Disappointed!!!!!!!

[caysea7254]

DH & I were so excited when we bought our new 2015 Grand Design Reflection 337 RLS. But after a few months of use we are so disappointed in the Quality! It took us a long time to figure out which unit and company to go with. We decided on Grand Design because we loved the layout and the reviews were excellent. And every time we went thru the units we were impressed! Don't get me wrong we still like the unit just every time we take it out something breaks!! Nothing that cant be fixed just very upsetting to spend a lot of money on a unit and have to keep taking it in for repair!!!!! Just venting!! Tara

[jffnkrn]

Good Info and i have to agree that the quality of todays RV while may be a beautiful thing to look at, the quality of workmanship is terrible. I have owned Wanderer by Thor travel trailers in the past. one bought barely used and the other new. issues with them were minimal to nothing. a craked waterline in one and some loose screws int eh other. Quality of th eunits, great. we had one for 2 years the other for 10 without issues. then to a forest river surveyor tt, a few issues, not much. now a Grand Design fifth wheel we love. issues, yo bet, first biggie the slide motor cam off its mount, trim not lined up, trim on outside loose, loose cabinet and a few other things. While most of them are little and will be fixed by dealer, GD is taking care of them. As far as the quality control goes, i don't see it in anything much any more. i am not opposed to having some warranty issues resolved, but most of these things are not a mecahnical breakdown type. they are aesthetics, and installation issues that should never have left the factory like that. The employee that is working on it or installed it improperly should be notified of the issues through dealer / manufacture communications for a unit and not let it happen again. the worst part i believe is the amount of time we have to take to take unit to and from dealer for warranty work and the amount of time we are without our expensive toys. I will be contacting my dealer for some type of compensation for the trips to the dealer and the inconveinence. My goal is to have my warranty extended for the normal period form the date all issues are resolved giving me about an extra 3 months of warranty, that may get their attention. So other than spelling issues, i am done whining. Good Luck & be Safe ! ! !

[HighSpeedAlumin]

FWIW. I bought our Grand Design in April. We have been out for three weeks traveling, and so far just a broken TV. I asked her if I could upgrade the TV instead of replacing it. They said sure. I installed it and sent them the receipt. The "check is in the mail for the TV." I noticed the doorstops in the bathroom shower were installed backwards allowing the doors to move quite bit when driving down the road. Was advised about this problem by another grand design owner who said they had the same problem only that they found out the hard way when their's broke. It was a simple remove two screws and put them back in; With the parts installed the correct way. The brakes did not work at all on a trailer that weighs up to 14,000 pounds so I jacked up the trailer and adjusted the brakes. It took a lot of tightening on the brakes to get them adjusted properly. The dealer obviously did not service the trailer before they handed me the keys. Only minor problems for me so far. Hopefully it stays that way!

[goducks10]

Veebyes wrote:
Always something that needs tinkering with. Might be major. Might be minor. Goes with the territory as far as I am concerned. As 15-20k miles a year travelers running slides at least 70 times a year, wear & tear is expected.

As much as we all moan & groan & considering the cost & the beating these things take from the roads, they take their licks pretty good.

If you want better quality then be prepared to pay much more. You can't have well made designer product at Walmart prices.

Inform us on how much we need to pay to be able to run our slide out 70 times a year without issues. Also tell us how much we need to pay to be able to just run the slide out maybe 20-30 times a year. That's probably the average.

[Veebyes]

Always something that needs tinkering with. Might be major. Might be minor. Goes with the territory as far as I am concerned. As 15-20k miles a year travelers running slides at least 70 times a year, wear & tear is expected.

As much as we all moan & groan & considering the cost & the beating these things take from the roads, they take their licks pretty good.

If you want better quality then be prepared to pay much more. You can't have well made designer product at Walmart prices.

[B_O__Plenty]

Mine costs me an average of $1,000.00 a year in maintenance, parts and repairs. Just the cost of owning it I guess.

B.O.

[Coach-man]

What can you do? I hope you have documented your problems, at least the big issues, a letter to Grand Design with those problems listed and your dissatisfaction with them couls jog a few responses! Most all comments on the lack of quality in RV builds are right on, but the one thing I saw when researching my buy was that Grand Design went out of their way to try and make buyers of their products happy with that decesion. A good well thought out letter, with issues and dates might spark a response. Good Luck!

[allen8106]

SH wrote:
After this first year you should be good to go! Seems like all new rigs have a lot of "bugs" for the first year (at least ours have)but after that, they become a little more reliable!

Mine had no bugs and not a single issue in 4 years. The way it should be.

[Mjoseph320]

We ran into these same problems with our new Cougar and it was disappointing but the dealership made it more frustrating. We took it back to fix the leaking propane, the light fixture over the bathroom vanity that fell off, the slider on the screen door that wouldn't close, the day/night shade that wouldn't open, and the leaking toilet. They had it for two weeks and then called that it was all fixed. Not one of the items was fixed!

My husband ended up doing all the repairs except the blinds which we are living with. We've since found that the integrated radio/DVD player must be wired wrong because while the radio works the DVD player does not. We haven't fixed that yet either.

