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GandGHuds's avatar
GandGHuds
Explorer
May 03, 2021

Forest River 2021 Coachmen Encore - Cruise Control

Purchased a new 2021 Forest River Coachmen Encore in August 2020. Took 3 days (with overnight stops) to drive it home from Alvarado Tx. to NW Florida. The Cruise Control Never worked! To date, we have had much difficulty working with the Sales Yard, the Factory, Ford Fleet Service, Florida (warranty), the local Ford Dealership, - and with 3 other RV/Truck Repair Shops.
We’re now at the start of May 2021 and both Ford Fleet Service and the last repair shop have become unresponsive. The F-53 Ford chassis Cruise Control worked briefly (minutes) on 2 occasions, right out of the Shop.
Ford Dealership printed out 2 codes: both say the Tone Ring is faulty. The right rear wheel needs to come off in order to inspect/replace the same. No shop has had the wheel off to diagnose - one shop performed a borescope inspection and pronounced the Tone Ring good. Cruise Control worked for a couple of miles up the road.
Beyond driving it home from Texas, and to 4 different Repair Shops (total of 7 visits) we have been unable to enjoy our brand new, beautiful, well-appointed Class A Forest River Coachmen Encore.
Short of pursuing Lemon Laws, we’re at a loss. Any thoughts - ?
Class A
  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    May 16, 2021
    You purchased in Texas. To use lemon Law you will have to lemon Law in Texas. Send a Certified letter to Ford/RV Dealer/FR detailing your problem. Cruise Control does qualify under lemon Law. Most OEM's do NOT want to have to defend Texas lemon Law cases. They usually lose. The main gist of Texas lemon Law is, SAME complaint/malfunction 3 times and 3 or more attempts to fix the SAME problem, the OEM is on the hook. When you sue Texas Lemon Law, the Chassis(Ford) the RV maker(FR) and the Dealership(probably the largest Motorhome dealer in the USA since you stated Alvarado) are all listed as the defendants. You do NOT want to go lemon Law if you want to keep the motorhome and attempt to get the CC fixed. It can be a LONG drawn out process and IF you use the Motorhome, it diminishes your case. Certified Letters usually do the trick. Doug
  • crawford's avatar
    crawford
    Explorer
    May 15, 2021
    while you are on highway try putting your foot under brake pedal and lift it up and try hitting cruse button see if it works. If so switch on pedal is to close to it.
  • way2roll's avatar
    way2roll
    Navigator II
    May 04, 2021
    rlw999 wrote:
    way2roll wrote:
    Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your trouble but I doubt you can leverage any lemon law for cruise control.


    I think you could use lemon laws if your state doesn't exclude RV's:
    Because California's Lemon Law also covers defects that substantially impair the use of your car, in addition to those that impact the vehicle's safety or value, the cruise-control function of your car can make your car a lemon, too.

    If one of the big reasons why you chose the car you did was to use its cruise-control features, and then those features are defective, then your use of your car could be substantially impaired. This would especially be the case if you bought the car specifically to use the cruise-control on long trips that you take on a regular basis.


    I use cruise control extensively on long trips (I usually find a truck going my speed about 1/4 mile ahead, and set the cruise control to match his speed) and would definitely say that my use of the vehicle is "substantially impaired" if it's not working.


    I guess we will disagree. The vehicle is not impaired if cruise goes out. Cruise control is an option and your vehicle can fully operate without it and it's independent of any of the safety features. Brakes go out, that's one thing, cruise control goes out and nothing really happens with the exception of having to regulate speed the old fashioned way. It's a convenience, like air conditioning. It needs fixed for sure and no way I would let up on Ford til it was.
  • rlw999's avatar
    rlw999
    Explorer
    May 04, 2021
    way2roll wrote:
    Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your trouble but I doubt you can leverage any lemon law for cruise control.


    I think you could use lemon laws if your state doesn't exclude RV's:
    Because California's Lemon Law also covers defects that substantially impair the use of your car, in addition to those that impact the vehicle's safety or value, the cruise-control function of your car can make your car a lemon, too.

    If one of the big reasons why you chose the car you did was to use its cruise-control features, and then those features are defective, then your use of your car could be substantially impaired. This would especially be the case if you bought the car specifically to use the cruise-control on long trips that you take on a regular basis.


    I use cruise control extensively on long trips (I usually find a truck going my speed about 1/4 mile ahead, and set the cruise control to match his speed) and would definitely say that my use of the vehicle is "substantially impaired" if it's not working.
  • way2roll's avatar
    way2roll
    Navigator II
    May 04, 2021
    Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your trouble but I doubt you can leverage any lemon law for cruise control. How is this inhibiting you from using your rig? I agree, it needs to be fixed and definitely stay on top of that from a warranty perspective, but in the interim, you can't use it? This sounds like a Ford issue. What is Ford saying about it specifically? If it is the tone ring, it's like a $10 part. Whenever this stuff happens it's usually a matter of being the squeaky wheel (pardon the pun) and staying on top of Ford until it's fixed.

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