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I can't say I would recommend a Voltage!

Callmemoe
Explorer
Explorer
I'm new here and would like some input. I now have a 2014 Voltage that bought 11 months old. I have had numerous problems and would like to communicate this information to the benefit of others looking to buy/avoid buying something as well as repair suggestions.

As this site seems to be those that already own, any suggestions where I can put information so people like me would have found it before I bought this 5er.

Thanks
20 REPLIES 20

Callmemoe
Explorer
Explorer
As I watch the Cubs/Mets game 1, I'll note just a few of the 2014 Dutchmen Voltage issues I had or have. I bought the RV 11 months young used. I took it into one of the Camping Worlds for the repairs.

They thought they repaired my black valve. However, they only replaced the seals on the gray valve, buggered them up and I had two leaking valves. Dutchmen had the the valves hooked up to the wrong labeled T pull. I spent 2 nasty hours during my first trip reworking the valves and cables. The cables were bent up as they were wound together threads of cable. I still had problems. Although shortened, the cables bent again. My next time down under, I made supports to better line up the 3" pipe with the tank and replaced one valve with a nicely working, single solid cable that works very smooth. Total time, 6 hours plus.

My two 80 gallon water tanks bent the bracket supports. Of course, my 1 BS year warranty was over. I cut up the bottom, emptied the tanks, jacked up the supports and doubled them with bed rails/frame. I also put in two small tank overfill lines. What a job. Again, another 6 hours plus and getting materials. I also better placed all the wires just hanging all over the place.

Attention to detail is just awful on the Voltage. This is my 4 camper/coach...lol. I still have my 98 11' Fleetwood Elkhorn and 2004 33' toy hauler Holiday Rambler Next Level. They, in my opinion, were much better made to detail. Don't get me wrong, they had issues but not like this. Trim falling off everywhere, the V on the front is crooked, the dropping garage door has locks that are crooked as well.

I just replaced about 8 rusty screws in the shower. Why they could use the SS as I did just baffles me. It didn't take much to see my forward storage walls fall loose. I reworked that area as the Dirt Devil was replaced by CW and I gained another 15% more room.

Also, almost forgot, the RV wasn't leveling right. I previous owner said he did it manually but it seemed backwards. After reading a bit, I figured out how to swap the wires and it works fine now.

AC stopped working on the first trip also. After much reading and control module swapping (none of those were even attached up in the AC as they were suppose to be), I found the phone jack type wire connecting the modules/AC units to be just stuck in the duck work on the top of coach rusted and shorted out. Cleaned them up, added a new double female jack, rerouted the wire and re-taped the whole duck work area on top, it works well now.

I done writing for the night.

Moe

Callmemoe
Explorer
Explorer
As I watch the Cubs/Mets game 1, I'll note just a few of the 2014 Dutchmen Voltage issues I had or have. I bought the RV 11 months young used. I took it into one of the Camping Worlds for the repairs.

They thought they repaired my black valve. However, they only replaced the seals on the gray valve, buggered them up and I had two leaking valves. Dutchmen had the the valves hooked up to the wrong labeled T pull. I spent 2 nasty hours during my first trip reworking the valves and cables. The cables were bent up as they were wound together threads of cable. I still had problems. Although shortened, the cables bent again. My next time down under, I made supports to better line up the 3" pipe with the tank and replaced one valve with a nicely working, single solid cable that works very smooth. Total time, 6 hours plus.

My two 80 gallon water tanks bent the bracket supports. Of course, my 1 BS year warranty was over. I cut up the bottom, emptied the tanks, jacked up the supports and doubled them with bed rails/frame. I also put in two small tank overfill lines. What a job. Again, another 6 hours plus and getting materials. I also better placed all the wires just hanging all over the place.

Attention to detail is just awful on the Voltage. This is my 4 camper/coach...lol. I still have my 98 11' Fleetwood Elkhorn and 2004 33' toy hauler Holiday Rambler Next Level. They, in my opinion, were much better made to detail. Don't get me wrong, they had issues but not like this. Trim falling off everywhere, the V on the front is crooked, the dropping garage door has locks that are crooked as well.

