by the time we took possession 2 days later. It suffered another 17 problems in the first 10 months & 15k miles of ownership and we ended up going back to the factory to get it squared away. The third used one worked pretty well except for a defective leveling system that the factory later replaced for free under a service campaign.

We've also bought several used trailers and had few problems.
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That would seem to be a relatively acceptable success rate. As for new vs used I'm wondering if the old adage "they don't make 'em like the used to" has any merit? One would think that each new model improves on previous models but at least with many other euipment I've bought over the years it seems to be just the opposite.
 
Ernie n Tara said:
We have bought three motor homes over the past 10 years. The first was 12 years old and never a problen. The second was about ten years newer and had no problems either and finally our current dp that was purchased about 1.5 years old (4, 000 miles) and also had no issues fer he first couple of years.

Incidentally, the first two were the only ones we looked at during the buying process and the third was bought sight unseen although we had looked at a similar new unit and actually shopped for it.

Ernie
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Wow-- are you for hire as a purchasing agent??  ;D
 
We're on our third Class A in 23 years, and we owned a cab-over camper before that. All three motorhomes were less than two years old when we bought them. None had any chassis issues, but all three had some minor House issues when we took delivery. I was able to fix them all in short order, at very little expense.

I've always felt that if you're even moderately handy, you can save yourself a lot of time, heartache and money by taking care of most things yourself - even if the RV is new. No, you shouldn't have to repair anything on a new RV, but that's pretty pie in the sky. It can be a PITA to schedule an appointment, take the RV to a repair shop, then pick it up again - especially when the RV is 43 feet long and the shop is across town.

Another real benefit of doing things yourself is what you learn about your RV. That knowledge base builds on itself, so if you're stuck somewhere with a serious problem, you might be able to take care of it yourself.

Kev
 
I've had 2 new class C RVs in the last 2 years. The first a 2016 Thor Freedom Elite, had 1 problem, a bad water heater igniter. The second, a 2017 Jayco Redhawk has had 1 problem also, but when you drive off from a campground with the awning still out, I have had trouble trying to find a way to blame that on Jayco. Both RVs were near the cheapest RVs you could buy, and yet I have had very little trouble with either one. I did lose a little money trading the first for the second, but as they say " floorplan, floorplan, floorplan".
 
I think Kevin has some good advise. If you can't or don't want to do a lot of the work yourself it will be quite expensive to have everything done by others. Down the road from me is a Rev Group repair facility, I believe labor starts at $150.00 an hour.
Bill
 
We are now a year in with our 2017 Minnie Winnie.  I'm very pleased to report that we had only one warranty issue, which didn't cause us any actual inconvenience.  One wall panel in the bedroom was pretty loose, but our dealer fixed it quickly and well. 

I admit to a few worries about buying new, with everything that I've read about new coach issues.  Fortunately, it worked out about as well as I could have hoped, and personally, I'm glad we went with Winnebago.  Plus, we did a thorough PDI before signing off, thanks to checklists from this site.  Everything checked out very well, but we never thought to try and shake each wall panel.  ;-)

Overall, it was a very positive experience, and we're pretty happy with General RV and very happy with our coach.
 
sadixon49 said:
The second, a 2017 Jayco Redhawk has had 1 problem also, but when you drive off from a campground with the awning still out, I have had trouble trying to find a way to blame that on Jayco.
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There's probably attorneys out there that would take your case!  :)

That's gotta' be an awful feeling-- "what's that noise?" as you pull out. Haven't done exactly that but have to admit I have done a number of quite similar things myself...
 
I can't even begin to put a number on how many issues I've had with our new unit.  Thinking back, I would be very hard pressed to list everything that I have fixed or modded on the unit.

Most were minor and I just took care of them myself.....So many loose screws, misaligned door latches (that were not that way for the PDI), broken or misaligned drawer slides, and on and on.....  I think taking care of these things myself is a big reason my experience wasn't the nightmare you read about.  For those that have to take their rigs into a dealer for every little thing loose the use of their rigs for so long through that process that things just seem so much worse.....

I had my share of more significant issues too, some of which I still just took care of myself...including one major leak I didn't find till it was out of warranty (although I'm pretty sure it had been happening since I bought the thing.

I did have a few things done under warranty, the biggest was a leak and rot, and that was a nightmare because of the down time
 
We had a few relatively minor issues fixed by dealer. Key is to have a good dealer I think it makes a difference.
 
Reading some of the post reminded me of the last coach and when I asked the dealer about the warranty he said it extended. I said what do you mean it extended? It extended to the curb once you were off the property so was the warranty.  Well at least they were telling the truth. ;D
Bill
 
WILDEBILL308 said:
Reading some of the post reminded me of the last coach and when I asked the dealer about the warranty he said it extended. I said what do you mean it extended? It extended to the curb once you were off the property so was the warranty.  Well at least they were telling the truth. ;D
Bill
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That was generous.  Many have no implied warranty even on the lot.
 
Mile High said:
That was generous.  Many have no implied warranty even on the lot.
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Like I said at least they were honest. They did fix many things before I took delivery. Including pulling the generator  and sending it to Cummins because they needed to replace the radiator.
I appreciate a honest answer even if it isn't the one I want to hear.
Bill
 
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