Travel Trailer Construction Quality...Brands to stay away from??

Hello everyone!  My family and I about to make the plunge into the RV'ing next year so I've been reading up on travel trailers as much as possible.  I recently took at look at the Jayco line of trailers since the local dealership had them on lot.  Looked nice and fit exactly what we wanted.  When I went home to dig deeper I read they've recently been acquired by the Thor/Berkshire Hathaway group and that quality control and build quality has suffered.

My question you all is:  Is there a brand that has a better quality control process or construction process?  I'm willing to trade off nice options for better build quality if there is such a thing?

Thanks for your help in advance!

This question is asked about 20 times a year by newbies.  Not a bad question,,but nearly impossible to answer.  The RV industry is pumping out RVs at alarming rates.  Quality is not their strong suit.  So dont think your going to get automotive quality in a cheap box with thousands of parts.  Thor is one of a couple of mega builders that turn out junk and hope people will buy, use and when it falls apart buy another one, all blisifully ignorant.
As a newby you really need to forget new, instead buy used.  Quality about 5 years ago will be better.  And someone else will eat the huge depreciation thst occues the first few years.  To own any RV hopefully you har a compentent handy man as it takes a lot of hours each year to maintain one.
If you start looking, Outdoor RV and Northwood will be two of the better trailer builders.  They are smaller mfgs that build for the long term

    Used! And with a TT, consider the Arctic Fox, or an Excel (somewhat rare, and heavy, but well built). The older Jayco’s were also a pretty good unit, and”not” nearly as heavy as the Excel.

akcorr said:

Is there a brand that has a better quality control process or construction process?  I'm willing to trade off nice options for better build quality if there is such a thing?

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Airstream

Sun2Retire said:

Airstream

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Another Thor brand wrapped in an aluminum skin

Sun2Retire said:

Airstream

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donn said:

Another Thor brand wrapped in an aluminum skin

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And pricey!  An Airstream the same size as the $15k Casita I used to have costs $40k!

Is there a brand that has a better quality control process or construction process?

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Short answer: NO

Long answer:
There are several aspects of quality, e.g. production line screw-ups, poor choices of materials & components, errors in design, and just plain cheap/shoddy workmanship.  All the RV manufactures have their share of production line mistakes, so not much to choose on that score.  They all also tend to make design tradeoffs that favor their production ease &  costs rather than reliability and usability, though the higher end brands are usually somewhat better in that regard.  They largely use the same components from the same suppliers, especially appliances, so not a lot to choose there either. Materials, however, vary widely with the price class of the RV.  Upholstery,  flooring, wall-coverings, cabintery will be much different (better) in the more expensive models.

By "more expensive" I  mean higher price for roughly the same amenities and size.  the RV industry is fiercely price competitive, so no RV brand is charging a higher price just because they can - not even Airstream or Newell. The way some achieve a lower price is to cut corners, using cheaper materials, speeding up production, reducing labor costs, using a less-capable chassis underneath, etc. Naturally, they try to do that in ways the casual buyer won't notice, hiding behind the superficial glamor.


There is a reason that Airstream costs more than a Casita.  The benefits may not be in proportion to the price difference, and they may not always be things you care about, but they are there.  Sadly, that expensive Airstream is just as likely to have a production line defect as the Casita or any other brand.

It seems this is asked 20 times a month!  I get that it's a huge outlay of money( notice I did not say investment) and time to take care of it.  There just isn't really a satisfactory answer.

Another reason to buy used is that those things missed in production were probably fixed in the first year.  Let somebody else deal with those hassles.  Plus,you can go camping instead of being at the RV shop.  Just be aware of what to look for in a used unit. 

Welcome and let us know what you get!

I recently purchased a new upper end, entry level unit. I am fairly satisfied with the overall quality of the coach, but there are a few things amiss that will require a significant repair bill from the repair facility, all under warranty (new vs. old). Quality Control does not exist in the RV industry the same way it works at any other manufacturing business.

I have made all of the cosmetic repairs to the interior of the motor home. I don't want a five minute job turn into a 2 week stay at the dealer. You're going to find flaws, how many? Who knows? Be patient and it'll all work out. And this from the guy that discovered delamination on the entry door of my brand new quarter million dollar motor home.

I'm not worried about the repair, because in the end I'll get a new door and maybe some other consideration from the manufacturer, if I am patient, and allow the process to work. I have an appointment on June 25 with a dealer.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

There is a reason that Airstream costs more than a Casita.  The benefits may not be in proportion to the price difference, and they may not always be things you care about, but they are there.  Sadly, that expensive Airstream is just as likely to have a production line defect as the Casita or any other brand.

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There may be a reason (although I can't think of one), but I doubt it is a $20,000.00 reason. 

John Beard said:

And this from the guy that discovered delamination on the entry door of my brand new quarter million dollar motor home.

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It's disturbing that someone (probably knowingly) let that get out the door, no doubt hoping it would be long enough before you discovered it that it would no longer be covered.

