Members RV Travel Newsletter for Sunday, February 18, 2024

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February 18, 2024
Issue 1144
Members edition

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 Cover story 

More about Thor’s warranty “scheme”

By Chuck Woodbury

Our story last Sunday by RV lemon law attorney Ron Burdge was an eye-opener to most of our readers. The story titled “Federal judge calls Thor’s warranty a scheme to deprive RVers of rights,” explains how Thor Motor Coach includes unenforceable terms in its warranties to intimidate RV buyers. A Federal Court judge in California called the practice a “scheme that was contrary to California public policy.” Read Ron’s article here and tell anyone you know planning to purchase an RV to read it.

Imagine your new RV is a lemon

You tried everything to get it fixed. Months pass, maybe even a year, the RV in the dealer’s repair shop much of the time. Alas, in the end it’s unfixable, a lemon. So you ask for your money back. The dealer says no. He explains that if you want to sue you’ll need to do so in Indiana (where most RVs are made). He points out that you agreed to that when you signed your warranty contract. You check on that. Yes, you did agree. It was in the fine print that you (and most buyers) never read. It turns out, the wording is just hot air that Thor hopes the buyer will believe.

Last month in California, Federal Judge James Lorenz said that Thor’s warranty verbiage could cause some consumers to file their case in Indiana and later learn that by doing so they lost the rights that California law guaranteed them when they bought their new Thor RV. Indiana, by the way, is where nearly all RVs are made and its courts tend to be favorable to RV manufacturers.

This is a big story…

Thor is the largest RV manufacturer in the world. Among its brands: Airstream, Starcraft, Tiffin, Keystone, Jayco, Entegra Coach, and twice that many more.

… but a non-story to the RV industry press

To date, none of the RV industry publications have reported a word about this. Ditto for other RV consumer websites. Why? Is this not big news?

When I asked RVBusiness executive editor Rick Kessler if his magazine would cover this he responded, “Probably not.” RV News editor Chris Freeman said, “We won’t hop in on this now for a couple reasons. In general, we try not to weigh in on court cases until there’s a final resolution. That’s because there’s a bunch of patent fights that go on where someone wins, then loses on appeal, then wins on another appeal, etc. etc. We try to stay out of the middle of those disputes.”

In other words, no.

I suggest to you that the real reason these leading trade publications will ignore this important news is that Thor is an advertiser or potential advertiser of theirs and any negative coverage of the company could cost them Thor’s business. Any publication that is supported primarily by advertising faces similar challenges on a regular basis.

At RVtravel.com we accept advertising, mostly from small companies, but we do not rely on it. Our readers increasingly support us with voluntary subscriptions, which keeps us going. It allows us to write what we want without fear of advertiser reprisals. Thor can’t punish us by canceling its advertising because it has none to cancel.

I AM PROUD that we brought this story to our readers’ attention. It will save many RV buyers time, money and grief. Can you imagine buying a new RV that proves to be unusable and not being able to get your money back? Or having to drive to Indiana to sue for your money in courts that tend to favor RV manufacturers? It’s happening!!

Others react

RV lemon law attorney Steve Lehto reacted to our article in a video that has now topped 109,000 views. Steve also discusses this in a previous video titled “Here is Why You Must be INSANE to buy an RV These Days.” Izzy and MJ from Endless RVing also weighed in with a video critical of Thor after reading our article.

To our voluntary subscribers (that’s you!): Thank you for helping us continue to report on important matters like this so our articles aren’t muted to please commercial interests. If it’s been awhile since you contributed, would you please consider donating something again. Any amount is appreciated. Thank you.

Yesterday’s top news stories
IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM

• RV repair delays soar despite sales slump. Industry grapples with bottlenecks
• Highway guardrails put to the test: Shocking results revealed as vehicles blast right through. RVers beware
• RV boondocking: A plan to preserve a threatened lifestyle
• Colorado’s BLM rules could hit RVers hard

Read yesterday’s Latest News For RVers newsletter here | Back issues

Today’s RV review…

The Ember RV Touring Edition 24MSL—The trailer that has my heart a-beatin’

By Tony Barthel
Today’s RV review is of the Ember RV Touring Edition 24MSL. This is a new floor plan for the company and a trailer that almost can’t be pigeonholed into a specific category. …

There are so many little details in how this trailer is built and designed that I think it’s absolutely worth seeking out if you’re in the market for something like this.

