Every time I do some maintenance on my 04 Rockwood 8318SS, I find a new way that Rockwood seems to have figured out on how to improperly assemble something.
The rails holding my grey and black tanks were slightly short, so the self-threading screws were pulling out. I had to put a 1/4" spacer and bolts with nuts to fix it. Eventually the screws would have pulled out completely and the tank would have fallen out.
There are numerous areas where very large holes were drilled for a few wires or tubes.
Somebody should buy Rockwood a tape measure and level, as no window blind is mounted even close to level in the trailer.
The wood front trim on the bunk bed slide fell off becuase it was too wide and dragged on the rug. Having only a few screws barely into the wood didn't help.
The superslide sags so much in the center that I had to install a vertical support between the dinette and the sofa so that the slide would seal aginst the wall instead of hang below it in the center.
After the front window leaked, I removed it to re-seal it. The window cutout was so oversize that the window flange barely covered the hole. The cutout itself looked like it was done without any guide lines freehand with a sabre saw.
The biggest horror stroies are when I removed the underside covering. Wires stretched tight through sharp-edged holes in the frame without a grommet. Freshwater tank vent tube hanging below the tank which filled with water and no longer acted as a vent. The heating pad for the tank was placed directly above a support, crushing the heating pad. Sharp kinks in the propane lines. This could go on and on.
Rockwood should have sold the trailer as a "trailer kit" because I could have assembled the trailer myself in the time in has required to fix the glaring errors in their assembly.
I am afraid to look behind any panel or above the underside cover that I haven't look at before.
My Keystone Raptor is much the same. The engineering is good, the materials are good (as good as they can be and still be light weight), but the assembly? putting everything together at the factory? That's a different story. There seems to be no quality control, no work inspection process, and the assembly workers must be minimum wage laborers with no respect for their own craftsmanship. There--- I feel much better now.
I'll beat this horse until it's dead; several times over:
As long as we insist on getting the `best deal' and seeing how `low' the dealer will go we will get shoddy materials and workmanship.
I wonder how good the units are that are made by New Horizons RV that makes semi-custom rigs.
Dick_B
2003 SunnyBrook 27FKS
2003 3/4 T Chevrolet Suburban
Equal-i-zer Hitch
One wife, two bikes (both Electric Schwinn's with motor assist)
Welcome to "The Wonderful World of RV'ing"... And ya know what??? It was the same way 25 years ago too
I'll go one better than Dick_B above... As long as we keep buying this "junk" there will be no improvement in quality - we have only ourselves to blame
Les
2000 Ford F-250SD, XLT, 4X4 Off Road, SuperCab
w/ 6.8L (415 C.I.) V-10/3:73LS/4R100
Banks Power Pack w/Trans Command & OttoMind
2006 Nomad 3150 Double Slide (Bunkhouse)
Hensley Arrow
Jordan Ultima 2020
We did visit the Forest River plant where our TT (and probably subcamper's) was built, and were actually rather pleasantly surprised at how well they do it, considering they crank out somewhere around 20 a day (or did last year, anyway). We did notice that basically everything - like cutting holes for the windows - is done freehand.
One of the trailers being assembled that day was a new floorplan, and in its early stages there were several workers carefully measuring and remeasuring for holes & placement of cabinets, etc. However, on the models they were used to doing, they weren't using tape measures or other things, just doing things by eyeball & feel.
Forest River does seem to listen to its customers, though, and if they have heard multiple complaints about some aspect of the trailer's design or construction, they change it. Granted, that doesn't help subcamper much, unless he buys a new trailer.
We've had a few issues with our trailer (see sig - it's a twin to the Rockwoods) but so far nothing as severe as that with the body construction. We also aren't really DIYers and haven't taken off the underside cover to look in there. (Perhaps ignorance is bliss. )
Last week on vacation, we toured the Airstream factory in Ohio. Much of the general layout is the same - moving the unit from one section of the factory to another as each aspect of the trailer is built. They build them from scratch there (Forest River has separate factory locations for putting walls and furniture together, for example) and we were told it takes 9 days total to build an Airstream. Each rivet is put in by hand, by TWO workers at a time, one on the inside & one on the outside, with careful measurements on the rivet spacing - just one example. After this tour, I can easily understand why Airstreams are so much more expensive than other trailers of comparable size. (High-end materials too - Corian countertops and hickory cabinets, etc.)