If I could find a better service place I would take it in during a time we won't be using it for a couple weeks but there's no way we want to fight with those people again. The service department is so tight it's a pain to even get in and so we start off frustrated.

I'm just thankful that hubby can fix everything and when he gets stuck he has a friend that he can get help from.

[Dtank]

RustyJC wrote:

Me Again wrote:
Some of us are old enough to remember "Union Made" labels and what that meant!

Oh, yeah. I had some UAW-built American cars in the 70s and 80s that were real gems insofar as QC was concerned - NOT!!!

Rusty

And.....(Rusty's comments) some of "us" had relatives working at the Union auto maker assembly lines of that era. (Van Nuys, CA)

Heard all about "fixits" and Monday morning - Friday night cars, the
clouds of (not) "exhaust" smoke on 2nd shift, the "floaters" - Union folks paid to wander around and fill-in as needed (which wasn't often).

And - you didn't need to worry about breaking it in gently!
Your car/truck went "pedal to the metal" on the rollers for about 30 seconds, then across about the length of about 3 football fields flat-out to the parking area.
Five "parkers" jump back in one car - return flat-out and repeat the process.

RVs - had my first TT in the 1970's - not too much to go wrong, it did pretty well. Must have been *Union* Amish Craftsmen?..:@

See the top-of the line DRV comments currently running on the Escapees HDT forum.

Unions are OK - when the Union "gurus" aren't "mouthpieces" that
know nothing about the work - only how to inflate their salaries.

Ex: Los Angeles Retail Clerks, Local 770, in the 1960's.
Went to a Union meeting on a lark.
The Sec-Treas (really the Pres) was Joe DeSilva.
Joe made about 40K annual then (4 to 5 times that of a Union worker).
He's up for a 10K raise!
Motion is on the floor - mod is looking for a "second".

My friend sticks his hand up, mod points to him.
Oops!
Doesn't get the "second" he expects, friend asks why he needs the raise.
Mod, doesn't miss a beat, points to another raised hand - gets the "second" - motion passes.

Yeah there were some "death stares" by folks in attendance, LOL!

.

[Sunny07]

We recently took possession of our 2016 arctic fox 32-5m and are very disappointed with the poor workmanship. We thought we checked it over good at delivery. Our roof was put down over debris that we did not notice until we got it home and washed it. And upon deeper investigation the frame welds are very poorly done with rust beginning. The list goes on. We are not newbies and expected a few flaws here and there but expected overall quality to be good considering the price of these units. We went with arctic fox because we owned the 07, 30u. It was nicely done and northwood addressed a slide issue with no hesitation. We get no response from Northwood other than telling us to talk to the dealer. We will see how that pans out. We will not be buying Northwood again.

[ramgunner]

We've had a great experience with our Grand Design Momentum 385TH so far. There were a few issues when we first got it - nothing really relating to the construction quality. I finished installing the washer and dryer last night, and I will have a few notes for the factory on the setup in there - things that could be placed differently that would make the process of installing them easier.

We had a major storm last night, with nearly constant lightning, wind, and driving rain that lasted for quite a while. I haven't seen a storm here like that in a while, the last one with that much lightning involved a tornado. http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35421608&nid=148&title=storm-dumps-rain-in-n-utah-temporarily-closes-i-215&s...

We were sleeping in the trailer (not during the storm, too loud to sleep) and had all of the slides out, etc. It was dry as a bone inside both during and after.

Overall Grand Design does do a great job at the construction. Where they really stand out is in how they handle it when things go wrong. I'm totally satisfied.

[res08hao]

Tell your kids this secret: become a RV repair guy-you will never be out of work.

[e-light]

Pretty much all RVs have issues when new. They all have little things that go wrong, screws loose, trim pieces loose...etc. For me it's part of owning an RV...or even a boat...I've owned several and there are always little things to fix.

The 1st time out in my 2015 Cougar, I kept noticing a little water on the edge of the cabinet. I thought it was my dog spilling his water. So I picked up his bowl, wiped it up and it came back. I looked at my drain pipes under the sink and found a tiny pin hole leak around a joint. Didn't show up at the walkthrough because it was a small leak. If we would have felt around the connections we might have felt it. Yeah it sucks, but it would have been hard to spot in QA.

Easy fix though...$15 of parts, a hacksaw and a trip to Lowes...cut out and replaced with PVC. All good now...

Point is these types of things happen, even with new houses you will have issues like this. Warranties should catch any major issues and if you are handy you can fix the minor stuff on your own.

[RustyJC]

Me Again wrote:
Some of us are old enough to remember "Union Made" labels and what that meant!

Oh, yeah. I had some UAW-built American cars in the 70s and 80s that were real gems insofar as QC was concerned - NOT!!!

Rusty

[Me_Again]

The sad thing is when outfits like NuWa that built quality Hitchhiker trailers not enough people were willing to pay for the quality and they did not make it! So who is really to blame? The manufacturers or the "WallyWorld" American buyers. We are surrounded by sub-par products, but fail to purchase our way out of it. Couple that with corporate greed and we are doomed in the long run. Some of us are old enough to remember "Union Made" labels and what that meant!

Chris