PegLW wrote:



We have a 2012 Open Range 345rls and are very happy with it! We've had no major issues of any kind and we've had it out on the road for over 11 weeks since picking it up in early April. Is it perfect? No, but compared to a lot of other brand complaints we see on here on the forum, it's pretty darn good as far as quality and features go. We ordered ours with every bell and whistle they offered when we ordered it in March and have been very comfortable and happy with everything.

We toured the factory in Shipshewana about 10 days ago and were very impressed with both the Open Range employees and the quality products and techniques they're using to build their rigs. They have had a learning curve and had some problems with some of their first models but they've learned from mistakes and are taking steps to correct them as they learn about them, even changing designs and features to make their product better and more reliable on a regular basis rather than waiting for a year or model change.

There is an Open Range owners forum: Open Range Owners You don't have to own one to join and ask questions or read the topics. It seems the vast majority of owners are very pleased with the customer support and service that Open Range offers.

Good luck with your decision!
Peg

ausie607 wrote:



With all due respect intended Peg, one should never place themselves in a place to advise or recommend a high value product based on vague or uninformed personal perceptions. Just because you visited the factory, that experience does not make you an expert to offer advice to someone who may spend $40K-$80K for that product that may turn out to be a complete piece of kaka.

There have been other posts in the past claiming great workmanship, wonderfull employees, great product produced when "We visited the mfg. plant". """WOW"""

The real problem is that the good intentioned enthusiasm on the part of the visitor to the factory is that on the most part " What do you know about building a RV (any type)".

Kind of comparing sh*t to pudding. The only advice we can or should offer is our own HONEST experience, like or dislike.

There are far TOO many $$$$ involved and everyone has their own favorite pudding flavor.

PegLW wrote:

Thanks for coming to my defense Lantley! I have no idea what provoked the attack from Ausie, and that's exactly what it felt like, but like you said I was only stating my opinion.

I never advised or even recommended that the OP should buy an OR! The OP asked about the specific rig that we own and all I did was share our experience after spending over 80 nights and towing it over 7000 miles in the last few weeks. I did not insist that the OP buy an Open Range nor did I even come close to claiming to be an expert on OR after touring the factory! I suggested they check out the owner's forum to learn more from other owners. I simply told them what I know, which is obviously considerably more than Ausie knows about the subject. He certainly made a lot of asinine assumptions.

My apologies for inserting this into the OP's original thread. I still wish them the best in their search for the perfect rig for their retirement travels!

Peg

tmac101 wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to notify you of the problems I am experiencing with my 2011, Open Range, model 398RLS. I purchased my vehicle from McClain’s RV Superstores in Corinth, Texas 76210 on July 29th 2010. We brought the unit home on July 30th and started having problems that day. Took the coach to the McClain’s FT. Worth Dealership next day (Sat). The problem was the rear jack. They replaced the entire switch assembly for all the jacks to correct the problem. They also found the battery that runs the refrigerator dead and the coach battery had to be jumped with battery cables to get it high enough so the convertor would charge it up, they changed out the inverter battery.
On Wednesday (8/4) we tried to use the water and the pump was burned up. McClain’s called Jesse Sees with On the road Mobile RV Repair (817-447-8197) to replace pump, all this work so far has been done without any paper work because they used parts out of another coach they had on the lot. As of date Mr. Sees has never been paid for his work or the pump. This was billed out of the Corinth Dealership.
The next two weeks, the living room slide wouldn’t come in and out without stopping and jumping, it left black glue on the carpet, one blind wouldn’t stay up, shower leaked, bedroom door won’t latch, sewer hose holder was broken, freshwater connection was very tight, the breaker for the leveling jacks kept on popping, the rear passenger jack wouldn’t go back in it’s traveling position, to fix and repair all these items took until Oct 7th, unit was dropped off Aug. 26th 2010.
On Oct. 12th 2010 the refrigerator quit working, took unit back to dealership and they bought a new refrigerator from Best Buy and replaced the original one. This went through Open Range. Picked up on Oct. 15th.
Nov. 3rd the sheer pin on the front stabilizer jack broke and took another full day to repair at the Ft.Worth Dealership.
I had to take the coach back Feb. 23rd so McClain’s could repair the oven and replace the rear landing jacks again. The oven wouldn’t stay lit and the jacks malfunctioned again. During this time we picked up the coach to go on a trip and the refrigerator kept on turning off, after working on the coach ourselves, going through McClain’s service dept. it was decided that the inverter was bad. We took the unit back to McClain’s Sat. March 19th and the repairs on the coach were completed on March 31st.
On April 5th the refrigerator turned off after about an hour of being shut off of power. The inverters job is to change 12volt power into AC power so the refrigerator will run, after a day of working on coach again through McClain’s Service dept. it was determined that the battery that does the function was bad, so McClain’s delivered a new battery to my location, so far this has corrected that problem.
We used the camper on June 9th-12th 2011 and when I tried to close the living room slide with the batteries (fully charged) the slide would not go in because the batteries didn’t have enough power to get the slide over the hump to let it go the rest of the way in, I had to hook back up to the generator to get enough power to get the slide back in. So I took it back to McClain’s again on Jun. 14th to get the slide cables adjusted (again). The coach as is was ready on Jun. 27th 2011, the slide will still not go in with battery power and the recommendation from Open Range was to always be hooked up to electricity to bring slide in and that won’t hardly work plus sometimes that’s hard to do.
These problems substantially hinder the use and value of our coach, not counting the amount of time and fuel it’s taken to take the coach in for repair (80 mile round trip) over a thousand miles so far.
We’ve just used the camper once since June because every time we use it something else goes wrong and we’re just scared to take it anywhere.

katfish wrote:

I recently saw one at a campground.. Talked to the owner and he had been overloaded with problems. The dealer was little to no help, luckily he was handy with fixing things... I told him about the Open Road Forum and that all his problems were listed on there and some had solutions...
We were looking at them too, but after all the problems I have read we have changed our mind..especially since the nearest dealer is about 3 hrs away...just not willing to stay on the road that much if I should need repair.