Terrible quality!

Planning wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Been tremendously disappointed in my AF as well. Super sloppy workmanship.

What I also find disconcerting is the actual sales model that the RV industry has created whereby a certain level of incompetence is considered normative and acceptable. Included within that is the ethic (which is undoubtedly unethical) that the owner should be expected to be “handy” as an attribute of ownership.

Hogwash.

To add to your sales model and ethics you could also say deception. As an example.....On the back page of most Forest River sales brochures they have a picture of the "pre delivery inspection facility". It's claimed to be 20000 sq ft of quality assurance and is worded to lead one to believe every unit built is passed through this facility. The truth is very few units ever see this facility, my guess after touring 3 plants and this facility, would be less than 1% of units made. At the time I toured the Rockwood facility they were pumping out 19 units per day on one line, and the inside of it was controlled chaos with so many workers you could not count them all. I was at the pre-delivery inspection facility for 30 minutes, and did not see one unit that was there prior to arriving leave, or another come in. Add to that the staff appeared to be about 4 people at most.

I believe a lot of " being handy as an attribute" is brought on by this and other RV boards, especially the manufacturer specific ones. When you voice a complaint regarding lack of quality on most of those, you're usually flamed into submission by a few select members using that attribute as a reason. It can get downright hostile. At one I am aware of you'll be told how you should join a free owners group, enter into what is essentially a lottery to gain a spot at a manufacturer sponsored rally with limited capacity, then if youre lucky enough to land a spot spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars to tow your rig to Indiana and attend this function, where the greatest manufacturer on earth will send techs over to put everyone's junk back together again no matter if it's in or out of the warranty period. Personally I would rather have my RV put together correctly on the front end but I'm weird.

Another statement made over and over on these boards, by those who make it their business to defend these substandard manufacturers, is you should expect problems because "It's a house on wheels being pulled in a hurricane and an earthquake at the same time". That is hogwash also.