2013 host everest
We just lost $13000 on our 2013 host everest. Exterior delaminated and host did not want to fix, only patch. We figured we better cut our losses before it was worth nothing. Beware poor QA and poor wa...
Forum Discussion
Hey Fred - thanks for sending the photos to me as well. I didn't get them until this morning but it looks like Rick got them up already. I also don't see the main topic of this thread, the delam pictures.
Overall, yeah, there are some things that could and should be fixed; sounds like the dealer and Host were willing to do all of that (even though you disagreed on ONE item.) Sounds like the dealer was good with you, and willing to work with you and Host to correct them all, but only willing to do a temp job on the delam. You could have used it as an opportunity to have the DEALER go through it all and be your agent and make sure it was all dealt with. If you could have swallowed your disappointment, and worked with them, they might have gotten every one of them solved to your satisfaction with expert advice from your dealer. You had an ally there. If you could have taken the one lump of not getting a good "permanent" fix to the delam, and waited until next summer and gone back to Oregon and gotten the full fix there.......I bet they would have made you a happy Host owner.
Don't get me wrong, I would have been irritated too with all those little things. You want and hope for perfection, but often don't get it. But I think you had a route open to you if you had really wanted it. Your post history is interesting, and shows why we need a lot of people to be able to balance out people that always say "my camper is perfect, not a single pimple anywhere" with those that say "my brand x was trash, they suck and I am here warning you all away for your own best interest as a community service." It's usually a bit hard to swallow either suggestion easily, since this forum has many many happy Host owners.
By the way, my jacks will flex the entire side of my camper if I don't do a top notch job of both raising it, AND lowering it carefully and evenly. The jacks don't run up and down evenly and it has to be corrected as you go up and down. It can even flex the structure enough to make the door not fit perfectly if it is not corrected when you have reached your stopping point. Doors get tight. Try it at -5 degrees......it freaks me out to hear the frame creaking and groaning but I learned it just does that when it's cold, and flexing. People at dealers that don't do a lot of truck campers may not do a good job of raising and lowering it. And it doesn't look to be on solid even ground where it is sitting which might contribute. Hell, a new guy in the Lance service department forgot to put my blocks under the jacks to have it high enough for me and when I came to pick it up he started to try to raise ONE front leg at a time to put the blocks in. By the time I realized what he was doing I finally said STOP! GO GET THE DOLLY! It went a lot further than I would have liked. It says right there in the manual to NEVER do that. He was new to TC's and didn't know. No harm done (as far as I know.) My point is that as crazy as it may look to have some flex in the sidewall where the jack is, it is NOT necessarily a design flaw or problem to be solved. The camper may have just needed to have its jacks raised/lowered to be more even.
In any case, more issues than I'd want, or hope for, but as you well know with the RV industry it happens. It's how you deal with it afterwards (or avoid by just moving on to another high-priced toy) that tells the best story, about the owner, the dealer and the manufacturer.
Overall, yeah, there are some things that could and should be fixed; sounds like the dealer and Host were willing to do all of that (even though you disagreed on ONE item.) Sounds like the dealer was good with you, and willing to work with you and Host to correct them all, but only willing to do a temp job on the delam. You could have used it as an opportunity to have the DEALER go through it all and be your agent and make sure it was all dealt with. If you could have swallowed your disappointment, and worked with them, they might have gotten every one of them solved to your satisfaction with expert advice from your dealer. You had an ally there. If you could have taken the one lump of not getting a good "permanent" fix to the delam, and waited until next summer and gone back to Oregon and gotten the full fix there.......I bet they would have made you a happy Host owner.
Don't get me wrong, I would have been irritated too with all those little things. You want and hope for perfection, but often don't get it. But I think you had a route open to you if you had really wanted it. Your post history is interesting, and shows why we need a lot of people to be able to balance out people that always say "my camper is perfect, not a single pimple anywhere" with those that say "my brand x was trash, they suck and I am here warning you all away for your own best interest as a community service." It's usually a bit hard to swallow either suggestion easily, since this forum has many many happy Host owners.
By the way, my jacks will flex the entire side of my camper if I don't do a top notch job of both raising it, AND lowering it carefully and evenly. The jacks don't run up and down evenly and it has to be corrected as you go up and down. It can even flex the structure enough to make the door not fit perfectly if it is not corrected when you have reached your stopping point. Doors get tight. Try it at -5 degrees......it freaks me out to hear the frame creaking and groaning but I learned it just does that when it's cold, and flexing. People at dealers that don't do a lot of truck campers may not do a good job of raising and lowering it. And it doesn't look to be on solid even ground where it is sitting which might contribute. Hell, a new guy in the Lance service department forgot to put my blocks under the jacks to have it high enough for me and when I came to pick it up he started to try to raise ONE front leg at a time to put the blocks in. By the time I realized what he was doing I finally said STOP! GO GET THE DOLLY! It went a lot further than I would have liked. It says right there in the manual to NEVER do that. He was new to TC's and didn't know. No harm done (as far as I know.) My point is that as crazy as it may look to have some flex in the sidewall where the jack is, it is NOT necessarily a design flaw or problem to be solved. The camper may have just needed to have its jacks raised/lowered to be more even.
In any case, more issues than I'd want, or hope for, but as you well know with the RV industry it happens. It's how you deal with it afterwards (or avoid by just moving on to another high-priced toy) that tells the best story, about the owner, the dealer and the manufacturer.
