I hope the rest of the Motorhome is put together better than this.........

We are still getting used to the new motorhome, and mostly it has been a good experience. Other than a few irritating issues that I need to have addressed, it has gone pretty well.  This latest one made me shake my head in amazement.  While heading for our Labor Day camp site in up state New York we were driving mostly highways and secondary roads. Some are kind of rough, but not too bad. When we were about a mile from the destination I pulled up to a left turn lane and waited for the signal to turn green. When it did I started out my slow and easy left turn onto another secondary road. Suddenly a huge crashing sound came from the rear of the rig. With no place to stop and almost at the camp ground I looked around quickly and didn't see any disaster unfolding so I decided to keep rolling.

Upon arrival the DW took a look in the back of the rig. A 30" long 5" wide piece of 3/4" wood trim had fallen off from it's place at the top of the microwave and was laying on the floor. After set up I inspected the fallen trim board. What I found was that the 2 pound piece of trim had been secured to the rear brace by one lonely pin nail on each side. See pics below. Then on top of that was another molding piece that was also held in place by one even smaller pin nail that didn't go through the thickness of the board. 

Now I usually rave to everyone I meet about Winne's quality work and craftsmanship, but this really sucked. Now I can drill and screw this piece of trim back on, that's not the issue. The issue is that I shouldn't have to be doing that. I can't even blame it on an empty brad nailer running out of brads and not being caught by the worker because there are no tell tale "dents" in the trim like they even attempted any more than one nail.  One nail for a piece of substantial wood molding? An eighth grade shop class student would know better than that! 

More over, now I am worried about the rest of the hanging cabinets, trim, and moldings in this expensive rig.  I hope that the same guy didn't do the whole cabinet install or I am in for a load of trouble when I head for Alaska next year.

I'm considering calling someone at Winnebago, but I'm not sure who I would talk to. I feel like talking to the CEO.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Sorry.

Sarge

I would definitely let the company know, pictures are not to clear though.

I'm with ya Sarge, must have been the same employee that did my AC duct, blame it on coffee break.

I have a small section of chair rail trim that has never been firmly stuck to the sidewall.  Winnie used a brad nailer to tack it to the wall, but there is nothing substantial in the wall for the brad to to hit.  Some things make you scratch your head in wonder  ???

Really no excuse for that kind of work, especially in this economy where RV sales are increasingly at the mercy of disposable income.  Not rocket science to devise a simple and reliable way to fasten wood trim.  I added some oak wainscotting and chair rail to my coach and understood that brads had little in the wall to grip so I simply used panel adhesive and a brad nailer to hold the panels and trim while the adhesive cured.  It is there to stay.

If you don't check all of your trim........i would make sure that you check the trim overhead in the cockpit........that could cause a wreck..... 

2dalake said:

Really no excuse for that kind of work, especially in this economy where RV sales are increasingly at the mercy of disposable income.

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That's exactly what I am talking about. Wouldn't you figure that if you were one of the lucky ones to still be employed, you would make damn sure that you did your job right? 

Email to Owner Relations at [email protected] will sometimes be seen by some fairly senior folks. I got excellent responses to several concerns I expressed there in the first few years we owned our coach.

After buying a new Winnebago Aspect about 4 years ago about 2 years ago I was going up a driveway that tilted to the side  and the Microwave almost fell out of the cabinet above the stove the moulding fell off that goes around the microwave and the bracket  that holds the Microwave didn't even have a screw holding it after a little work by myself
and some bigger screws the Microwave is secure guess it must have been a friday that it was put in. luckily there wasn't very much that I had found wrong with  it in the 4 years that I've owned it.

Quality of workmanship and design is very spotty with RVs. Even the best (or at least, the most expensive) ones seem to be rife with this sort of thing. A sad commentary on American products and workmanship.

We had many pieces of molding come unstapled. If you do not have some already get yourself a small set of nail sets and some small diameter brads. You will also need some matching wood putty. I have not had any cabinets come loose. It is frustrating when things fall apart because of shoddy workmanship.

Jim

I just bought some brads today for my electric Arrow stapler that I carry.  Looks like i'll need to keep it handy.  You know, I wouldn't have cared if the wood had split, or a fastener broke. Instead a major chunk of wood was placed and all the effort I got was one lonely pin nail on each side, and the one on the right barely caught any of the brace at all.  And I will be reattaching some of the quarter round in the bathroom along the floor. It just bugs me.

We used many pin nails on the boats, but they were used to hold a glued piece in place until the glue dried. 

Profit over quality, the American corporate philosophy . It wasnt all that long ago that people and companies took pride in their work/products.

kl

kentL said:

Profit over quality, the American corporate philosophy . It wasnt all that long ago that people and companies took pride in their work/products.

kl

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Not quite so. I have a 1988 Elandan, and when we first got it, I began to remove many panels and furniture to remodel it. I was amaze at the amount of screws that were either crooked or very loose and I mean loose like 1/4" loose. Also there were screws of different sizes and applications on the same bracket, molding or furniture. For example, I could find wood screws to someting that was afixed to a metal beam or frame and viceversa. Don't get me started on the insulation on the front cabin. or the wiring behind the dashboard! ohh! Well insulation on the front cabin is non-existant and the electrical wiring behind the dashboard looks like a kitten went medieval on a yarn ball! Enough rant.

Well the comments in this thread inspired me to send a lengthy e-mail to Winne owner relations. Not a nasty one, but it was through. First time I have felt the need to contact Winne about anything like that. I'm not really sure what to expect, if anything.  I must admit it did make me feel better though.

I have been all over my Horizon and have disassembled various cabinetry parts when doing my mods, and I will say the quality of woodwork and assembly of what I observed was pretty good.  Here and there they split a wood cleat with a screw too close to the edge, but everything was put together to stay.

Our two CRT TVs were difficult to remove due to the bomb-proof mounting Winnie engineered - if nothing else survived a catastrophic wreck, it would be the TVs 

Oh yeah, there was one other flaw that made me scratch my head. I have the buffet TV cabinet in the full wall slide that I really love. However, when the unit was just a few days old I discovered that someone in the build of the Buffet cabinet drove 4 wood screws into the floor of the full wall slide, and right through the bottom of the slide. All four of the screws were sticking out of the bottom of the slide about an inch and a half.  Of course the result of that is that the screws were starting to cut into the slide seal each time that the slide moved in and out. I looked into the inside of the cabinet but the screws were not visible from the inside. I wound up cutting the screws off as close as I could from the outside of the slide with a dremmel tool, and putting a piece of tape over the remaining nub to save the slide seal.  Another quality control issue.....

Marty - when you find these kinds of issues, I would take pictures and keep them in a folder.  Then at some point, send them to Winnie - they need to be aware of what's happening on the line.