We have a 2010 keystone springdale that has electric slides, stabilizers and a tongue jack that is all distributed to keystone by Lippert products (LCI). Since taking the keys to the trailer in February and our first camp in May, our slide motor burnt out, our stabilizers are bowed and half burnt and snaping shear pins out and last night my tongue jack died. Why do they put the same jacking systems and components on a 12k lb trailer that they put on a 3k lb trailer. I love having to work on this every time I take it out.
Yes, I know it's under warrranty and the dealer will repair it, but what happens when the warranty runs out and the same stuff continues to break.... err.
2002 GMC 2500 HD Duramax
2010 Keystone Springale 303BHSSR
You trade it off or sell it and get a different brand. The real story is that although the parts may look the same they may have more capability. With new parts you should not have problems in the future. Take advantage of the warrentee doing that should cause feedback to the manufacture and perhaps cause improvement in future products.
HighCover wrote: We are in the process of trading up to a larger trailer. On the question of getting a slide mode or not, these kinds of stories are very concerning.
Despite what the internet would have you believe there are not rampant problems out there. I would not change my mind based on that.
I have beat the drum of poor quality in chassis, running gear, wheels, and tires many times…
And while hundreds not thousands of dollars could produce a much better quality trailer at manufacture… it has been argued that people won’t buy them and want the cheap price first…
Over time I am becoming convinced they are right in their argument… it turns out we are good at rants and raves but not willing to do much more than pay lip service to these complaints… we are willing to pay for the glitz and flair at purchase and for the legally borderline minimum quality on the unseen…
Yet when all is said and done we spend far more to find the elusive and magical tire or tire and wheel set (upward to $1500 sometimes), so we can brag about our great wisdom and superior knowledge… its just to bad and should be humbling that at purchase we lacked the fortitude to insist on the right tires and wheels and a chassis designed for what we intend to do with it from the start…
Modern fame rails so light and cheap they need to be cambered to support their own body weight without sagging, yet they know and we know we want to haul bikes, motorcycles, generators, and firewood behind the trailer, worse so much weight we would load the front as compensating ballast…
Not only is it what we want, we do as a aftermarket idea and proudly show it off, where the next guy sees it and goes on step farther until breaching safe limits is commonplace with the usual justification heard so often here… there was a very recent example of that pictured here…
To those that have offered sometimes spirited and quality debate… I submit…
you are right cheap is what we want and cheap is what we get…
Lippert built your chassis to the spec supplied to them, and I imagine the components used also meet those specs… continued slide problems could be in the slide mechanism , adjustment, or stressed chassis causing something to bind while operating… possibly using to much lift with the stabilizers is causing them to bow and contributing to your slide problems to…
I will really tick some off by saying this but, the RV industry is in dire need of some outside regulation because they will never do the right thing on their own, and they share the highways with every other vehicle that has to live up to intense scrutiny safety regulation…
Love my mass produced, entry level, built by Lazy American Workers, Hornet
Unfortunately you are largely correct. Barely able axles, tires, wheels, and the like. We consumers do not demand quality and in fact almost shun it for lower prices. Magazine racks and other foo foo******is more important to us than 8 inch frames, or E rated tires or axles up to the job or roofs that will not leak for a long time. There is almost no junk in the automobile industry, most cars/trucks will easily last over 100,000 miles with the original engines, and brakes, tires, and the like are mated to the vehicle. But, in the RV industry we too often take 'recreational quality' as the norm and then complain here about stuff not right. There are a few good trailers made but the buyer needs to seek them out and they typically cost more. The only regulation that is needed is the wallet. If consumers quit buying 'recreational quality' it would go away.
'05 Dodge Cummins 4x4 dually 3500 white quadcab auto long bed.
JJBIRISH wrote: And while hundreds not thousands of dollars could produce a much better quality trailer at manufacture… it has been argued that people won’t buy them and want the cheap price first.
It's not the RV industry but all different areas of manufacturing that are affected. I see today's flat screen TVs as disposable units that will be replaced much more frequently than the 27-year-old tube TV we had before we upgraded. Last week we had an appliance repair man look at our 3-year-old fridge that quit working. He said manufacturers used to put 10 or 20 year warranties on their compressors, but consumers demanded cheap so now new fridges usually only come with a 1 year compressor warranty.
As for the LCI tongue jack, I started to get problems with ours just a couple of weeks ago. It would work intermittently and sometimes spark when I turned it on. It wasn't the fuse because the light still worked. I couldn't figure it out at all because there was no pattern of when it decided to work and most of the time it didn't. I had it into the dealer and they found that the bolts were loose (even though the jack didn't move when I tried to push it) and that caused a faulty ground connection which caused it to work intermittently.
It's not the RV industry but all different areas of manufacturing that are affected. I see today's flat screen TVs as disposable units that will be replaced much more frequently than the 27-year-old tube TV we had before we upgraded. Last week we had an appliance repair man look at our 3-year-old fridge that quit working. He said manufacturers used to put 10 or 20 year warranties on their compressors, but consumers demanded cheap so now new fridges usually only come with a 1 year compressor warranty.
Ironic, funny and sad all at the same time… after a 20 year old abused speed queen washer quit for the second time I thought it was time for a replacement…
At between $700 to a $1000 dollars, I got around to asking about expected life…
Answer: if I took good care of it I could expect up to 7 years from it…
I repaired the old one for $75 and used it until I went full time…
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