By Chuck Woodbury
Gail and drove from Hershey to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, yesterday to shop at Costco. Many Amish live in the area. We’re from Seattle, and both of us have spent more time in the West than the East. Seeing the Amish and their horse-drawn carriages always gets our attention.
As we walked into the store, a buggy was headed toward a special covered parking area reserved for the Amish. The buggy goes straight in with the horse facing the back of the barn-like structure.
As one buggy pulled in another pulled out. It stopped at the busy street ahead then entered the traffic, taking an almost immediate right into McDonald’s, where it stopped at the drive-up window to order. A few minutes later it headed toward the pick-up window, but veered to the right into an out-of-the-way parking space. The Amish man in his straw hat and suspenders hopped out and walked into the restaurant. I figured McDonald’s probably didn’t like horses at its pick-up window. Horse sneezes probably wouldn’t please the health department.
##RVT812
Hi Chuck, LOVE your newsletter. There is something in every issue we can use. We have a 2004 Dutchstar that we bought used 3 years ago, and it works great. Some minor issues, but when you are moving your house over washboard roads, it is to be expected. Can you address winter travels? We may have to go from Washington to Indiana to be with a sick family member, and plan to stay there once we get there. The weather is getting colder, but we don’t want to winterize if we are going to travel. What should we do to protect our home other than keep the furnace and power on? Thanks!
If you are planning a purchase go to the factory and watch them being built. Take your time most manufactures are in the production mode not paying attention to QUALITY
We found you get what you pay for. Our first two RV’s was a Citation travel trailer and a fifth wheel Sunnybrook. We had issues with both including one instance of a water coupler coming loose and flooding the RV. Our third RV was a Newmar that we upgraded to and have had it for 12 years with only one issue caused by squirrels, otherwise it’s been an excellent unit. We currently have a Tiffin Phaeton motorhome being built and spending several years researching and talking to other Tiffin owners who have been extremely satisfied with their RV’s and the customer support given to them for any issues by Tiffin.
We purchased a 2015 Forest River Signature Ultra-lite 32′ Fifth Wheel 8289 WS. Here is a list of problems we have experienced so far:
1. Rubber roof not attached properly across front of unit which allowed air to lift the rubber up leaving behind large bubbles. If I hadn’t caught it when I did the entire roof would have been compromised.
2. In the pass-thru storage area they used a piece of aluminum foil duct work for the heat vent. I spent five dollars and replaced it with hard tin duct work.
3. They used regular nuts on the slide-out adjusters which came loose during vibration allowing the slide-out to shift in the opening.
4. Water connections (plastic) behind the Outside Shower Unit were simply tightened without the use of teflon tape or any other product to keep the connections from vibrating loose. The result, I had a major water leak and had to pull the outside shower unit and tighten the connections while on vacation.
5. Our pull-out sofa and dining table are held to the floor with wood screws which simply ripped out of the wood.
6. One of the glass globes from the lights over the center island crashed to the floor during one trip. I found that a nut that holds the globe in place vibrated loose during travel. No product, such as Lock-tight, was used to prevent this mess.
7. The electronics control panel warped during winter storage. This I cannot blame on the manufacturer but I had to use my extended warranty and pay a deductible to have it replaced.
My dealership fixed the roof and the electronics panel, I fixed the other problems. But when you have a brand new rig and the manufacturers’ representative tell you “you should check nuts and bolts periodically to make sure they are tight” angers me. I should not have to crawl around under my rig checking nuts for tightness when something as simple as a “locking nut” could prevent the problem.
One other matter I would like to point out. When I purchased the trailer it had Class “C” tires. I had one year old Class “E” tires on my used trailer. The dealership agreed, as part of the purchase, to remove my Class “C” tires and replace them with the Class “E” tires from my trade-in trailer. That may sound crazy but I knew those Class “C” tires were not going to hold up to the weight and the rough roadways.
Gulfstream BTouring used:
First year as new rv owners most of our trips were what we called shake-down weekend trips. Discovered that rv’s do leak and was told numerous times that most new ones will have this problem.
Second year we set off end of June for a 2-month, 5,000 mile “North to Michigan” adventure. Discovered that as big as we are some people cannot see us in the middle Lane and pull in front of us. We lost driver side headlight, damage to bumper & grill and next day driver side window fell down into door during a rain storm (Flextape & plastic table cover saved us). Again during rain…more leaks (window tracks). Our electric step was sporadic and then just died. Found that manually pulling & pushing worked just fine after utubing all possible fixes that didn’t fix. On the positive side the refrigerator/freezer performed awesomely….I am one who cooked every meal in our Rv (only ate out for lunches while moving). I had bought one of those monitors and constant temperate was always 40/5 (very important since I had loaded up with frozen black raspberries in Michigan).
Leaks were major problem & most annoying as residual effects affect resale value of unit.
Hi Chuck, Can you ask readers to rate their RV’s? We spent a day (9AM to 8PM) at Hershey looking at 5th wheels. We stopped for dinner on the way home and a young family waiting in line with us at the Red Robin asked if we came from the RV show. They have their third RV. The second was an upgrade and the third was to replace a one year old Forest River they said had so many problems they finally decided to get rid of it. They purchased a Grand Design and said they have not had a single problem in the first year of ownership. We own a 21 ft Chinook Premier that is our first RV and has been a learning experience. Having done most of my own repairs and installing numerous upgrades taught me what to look for and many of the questions that need to be asked. I learned by asking that “solar ready” means it has a plug somewhere for the portable panel and not prep for roof panels. You have made numerous comments about the decline in quality in recent years. We as consumers have a powerful voice in the social media. Manufacturers do listen when multiple people start describing common issues with their products in the social media. Ask your readers to rate their RV manufacturer and publish the results in the news letter. I value that young family’s opinion much more than any of the many sales people at Hershey who all claimed they are selling the best product. I would like to hear from the other readers of your newsletter what they think of their RV’s.
Thanks