Grand Design Solitude 369RL Quality

[The_Works]

We full time in our MH but are considering going back to a 5th wheel for the extra living and storage space. One consideration is the Grand Design Solitude 369RL. I would like to hear from any Grand Design owner on how their RV's are holding up esp. the full timers. Thanks for your input.

[topjimmy]

I know 3 people with them and they are fine Rv's but they are built no better or worse than any other brand all 3 have been back for warranty repair many times (not out of the ordinary for many brands) ,they do have good customer service but so do other brands ,the reason I did not buy one is that they cheap out on too many things in their price range AKA.. Cheap TV/Stereo's,no central vac system, 10in vs 12inch frame on the other brands,no ceiling fans ,no rear caps, cheaper suspension and pin box that other brands use on their mid level 5er's etc.. and their Dealer network STINKS my friends hate Paul Everets RV and General RV,good thing they have good customer service

[avvidclif1]

Coach-man wrote:
Grand Design is a "mid range" manufacturer. It is not high end! A post here by minnow described some issues with Grand Design, issues you would expect to find in any "mid range" manufacturer! What he failed to post was the great customer service Grand Design has. Most manufacturers will send you to your dealer, hard to do if you are full timing, and half way accross the country from where you purchased the rig! Grand Design will either authorize a Mobil RV Tech to address the problem, and/or overnight any parts required to fix the issue! We are currently full timing in our Solitude for two years! We have had several "minor" problems that were address and taken care of! All without any hassle, Grand Design, stepped up and addressed the issue, no questions! You will not get that kind of service anywhere else!

I differ, Heartland does exactly the same thing. They will even ship you replacement parts if you want to do it yourself.

[Coach-man]

Grand Design is a "mid range" manufacturer. It is not high end! A post here by minnow described some issues with Grand Design, issues you would expect to find in any "mid range" manufacturer! What he failed to post was the great customer service Grand Design has. Most manufacturers will send you to your dealer, hard to do if you are full timing, and half way accross the country from where you purchased the rig! Grand Design will either authorize a Mobil RV Tech to address the problem, and/or overnight any parts required to fix the issue! We are currently full timing in our Solitude for two years! We have had several "minor" problems that were address and taken care of! All without any hassle, Grand Design, stepped up and addressed the issue, no questions! You will not get that kind of service anywhere else!

[ramgunner]

We full-time in a Grand Design Momentum 385TH. It has been great, and Grand Design has been fantastic with the few issues we ran into. Only one required the dealer, they sent me the parts to fix everything else myself.

The issues are detailed at http://rvgunner.com/momentum_project.html

[scotjima]

My 369RL is about 1.5 years old and we have been very happy with it and with the company in general. If and when we look for something else, it will be very hard to even consider any other brand.

[southernsky]

We bought our 369RL-R in March and have used it about 6-8 times. Haven't had any problems so far. We did bring it in the have the wheel bearings redone just as preventive measures for a long trip. The quality is a step above our last 5er (FR) and the support personal is the best.

[minnow]

I follow the Grand Design forum pretty closely as well as the GD owners Facebook page. The issues I see crop up most commonly are grease leaking from the hubs(by far the biggest issue across the entire Grand Design lines). These are Lippert supplied frames and axles. Lippert has finally admitted that they have an assembly issue which was caused by overpacking the hubs with grease which as it gets hot, expands the grease which then seeps past the seals onto the brake pads. Apparently the assembly process is suppose to be changed in November to address this issue according to a Lippert customer service rep. If you do buy one, make sure the dealer pulls the hubs and checks for leaking seals and/or overpacked hubs.

Another issue reported is waste tanks dropping out of the frame. These tanks are designed with a lip on the perimeter of the tank and fits in between the RV frame rails. I saw how these are unstalled during a recent tour of the GD factory. Some tanks have flexed from a combination of being full and being jarred down the highway to the point that the tank kind of folds in on itself and drops out of the frame rails.

I wouldn't say that it's a widespread problem, but one that does get reported on from time to time. Certainly the wheel grease issue is much more commonly reported than the tank issue.

A third issue I've read others reporting is the Schwintek slide issue. Mostly has to do with the slides not going out or coming in evenly.
Two issues with this; early on, the Schwintek system not being heavy duty
enough for the size and weight of the slides and secondly, end users not deploying or retracting the slides correctly. The Schwintek requires the slides to be completely extended or retracted in one complete uninterrupted movement. The two motors need to be synced to each other so that one side does not move faster or slower than the other side. It seems a lot of the issues with the Schwintek is when users only deploy part way or start/ stop the process which throws the motors out if sync with each other.
Lippert redesigned the Schwintek motors so they are now more robust and I haven't seen many reports on the later models about motor failure.

[Gsport]

Great choice. I've had my GD 369RL for over 3 1/2 years, I love it. Last year we did a 38 state, 10,113 mile road trip. Winter in Arizona. And couldn't be happier by choosing a Grand Design

[jffnkrn]

We have had our Grand Design 303 RLS Fifth Wheel for over a year, delivery date, May 30 2015. We had a couple minor issues like any other new unit, taken care of after dealing with the selling dealer. We have been in ours just over 100 days, on and off with in the last 15 plus months. usability and floor plan are great, towing hasn't been a problem. Selling dealer and alternate dealer created some issues, but Grand Design backs up their product to the point repairs have been completed by factory warranty. We are plenty satisfied at this point. Would I buy another GD product, yes. pm me if you need additional details. There is also a Grand Design owners forum you can check out as well. Good Luck & Be Safe! ! !

[Second_Chance]

We've been full-time in our Grand Design Reflection fifth wheel (lighter weight than the Solitude line) for a little over a year. We really like the floorplan and, with the exception of a Lippert supplied suspension component, is holding up well. The customer service is possibly the best in the industry. You can probably get more responses over on the GD owners' forum:

Grand Design Owners' Forum

Rob