Is my RV a lemon? Bounder 38p

He never did come back and post the outcome of all his problems.

He still post on the forums, as of yesterday.

Did he get everything fixed at dealer or did he take it to the factory???

you folks are way more tolerant than I would be in a situation as this, if I spent that kind of money I would expect it to be right on, never the less having it repaired and still not be right I would have gotten an attorney after them let alone turn them into the better business bureau for that kind of workmanship. I'm a quality control manager at a factory and if things don't get corrected when a problem is discovered the owner will have their hide at least. Don't people have a little pride in their work these days?

Deano2002 said:

you folks are way more tolerant than I would be in a situation as this, if I spent that kind of money I would expect it to be right on, never the less having it repaired and still not be right I would have gotten an attorney after them let alone turn them into the better business bureau for that kind of workmanship. I'm a quality control manager at a factory and if things don't get corrected when a problem is discovered the owner will have their hide at least. Don't people have a little pride in their work these days?

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The best way to explain the situation in the RV industry is that RVs are generally not made in what someone like you would consider a production, factory type of environment.  The production process is closer to building houses than to building cars.

I am quite happy with my RV but when new it had around 20 independent items that required warranty attention with, I'm guessing, around $3,000 in parts and labor charged to the manufacturer.  The only thing that's unusual about that is that I notice things that many people would never have caught.  In contrast I've had my car for seven years since I purchased it new and I never had anything on it fixed under warranty.

If you see how these things get built, the kind of labor force they use, and the margins the manufacturers have, the extent and sources of the cultural quality problem in the RV industry becomes clearer.  Most buyers just aren't that picky with a surprising number of them using their RVs so rarely that they never catch anything.  There are a substantial number of RVs that are purchased and then, for whatever reason, never really camped in.

Sorry for the lack of a update

We had excellent luck dealing with fleetwood.  Its been so long ago I forget all the particulars but they were excellent to deal with and fixed every issue.  We did have to take 3 trips there If i recall with different issues  each time.  we quickly determined some service managers are far superior vs others..... But all work was completed.....

Like stated above there was a year or so when the economy was in the crapper and there were lots of corners taken when making these rv's, always great hearing that from a service manager! 

Due to how great fleetwood was to deal with when its time to get a new rv fleetwood w/o a doubt will be at the top of our list.  So nice having the manufacturer so close....

We have a 2000 American Dream from Fleetwood. 99% of all problems have been addressed by the service center in Decatur, IN. They have always been top notch and solved all our issues with minimum stress for us.

I always recommend taking a coach to the authorized service center for any manufacturer. Results are far better than any dealership!!

2KViggen said:

Sorry for the lack of a update

We had excellent luck dealing with fleetwood.  Its been so long ago I forget all the particulars but they were excellent to deal with and fixed every issue.  We did have to take 3 trips there If i recall with different issues  each time.  we quickly determined some service managers are far superior vs others..... But all work was completed.....

Like stated above there was a year or so when the economy was in the crapper and there were lots of corners taken when making these rv's, always great hearing that from a service manager! 

Due to how great fleetwood was to deal with when its time to get a new rv fleetwood w/o a doubt will be at the top of our list.  So nice having the manufacturer so close....

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K2Viggen,

I ass_u_me that you had no success with the dealership you were working with (Raper)  even after the push from Fleetwood, and they were unwilling or unable to fix everything satisfactorily.

Is my assumption correct???

I just got back from my second warranty trip to Decatur with my Tioga Ranger.  The dealers had overall done a terrible job fixing things, but I have had very good experience with the mechanics at Fleetwood Customer Service.  Not only did they thoroughly fix everything, including what turned out to be a broken weld in the frame underneath the area just in front of my sofa on the front slide.  Tore out linoleum and fixed weld, plus replaced a lot of plywood and replaced all the linoleum with new. 

The mechanics even replaced a light plastic cover and cleaned up the mess I had made of the stove cover trying to remove the stickers--none of which was really a warranty issue and which I did not even asked to be fixed. 

