Greentreena wrote:

I've seen a few RV that just arrived from the factory, wow they can look rough. The 5th wheels looked so bad I thought the dealership shouldn't have let me see them as my first impression was so bad.

Bandaid wrote:

I've had similar experiences with trailers I have oredered. It disappoints me that trailer manufacturers allow units to leave the factory knowingly needing repairs before the customers dealership gets the unit. There really is no creditable excuse to release a trailer from the factory until all cosmetics and systems have been thoroughly tested and inspected. It just points out the lack of quality control many of these manufacturers build to. It is almost a mentality of we build it you deal with the aftermath, because we already have your money!
My wife and I presently have a 2011 Coachmen North Ridge and are going through similar issues. The unit was ordered at the Hershey Pa. show last fall. It took me three weeks to get the buld date for the unit, as I wanted to go to the factory to film the unit in production. I was given the start date, but when I arrived, the unit was alreday 2/3 built! Fortunately, I caught three major things that needed correction. Two deletions and one add on item. When the trailer was delivered to us, the bedroom decor was not what we ordered. The dealer had to pull the bedroom decor out of a lot trailer and install it in ours before we could leave to come home!
The trailer was brought home in November and winter stored until mid January, when we left for a three month trip south. First thing to crop up, a flawed alluminum wheel. It had a pin hole in it and required airing up every morning! The company replaced the wheel, but it was the aggrevation of having to find a dealership on the road that would handle the exchange of the tire and wheel.
Next, the wrap around wood under the interior steps split. Once the broken wood was removed, it was obvious there was NO framing behind it. I made my own and delivered it to the dealership that is repairing it.
The OEM matress has also been exchanged by the matress manufacturer. The original was supposed to be a "pillow top premium matress", according to the literature. Well, it was niether premium, nor pillow top! The fact is, it was the cheapest piece of junk they could have put in the trailer. The interior of it was nothing more than dacron batting layered up to fill the space between the cover material. No inner springs, and no foam pillow top!
The morning we left to drive home from South Carolina, the black tank valve jammed in the OPEN position. Another well engineered snafu, as the valve is inside the enclosed belley and is cable acctuated! No way to do a quick service and according to the dealer doing the repairs, the valve and cable have to be ordered from Coachmen to get the correct cable length! You can bet an additional manual slide valve will be installed at the cap, as an emergency shut off!
Then there is the issue of the basement cabinet style access doors with the new "slam latches". First, there is no way to hold the doors open. When the wind blows and you are trying to get something out of the basement, the doors are constantly closing, or hitting you in the behind! Of a more pressing issue, they don't seal! When it rains, the basement carpet gets soaked. The dealer doing the repairs made a last ditch effort to fix the problem after calling the factory for help. He had tried a couple of things and nothing worked to keep the water out. His comment last week, if the factory can't help, I donn't know what else to do! That's great news!
There are some other irritating things that will be fixed as soon as I have the trailer back from the warranty repairs. I'm fortunate to both have the tools and knowledge to do the work, rather than having to pay and wait for a dealership to do these things, but it still bothers the heck out of me that the manufacturer did not do a better job building the trailer. We pay a lot for these trailers and should expect to get a quality product.

Bandaid