Help with Travel Lite camper

[duramax02]

In 10/2013 I purchased a 2014 Travel Lite truck camper from a dealer in Longmont, Colorado. I needed to get to Washington State. The dealer picked up the camper at the factory. I stayed in it one night in Utah and then parked it in Washington and winterized it. This May I began the process of getting it ready for use. The camper is a mess of problems. From water lines not connected and others hooked up wrong, to the ac not working. Mind you this is a brand new camper. The dealer said everything was checked out. No one will help me solve this. I'm scared to use the camper because of possible electrical and propane problems. I had just lost my husband and relied on the dealer to have everything checked out. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do to get some results? The dealer said he has contacted the owner of Travel Lite and is waiting on a decision from them.
I appreciate any and all suggestions.
Karen

[duramax02]

This is a reply to mkirsch. I have called Travel Lite and talked with Jay and he told me the only person that could handle my warranty issues is Chuck Frederick. I complained that there should be someone else because Chuck will not return my phone calls. I then went to John the dealer and told him of my frustrations. After futile attempts with everyone, I tried a different approach with getting information from web sites. I did find Washington dealers and have suggested that maybe someone could get the camper and take it to a be fixed. I cannot do this because I do not have any transportation if I have to leave it. Believe me, I call John in Colorado daily and get the same "I'm waiting to hear from Travel Lite". I want another camper and this one picked up. If the camper leaves, what are my assurances that it will return repaired or when it will return. I was told they are 12 weeks out in making campers so I'm sure warranty work is put behind that. I want the dealer to take responsibility because he picked it up and said everything was checked out and working. As far as the helpless comment goes, I'm trying to use honey first not rat poison.
Thank you to everyone, you keep me fighting for the right outcome.
Karen

[mkirsch]

Tacoma RV in Fife, WA should be able to handle any warranty issues you may still have.

I found this using the "Dealer Search" page on Travel Lite's website, using one of the several ZIP codes for Seattle, WA.

Frankly, I'm calling shenanigans here. We've gotten the "I'm a helpless woman" thing twice now. C'mon, it's the 2010's. There's no such thing as a helpless woman anymore, especially when it comes to complaining to a manufacturer about shoddy workmanship.

If you're really having issues, go on the Travel Lite website, get the phone number, call them up, and read them the riot act! You can do it.

[Stars101]

We bought one in spring 2013 (model year 2014). The roof AC was never sealed properly and the cabover filled up with 5+gallons of water in the first week I had it. Plus it had mystery wiring/electrical issues and was blowing fuses.

Apparently the factory had a turn over in workers and their experienced foreman quit and many experienced workers left with him... and the new crew was very shoddy. I love the interior layout and thought I had researched TL online very thoroughly - through TC magazine and other publications... I thought I was getting a small family owned company that would stand behind their products. I even spoke with the owners personally b/c we had special ordered a unit. But the reality was very different. Very sorry I had to deal with Travel Lite.

We drove from NY to IN to personally pick up a replacement (with the correct windows that were special ordered and never installed. And that was after speaking with Dustin and his dad personally). And the new one had water leaks and electrical issues that were so bad my husband ended up working with the new foreman to fix it in the parking lot over the weekend. We were there 2 days fixing all the QC issues that should have been done before it left the factory. Plus the "new" sheetmetal guy screwed up and they had to replace one entire al. panel b/c it wasn't lapped properly and it slide down as we drove around the factory to leave... which left a 1/8th" gap in the front siding around the front cab window.

The pre-wired electric jack feed (which I paid $100 extra for) was never run to the battery. They had the wrong fuses in the converter/fuse panel so it kept blowing fuses and losing 12v. power. Some wire was found to be the wrong guage - it wasn't heavy enough, which caused issues. And no one at the factory could figure out what was wrong... finally after 1 1/2 days in parking lot of TL my husband figured it out himself. They didn't even have an electrical meter.. my DH used his own from his tool kit!

I absolutely LOVE the design and the workmanship on the cabinets and the SMEV stove and granicote countertops. I love how the outside looks with colors and decals.... but the business itself had some growing pains last year. And it sounds like they haven't resolved them. It's too bad b/c the office staff bent over backwards to help us. Dustin and his dad never even came in to meet us that Friday when we showed up for the switch. And in the 1 1/2 days we were trapped there trouble shooting our own second new TC they never made an appearance.

