ArcticFox275L
Alberta, Canada
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Joined: 03/22/2008
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How do you get your Manufacturer’s attention?
I own a 2006 Arctic Fox Silver Fox Edition 5th Wheel Trailer manufactured by Northwood Mfg. The fiver is one of the early Silver Fox Edition units using the new aluminum super structure built in 2005/2006. The outside wall is made of "Filon". I do have a problem with the unit and especially with the unresponsive Manufacturer who is doing nothing to correct it. During the 2-year warranty, vertical protrusions started showing up on the outside walls. They are present every 4 feet. My Dealer told me that this is a structural problem Northwood needs to deal with. Independent RV Service Centers tell me that these vertical protrusions are the result of a bad production of the walls and might eventually lead to delamination of the Filon. When I filed a warranty claim with Northwood Mfg., their Director of Service and Warranty told me by phone that this is nothing to worry about, that this is just cosmetic. He also told me that this was a production mistake they made with the early Silver Fox Edition units. He assured me that they would take care of it if it worsens. I asked him to put his assurances in writing. That was the end of our customer relationship. I did not get his assurances in writing neither did they make any suggestions how to correct this production mistake on my unit. I never heard from them again. I wrote numerous letters and emails to the Director of Services and Warranty, Northwood's Management Team, The Owner Mr. and Mrs. Nash, to no avail, nobody even bothered to answer my correspondence.
I was wondering if anybody has experienced same or similar vertical protrusions on their units whether they are manufactured by Northwood or not and what can and has been done about it, and if it has lead to delaminations? I am especially interested to find other Arctic Fox owners with the same problem. However, most important How do I get an unresponsive Manufacturer to live up to their responsibility?
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mcgillagorilla
north pole ak
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Joined: 01/02/2004
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boy your experiance is just opposite of what mine is. i had a problem with my desert fox and called matt at customer service. dial 1-800-ron-nash and tell them you want to talk to matt. the problem i had was with a lippert component and matt helped me to get it resolved to my expectation of being reembursed for repair. they have did things for me at the factory on a moments notice. i would suggest you call and try to get matt to take a look at the problem. hope this helps. go right to the horses mouth and get the word yourself.
bob mcgill
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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Joined: 12/01/2005
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mcgillagorilla wrote:boy your experiance is just opposite of what mine is. i had a problem with my desert fox and called matt at customer service. dial 1-800-ron-nash and tell them you want to talk to matt. the problem i had was with a lippert component and matt helped me to get it resolved to my expectation of being reembursed for repair. they have did things for me at the factory on a moments notice. i would suggest you call and try to get matt to take a look at the problem. hope this helps. go right to the horses mouth and get the word yourself.
yeah but, what did your problem cost them as compared to a complete wall rebuild?
bumpy
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Tundra2084
Kitchener Ontario Canada
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Joined: 09/06/2005
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We had a problem with our last units walls and like the OP we had lines every 4 feet down the sides of our unit. The Dealer called the manufacturer and they took the unit back and replaced all sides of our unit..Sounds great? Think again. When our unit was returned it looked GREAT on the outside and even the new molding on the inside looked really nice..except for the bedroom area. After sitting in our yard for 2 weeks I came back from a trip only to find that the front cap and sidewalls were pulled away from each other and there was a 1/2 to 1 inch gap between them in the seams on both sides. We now have a different unit because it was told to us that the frame had been damaged some how and we would NOT allow them to fix it we wanted what we sent in to come back to us in better not worse condition. They stood behind their product and we stood behind them seeings how this was our 4th Palomino product and we now have our 5th Palomino with No problems.
Be careful what you wish for. If its cosmetic like ours was you might want to learn to live with it and see what can be done or you could end up with something worse than when you sent it to them.
Frank & Dawn
2005 Ford Super Duty F250 Diesel 6.0L Fx4 Short Box supercab
2007 Palomino Thoroughbred F-829RK
Tucker and Sadie our 4 legged kids
Forest River Forums
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wayne_tw
South Dakota/Georgia
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Joined: 07/21/2007
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Northwood has a great reputation from many many owners taking care of problems. When one poster relates a problem out of character for any manufacturer, I would like to hear the rest of the story. The poster may have unreasonable expectations, operated out side of warranty procedures, or even caused a problem himself. In the OP's case, I suspect that the issue is purely cosmetic, and while he may well be unhappy with the looks, the manufacturer believes that the performance and longevity of the product is not affected. therefore a warranty claim is not appropriate.
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klenger
Tucson AZ
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Joined: 12/10/2004
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Is the unit actaully still in warranty?
2008 Tiffin Allegro 32BA FRED Class A Motor Home
2008 Honda CRV, Blue Ox, SMI DUO Stay-in-Play Brake
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donn0128
Pronounced Ore-gun
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Joined: 04/21/2005
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I would like to see pictures of this problem. From his description it actually sounds like condensation forming where the aluminum wall studs are and nothing more. I could be wrong though but would still like to see pictures.
Donn
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FormerBiker
Wildomar, Riverside County, CA 25OR624
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Joined: 12/14/2006
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I'm not going to counter what the OP stated but our experience with Northwood was far different.
We had some cosmetic issues on the interior of Lady Vixen that we suspected were dealer incurred. The dealer was giving us the run around and was blaming Northwoods for the delay and not wanting to send repair parts.
We called the factory and it so happened that Ron answered the phone. We explained the issue and he said he would see what he could do. He check the records and the dealer did not request any parts. A week later Mat called and asked if the dealer had taken care of our issue yet and we told him that we haven't heard from the dealer. Mat said the parts were shipped.
This is where it gets interesting. We called the dealer and they said something came in but didn't know what it was for. We took Lady Vixen in and they only had part of the order. They said the factory didn't ship everything. Talking to the service tech he said all the parts came in but he was told to use part of the order on another rig.
We told the dealer to reorder the parts and to install the ones they had. They said they would keep the trailer until the rest of the order came in. I said no way we are taking it now.
Two weeks later they said the rest of the parts were in. I went over from work and picked up the parts and installed them myself and told the dealer to pound sand.
This dealer no longer has the Northwood line.
BTW Check out the AF Nash Forum. Some factory techs monitor there and they are very helpful.
Lady Vixen and the Rat
2006 Arctic Fox 29-5T (Lady Vixen)
2002 K3500 w/8.1 "It's a gasser!"(The Rat)
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donn0128
Pronounced Ore-gun
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Joined: 04/21/2005
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klenger wrote:Is the unit actaully still in warranty?
Nope, one year warranty and this is a 2006 model.
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SH
Lynden, WA
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Joined: 09/27/2006
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I have the frame outlines on ours (2003) Hasn't been a problem other than the cosmetic thing. Would be nice to have perfectly flat and smooth walls but as long as everything works and it doesn't leak, I'm happy!
Best of Luck!
2003 Springdale 279
2007 Chev 2500 LMM Duramax/Allison
1993 Heritage
1989 Sporty
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