I just replaced about 8 rusty screws in the shower. Why they could use the SS as I did just baffles me. It didn't take much to see my forward storage walls fall loose. I reworked that area as the Dirt Devil was replaced by CW and I gained another 15% more room.

Also, almost forgot, the RV wasn't leveling right. I previous owner said he did it manually but it seemed backwards. After reading a bit, I figured out how to swap the wires and it works fine now.

AC stopped working on the first trip also. After much reading and control module swapping (none of those were even attached up in the AC as they were suppose to be), I found the phone jack type wire connecting the modules/AC units to be just stuck in the duck work on the top of coach rusted and shorted out. Cleaned them up, added a new double female jack, rerouted the wire and re-taped the whole duck work area on top, it works well now.

I'm done writing for the night.

Moe

gmw_photos
Explorer
Explorer
To me, this price point is more relative to the size, not the expectation of quality. A $14K travel trailer that is only 19' long, or a $55K fifth wheel that is 35' long.....in my mind they are the "same" except one is bigger than the other, and therefore one is more expensive just due to size. In other words....at $55K, it's still a screaming bargain for what you're getting.

The ones I have a problem with from a quality argument standpoint are like for instance, Airstream. Double to triple the cost for the same length travel trailer, yet still suffer poor QC. So yes, at that price point, they should be better. They are not though, and it appears they are laughing all the way to the bank, because they can't build them fast enough to meet demand.

Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Explorer III
gmw photos wrote:
My opinion is, we accept this questionable quality because these things are dirt cheap. I bought my Funfinder, brand new, out the door for $14K. Would I have been willing to pay, let's say three to five thousand more in order to have 100% quality control ? The answer to that, "for me" is no, I wouldn't. The total number of issues ( minor problems all ) on my trailer we about a dozen things. I solved all of them in a total of a few hours of very casual labor, with just basic hand tools, in my own driveway.
That's a tradeoff I am willing to live with. As we've seen on this and other forums, others are not willing to accept this. All this added labor that folks are asking for is going to cost more in purchase price, so as the saying goes, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.


True to a point///////

But when you spend 50K, 60K, 100K etc. you don't expect to get same quality as one you pay 14K for.
Yet you do........
Is it time for your medication or mine?


2007 DODGE 3500 QC SRW 5.9L CTD In-Bed 'quiet gen'
2007 HitchHiker II 32.5 UKTG 2000W Xantex Inverter
US NAVY------USS Decatur DDG31

gmw_photos
Explorer
Explorer
My opinion is, we accept this questionable quality because these things are dirt cheap. I bought my Funfinder, brand new, out the door for $14K. Would I have been willing to pay, let's say three to five thousand more in order to have 100% quality control ? The answer to that, "for me" is no, I wouldn't. The total number of issues ( minor problems all ) on my trailer we about a dozen things. I solved all of them in a total of a few hours of very casual labor, with just basic hand tools, in my own driveway.
That's a tradeoff I am willing to live with. As we've seen on this and other forums, others are not willing to accept this. All this added labor that folks are asking for is going to cost more in purchase price, so as the saying goes, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

qtla9111
Nomad
Nomad
Imagine buying a new car and fixing all the minor problems yourself. I've never heard of that.

That's what's wrong with the rv industry. For some odd reason, we as rvers accept less quality. This is the question to be answered.
2005 Dodge Durango Hemi
2008 Funfinder 230DS
Living and Boondocking Mexico Blog

path1
Explorer
Explorer
fj12ryder wrote:
I realize that Path1 is kidding but you may not. Titling your post as he suggests is almost certain to get it ignored by lots of people who think it's just another poster b*tching about his crummy trailer.


No, I'm not kidding. Maybe I didn't say it right. About all makers have some type of problem. Sometimes the problems are more frequent with that brand. If people posted what went wrong with their RV people could find out what to keep an eye out for.

