Roadtrek Quality

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vantraveler

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Feb 27, 2014
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Hi all, new to RV'ing but jumping right in full time. We recently bought a 2013 Roadtrek E-Trek. Hit the road in January 2014 and have been at a dealer to fix something 4 times already with more scheduled into the future.

I have heard others having issues with Roadtrek conversions in the last few years. Some even having to have the conversion completely rebuilt.

Any others experiencing problems?
 
Are you glowing in the dark yet? J/k in reference to all the batteries.

What kind of issues have you had? I checked out a couple last weekend and the quality of the materials etc. Seemed good.
 
Have seen many posts over the years about out the door RV quality.  Appears that it is always good to have several short - no time schedule - shake down trips to identify and get the bugs out of the RV.  Does not matter the class (A, B, C, 5th wheel, etc) or the manufacturer.
 
I don't think your problems are out of the ordinary. Roadtrek seems like a great rig. As stated above, all new RVs (and most used) have problems.
 
Hi newbie here as well and looking to purchase. It's quite troubling to me that the consensus on the various RV forums seems to be that one needs to expect problems and it's up to the consumer to shake down the system and get warranty services.

I understand these are complex machines. But if I'm paying upwards of 100K for something, I have higher expectations of at least starting out with trouble free operations.

Are we letting the RV industry and its manufacturer and dealerships off the hook too easily? Maybe it's because it's not really a mass consumer product? Maybe the consumers of this product have got used to lowered expectations?

-alex
 
I have a friend with a 2.2 million dollar Newell....he had some shakedown problems too.

it's pretty much expected with any new complex vehicle....motorhome, boat or aircraft.

the Navy refers to it as a "Shakedown cruise" just to sort out all the issues.
 
Fulltime in a Roadtrek?  OK, now as to expectations, high or low.  As has been mentioned, these are complex machines, and bugs won't really shake out till it is being used a bit, driven a bit.  Impossible to find just sitting there waiting for you to buy it.  There are some items that really ought to be found initially, but at times, it really doesn't show up until a little ways down the road.  Now if the dealer were to send a tech out in every new rig, to use it as you will, for a couple weeks, many of those items would be found and fixed.  However, what would you think about buying a rig that has been used for camping for a couple weeks before you signed the papers? 

I am thinking of creating a business model, you buy a new rig, send me out in it for shakedown, a good shake down is about a month, visiting many places.  When I am finished with the list for the dealer to take care of, you can feel confident that most bugs will have been found and taken care of.

How much could I charge for this service?

:-*
 
PancakeBill said:
Fulltime in a Roadtrek?  OK, now as to expectations, high or low.  As has been mentioned, these are complex machines, and bugs won't really shake out till it is being used a bit, driven a bit.  Impossible to find just sitting there waiting for you to buy it.  There are some items that really ought to be found initially, but at times, it really doesn't show up until a little ways down the road.  Now if the dealer were to send a tech out in every new rig, to use it as you will, for a couple weeks, many of those items would be found and fixed.  However, what would you think about buying a rig that has been used for camping for a couple weeks before you signed the papers? 

I am thinking of creating a business model, you buy a new rig, send me out in it for shakedown, a good shake down is about a month, visiting many places.  When I am finished with the list for the dealer to take care of, you can feel confident that most bugs will have been found and taken care of.

How much could I charge for this service?


:-*
Click to expand...
and think about this for all us fulltimers....

If you could schedule a us shakedown every 30 days we all could just sell your own rigs.

get paid to live and travel .....count me in on the new business Bill,

(and then add in some paid for reviews for some frosting on that cake.)
 
rent said:
Hi newbie here as well and looking to purchase. It's quite troubling to me that the consensus on the various RV forums seems to be that one needs to expect problems and it's up to the consumer to shake down the system and get warranty services.

I understand these are complex machines. But if I'm paying upwards of 100K for something, I have higher expectations of at least starting out with trouble free operations.

Are we letting the RV industry and its manufacturer and dealerships off the hook too easily? Maybe it's because it's not really a mass consumer product? Maybe the consumers of this product have got used to lowered expectations?

-alex
Click to expand...

I agree. We bought the unit with 14k miles on it and thus far this is what has happened:

  • Webasto heater dead and throwing errors
  • TV dead with no sign of why
  • Powered antenna dead
  • Macerator dead
  • Cabinet latch broken (almost all of them in the first week)
  • Various fabric items falling off of vehicle or tearing
  • Water pump overheating (needed replacement)
  • Cabinetry wood breaking at corner
  • Shade guide strings broken
  • Refrigerator vibrations louder than water pump
  • Inverter errors with charging batteries
  • Macerator hose split

I don't mind a few bugs here and there because I realize they are complicated vehicles, but this is getting to us after being at an RV repair facility for weeks on end. Not exactly what we had pictured when we set out.
 
rent said:
Are we letting the RV industry and its manufacturer and dealerships off the hook too easily? Maybe it's because it's not really a mass consumer product? Maybe the consumers of this product have got used to lowered expectations?
-alex
Click to expand...

