New motorhome issues

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mercoupe50

mercoupe50

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Joined
Dec 23, 2010
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282
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Washington State
We purchased a new 2012 Itasca Ellipse 42 QD and took it on a break-in trip for about 4,000 miles in September.  Upon our return, I took it back to the dealer with a long list of write-ups which numbered about 30.  Nothing really major and most of them were in the area of workmanship.  I remember back in the 60's and 70's when I bought a new car I had several write-ups for the dealer.  My latest new cars had zero write-ups as the quality of automobiles have greatly improved.  I know that a motorhome is a lot more complex than an automobile, however as I say most of the write-ups were workmanship in nature.  I guess the question is does this amount of write-ups seem to be excessive for a new motorhome and maybe a bad day in Iowa for building a coach or is this normal?  I have never bought a new coach before.
 
Not unusual, but if some of the items come under "piddly" the dealer will most likely not want to deal with it. Took me bout 2 years to get the bugs outta a 03 Horizon bought new. Since then have bought used and had very few problems...Happy Trails
 
30 write up are not unusual and probably below what most come up with. A motorhome is a home and a vehicle. The motorhome gets a lot of abuse (shaking and jarring) while you are driving down the road. Be prepared to do maintenance on a regular basis to keep it like new. It will take a lot more maintenance than both a car and a home put together.
 
It is excessive in an absolute sense but fairly typical for the first year on a new coach. We bought one new one that had 27 items to be fixed before we would accept delivery and another 30 by the time we took it back to the factory after the first 7 months of use. The large majority were small items due to poor workmanship.
 
46 items on our list in the first 2 days of ownership.  Out of the 46, 2 were windows needing replacement and 1 TV replaced along with terrible rust around the bay doors .  The rest were mostly fit and adjust type fixes.  We have had 2 issues with the Ford chassis,  the Tow/Haul mode stopped working (wire broken) and a no engine crank issue that has happened 3 times so far (problem not found)  When the engine didn't crank a 10 - 15 minute wait each time and it cranks.  Since the 46 items at first the list has slowed down and most things I just fix rather then take the long trip to the dealer.  Counting the items after the 46 original I have 33 items and most of these were again fit and adjust items. 
 
I believe the quality improvement in cars has come from the fact that very few live people are involved in making and assembling cars. It is mostly all robotic work and robots rarely have a bad day and are able to repeat the same quality of work over and over again.

RVs are still mostly assembled by people and that is the problem with the inconsistent quality.

Like most people I had a list of about 40 items to be repaired after delivery on the first shakedown and more afterwards. Did not make me happy but it seems to be a fact of life with motor homes.
 
I have had two new Winnebagos -- a 2008 Tour 40TD and just this year, a 2010 Tour 42AD. We had a few issues on each coach, but, considering the complexity, I was delighted with the low level of issues on each coach -- even though we live fulltime in them.

I guess in the first 6,000 miles on either coach, I might have had 30 distinct issues (such as tighten the shower head holder screws), but most were very minor and I just handled them myself in a couple minutes. The more serious items, such as a cracked floor tile, were expertly repaired by either our dealer or Winnebago in Forest City. We have now completed our first big trip in the 42 Tour (8,000 miles since April), and I continue to really like the coach.

Frankly, when I think about how well the very complex chassis, a full "house" structure, 4 TVs, hydronic heating, 3 air conditioners, 4 slides, etc, etc., operates, I never cease to be impressed. Actually, my hat is off to the fine engineering and construction that goes into a Winnebago to provide us with so much coach at the price.
 
Harry B said:
I believe the quality improvement in cars has come from the fact that very few live people are involved in making and assembling cars. It is mostly all robotic work and robots rarely have a bad day and are able to repeat the same quality of work over and over again.
Click to expand...

Harry's perspective is really in tune with mine. RVs are a completely different critter from an auto or a house.  An RV is a house with all of its house unique stuff combined with a rolling chassis that is assembled by humans with I think limited use of robotics (from the RV factories I have toured and observed.)  The quantities are low (relatively speaking) and the assemblies are complex to where automation is an issue.

We had a punch list of maybe 20-30 minor items with our new Horizon and it took another two-three years before we completely chased all of the bugs away.  Knock on honey finish cherry, we never ever had a showstopper problem - they were all inconveniences.
 