Which brings me to Dick's point, with which I agree. You don't get something for nothing in this world (much as we all would love to). If we want our campers affordable, we have to be willing to sacrifice some quality. I have no doubt subcamper could better assemble his trailer in the time he has spent on repairing it - but he's probably spent way more time than the total it took to build it in the first place (we estimate 3 days or so for a Forest River.)
2007 Toyota Tundra CrewMax 5.7L V8 w/ tow pkg, Equal-i-zer
2008 Flagstaff 831RLSS
Sorry to hear about the deplorable construction methods used when they built your RV. Unfortunately, it is an industry wide problem. Most RVers are unaware of the many defects hidden within their rig. Being handy with tools is a plus since you can do the repairs yourself and often times better than most RV dealerships.
After wintering two years in our 22 ft Summit TT (entry level) we decided we needed more space so started looking at new trailers in our price range and mostly found junk. Then my wife spotted a 1997 Holiday Rambler 29. It was in immaculate condition except for the 10 year old carpet in it. The much higher quality was immediately apparent. We bought it for less than half the cost of some new junk and it has served us well for the last two winters. I guess my point is that, at least to a degree, we get what we pay for. Looked at new H.R. TTs last fall and it would have cost $60,000 to replace ours (its new cost was $25,000) and the quality could not match our now 12 year old trailer.
We bought a lightly used 2006 Starcraft tt in early February. I've really been impressed with the fit and finish of the unit and I've not needed to do any repairs other than normal maintenance. I'm also impressed with how well insulated it is and how little the AC runs while I'm temporarily living in it in Alabama. We also found that a little 1500w ceramic heater on its lowest setting keeps it very warm inside in the winter. We only run the furnace long enough to make sure that it stays in operating order.
And I've been amazed at how well the hot water works. We've had two persons take showers one right after the other and we never run out of hot water. Having one 35 gal. black and two 35 gal. grey tanks is a plus too.
It's an RKS 2500 and we love it.
* This post was
edited 07/28/09 01:46pm by whjco *
Bill J., Lexington, KY
2006 Starcraft 2500RKS 25' Travel Trailer
2000 Excursion Ltd. 7.3 PSD
I get the sentiment that the consumers quest for the "best deal" and "low" price encourage short cuts at the factory. I personally think that is only part of the problem, but it is definitely drives the market. I also get the extension of that point, that consumers continually buying "junk" only encourages it more.
But some of the quality issues have no excuse...it is one thing that because of cost pressure, the cabinetry is cheap, or the stereo is crappy. It is another thing when something just doesn't work. It gets to be a point where the manufacturers aren't competing against the consumer because they are demanding a price, but rather they (the manufacturers and dealers) are competing against each other because they want to make a sale.
Dick_B and LAdams points, while coming from different angles, are probably illustrated by the fall of Sunline RV...I had always understood them to be a "quality" manufacturer, and while I can't profess to be an expert at recognizing RV quality, I have to say that there was always a feel of "quality" when walking into a Sunline trailer. I had always coveted a Sunline, but my TV at the time couldn't handle the weights of the models we were looking at when we bought our first trailer. I had always said that was going to be my "next trailer" when we got a bigger tow vehicle though. I was saddened to hear they went out of business.
We are picking up our new trailer on Thursday - a Fun Finder XT-245...wish us luck! I am curious as to how it will shake down. We had good luck with our first trailer (a Forest River Surveyor), I never had to bring it in for service - but there were several items that I fixed on my own that had me wondering if anyone at the plant was paying attention! But overall, I was satisfied...hoping our second trailer goes smoothly.
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