Click here to learn all about it

RV Service Centers and Repairs Report

Dealership owner tells RVer “Rig needs thousands of dollars in work”… It didn’t

In this column, we summarize some of your emails and comments regarding RV service centers and repairs. This week, Nanci Dixon shares some of your RV service horror stories, tips, and a recommendation. One incident regarded a large RV shop where the RVer was told by the shop owner that the RV had major leaking issues, but the service techs explained the situation differently. However, even though the RV didn’t have leak issues before that incident, somehow it developed five leaks right afterwards. Hmmm. One RVer learned the expensive way that Good Sam isn’t accepted at as many places as expected (so be sure to double-check first). More advice on finding good service locations, and suggestions to learn to DIY. Plus a recommendation for a good service shop in Indiana.

Click here to read

UPDATED WEEKLY: A list of RV dealers, service centers, and mobile techs as recommended by our readers. Click here.

What the letters and numbers mean in RV model designations

By Tony Barthel
What do RV model designations mean? What exactly is a 1905S, 212RBE or a 22MLSWE? We recently wrote about the Flagstaff Micro Lite 25DK, but what does DK mean and is it 25 feet long? Do these numbers have any meaning or are they completely nonsense? We have the answers.

Can you figure out what’s wrong with this through-frame slide-out?

By Andrew Herrick
A few months ago, I was called out to adjust an electric through-frame slide-out. The customer reported that the room appeared to be cocked to one side. “Not too difficult,” I thought. … But when I showed up, the numbers weren’t lining up—literally. Can you figure it out from Andrew’s pictures?

Civil forfeiture: The dark side of RV travel. Are you at risk?

By Randall Brink
The call of the open road attracts us all—those endless highways, changing landscapes, and the promise of new discoveries. But what if those dreams turned into a legal nightmare? Civil forfeiture is a little-known threat that could turn your RV trip into a battle to keep your cash, valuables, or even your beloved home on wheels. Read this eye-opening report.

Highlights from this week’s RV Daily Tips Newsletter

• An RV tech’s 7 tips to diagnose RV furnace vibration
• Ways to be a more attentive RV driver
• Believe it or not, tennis balls come in very handy for daily tasks around the RV
• Boondocking RV bathroom tips: Stay another day (or week) off-grid
• Up your RV cooking game with these RV microwave magic tricks

NOT RECEIVING OUR DAILY TIPS NEWSLETTER YET? You’ll love it! It’s filled with RV tips and tricks, RV maintenance advice, cool gadgets, trivia, a poll question, a joke, websites we love, recipes, and much more. Read the latest issues here then sign up here. Easy unsubscribe if you don’t like it (but we know that won’t happen).

Very wacky RVs seen in Walmart parking lots

By Sandy Sturm
I dare you to travel at least 500 miles without a stop at a Walmart. If for nothing else, it can be great entertainment, both inside and out. Here are a few of the wacky RVs you might see in the parking lot. Check these out.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary: An RV destination and campground for animal lovers

By Nanci Dixon
An RV Travel reader, Karen Gunderman, wrote us about an amazing animal sanctuary located in Kanab, Utah. She wrote, “Have you always longed for a furry companion to write about for RVtravel.com? Visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in sunny, beautiful Kanab, Utah, to adopt a forever friend. They offer free tours, a gift shop, rental cabins, a campground, and a delicious cafe overlooking the Red Rock Canyon.” Continue reading. You may just want to put this wonderful sanctuary on your itinerary.

An essay on aging: “I’m being held together with Velcro and elastic”

By Nanci Dixon
Yesterday I realized that we are being held together with Velcro and elastic. No, I don’t mean the RV. I mean us. I wasn’t prepared for this part of aging. The sore hips, the bad back, excruciatingly painful feet. My husband’s once-broken ankle aches in the unusual Arizona rain. Why didn’t someone tell me the honest truth about aging? Why do I feel like I am 40 and my body says 100? Is this a bad joke?… Read more. Can you relate?