It's true - RVs are handmade, one at a time, and the design process is rudimentary at best.  The "engineers" in most RV plants are largely assembly guys who have graduated from the plant floor and are primarily revising what was on last years (or last week's) models to adapt it to a new floor plan or size. Not universally true, of course, but moreso than you would prefer to believe.  The auto industry spends years and billions to design & test a new model ,let alone a whole new car, yet the RV industry brings new models out in several months and new floor plans and features in just several weeks, with little or no testing til it gets into the customer's hands. Sounds awful, but you and I couldn't afford even the lowliest trailer if a $B was spent on design and development.
 
Pride of workmanship seems to have eroded over the years, as a lot of the prior employees were local farmers doing factory work to enhance retirements and fringe benefits and were standing in line to get jobs, (direct quote from division manager) and with the demise of the family farm getting production employees has been difficult.  The idea that "Quality Control" is the responsibility of the purchaser needs to be shelved and the principles that John K instituted need to be reintroduced.  A complicated machine, you bet, but so is our space industry.

Don, WIT 70041
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
Sounds awful, but you and I couldn't afford even the lowliest trailer if a $B was spent on design and development.
Click to expand...

Gary hit the nail on the head. For the amount of systems that all work together in my coach, it's amazing that it works at all. But it's also true that these rigs are assembled in large part by humans. The auto industry has been revamped with many computerized machines that due the technical part of building the frames and the humans are left to snap parts on.

If a human has an off day at the plant, the product may suffer an issue with the end user down the line. I wish that everyone would have the attention to detail that I would give building a coach, but that's a fantasy I guess.
 
We are at the factory currently getting the items fixed.  We now have 3300 miles on the unit and have not found many problems only 16, none of which I would consider major other than the Ultra Leather seat having a puncture in it. 
 
We just purchased a 2005 Itasca Horizon last month...we were hoping that buying used means that most of the bugs would be out of it. Instead we are encountering problems which are really beginning to frustrate us. The passenger front slide to be specific. Slides in too low at the front and is warping the entertainment unit and also recently ripped the carpet. Another pet peeve is finding out that the keyless entry system does not work and that SCS/Frigette is no longer in business. Hoping to get some helpful hints on the RV Forum from all you good people out there. Anyone else owning a 2005 Itasca Horizon with smiliar problems?
Thanks. Billie and Bob
 
Got the same problem with the keyless entry ....to us, it really doesn't matter, just get used to using the key. Can't see replacing it with something else that may or may not work either. Replaced the control board in the fridge recently...works fine. As others have previously stated a motor home can be a complicated animal ....but, man what fun!
Oh yeah, bought ours "previously owned", too. There will always be glitches..accept the challenges and get on down the road! 
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
Sounds awful, but you and I couldn't afford even the lowliest trailer if a $B was spent on design and development.
Click to expand...

See: Monaco Vesta / Holiday Rambler Trip. Not sure what they spent on development, but they ended up with a $200,000 32' motorhome.
 
We've had our new MH since Feburary and have taken 3 short trips and 1 month long trip and my list is getting longer.  Most is just fit & finish stuff which should be fairly easy fixes.  The biggie issue of the hydraulic reservior for the jacks dumping all of the oil was fixed under warranty on the road.

The gasket/seal under the front slide has come loose and I have to shove it back under the slide when it's open but other than that, the rest of the issues are minor.  I haven't counted them but have taken pictures and will be emailing them plus a detailed description to the service center when I schedule a fix-it appointment.  I'm also thinking about taking sticky notes and sticking them in the places we want fixed...maybe with numbers to correspond to the pictures & description.  I don't want to drive the 200 miles back to the dealer and then find somethings weren't addressed. 
 
I did that when I took my rig in for service to a shop in Florida. The service writer was very happy to get the detailed description of the issues to be repaired. Made his job and the techs job easier.  I think it also made the repair time a little quicker since there was no confusion trying to interpret my concerns.
 
Just to throw in my two cents. We have owned two purchased-new Horizons since 2003. We have not had 30 items total in those eight years. We have had two major issues with the 2008; one was an HWH issue which they took care of at their cost and the other was a Cummins issue which they also took care of under warranty. I like to consider myself very sensitive to any possible issue with the coach. Seemingly little problems left unattended  become issues. As with many forum issues we hear about the real problems but do not hear from those who are quite satisfied because they are........
 
Thanks for the welcome John. We took your advice on calling HWH and Winnie and got some good tips on what the problems were. Both were very helpful. We are settling down now, taking deep breaths and getting things the way we want them in our "previously owned" motorhome. Thinking of replacing the front privacy curtain as there are quite a few stains ( both water and other ).  I have been searching online but have not found one that fits the measurements. Was also considering dying it a darker colour...anyone ever tried that?
 
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