Getting around to introducing myself...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

dmwdmw

Active member
Joined
Jul 27, 2024
Posts
27
Location
Georgia
Good day all:

I'm another Dave W. I was raised in south Florida. After one year in college I did six years in the Army. After discharge, I went straight to Nevada and lived and worked there for 42 years. I'm practicing being retired now.

In my former life, I was a radar technician in Navada. In that capacity, I also worked on special projects, or installations, at other locations but was always based out of Nevada. My address of record now is in Alpharetta, Georgia, but I keep my RV in Talladega, Alabama. I split my time between the two locations when I'm not on the road. I made the trip to Alaska with the beast last year and went swimming in the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay, AK. By the way, no, I didn't take the trailer north of Fairbanks. I drove the truck solo to Deadhorse. When my number is called, I can honestly slide in sideways with a smile on my face and say what a great ride it's been.

I've traveled around much of western Europe. I've also traveled all over the "lower 48", usually on the Harley Ultra touring bike tricked out for some really serious road trips of a month in duration. Unfortunately for me, my spinal surgeon hinted that perhaps I might start speaking of my riding days in the past tense. So, I sold the bike.

I started doing my research on RVs back in 2018, when it was "we". I bought a 2021 Silverado 3500 dually late that year. After I had the truck parked in my driveway, I ordered a 2022 Grand Design Momentum 395 toy hauler as my first RV.

There were four "show stopper" requirements for an RV. Number one was to have access to the bedroom and bath, including the shower, with all slides in and ready for the road. The second requirement was hydraulic disk brakes. 35,000 pounds is a lot of weight to stop going down the mountain. The third "show stopper" requirement was to have space to install a residential washer and gas dryer set. The fourth was to have a 7 kw generator installed. And the 395 Momentum filled the bill. Although I'm disappointed with the build quality.

That's about it in a nutshell.

Dave
 

Attachments

  • DSCF3704.JPG
    DSCF3704.JPG
    166.1 KB · Views: 6
  • DSCF3157.JPG
    DSCF3157.JPG
    202.1 KB · Views: 6
Welcome to The Forum Dave!

Looking forward to hearing stories of your travels and experiences with the Grand Design (who have really taken a hit on quality and frame stress this year). Since Winnebago bought out GD they seem to have gone backwards on everything that had made them so popular to start with.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.

It's always good to have another experienced voice to add to the mix.

Jump into the conversations any time, and let us know if you need help with anything.

Happy travels.
 
Welcome to the Forum from WI, Sounds like you have seen a bunch of territory already.
 
Sure, the quality of build of my Grand Design toy hauler is very poor. When I picked it up, I uncovered enough problems that it took me two weeks to have them all fixed before I left the dealer's yard with it. Then I started finding all sorts of other problems in pretty short order. For example, all of the wiring for the fuel station was not even plugged in to the control board. Three, single pair, connectors were simply tied back. I discovered that the reason for at least one not being plugged in was due to a pin on the fueling control board was bent over. It seems like someone attempted to plug it in and bent the pin and just tired all three back with a zip-tie. Both supports holding the tank drain broke on my way back from Alaska. I tied the ABS drain up with zip-ties until I got back to home base and had new supports installed.

As for the hydraulic disk brakes, no, I haven't had any problems with the brakes. One thing I was glad to see was the Cooper trailer tires. Cooper has been making heavy duty tires for big truck for decades. They have a good reputation among truck drivers.

I have had interior trim and door jams actually come off, nails pushing up from under the vinyl floor covering, doors were not latching when closed, the plastic kitchen and bathroom vanity sink fixtures leaked and had to be replaced in the first few months. I replaced the sink faucets with nice ones I bought at Home Depot.

My Samsung refrigerator had a defective board. It stopped working in the first week still in the dealer's yard. One guy changed a setting to where it was supposed to be and it worked, until I got it to home base. Then it died again. Samsung knew of the problem and sent me the replacement, upgraded, board.

The toilet foot flush mechanism broke, and the toilet had to be replaced.

I found the long piece of trim across the top of one slide room in the floor one day when I stopped for the night in Idaho on my way north to Canada. On my way back southbound, my pre-trip inspection one morning found my middle trailer axle had shifted a couple of inches rearward, broken bolts. I had it fixed at a real fine trailer shop in Calgary. Standin's trailer shop got me back on the road in about two hours for a reasonable price. I still made it to my next RV park early enough to set up before dark.

And now, the furnace won't light and the TV in the living room is going bad.

Every time I pull out on the road with it, I wonder what will fail next.

After my experience with this toy hauler, if I buy another one, it won't be from Grand Design! I might not have any better luck with another trailer. But Grand Design will not be on my list for consideration.

I would sell it if I could. But we all know the used market wouldn't allow anywhere close to a selling price that would compel me to sell it.

Dave
 
Wow, Dave, I knew that Grand Design was going through some problems, but looking at your list of things makes me wonder how they're still in business. On top of everything you've experienced with your GD, now you have NHTSA looking into their frame and structural integrity because of so many complaints brought to them.

It is ironic hearing experiences such as yours with GD, and then turning on an RV YouTube video such as "Changing Lanes" and a couple of others I've come across who have GD 5'ers and it is like night and day.
I guess Grand Design uses some of the YouTube travelers (whom I happen to like) as ambassadors for the product like Nike used Jordan for basketball shoes.
 
Back
Top Bottom