All of the above!
 
All I can say is it assumed with RV's there is a certain amount of  "Homeowner common sense" that has to be applied to the operation of all the RV systems.

An RV is a transportation vehicle,... a house, ...a 12 volt D/C and a 120 volt A/C power generator, ...and a water, propane and fuel and household goods storage vehicle.

A good RV operator needs to be both a trained systems engineer and a experienced large vehicle pilot.

It requires a lot more systems understanding to operate trouble free, and even then there are troubles that happen just because of the system complexities applied to the weather and shaking down the road. (I.E.) How you pack the cupboards can effect how long the latches last.
Many of the high end RV's have redundant systems just like boats and aircraft , they often have dual water pumps and dual rectifiers and dual heat systems because ..stuff happens, some of it may be quality issues and some are operator errors.

I see families with rental units that make rookie RV mistakes all the time. Like hooking up the power cord without a surge protector, low battery voltage overload electrical failures,  disconnecting the sewer hose without shutting the valve. un-level vehicle tank issues and pulling a rubber roof unit under a low hanging shade tree.
and often times they blame the problems on "poor quality" issues.

the more complex the equipment the more understanding and common sense you need. you can hear electrical appliances when they are getting too low or too high of voltage, you can hear the difference in a waterpump when there is a problem.  Often it just takes practice and patience.

A Toyota and Winnebago are both vehicles,  but an accomplished Toyota operator doesn't always make a good R/V operator.
 
TonyDtorch said:
All I can say is it assumed with RV's there is a certain amount of  "Homeowner common sense" that has to be applied to the operation of all the RV systems.

An RV is a transportation vehicle,... a house, ...a 12 volt D/C and a 120 volt A/C power generator, ...and a water, propane and fuel and household goods storage vehicle.

A good RV operator needs to be both a trained systems engineer and a experienced large vehicle pilot.

It requires a lot more systems understanding to operate trouble free, and even then there are troubles that happen just because of the system complexities applied to the weather and shaking down the road. (I.E.) How you pack the cupboards can effect how long the latches last.
Many of the high end RV's have redundant systems just like boats and aircraft , they often have dual water pumps and dual rectifiers and dual heat systems because ..stuff happens, some of it may be quality issues and some are operator errors.

I see families with rental units that make rookie RV mistakes all the time. Like hooking up the power cord without a surge protector, low battery voltage overload electrical failures,  disconnecting the sewer hose without shutting the valve. un-level vehicle tank issues and pulling a rubber roof unit under a low hanging shade tree.
and often times they blame the problems on "poor quality" issues.

the more complex the equipment the more understanding and common sense you need. you can hear electrical appliances when they are getting too low or too high of voltage, you can hear the difference in a waterpump when there is a problem.  Often it just takes practice and patience.

A Toyota and Winnebago are both vehicles,  but an accomplished Toyota operator doesn't always make a good R/V operator.
Click to expand...

I agree there is a heightened level of RV common sense that I need to learn to be efficient and effective at operating our vehicle. Extra caution and attention to detail is needed to avoid problems not seen at home.

But I would not agree that all of these problems are rookie mistakes. They are almost exclusively improperly installed equipment or defective products. I can understand that a few things might be defective but all of the main systems of the RV breaking in the first few weeks? Cabinetry, upholstery, water, sewer, electrical, entertainment. (we do not have a propane system) All of the mechanics that have worked on our vehicle were as baffled as we are that these things have broken.

This also comes from talking with others about similar issues with Roadtreks in recent years. One person mentioned that they had to send their unit back to the factory to get completely rebuilt. So I thought I would ask here if there were others experiencing poor quality, not rookie mistakes.
 
Just a thought not necessarily about RoadTrek but pretty much all RVs, should not a unit which is intended to to be used in all sorts of parks not come WITH built in surge and power protection from the factory?  Sort of a bad way to "cheap out" on construction considering cost to the buyer both of the unit and the potential problems.

Should at least be a factory option, anyone ever seen it available?
 
Heck, as far as I am concerned, if you want to own an RV, a boat, a summer home, a home, a classic car, just about anything fun, it is best to be somewhat handy.  OR  have pretty deep pockets and a list of trusted handy guys to bail you out.

Of course there are different levels of handy, from someone that can rebuild an engine or someone that can at least caulk a seam.  There are levels of tools and from one example to the other, the tolls needed are vastly different.  Some have the knowledge, but no longer want to do this.  I have rebuilt engines, from a marine diesel to a souped Chev VY.  I no longer want to do that, but maintaining my 86 VW Westy, is OK. 

Little stuff like this, piece of cake, OK, not actually cake), but not bad. 

For those really not handy, get some pliers a screwdriver and a hammer, then sit next to the coach with your tools and ponder the job.  A full cooler is also good to have.  I can almost gaurantee that one of the andy guys will show up, we can't resist it.
 
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