Forest River Quality?
I am looking for input on this manufacturer. i am interested in the Wildwood DLX 400RETS. are they well constructed, insulated and built to last? Any know issues with this manufacturer? Any advice ...
Forum Discussion
I'm with the last poster. Our previous TT was a FR product. Dealer service was really bad and extremely slow. Took over a year to fix faulty brakes that didn't work right from day 1. Took 4 visits to the dealer to get a poorly fitting bathroom door fixed. Not impressed with the build quality. I did a lot of interior mods so got above ceiling, into walls and in concealed spaces inside cabinets. Not good in some places such as a bundle of wires in ceiling laying on about 6 sharp pointed screws from shower curtain track. Insulation in ceiling not good and many voids and generally not installed properly. I could go on and on...
You would be wise to research the dealer. Our FR dealer took many weeks to do warranty work that could have been done in days. You take your RV to them, and then they contact FR for authorization which can take many days. Then they order the parts which can take days to weeks. Then they take days to weeks to fit your job into their schedule. We had our TT in several times and it was there for 4 -6 weeks waiting to get finished. Really not good if in the peak camping season. Our current dealer with a non-FR product, is the opposite. You schedule the work and you are done fairly quickly.
I've read about many owners on the FR forum that have had various problems. It just seems to me IMHO, that there is an excessive amount of defects and problems with FR products in general. Also, often, the factory support is not good or non-existent. FR often seems to avoid dealing with quality problems and defects even while under warranty in some cases. Formal quality control seems to be poor IMHO. Many FR owners will give glowing reports on their FR RVs but you would do well to research on the FR forum.
I recall one FR MH owner that had the front area of the coach's chassis separate from the frame by about 6" while he was driving. He could see the road in front of his feet. He discovered the screws holding the body to the frame were way too small and there weren't enough of them. You have to wonder how this sort of thing can happen.
Not trying to bash FR, but I am saying this from our own experience and from what I've read on the FR forum. I've also read about problems with FR in Trailer Life. Finding truthful, detailed technical and in-depth critiques of RVs is not easy. Too many reviews rave about things unrelated to quality like the layout, interior color scheme, etc. Quality in the RV industry is generally not great from what I read and some brands/models are a little better and some are a little worse and all you can do is do your due diligence and research as much as you can.
For the above reasons, it's a no for us....
You would be wise to research the dealer. Our FR dealer took many weeks to do warranty work that could have been done in days. You take your RV to them, and then they contact FR for authorization which can take many days. Then they order the parts which can take days to weeks. Then they take days to weeks to fit your job into their schedule. We had our TT in several times and it was there for 4 -6 weeks waiting to get finished. Really not good if in the peak camping season. Our current dealer with a non-FR product, is the opposite. You schedule the work and you are done fairly quickly.
I've read about many owners on the FR forum that have had various problems. It just seems to me IMHO, that there is an excessive amount of defects and problems with FR products in general. Also, often, the factory support is not good or non-existent. FR often seems to avoid dealing with quality problems and defects even while under warranty in some cases. Formal quality control seems to be poor IMHO. Many FR owners will give glowing reports on their FR RVs but you would do well to research on the FR forum.
I recall one FR MH owner that had the front area of the coach's chassis separate from the frame by about 6" while he was driving. He could see the road in front of his feet. He discovered the screws holding the body to the frame were way too small and there weren't enough of them. You have to wonder how this sort of thing can happen.
Not trying to bash FR, but I am saying this from our own experience and from what I've read on the FR forum. I've also read about problems with FR in Trailer Life. Finding truthful, detailed technical and in-depth critiques of RVs is not easy. Too many reviews rave about things unrelated to quality like the layout, interior color scheme, etc. Quality in the RV industry is generally not great from what I read and some brands/models are a little better and some are a little worse and all you can do is do your due diligence and research as much as you can.
For the above reasons, it's a no for us....
