How do you know if you have a lemon?

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aksisk

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Aug 14, 2018
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I have a Winnebago VistaLX27N that I bought new last December.  Since I have had it, I have had the refrigerator mother board replaced twice, the leveling jack alarm system replaced twice, the entertainment system does not work, have had to have the radio/backup camera replaced (and now if the windshield wipers are on, there is "static" on the radio), as well as numerous minor problems.  It is frustrating and I live 4 hours from any service center. Do I have a lemon?
 
No, what you have is a fairly typical new RV. This is why I always recommend to buy used. New ones spend too much time in the shop getting all the bugs worked out.
 
Welcome to the forum.

It's a bit odd to have the same part fail a few months apart, you didn't say what model product/manufacturer you are having problems with. RV fridges have been around forever and are reasonably reliable. Is your dealer throwing parts at a problem without identifying the root cause of the problem? Is your dealer working with Winnebago? They have field service managers the dealer can work with.

Having problems with a new RV is pretty much standard across all brands. 98% of all of my problems were fixed within the first year, it took two more years to fix the other 2 percent.
 
You have one of the poorer examples of a new RV. Sadly, not a terribly unusual example - maybe 10-15% of them have multiple and substantial problems.  In colloquial terms, it's probably a lemon, but legally probably not (check your state laws).  You may also be experiencing poor quality repair service at your dealer, since it seems your fridge problem is not being properly diagnosed (many RV techs are basically parts swappers).

John gave good advice - contact Winnebago support for help.
 
Your problems seem to be somewhat electrically related. Perhaps it is a bad ground or even poor battery connections. I would communicate my dissatisfaction directly to Winnebago Owner Relations.
 
It is a crap shoot !
We bought a new trailer off the lot the year before last and had nothing but trouble. We had seven pipe joints come apart at seven different times, along with too many other problems to bring up here.
  Along came hurricane Irma and totaled it. (thank you Irma).
Thankfully we had full replacement cost from Progressive and purchased a new trailer which we custom ordered. We waited several months for it and lived in it for six months last winter and did not have one problem with it.

jack L
 
JackL said:
It is a crap shoot !...
It is to some extent however you can perform your due diligence and research manufacturers and models. Low end RVs might have more propensity for manufacturing quality issues. However no matter how expensive an RV is, there will be problems. There's an old joke that the dealer is the last 50 feet of the assembly line.
 
" you can perform your due diligence and research manufacturers and models"

If we did that, we would all own Air Streams when it comes to trailers !

Jack L
 
Thanks everyone for the advice...I live in AK, and unfortunately, 225 road miles from a town with RV repair.  Not that it would do me much good, as the service center will not do any "warranty" work on rigs between April and Nov if you did not purchase from them.
I get the same refusal when I am in TX in the winter.
 
Call Winnebago Owner Relations and tell them about their dealer. Winnebago pays dealers their going labor rate for warranty service, there's little defense for them refusing to service your unit.
 
How do you know if you have a lemon?

If it is a camper, trailer or RV, that should be a pretty good sign. Most RV's have a period of fixing factory boo boo's, this is called the Juicing period. After a proper Juicing period you may have made a sufficient amount of lemonade to actually enjoy while sitting outside your RV and relaxing.
 
Paul 1950 said:
Is there an actually a department at Winnebago called Owner Relations and has its own phone number?
Absolutely. It's about six or seven guys with technical expertise, many of them started out on the production floor.
 

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