Hey all,
Over this past weekend, we had a near catastrophe. My daughter and son in law camped with us at a local CG. The place was basically full, so they doubled up in our spot. hey plugged into the 30a receptacle and we used the 50a. They did the usual and fired up the AC and turned on the hot water heater (electric). after about 10 mins, their main 30a breaker tripped in their camper. They reset it and it tripped again. They turned off all breakers except the AC. after about 15 mins or so, we could smell something burning or getting hot. We unplugged from the park power and removed the camper access door on the power panel. We found the neutral buss bar extremely hot and most of the neutral wiring was burned back about an inch or so from the buss. Wow! The main neutral (from their power cord to the pedestal) was burned the worst. My son in law was calling around to all his buddies as well as me. Decided to run home and grab my power meter to check the parks plug and it was fine. Thought they may had the hot and neutral wires crossed, but that was not the case. Plugged back into the park pedestal and left the main camper breaker off. Waited 20 min and no more heat on the neutral buss. Flipped on the main camper breaker and sparks were flying on the neutral buss. Ah hah! Figured it out! Main neutral coming into the camper was loose at the neutral buss. Wow. Could not believe it. My son in law said "how could that be"? I said, these campers are not made to pull all over the country without anything loosening up. He tightened up that connection and check all the others and problem solved. I'll be checking all my connections before our next trip. Good luck and happy camping. Check those electrical connections!!!!

 

Thanks for the great reminder!

 

Its seems to me the build quality on RV campers has gone downhill drastically in the last couple decades or so.

I've owned three towable RV's as an adult (family also had towable RV's when I was a kid too). We bought all three of the towable RV's we've owned brand new off the dealer lots, first one (early 2000's model Keystone), very few problems, the second one had more issues (early 2010's model Heartland) but it was a bigger more optioned camper, so I figured that was just part of it, but the most recent one (a 2023 model Forrest River) falls apart if you look at it wrong.
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There is not one RV that is built well. If there was, it would be too heavy to tow and so expensive that it would not sell.

I have a 2020 Grand Design and they are built just like all the others. Many screws are loose/stripped, skylights cracked because the screws were overtightened [they just added more screws and extra sealer], saw dust everywhere, etc. The Amish as far as I'm concerned have no pride in their work.

 

The reason RVs of the last few years seem to be of terrible build quality is because of COVID. There was such a high turnover rate (I keep tabs on the RV industry) that they literally had people coming in, working for a week, and leaving. So yes, at times, every screw, every wire, every panel was installed by a trainee. This went on for several years - it has gotten better as people have settled in and stayed, but it's not where it once was. Couple this situation with only two companies owning pretty much all RV manufacturers and counting pennies to give returns to investors, and you'll quickly see why things likely won't ever get back to where they were.

And as for the comment about the Amish - most of these factories are no longer staffed by a large number of Amish, if they have any at all. And the majority of them DO take pride in a job well done. I've hired them to do a LOT of work for me, and it is higher quality at a lower price than any other contractor. I just have to go get them sometimes.

 

Agreed, my first TH I bought new, was a Ra'gen, never had any issues other than the tires, Carlisle's that were rplc'd for free, bought 2 used 5'vers after the TH and never had any issues, fast forward to 2023 and we bought a "newer" '21 large 5'ver for kiddos to live in to get bills paid off.. that thing had issue after issue, did not miss it when I sold it, I did let them know of everything I had fixed or found, they were going to use it for same thing, and they had a carport I put it under when I delivered it, but they had looked at many before they bought mine, and said they all had issues.

 

Short story long - RV's are not made to be pulled down the road. I think it's been mentioned before on here. You wouldn't tow your house down the road would you???
As far as when all the quality went downhill, I'm in agreement with @Antonm23. It's been going down hill way before COVID. I've had 9 different RV's in the last 40 years. I've seen quality decline for several years. COVID didn't help that situation....

 

I have an annual reminder to check all the connections in the electronics (inverter, LiFePO₄, solar, etc) that I added to my trailer (aka The Rolling Earthquake). After the first few months they don't need much tightening. The screw terminals, such as found on most DIN rail mounted breakers, are the worst. I prefer a stud that I can put a nut on that uses a cable lug.

 

Good idea for sure. I'm going to start putting locktight on as many connections as I can as long as it doesn't affect the actual connection where power is running through.

 

To help (or at least make myself feel better about it anyway), I added shock absorbers to the axles for the purpose of trying to smooth out the ride and not rattle the cabinets off the wall (or rattle stuff loose in general) while driving.
Probably just pro-longs the enviable, but dying is enviable too, and we do lots of things to prolong the time before that happens


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In my opinion, smoothing out the ride on our less than perfect highways has many longevity benefits for our trailers.
Our old TT came with D rated tires and 5200 lb axles and springs, I upgraded to E tires early on and after still having tire issues upgraded to new 16” wheels with G rated Sailun tires, no more tire issues. After one axle bent we upgraded to new 7K axles and springs and found that the trailer contents actually suffered less rearranging while traveling.
When speccing out our new fiver we chose to go with the MorRyde independent suspension and electric over hydraulic disc brakes to hopefully help the trailer live longer and suffer less travel wear and tear. I also found a great deal on a full air ride Hensley BD5F hitch. The trailer’s ride from the suspension and hitch seems to be way more smooth than anything we have towed in the past, as an example I inadvertently left a plastic Solo cup half full of water in the microwave at home, after a 300 mile trip to VA my wife found the cup still sitting in the center of the microwave and still half full!

I will be giving my AC and DC system connections a good going over prior to the next trip out!

 

If RVs are not made to be pulled down the road why do they put wheels and a hitch on them? Think of the money they could save during the build. And we could buy them cheaper.

 

Because someone thought it'd be cool to pull their house to a new location.....

 

Tight connections create resistance and heat and are a MUST. I have 2 smoke detectors and test them upon arrival at each site.

 

How do you figure that? In my experience, a good solid connection reduces resistance and therefore there is less heat.