100%.

I hate coffee. But I like sugar and cream. I put it in coffee in my concoction so people don't look at me weird. I have never purchased anything at Starbucks but I am glad that someone found a niche and was successful at it.......without my help.

 

I have a ‘22 Avenue 32RLS. Not issues with the frame but we did have some issues when we purchased it. Everything was handled under warranty and I did take to the factory where they made a bunch of updates on items that I hadn’t even know about.

Just like all RVs, they are not built with quality being the #1 priority.

 

What can the manufacturers do,? Look into this, and make it right. Admit to an issue. This was not an issue that long ago, so what changed.
Do people abuse stuff and want warranty, absolutely. And the dealer needs to weed those people out.
People arent doing anything different now than they were two years ago. Now the manufacturer is saying dont travel with it so much. Hmmmm,
But we designed it for full time living.
They need to find the issue, admit there is an issue, and fix it. No one would be pissed if the manufacturer, whether that be Grand Design, or Keystone, or Lippert admitted an issue with production, assembly, or something, and just fixed the issue.
The very last thing they should do is what they are doing right now, admitting no fault, finger pointing, and then blaming the consumer for a number of issues.

 

You are spot on with most everything you mentioned, except some of those whiners post YouTube videos and spew information that is not necessarily true. What's a manufacturer to do?

One thing for certain, not all companies can afford to fix the problems they create. I'm certain there are a lot of finger pointing between the manufacturers and Lippert. Lippert already put out a good PR video saying how well they make frames. Frames they make now.

Many of us know about the AirBag recall that most car manufacturers ran into. Many do not know that the Takata [maker of the airbags] went bankrupt because they could not handle their comeback. I highly doubt if Grand Design or Lippert will be in this dilemma, but there is only so much money a company has and closing their doors is a way to solve the problem. Thinking that the company should just shell out money [that they may or may not have] does not understand business financing. What they may want to do is something they may not be able to do.

 

I'm pretty sure Lippert and Grand Design(Winnebago) are indefensible in this. It is clear to anyone with eyes that the welders building these frames are not real welders. The materials are thinner than thwy were 10 years ago and they are cutting as many corners as possible. You are acting like we (the customers) care about LCI or Winnebago's financial situation. They cut corners for the shareholders and the customers are now suffering from the consequences of that. People are literally buying brand new campers riddled with issues.

How many issues with LCI products will there have to be before you will admit that they don't care about anything except their bottom line? They bought all their competition out and the quality of everything they produce today is inferior to the products before they bought them out.

 

News flash! All business' #1 issue is their bottom line. Losing their stock holders mean they will not have the capital to keep the doors open. If the doors are closed, nobody gets helped. Do I care about big business? About as much as they care about me, not much.

I have a very small private auto repair shop that specializes in high end German cars. I totally understand that if I do not have clients, I will go out of business. I'm ok with that because I do not need the money, but I do care when I look into a clients eyes, that I meet their demands. No matter what, the year I do not break even, I will be living on my retirement.

Business' need to make money. I make money by satisfying my clients needs. If I can't fix their problem, I don't charge anything. No matter how much time/money I've got into the car. All of my clients appreciate that they have met me and feel they owe me. I have to stress to them that I owe them, because they want to have me fix their car.

That is what is missing with big business'. It's a two way street, I provide a service and they provide me the capital to keep doing what I am doing. Big business' tend to lose their way and just expect customers to come in and give them their money. That's usually the beginning of the end. I don't blame the stock holders but a business that starts selling shares in their company is about as bad as going to a loan shark.

 

Top shareholders for each company is Blackrock. Between Blackrock, Vanguard & State Street they own about 25% of everything. That should tell anyone everything they need to know. We don't need lessons in business to understand LCI and The 4 companies that own 40+ RV companies are buying up their competition and then cheapened the quality of those products.

Wake up.

 

We started RVing 1978 with our first slide-in PU camper and into 5th wheels in 1987 with our first Hitchhiker ll and in 13 years it never went back to the dealership for anything, our 1998 Hitchhiker ll was the same. In 2001 we bought our first Hitchhiker Priemer and it never went back to the dealership but we didn't like the floorplan so we ordered our present trailer 2003 Hitchhiker Priemer and none of them had any kind of a frame problem, our present trailer has I'm just guessing (I stopped tracking it at 100K) 150K miles on it but it's a very heavy trailer because if the way it's built. It's had a lot of maintenance over the years but the only major failures have been the RV refrigerator twice, it now has a residential. All steel frames have to have some flex so they don't break but the secret is the alloy of steel and the welding and bracing. All our HH trailers had a Young's frame made right down the street from the plant welded by certified welds and designed by engineers that built bridge segments and custom over the road trailers. The only time HH had frame problems was when they used some Lippert frames in some models, some had problems some didn't, broken welds and frame cracking was the problem in the few. I just don't think Lippert has any kind of quality control and the manufacturers has 0 inspection when the frames show up just slap them to together and send them out the door. When I took a factory tour at HH I was impressed by the quantity control they had and final inspection.
Hitchhiker trailers are no longer being built because they couldn't compete with the cheap crap coming out of Indiana so being a private owned company he just closed it down instead of losing more money. If something happens to our trailer I will try and find a used HH or just stop RVing been a long time sense 1978.

Denny
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What about this? Sidewalls bulging at every luan seam, is this a quality issue, a client done issue, or what? Do you think the manufacturer should do something or just ignore it?







Straight up it is NOT water intrusion, nor delam, its the edges of the luan under the glass skin curling up. No clue what is causing the bulge at the corner of the slide, but its not water intrusion. Usually that is a sign of frame flex, but can't prove it. Would cost thousands for the service dept, to open it up to find out the cause. Forest River denied the claim.

 

Of course we'll say the manufacturer should fix it "but" will they?

 

Fixing an RV is a nightmare. And they all need fixing. Wait 3 to 6 months for an appointment. Then wait for manufacturer warranty approval. Then wait for parts. Then wait for half of your issues to be fixed. When I see the big parking lots full of new RVs, I see an ocean of heartache for the new owners.

 

There were older manufacturers that were quality but couldn't compete with the cheaper mass produced rv buyers wanted. The consumer got what they wanted cheaper rvs. With cheap comes cheap labor, cheap parts, cheap quality control and some of the garbage out now isn't cheap. Sux the game some of these manufacturers make a person go through. Not much different the vehicles now. Too many people with issues on products and not enough competent repair facilities.

 

The strange thing is, even though they're 'cheaper' they actually seem more expensive than 40-50 years ago - relative to incomes.

 

Manufacturing defect for sure. You’re going to have to fight them for it and will probably end up taking them to court. You are going to have to make a lot of noise and apply a lot of pressure for every angle you cant think of. Filing complaints with the Attorney General, a complaint against the dealerships’ dealers license, and even a local tv station as some do consumer help stories.

It sucks when they won’t stand behind their warranty and make it right. We came very close to buying one of those but didn’t end up buying in the end. Hopefully they will make it right.

Good luck and please keep us posted,

Bob

 

What year is the trailer? What is the warranty? There are a lot of reasons for denying a claim. What was their reasoning for saying no?