Last year we bought a Arctic Fox trailer. We totally like it and still do (best TT we ever owned) but sure wish we would of known about checking hose clamps more frequently. Would of saved us a few headaches. Sure would of been nice for people with 5th wheels on Lippert frames to know what to watch out for.
2003 Majestic 23P... Northwest travel machine
2013 Arctic Fox 25W... Wife "doll house" for longer snowbird trips
2001 "The Mighty Dodge"... tow vehicle for "doll house"

laknox
Nomad
Nomad
N-Trouble wrote:
Seems like none of the manufacturers do any kind of PDI on the trailers before they leave their facility and rely on their dealers to clean up the mess. Overall just seems like a really bad business model since dealers are hit/miss when it comes to service after the sale. A lot of this **** could be addressed if manufacturers would just put a little more effort into inspecting the units before shipping them out the door


The ONE THING they could do that would solve probably 90% of the warranty problems we have is to quit paying their people on a piece-basis and just pay them a straight hourly. Instead of making 15 a day, make 12 and take time to build it right! I can guaran-d@mn-tee you that one of the most closely held industry secrets across ALL manufacturers is their warranty numbers. If those numbers could be brought to light, you'd see how truly bad it is. And that would just be the ones that get claimed! How many little things have we all fixed because it's just too inconvenient to find a dealer that will do the job in a timely manner, or it's just so simple that even a klutz like me won't screw it up.

Lyle
2022 GMC Sierra 3500 HD Denali Crew Cab 4x4 Duramax
B&W OEM Companion & Gooseneck Kit
2017 KZ Durango 1500 D277RLT
1936 John Deere Model A
International Flying Farmers 64 Year Member

laknox
Nomad
Nomad
jimmyfred wrote:
...........Maybe , all purchasers should pay 80% of the agreed sales price , escrow the other 20% for the full warranty period and only make the 'last' payment IF , ALL , repairs have been handled correctly to the owners satisfaction !
..........Just imagine the public outcry , IF , our trucks and cars were mfged to the same level of quality control and shabby workman ship we've come to expect from the RV industry !,jf


Lessee, I've been RVing for 11 years, now, and have pretty much been saying the same thing...

Lyle
2022 GMC Sierra 3500 HD Denali Crew Cab 4x4 Duramax
B&W OEM Companion & Gooseneck Kit
2017 KZ Durango 1500 D277RLT
1936 John Deere Model A
International Flying Farmers 64 Year Member

laknox
Nomad
Nomad
Callmemoe wrote:
I'm new here and would like some input. I now have a 2014 Voltage that bought 11 months old. I have had numerous problems and would like to communicate this information to the benefit of others looking to buy/avoid buying something as well as repair suggestions.

As this site seems to be those that already own, any suggestions where I can put information so people like me would have found it before I bought this 5er.

Thanks


Post it here. Google will find it, eventually, and index it. Every d@mn post I've made with my sig shows up if I Google my FW model. 🙂

Lyle
2022 GMC Sierra 3500 HD Denali Crew Cab 4x4 Duramax
B&W OEM Companion & Gooseneck Kit
2017 KZ Durango 1500 D277RLT
1936 John Deere Model A
International Flying Farmers 64 Year Member

N-Trouble
Explorer
Explorer
Seems like none of the manufacturers do any kind of PDI on the trailers before they leave their facility and rely on their dealers to clean up the mess. Overall just seems like a really bad business model since dealers are hit/miss when it comes to service after the sale. A lot of this **** could be addressed if manufacturers would just put a little more effort into inspecting the units before shipping them out the door
2015 Attitude 28SAG w/slide
2012 GMC 2500HD SLT Duramax
B&W Turnover w/Andersen Ultimate 5er hitch

jimmyfred
Explorer
Explorer
...........Maybe , all purchasers should pay 80% of the agreed sales price , escrow the other 20% for the full warranty period and only make the 'last' payment IF , ALL , repairs have been handled correctly to the owners satisfaction !
..........Just imagine the public outcry , IF , our trucks and cars were mfged to the same level of quality control and shabby workman ship we've come to expect from the RV industry !,jf
2003 Chevy 8.1 Dually 2Wdr.
1999 Travel Supreme , 33 RLSS
20K Reese , Prodigy etc.

fj12ryder
Explorer III
Explorer III
I realize that Path1 is kidding but you may not. Titling your post as he suggests is almost certain to get it ignored by lots of people who think it's just another poster b*tching about his crummy trailer.
Howard and Peggy

"Don't Panic"

missourijan
Explorer
Explorer
I don't know who makes the Voltage but try to look for an owner's group. They are always your best source for info or to share your grief.