I had really hoped they had gotten it together and the factory was being run better. But I am not surprised at all to hear that you are having these issues. We loving call ours the Travel Leak LOL. But once we got it all sorted out we are very pleased with how it is... but for a small company they need to get it together and start making quality units. I wish them the best and hope their new crew is more conscientious.

[805gregg]

That's a lot of problems, I'd have the manufacturer take it back, that is not something you should have to fix on a new camper

[duramax02]

When I started this post, I tried not to get long winded. Someone said I should list a few of the problems I'm having. I have had the heater put in the wall like it should be, I have had the hot water line fixed that was never connected and water leaked. There were shark bite pex rings on it so it looked fine but they were not clamped down. I have had the shower pan fixed because screws were missing and some were put in crooked. I had the fantastic fax fixed because the propeller was hitting the sides.
The plumbing in the bathroom is messed up including the hot and cold faucets are backwards. Something is wrong with the water going to the hot water tank. The AC unit is bad and possibly some wiring issues.
I trusted the Colorado dealer to check everything out because I had just lost my husband and I was trying to get to my mother in Washington state. He said everything checked out fine and I said I trust you. This is also not my first truck camper. It is the third one and bought through the same Colorado dealer. That won't happen again. I'm in a very small town without an RV dealership so I have to drive elsewhere which is a problem.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions and information. You are a great help to me.

[steve68steve]

I'm sorry to hear of your problems, and I hope they get fixed for you. We also have a Travel Lite TC.

I apologize in advance if this is insulting - it's not meant to be: Are you sure you've ruled out the easy stuff (like making sure the TV is plugged IN before calling the repairman)?

I struggled with our water system until I took the access panel off in the bathroom so I could see how everything was routed. It was NOT intuitive from the little part you could see without removing the panel. None of the lines anywhere are labeled on ours, so I had to trace them out and scratch my head a few times. Even the water tank drain required experimentation to figure out which way was closed after winterizing it (my bad memory it to blame for that, but still...)

Electrical issues: there are things that don't make sense to me, but I've been too lazy to sort them out. Instead, I've been just doing work-arounds. Our fridge won't start on AC power. I have to start on gas/ battery and let it cool down a bit before switching to AC, after which it will run indefinitely.
Our air conditioner is erratic, too: it refuses to shut off sometimes. It will say "off" on the display and then randomly kick on 10 minutes later. Again, there's probably some simple answer I haven't bothered to investigate - I just shut off the breaker to the AC if it frustrates me.
The battery won't charge if the shut-off is engaged. That might be standard, but the first time trying to conserve power and speed charging, I shut the battery off and plugged the TC into AC power overnight thinking I was charging the battery... I wasn't.

My wife called out the window once that something was 'running' in the TC. I went out to find the sink cover, when closed, can push the spigot enough to turn it on a trickle. Over 15 minutes or so, this caused the water tank to be drained via the pump pumping it thru the closed sink, overflowing our grey tank on the bathroom floor.

Point: there's a lot to learn, Travel Lite doesn't make it easy (by labeling stuff), and there may be some little idiosyncrasies which are counter-intuitive.

I agree TL / the dealer should respond and correct any issues.

Maybe you could provide some specifics of what you're finding wrong and people here could help with simple diagnosis.

Just a thought - again, apologies if this seems I'm talking "down" to you - not my intent at all.

[exhaustipated]

Karen, if Big Johns of Longmont, CO doesn't want to help you out then you need to call Dustin Johns at Travel Lite, Inc. immediately and tell him what your problems are with your camper. I know your camper is still under warranty if you bought it in October of 2013. If there are no Travel Lite dealers in Washington then maybe he'll agree to have your camper looked at and fixed at his expense by an authorized repair facility near you. Good luck to you and hope that you get all of the problems fixed to your liking.

[jfkmk]

Karen, it really stinks when you make a new purchase and things go terribly wrong. You're probably going to get a lot of responses from folks saying tough, you should have tried everything before you picked it up. My thoughts are, when I buy something, new or used, it should be in good working condition unless I was informed otherwise prior to making the purchase.

It sounds like the dealer is being uncooperative. It doesn't make sense that he had contacted the manufacturer and is waiting for a decision and they haven't even checked it out.

All of the components should have a warrantee. Additionally, the camper itself should have a warrantee. I would contact the manufacturer and bypass the dealer. They should be able to put you in touch with another dealer, maybe closer to where you live. Start out nice. If they are uncooperative, raise hell.