Manufacturers - How Do You Answer This

Gjac wrote:
I think sometimes we confuse quality issues with design problems. To me most of the problems that I have seen are design problems. For example when the bottom of my draws fell apart I noticed that they were stapled together. Which is what the drawing called for. They were stapled correctly but did not hold. I replaced the staples with screws that was a better design and that fixed the problem. When my auto park system failed 3 times it was a problem with how the system was designed not poor quality of the workers that assembled it. Older MH's were prone to delaminations. When Mfg's recognized this and started using better adhesives most of this was eliminated by mid 2000. My friends Tiffen had the corners of his roof fail by design. It was redesigned and fixed in Red Bay. Most of the Mods that folks do are improved designs. Such as headers, CAI, sway bars,suspension mods etc. Yes there are workers that do not follow the drawings or Mfg instructions when applying caulk, screws, etc. I think the bulk of the issues are with the engineering design/processes, rather than poor quality of the hourly workers.

Without being specific, I've seen some very poor quality decisions on a number of rigs. The first is fiberglass backed luan. That stuff will delaminate; just a matter of time. Even before Azdel, there was always aluminum sheet metal and other finishes. It is pretty obvious that this was made to be a self-destruct system. Yes, it looked the part when dragged off the dealer lot, and better than the corrugated aluminum, but it pretty much ensures that in five years, the rig will be in the town dump.

Of course, there is the fact that some RV makers underspec the axles/frames they use, then point the blame to the frame maker when things crack.

I would pay 10-20% more for a rig that was not specced at the absolute cheapest level out there. If a slide-out is so large that it pushes the design spec with the Schwintek mechanism, redesign it or spec another mechanism that can handle the weight. Instead of pot-metal RV door handles, spec automotive grade ones that can last decades.

If I had to point to how to do things "right", I can point to how European rigs are built. A number of them are actually glued together with high-strength adhesives and don't use a single screw for the outside box. The roof is a one piece fiberglass structure that is cupped over the sides and front, then glued into place. They do not have water intrusion issues with those... even in merry old England where it almost always is some degree of wet.