How far is your drive for good warranty service.

We have a great situation here. We can take it to the dealer that we bought it from which is 60 miles from home. If we feel like we need to we can take it back to the manufacturer being Tiffin which is 90 miles.

Warranty service can be done anywhere either at a manufacturer approved place or with factory approval at some other service....even if you are on opposite ends of the Country.

Warranty service dealer 1600 miles away. But that dealer never could handle the needed repairs. So we took it to the factory service center. About 1000 miles away. They do the job right, have the right equipment, the right tools and the know how to do the job right. Removing a slide out to replace the floor. Diagnosing intricate electrical issues, etc.

Beyond that I find a good independant shop does good work for the right price. Although, the simple stuff, I do at home.

We found after going to four different dealers for warranty repairs that we were not going to get warranty repairs done properly unless Marcus Lemonus CEO of Camping World was involved and that was 1600 miles from the original dealer.

We have heard from other owners of our brand RV that they have received good service at the factory in Goshen, IN. However, that is over 2100 Miles away.

Hmmm...

Dragging the fiver 40 miles Friday morning to an authorized dealer for a warranty repair.
We'll see how they do.

Believe it or not we have gone to Tiffin's plant in Red Bay,AL for warranty issues and anything that is too much for us to tackle. In these 11 years they have reworked the rear tail light mounting holes, repainted the front cap, replaced the slide out awnings, replaced the water pump, added a sat. dome, and various other tasks. Right now we are hoping to get down there to have our whole bathroom floor replaced because of a long term water leak we could not find until it was too late and our windshield is pulling loose from the gasket. Tiffin said they'd prefer to reset the windshield themselves rather than a glass shop just in case other issues crop up.

During our 4 visits to Tiffin they did a lot of it as "customer satisfaction" because most of it was way past normal warranty.

And besides that...we love to tour the factory every trip! We don't worry about the long drive (right now it is over 1000 miles) since we visit friends in that area anyways. The dealer we bought from is 1500 miles away and our nearest RV repair/dealer is 120 so we have no choice but to travel for service. When we pass through the area we have engine/chassis work done in Gaffney, SC at the Frieightliner facility or in a pinch we can get to Rapid City, SD (120 miles away) or Floyds Oasis shop in Scottsbluff, NE (75 miles away). We don't mind being at all being "out in the middle of somewhere wonderful"!

We do most minor stuff on the motorhome but as we age we have decided it's just time to switch off some of that stuff to the pros. However we have repaired furnaces, replaced shower dome and vent fan lids, replaced the main awning, replaced jack springs, replaced air filters, changed out batteries, worked on the roof AC/heat pumps,etc.

We aren't wimps my any means and have been doing all of the major wood work on finishing our barn home for the past 3 years (building interior walls, which are all entirely wood--no dry wall, making interior doors, building cabinets,etc.) so we are no strangers to hard work.

I think it's got to be up to each individual owner to decide just how much they are willing/able to do and how willing a dealer or manufacturer is willing to help out. However I think it helps for someone to visit the factory to really know how they are made so they can decide what is doable by an owner and what needs a professional's touch.

I'm well out of Warranty ('04), but I take it to the place where I bought it for maintenance/repairs. 2 miles from home. Unless its REALLY minor (like air in the tires), I don't do my own maintenance. I've found that it costs more to first fix what else I broke while trying to fix something, than just fixing what was broken to begin with.

About 5 miles. We bought our 5'er from a dealer that's 300 miles away. Closest dealers are 50-75 miles away. Never heard anything good about 2 of the 3 dealers. And the good one doesn't carry the model we were looking for. So I opted to go 300 miles. Well worth it IMO. The brand we bought will allow you to take your unit to any authorized repair facility with prior authorization. We are fortunate to have one near us. Only needed to go once so far.
I will do most small easy repair work myself so I am not too worried about not having a dealer near by. Also since most units only come with a 1 yr warranty by the time it runs out, normally not much has gone wrong. It's in the latter years after the warranty has run out that things usually go wrong.
Also the factory that built our 5'er is in our state, so worst case scenario it wouldn't be that far to go for something major.

Gemstone wrote:
I never drove anywhere for service while under warranty....I found a mobile repair service who could do the work as authorized by the factory...granted, nothing major.

Regards
Gemstone

X2

I never drove anywhere for service while under warranty....I found a mobile repair service who could do the work as authorized by the factory...granted, nothing major.

Regards
Gemstone