Face it.  You have to have a screw lose to begin with to sink a bunch of cash into the money pit that is a travel trailer.  The tow vehicle, gas, major trailer depreciation, and the upkeep are all part of it.  Accept it and just purchase the trailer that suits you.
It's an expensive hobby. 

There's still time to run. ;D

Gods Country said:

Face it.  You have to have a screw lose to begin with to sink a bunch of cash into the money pit that is a travel trailer.  The tow vehicle, gas, major trailer depreciation, and the upkeep are all part of it.  Accept it and just purchase the trailer that suits you.
It's an expensive hobby. 

There's still time to run. ;D

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Haha!  Spot on -for any RV.  But, you know it is an addiction. Once you start you can?t stop!

Avion made a nice TT.  And it seems like when buying new, price doesn't determine quality.  I witnessed a brand new half a million dollar motorhome fall apart in front of my eyes.  "No problem" the dealer says, warranty will take care of it.  "Warranty" means getting in line and waiting.  And, you better hope that your problem repeats itself while in for repairs or there is no warranty repair work being done.  We had a fault on the leveling system, warranty will cover it, but it never "faults" while in the shop.  My vote goes for finding something used, well taken care of and the owner has already added all the extras that don't come with a trailer when new.

A couple of observations (or maybe just a personal perspective):

1. A "quarter million dollars" is a lot of money for most all of us, but not a lot of money for a fully furnished house on wheels with self-contained water & power systems and several other complexities not even remotely considered in a fix site house.  Like it or not, most of these rigs are bargain basement models, with design and production commensurate with the price.

2. Mediocre quality wouldn't be so bad if you could take the thing to a dealer and get stuff fixed within a few days.  And fixed right. The abysmal dealer service exacerbates any problems that leave the factory.

3. We go to the dealer sales lot and do hardball negotiation to get the maximum discount, yet as soon as we take possession we start lamenting about a poor PDI and lack of dealer follow-through. Maybe we aren't negotiating the right things?  Or rewarding the  dealers who do a better job with our business?

4. A motorhome or even a trailer built to the same standards of testing and quality as an automobile would easily cost several times what we pay for our RVs. It takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring each new car model to the market, and car manufacturers spend that kind of money every few years to upgrade each model. That's practical for a product that sells 10's or 100's of thousand units of each brand & model, but the best year recorded so far for RVs was 504,000 units for all models by all manufacturers. If Thor spent $100M on each of their brands (not even each model), that alone would come to 2.5 Billion dollars. The sales volumes cannot support anywhere near that much expenditure.

Very good points, Gary.

I hate to be an apologist for the industry, but there are some legitimate reasons behind the way the market exists.

  As usual Gary....you “pretty squarely” hit the nail on the head.  $250 K isn’t a huge amount for a Class A.....though well above most of our abilities to pay.

  However, we are to blame for the products that the manufacturers offer. If we demanded better quality,by refusing to buy a “substandard” product....they would respond. However, there “would” be far less rv’s on the road, because most of us couldn’t afford or justify the expense.
    The  previous statement, could be countered by....most of us purchasing used. But....today’s buying public seems to “feel the need” to buy new!
    There will still be those than can afford and will purchase quality.... several years later the rest of us could then purchase a quality used unit, as they upgrade or quit rv’ing. But.....that wouldn’t satisfy the “need” to buy new!

Add to all of Gary's points the massive skill and experience drain that happened during the big economic downturn a few years ago. Many manufacturers laid off most of their experienced people...just before they closed their doors. The ones who managed to stay in business also had to lay off huge numbers of their workforce...most of whom went into other fields...leaving the RV industry scrambling for people to design and build these complicated vehicles...and often just looking for any warm body that can hold a nail gun or screwdriver...and we see the results all the time. Then, because there is such a high demand for RV's, these, often not very skilled workers, work VERY long days, sometimes under such a crunch they have to run from rig to rig, putting in cabinets or plumbing or electrical or....all of it under a heavy time crunch...and we see the results all the time...
There's just too much demand for finished units to spend time on quality control.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

A couple of observations (or maybe just a personal perspective):


3. We go to the dealer sales lot and do hardball negotiation to get the maximum discount, yet as soon as we take possession we start lamenting about a poor PDI and lack of dealer follow-through. Maybe we aren't negotiating the right things?  Or rewarding the  dealers who do a better job with our business?

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I would agree Gary. We drove 1200 miles to pick up our last coach. It was a major dealer and offered the best deal by along shot. They bent over backwards to help us. We found some issues like normal with any new coach. The biggest was some paint issue. It had some cracking under drivers window. I made them document all the issues. They were going to send the pics to Forrest River. Since we were on a limited time we had to leave. Once we left they would not even return a call. No picture were sent. Luckily for me Forrest River was good and since they are only 4hrs away we took the coach up for the winter and had the paint and a slide repaired. The rest of the items i always just fix myself.

If someone is worried about having issues with problems buying a RV I will tell you if you buy new there are going to be problems. It does not matter how much you spend. Just do your homework on the customer service before purchasing if that is a big issue for you.