Winnobago horror in the hiding spots . wires.

1968mooney wrote:

TNGW1500SE wrote:
There's not a trailer/RV out there that I'd consider "built well" unless you get up above a half million. The manufactures all skimp on quality and throw them together. They want less weight so everyone can tow it and lower costs to increase profits. You end up buying a Styrofoam cooler on wheels with a few sticks here and there supporting it in the showroom. Watch this video and keep in mind this is what the manufacturer posts on YouTube to show people how they build RV's. I think they must add amphetamines to the employees coffee or beat them.

Jayco Build

So your advise is, unless you have 1/2 million to spend, find something else to do other than RVing?

That would not be my advice. My advice would be unless you are handy with tools, or have the money to hire somebody to fix every little thing that goes wrong, you should find something else to do other than RVing.

Cost of the RV has nothing to do with it. I was just helping fix broken stuff in a $1.1m Newmar King Aire yesterday!

TugCE wrote:
When we were taking a "Tour" pf the RV Dealership where was had just purchased our "new to us" class A they drove us through the service bay area. (side note, owners were actually allowed in the service area) My DW asked if it was usual for an RV to need repairs such as ours did, the salesman pointed to a row of brand new Diesel Pushers and said well those over there start at $400,000 and go up from there and they have more problems than the 04 that you're buying. I looked at him and said that's what's wrong with the RV Industry!

If there is another group that just accept that the Expensive vehicle that they purchased needs to spend weeks if not months in the shop before it even gets it's first 1000 miles on it, I would love to hear about them!

Wooh, slow down friend - what makes you think your 2004 didn't spend most of 2005 in the shop getting fixed. You have to admit, buying used usually means someone else went through the growing pains and warranty work and most of what might break has already broke.

I say the RV industry has never changed, they produce the same problems they always have, and I say that because I remember saying how tired I was of taking our 2003 into the shop because our 1984 seemed perfect
:)

When we were taking a "Tour" pf the RV Dealership where was had just purchased our "new to us" class A they drove us through the service bay area. (side note, owners were actually allowed in the service area) My DW asked if it was usual for an RV to need repairs such as ours did, the salesman pointed to a row of brand new Diesel Pushers and said well those over there start at $400,000 and go up from there and they have more problems than the 04 that you're buying. I looked at him and said that's what's wrong with the RV Industry!

If there is another group that just accept that the Expensive vehicle that they purchased needs to spend weeks if not months in the shop before it even gets it's first 1000 miles on it, I would love to hear about them!

Ah, the good ol days when only wiring was an issue, then the industry moved on to Schwintek and Lippert and................

Hint that might help. Any wire you disconnect, tape some string or something on it before you cut or disconnect it. When re-wiring a breaklight I cut the wire and spring tension in the wire re-coiled the wire back inside in between closet and outer skin. I tried everything I could think of to fish the wire out. I had to disassemble my closet and drawers below closet just to get the wire back. Five min job ended up taking 3 days.

Unfortunately this sort nonsense is very common in the RV business. This is true even in new RVs. It’s sad. I have spent so much time and money correcting the factory mistakes including spending hours underneath the rigs I have owned over the years. This includes incorrect wire sizes, faulty plumbing, poorly designed and installed cabinets, water leaks improperly sealed storage bays, stuff improperly secured, wiring and ducting way too long and or undersized for the location and application and on and on. This isn’t to count the amount of construction debris in cabinets, behind walls, under slides etc. The RV manufacturers seem to focus only on what can be immediately seen rather than doing a quality job.

TNGW1500SE wrote:
There's not a trailer/RV out there that I'd consider "built well" unless you get up above a half million. The manufactures all skimp on quality and throw them together. They want less weight so everyone can tow it and lower costs to increase profits. You end up buying a Styrofoam cooler on wheels with a few sticks here and there supporting it in the showroom. Watch this video and keep in mind this is what the manufacturer posts on YouTube to show people how they build RV's. I think they must add amphetamines to the employees coffee or beat them.

Jayco Build

So your advise is, unless you have 1/2 million to spend, find something else to do other than RVing?

There's not a trailer/RV out there that I'd consider "built well" unless you get up above a half million. The manufactures all skimp on quality and throw them together. They want less weight so everyone can tow it and lower costs to increase profits. You end up buying a Styrofoam cooler on wheels with a few sticks here and there supporting it in the showroom. Watch this video and keep in mind this is what the manufacturer posts on YouTube to show people how they build RV's. I think they must add amphetamines to the employees coffee or beat them.

Jayco Build

Heard weird sparking/shorting noises over my head in an over dinette cabinet where my electric CB panel was in my '94 Bounder one day in 2014. After the smoke cleared, I discovered that the idiots at the factory must have run out of the correct sized wire nuts when they wired it all up and they decided it would be ok to use a handful of wire nuts that were too small. Two of them had eventually bounced off the twisted wires over the years and a 'hot' wire had eventually shorted to the metal case. Causing an arc fed fire...whoa. Lucky I was right there at the time and have some electrical skills so after several hours of repair work and wire dressing, all was well. Better than new actually.

In my current '02 Journey, was under the dash yesterday and boy, what a freakin' wiring mess. Not looking forward to having to 'dress' the wiring under there. Probably won't ever get to it.

So far though, all the AC wiring I've inspected in this rig has looked pretty nice. Competently done.

Thanks for the warning though. Never hurts to inspect.

Seeing as it's been that way for 26 years now, I'm thinking it probably looks worse than it is.