ATTENTION TRAVEL LITE OWNERS

GaryWT wrote:
Sorry about your issue, hate seeming problems like this. Is this an independant manufacturer or are they owned by the big boys? The one thing I never understand is owners going to the manufacturers for answers. If my Ford has an issue with the AC i do not call Ford I call the dealer. The dealer should know how to get things done and who to call if the manugacturer needs to be involved. Does not matter what type of trailer, a good dealer is the best why to go.

Not the same as cars - there are DOZENS of RV manufacturers (with thousands of model options). I'd guess that if you added it up you have more choices in RV's than in cars/trucks/SUV's, but maybe I'm wrong. Plus not every area in the country has a local RV dealer of the brand they want. My Travel Lite dealer was 7 hours away. But I would bet that most people have access to the major car dealers within 30 min. of their homes.

Plus, when you go to the factory for repair you will have ALL the correct pieces right there. Nose cap, graphics, siding, interior panels, trim pieces, etc. If you wait for your local dealer to tear into a problem, and then wait for pieces to be shipped from the factory, you will be waiting months for a simple repair.

In our case it was worth it to drive 700 miles to IN to have Travel Lite fix it. They ended up rebuilding the entire front cabover from the frame out - 30 hours (not 8 like Travel Lite had said they allocate for "leak repair under warranty" at a repair place nearest me.

Travel Lite ended up replacing the entire front cabover framing - they just grabbed a pre-fabbed wood frame from their stock. Local dealer wouldn't have had that piece ready-made. They would have had to measure and BUILD it (or wait for it to be shipped from factory). They creased some siding trying to get it off and then on again. No problem, grab a new piece of matching aluminum skin from the stock pile. Same with the graphics.

In our case it just made sense to go back to the people who built it and not try and saddle a local RV repair shop with time consuming warranty work on a brand they don't even sell.

It's not really an equal comparison RV vs. automobile. At least for automobiles I have (some) confidence that my car was built to strict quality control standards. And that ALL model year cars were built the same. Not so with RV's. It varies WIDELY between manufacturers. There is a good chance that two people will not get a unit that's built the same way... just a fact b/c there seem to be no standards on the assembly line - no matter what brand you buy.

Plus if cars were built as shoddy as all RV's are now we'd all be mad as h#ll and riding horses :) We consumers put up with it because A) we have to b/c there are no consumer protection laws for RV's like there are for cars and B) most of us will fiddle and tweak and repair our RV's obsessively (like it's a frickin' hobby) b/c we view it as almost recreational! If I had to spend as much time fixing, maintaining and researching fixes on my car I would be furious and wouldn't stand for it...

Think about it - would you buy a CAR that had frames that were not heavy enough or prone to cracking (Lippert)? Or buy a NEW car and IMMEDIATELY put 4 new tires on it b/c you knew the factory ones were complete garbage and dangerous to boot (China bombs)? What about if your new car had a driver's door that didn't shut tightly and rubbed/buckled the interior trim (like slides have been known to do)? RV consumers just do not have the collective voice that automobile owners have and RV manufacturers take advantage of us over and over.

And don't get me started on RV refrigerators - can you imagine buying a new car and then having to add EXTRA fans to keep you cool b/c the A/C just wouldn't cool things off!? LOL

Ours is a crazy hobby. You try your best to research & buy a good one and sometimes you get lucky --- but many, many times you get burned. And just end up fixing it yourself and swearing to never buy another new RV ever, ever again.

But we all stick with the camping hobby and just join a forum like this so we can commiserate with all the other idiots out there who do the same darn thing!

EDIT: Geesh, I wrote a fipping book! Read it if ya want or skip it LOL I shouldn't post at 3am