Readers’ RVing Mistakes

Nobody tells newbies dump stations don’t come with hoses! “I carefully parked with my drain by the hole, mentally calculated the trajectory, and…”

In this column, we are sharing some of the not-so-brilliant things we, the RVtravel.com staff, and you, our readers, have done while RVing. In this week’s installment, Nanci Dixon summarizes some of your stories including some packing tips learned by a newbie thanks to gravity; maybe that “perfect” parking spot isn’t so important after all; another water spigot bites the dust (have you run over one?); the “attack” of the mustard jar; and the challenge of dumping the tanks with no hose. Oops!

Click here to read

Reader Poll

What (besides location) usually determines your campground choice?

Please let us know. After you click your response, you’ll see how others have responded. Feel free to leave a comment.

Tell us here

POPULAR POLL FROM THIS PAST WEEK
We asked: Do you use special RV toilet paper or a standard brand from the supermarket? See how more than 2,100 other RVers responded.

 NEW! Outstanding but affordable RV parks

In this new column, we’ll share information taken from our Facebook group, Outstanding but affordable RV parks. From time to time, we’ll include our staff’s favorite affordable campgrounds, too. We hope to provide real options for folks looking to RV in reasonably priced, well-kept RV parks all across the country.

Click here to see this week’s picks for outstanding but affordable RV parks.

Ask Dave

Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook”.

This past week’s questions that Dave answered:

• What kind of battery, inverter, or generator do I need for a few nights “off grid” in camper?
• A follow-up with more great tips on plastic shower repair
• At times my slideout only retracts partway and stops. What should I do?
• How can I protect my RV from sweltering heat? I hear tarps trap moisture
• Does driving with the RV refrigerator running impact efficiency and safety?

Click here to see more questions for Dave.

DON’T MISS ANY RV REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE ARTICLES! Every Tuesday we issue a free weekly email digest of all our articles from the past week on the subject. Sign up here for RV Repair and Maintenance Tips (and check out all our other reports and newsletters).

In the RV Shop with Dustin

Dealing with water intrusion and damage behind RV decals

By Dustin Simpson
Water intrusion is a common concern for RV owners, and one of the areas where it can sneak in unnoticed is behind decals. These decorative stickers not only add personality to your RV but can also become a potential entry point for water. Here are some tips to address and prevent water from getting behind RV decals.

Continue reading

RV Gadgets and Gizmos

No gadget reviews this weekend, but make sure you read Thursday’s brand-new edition of our Great RV Accessories Newsletter. You’ll surely get your gadget fix there! Not subscribed to it? Sign up to receive it in your inbox every other Thursday.

Ghost Town Trails

Burro Schmidt Tunnel—A strange obsession featured by Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

By Dave Helgeson
The Burro Schmidt Tunnel is this month’s featured ghosted place in Ghost Town Trails. I chose Burro Schmidt Tunnel as it is very near last month’s featured location of Bickel Camp. Not only is the proximity of the two sites convenient for explorers today, but it also leads to a friendship between Burro Schmidt and Walt Bickel, featured in last month’s Ghost Town Trails. Both were a bit eccentric.

Click here to explore

RVing With Dogs

RVers’ unique ways to solve the campground dog fencing problem

By Gail Marsh
About a month ago, I wrote an article about the best dog fencing options for RVers. Several folks at our current Florida campground have dogs and as I walk around the large RV park, I’ve noticed how inventive RVers solve the dog fencing problem.

Click here to read some great tips

RV HORROR STORIES: Watch this video to see some of the totally garbage work RV techs are doing… Watch it and weep (or scream)!

Video of the day

Grand Design’s frame flex controversy explained

By Cheri Sicard
In the video below, Jason Epperson from RV Miles (one of our readers’ picks for best RV YouTube channel) explains the latest drama that’s spurning countless lawsuits: the Grand Design flex frame controversy. … It seems Grand Design has a frame issue. To be fair, their frames are manufactured by Lippert, so it is a partnership. Apparently, it is still up in the air how well Grand Design is standing behind its products.

Click here to watch

How to wear a cowboy hat

There are customs and rules you need to respect when you wear a cowboy hat, or if you get around a cowboy and his hat. Read Len Wilcox’s take on this, or listen to him read his essay.

