Quality...

jmtandem wrote:

I know many of you others have already had this epiphany on the poor quality of the motorhomes, trailers and campers being produced today. But I continue to be astounded at just how bad the workmanship is!

I jumped in a couple of Palomino campers today, just out of curiosity, and saw things that just made me cringe.

I get it - it's about quantity over quality, maximizing margins.

But, jeebus - where's their pride?
Their self-respect?

It reminded me of the GMs, Fords and Chryslers coming off the line in the mid 70's. Garbage. Pure, unadulterated junk.

I'm not sure why there are no imports giving our manufacturers a run for the money, but I think our manufacturers should thank their lucky stars that there's no Toyota or Honda equivalent out there.

Frankly, I'd be personally embarrassed to tell someone I worked at these places.

There is RV quality, most folks do not want to pay for it. Look at Airstream and Provost and you see quality. How many do you see at camp or on the road? Some of this "the terms RV and quality should not be used in the same sentence stuff" gets old. You want RV quality it is out there. Mention Airstream to anybody wanting a trailer and most often the retort is 'it costs too much'. So the customer goes looking at the less expensive stuff and then complains of quality issues. Who is to blame, the manufacturer that makes the RV's the people want and will pay for or the consumer that insists on paying as little as possible and then has an inflated expectation of what they are getting. Ridiculous really!

And considering that is is amost impossible for one family to wear out a Prevost or an Airstream (Airstream maintains that about 70 percent of all ever made since the mid 1930's are still on the road) our perception that quailty in terms of value does not include longevity.

We bought our TT new in 2006 after looking at several brands we settled on a HR Presidential, in the nine years we have had it we have had almost zero problems with it.
We did have to replace the slide topper and window awning, we opted to rip up the carpet and replace with laminate, we did have a broken plastic thingy that holds the closet sliding door closed.
The first four years we used it maybe four full weeks out of the year, since then we take it to Florida for six months each winter, we have a few weeks where we are either at Myrtle Beach or Cape Cod so it does get plenty of use and we honestly have no complaints.
After all that I read here on a regular basis I can only conclude that we are very fortunate to have this TT but....
The main reason we chose this one is my parents had a Holiday Rambler vintage 1969, they traveled the whole country in it, spent many winters in Florida with it, when my father passed in 2005 the old TT was taken up to a northern lake where it sat for family enjoyment for a few more years.
It never leaked, the only thing that was ever replaced was the carpeting, it still had the original stove and fridge.
But what's out there now I think we'll keep what we have.


Sher