I know their manufacturing techniques are no where near what the auto industries are doing, but the service center mechanics know what they are doing and they have NEVER argued with me about a fix or tried to blame me for breaking stuff, as the dealers constantly have done.

If anything major ever breaks in the future, I will not even try to take it to a dealer.

Alfa38User said:

K2Viggen,

I ass_u_me that you had no success with the dealership you were working with (Raper)  even after the push from Fleetwood, and they were unwilling or unable to fix everything satisfactorily.

Is my assumption correct???

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Correct, took a long list of issues to raper.... Not only did they attempt to fix those issues incorrectly, but they also added numerous other issues to the rv due to extremely poor workmanship.  Tom raper will not get a penny from me ever again..... At least for repairs.  When its time to upgrade to a newer rv I will consider buying from them if they have the best price...... Knowing all warranty work would be done at the factory. 

I mentioned numerous times to the customer service dept how poor raper was to deal with.  They kept telling me I wasn't the first person to tell them that.  My guess is they probably move a lot of fleetwood rv's thus they deal with extremely poor service.....

K2Viggen wrote

When its time to upgrade to a newer rv I will consider buying from them if they have the best price....

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Not sure why you would do that considering what you had to go through with them. For  a small price difference (2-3K perhaps) I would go to somewhere else, to someone I could depend on, at least somewhat!!

I don't consider buying an RV to be buying a lifetime service relationship with a dealer, so I shop for the best buying experience (including price) instead. For any serious repair work, I travel to either the factory or one of a handful of competent dealer service centers across the country. Of course, I'm retired so have the luxury of time to do that.  If I was restricted to getting repair work done locally, I guess I would just have to grin and bear it. I would however, choose an RV brand that could be serviced by the most competent dealer in the area, whatever that might be.

Sadly, most smaller RV dealers don't run their shops as a professional business and too many RV techs are just shade tree mechanics who learned on the job, often from other techs who knew very little more. They get some experience dealing with whatever comes in the door, but seldom have much real training or any background in plumbing and electrical systems.

Alfa38User said:

K2Viggen wrote
Not sure why you would do that considering what you had to go through with them. For  a small price difference (2-3K perhaps) I would go to somewhere else, to someone I could depend on, at least somewhat!!

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Its going to be a long long time before we can afford to upgrade, kids will probably be out of college when we can upgrade and they are in 4th 5th and 7th grade.  At least they are for a few more days since this school year is almost over.  Anyways, there is another fleetwood dealer about 30 minutes farther away vs raper that sells fleetwood products, otherwise its a 2 plus hour drive.  I would do whatever i could do not not buy from them, but if buying there would save me a few grand i would probably go there.  The actual purchasing experience was fine with raper, just getting anything serviced sucked.  I will go to the factory for any warranty work and found a nice little Indy shop about 20 minutes away that seems to be very honest and they seem to know what they are doing. 

You have another excellent service location in Celina, OH, over by the Indiana border. Cruising America RV Service, owned and operated by ex-Fleetwood engineer Kevin Mallory, is a terrific place to get most any kind of RV repair or upgrade done.  They do excellent quality work and are as honest as the day is long. Kevin has worked on my coach a couple of times and others I have sent there for jobs large and small have all been very pleased.

Thanks for the heads up!  Will keep that in mind if something happens that the local shop can't touch

Gary RV Roamer said:

You have another excellent service location in Celina, OH, over by the Indiana border. Cruising America RV Service, owned and operated by ex-Fleetwood engineer Kevin Mallory, is a terrific place to get most any kind of RV repair or upgrade done.  They do excellent quality work and are as honest as the day is long. Kevin has worked on my coach a couple of times and others I have sent there for jobs large and small have all been very pleased.

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Oh, nice!  I live just south of there.

nasman2,

I agree with what Gary said about Cruising America RV. We have had Kevin fix two problems in two years and the service has been great and the price was as reasonable as can be expected.

I should mention that Kevin doesn't do chassis repairs or service, nor does he do exterior body repairs except bolt-on stuff like door handles or locks.