RV Tire Safety

Why do tires fail? Tire expert explains two basic reasons

By Roger Marble
As an actual Tire Design and Quality Engineer, I know from my 50 years of tire experience, including 25 with a primary focus on failed tire forensic inspection, that tires fail from two basic causes.

Read what they are here

Recipe of the Day

Date Night Pork Chops

by Tam D. from The Dalles, OR

We will definitely be serving these pork chops on our next date night. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy and delicious this was. The pork chops are tender and juicy and nestled in a rich and flavorful sauce. Onion, chicken bouillon, and dill add depth of flavor to the sauce. Yogurt gives the sauce a nice tang and creaminess. We served the pork chops over egg noodles that soaked up the lovely sauce. If you need a simple and satisfying meal, give this pork chop dinner a try. We used boneless pork chops, but bone-in would also work.

Get the recipe here

Readers’ Pets of the Day

“We bought an LTV Wonder RTB (Rear Twin Bed) so that Rory and Tilly (Miniature Australian Shepherds) could accompany us on our travels. Since we bought the RV so they could join us, we figured we’d name the RV after them. RTB now stands for the Rory Tilly Bus, or RT Bus.” —Paul MacKinnon

• RVing with Dogs group on Facebook. You’ll love it.

Brain Teaser

Shown above are four men buried up to their necks in the ground. They cannot move, so they can only look forward. Between A and B is a brick wall that cannot be seen through. They all know that between them they are wearing four hats—two black and two white—but they do not know what color they are wearing. Each of them knows where the other three men are buried. In order to avoid being shot, one of them must call out to the executioner the color of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot. They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 10 minutes to fathom it out. After one minute, one of them calls out.

Which one of them calls out? Why is he 100% certain of the color of his hat?

(Answer below.)

Do you have a brain teaser you think we should use? Send it to us here.

Trivia

An average human body has 60,000 miles of blood vessels; they’d stretch around the earth twice if laid end to end. Every day, your heart pumps about 1,800 gallons of blood through your blood vessels. Over the course of a lifetime, this vast system carries about a million barrels of blood throughout the body. From the National Institute on Aging

Sunday funny

Watch this “Camping Stereotypes” video sponsored by Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s and get ready to crack up!

Resources

Best Club for RVers: Escapees. Click here to learn more or join. Endorsed by RVtravel.com.

What does financing an RV for 20 years REALLY mean?
In case you missed this article the first time around, here it is again. Important! Click here.

Stuck with a lemon RV? Contact Ron Burdge, America’s premier RV lemon law attorney.

The Best RV Trip Planner Apps and Tools. Everything you need to help plan your trip is here.

Did you miss last week’s RV Travel?

Read it here | Back issues

Brain teaser answer:

C calls out that he is wearing a black hat. Why is he 100% certain of the color of his hat?

After a while, C comes to the realization that he must answer. This is because D can’t answer, and neither can A or B. D can see C and B, but can’t determine his own hat color. B can’t see anyone and also can’t determine his own hat color. A is in the same situation as B, where he can’t see anyone and can’t determine his own hat color. Since A, B, and D are silent, that leaves C. C knows he is wearing a black hat because if D saw that both B and C were wearing white hats, then he would have answered. But since D is silent, C knows that he must be wearing a black hat as he can see that B is wearing a white hat. [Whew.]

RVtravel.com All Star Team

Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Associate editor: Diane McGovern. Senior editors: Russ and Tiña De Maris. Senior writers: Nanci Dixon, Gail Marsh, Dave Solberg and Cheri Sicard. Contributors: Roger Marble, Dave Helgeson, J.R. Montigel, Randall Brink, Dustin Simpson, Dale Wade, and Tony Barthel. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen. Social Media staff: Gary Pratt. Mascots: Archie and Astor “the Disaster” 

Everything in this newsletter is true to the best of our knowledge. But we occasionally get something wrong. We’re just human! So don’t go spending $10,000 on something we said was good simply because we said so, or fixing something according to what we suggested (check with your own technician first). Maybe we made a mistake. Tips and/or comments in this newsletter are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of RVtravel.com or this newsletter.

RVtravel.com is a participant in many affiliate programs, including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Regardless of the potential revenue, unless stated otherwise, we only recommend products or services we believe provide value to our readers.

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