Hello, one and all! I'm needing a place to vent, so here I am.
I've been RV'ing for over thirty years. I'm currently on RV #5. I buy new.
As a guy who is extremely handy, a guy who has always done 95% of my own electrical, plumbing, gas, roofing, carpentry and general repairs on my own house and rental properties and, about, 75% of my own repairs on my vehicles and RV's, I feel qualified to make this charge against makers of RV's that I have bought, new, and owned for a while, before selling them.
As I see it, all RV's in the more than entry level units, but less than the top of the market units, are built so poorly, with such shoddy workmanship and quality control, and terrible design/layouts, that it's amazing that this industry still manages to push its junk onto consumers, year after year.
I am not going to get into what units I've owned. I don't want to go there, so I won't. Here, however, is a list of things that made no sense, at all, on my current TT that I bought, new, in 2018:
1. A double recliner was fit tightly in at the end of this unit. It blocked 50% of the usable counter space. I'm a gourmet, vegan chef, so counter space is important to me. The only remedy to this goofy furniture placement was to get on my knees, on the recliner, to prep dishes, or sell it, and put in a single recliner, which I did.
2. The overhead bedroom light had no wall switch. To turn it on, you had to get on the bed and then walk on your knees to where you could reach up and turn on the light. There's a wall switch, now.
3. The only reading light in the bedroom was a duplicate of the blindingly bright, central bedroom light, directly over the head of the bed. I took out that light, spliced another line in, and now there are two reading lights with push button switches, on the walls, on either side of the bed.
4. The bathroom vent was impossible to open without a ladder/foot stool. The fan switch was unreachable, as well. Now, the turn handle has an extension on it, and the fan has a wall switch.
5. The trim, all over this unit, was not secured properly to the wall. It is, now.
6. The AC ducts were a joke. They were missing insulation, and they had the thinnest aluminum tape on the market. In the central inset that contains the AC unit, itself, the installer had, apparently, run out of the proper trim boards for the installation, so he/she used one of the run pieces made for the central duct router. It had a duct cut-out in its center. Result: I was cooling the space between my ceiling and roof, blowing air into the insulation! The result of this idiocy was that my central unit rained water down onto my floor. A similar situation was found in every delivery vent. All were insulated, properly, by me, and my inside rain shower stopped, immediately.
7. The annoying, fabric accordion window shades gave me no option to have light, with privacy. Mini blinds solved that problem.
8. The toilet, a D300, has, inexplicably, a hollow section in back of it. There, "liquids" collect from the seam between the two sections of this plastic piece of garbage. The stench had nothing to do with my holding tank. I was tearing my hair out trying to solve that problem until I found the hollow behind the unit. The solution was to remove the unit, pressure wash it, dry it throughly, caulk the seam, and reinstall.
9. The bedroom, swing-out window surprised me, during one trip, as I drove. I looked in my side-view mirror to see the window and curtains swinging in the wind! The solution was to secure the latch with a hair band.
10. There were no back-up lights. Not cool, for night drivers. There are lights, now.
11. The bottom trim panels were flapping in the breeze, as I drove! Upon inspection it was obvious that the moron doing the installation had neglected to use a template for his/ her screw placements. All bottom screws missed the wooden strip that runs the length of the frame by three inches! I installed new screws, correctly.
12. The corner AC roof drip spouts were attached with only two screws on only one facing. The result, of course, was that they bent, in the wind. I attached two screws to the other facings. Problem solved.
13. The end caps of the power awning were attached with only two of six required screws. One cap blew off. The new cap is properly secured as is the old cap that remained.
14. The PT relief valve was facing directly into the heater exhaust. It isn't, now.
And on, and on, and.......
My point, with all of the above, is that the RV Industry sells new units that have a long list of things wrong with them, from the start. These are not cheap units, but not very expensive units. I'm talking $35-$50K, here. In general, I believe most new RV buyers are older men. I also believe that most buyers in this group, probably don't do most of their repairs themselves. I can only imagine how this group is ripped off, once warranty time is up!
I do not get into having dealers do repairs. Warranties are great, if you don't mind leaving your unit at the dealer for weeks/months. I do mind.
The only warranty work I had was in getting the bent arm of my awning replaced, a few days after I brought my unit home. The technician drove thirty miles to my place, and we did the job, together, in under an hour. Unfortunately, the Service Manager who set that up is no longer at the dealer. Yeah, the really good ones never last.
If the RV Industry was held accountable for putting its junk on the market, I think quality control might actually be brought into the assembly line. Unfortunately, i doubt that will ever happen. Oh well.......
(I will not mention specific models and manufacturers, so don't ask. I hate reading the BS line, "Oh, I have that unit, and I've never had any problems with it!" I've been around long enough to know that most RV buyers, in the price range I cited, above, come to realize how shoddy their units have been built, sooner or later.)
