Long time lurker of the forum, sorry this has to be my first post. My wife and myself decided to buy our first camper and we are beyond bummed. I am not here to bash anyone, but more less share our experience so others can make an informed decision when it comes to purchasing what was supposed to be one of the best investments/hobby's of our lives. I will share our story and let you make a decision for yourself. It's long, detailed, and I will make it as informative as possible with proof to back our story.
My wife and myself as a wedding gift to one another (we just recently got married a couple months ago) decided to build a hobby we could both enjoy together. After a first time camping tent experience in the Shenandoah's the wife decided we needed a camper haha. So after leaving on the way home "the camper talk" started and how she loved the hobby of the outdoors, BUT she liked some basic amenities of society today lol. As we traveled down i95 home, I knew there was a huge place McGeorge's Rolling Hills RV (a Camping World Company) right off the interstate in Ashland Va.
We decided to drop in and see what they had to offer. We looked at a couple used units with no warranty, but for a few thousand more....we decided to get into a brand new 2023 Forest River Wolf Pup Black label 14CCBL. We choose that one because of the layout and most importantly, we wanted something that came with a warranty so we could start our journey with a brand new unit and make it "ours" from brand new, and having the piece of mind that we'd have a warranty if a couple small things broke like sensors or the microwave or something, and we didn't have to worry about moister damage etc. Little did we know less than 3 WEEKS after our purchase of a BRAND NEW unit, we'd have a CATASTROPHIC MANUFACTURE FALURE!
When we purchased the unit they needed a couple days to get it ready and to do a pre-delivery inspection, clean it up. We drove back to McGeorge's Rolling Hills RV in VA and took delivery of our Wolf Pup on 6/22/2023. We drove it home to the Hampton Roads area (about 1.5hrs away) and parked it in the driveway. As we parked it in the driveway there was water all in the floor. We found strange as that was not there when we picked it up. Thinking that it was a fluke thing or someone may have left some water in the toilet or something and it possibly splashed out with our tow home, we cleaned it up and didn't pay it much mind.
On 7/2/23 we took our first little rundown trip to KOA in Virginia Beach. We wanted to stay close to home to get to know our camper and see what we'd change to "make it home" etc. Within our stay we noticed some minor things like one of the exterior lights had moister inside the lens of the light fixture (that was first sign now we look back on it). Not the end of the world I thought, just something to note and to bring up when we were to have our trailer serviced. We also had a couple electrical bugs it seemed, like the exterior house outlet plug wasn't working sometimes, our grey tank meter inside would show 3/4 full when I was sure it was 100% empty (we were hooked to a discharge at KOA). Thought it was weird, but noted it to bring it up with Camping World, but it would be nothing to hinder us from still using the unit. We checked out of KOA on 7/5/2023 and took camper back home to get it ready for our next adventure.
Fast forward to the end of our trip at KOA, both myself and my wife seemed to have contracted an upper head cold so we though, but we didn't pay it much mind (we'll get back to that later). While we were Camping we had bought a digital temperature thing that measured the temp and the humidity. I previously had a sailboat and I know how important airflow and running a dehumidifier is when the camper is not in use to prevent mold. One of the first things I did when we bought the camper, on 6/27/2023 I bought a new dehumidifier and box fan in it to keep it dry and airflow when not in use because I suffer from serious allergy issues, and last thing I wanted was MOLD in our brand new RV (another reason we bought brand new).
On 7/13/2023 we spent a $1,000 on a yearly membership at Indian Cove in Virginia Beach so we could get as much use as possible out of our camper.b As we arrived at Indian Cove we had some minor water in the floor again, but thought we had maybe tracked it in or something. Looked up at ceiling to inspect, seen nothing suspicious to my eye, we cleaned it up, hooked everything up to the site and stayed the night. The way the membership works at Indian Cove is you can keep it there for 2 weeks, then you have to move it for a week. So we left the camper there hooked up with expectations to keep it there the two weeks. Unfortunately we had to work and I had a minor surgery so I knew I would have a week off work to recover. So I thought I'd recover at the camper/campground while I was out of work. After my surgery we went there stayed the night or two, and we started feeling sick again. Thinking it may had been from the surgery (wife was stuffy too) so we went back home and kept camper there at site. While we were home, we had a good down poor of rain. Started feeling better again (both wife and I), so we decided to go back. When we got there, the spot we were in was a little wet and muddy, so I asked if we could move to another site that had concrete and new rocks. They agreed, so I hooked up trailer towed it like 10 spots down, and that's when it all came together! Water was pouring out of the walls of our BRAND NEW camper, down the thermostat, lights in ceiling and more!
Needless to say, my wife and myself were and are heartbroken! As I understand things happen, this is completely unacceptable. Only god knows how long this camper has been leaking, because if you remember back in my story, we found a puddle of water from day 1 when we picked up the unit and got it home. Not only did we buy brand new and spend thousands more to assure we didn't have this exact problem, we have a unit that has been holding water and been growing mold from the day it left the factory!
Makes totally sense why we've been feeling sick! Coincidentally the surgery I had was on the inside of my nose and my ENT dr couldn't understand why I wasn't healing and still inflamed up in my sinuses. Totally makes sense now, because my body was trying to recover in a mold box. I swear I can't make this stuff up :(. Every reason we decided to buy a new camper so we wouldn't have these exact issues, it even had been making is sick. I know I wrote a book, but I wanted to be up front from A-Z. I know some will doubt it, I know some will bash or say I should have done this, or I should have done that, but with a brand new unit we shouldn't have to deal with this with a 3 week old camper that we haven't even made our first payment on yet.
Of course I took it to the dealer (Camping world in New Port News) and they were VERY helpful, took moister readings of the walls which are at 99% moister, but their hands are tied as they said "well it has to go through the manufacture" and we're pretty backed up, and this is going to be no easy job as the mold had to come out of the walls etc. Not even to mention, I work with fiberglass and I know once moister gets behind it, it's only a matter of time before it delaminates. And its not going to happen right away, it will happen I'm sure not long after my warranty is up I'm sure :(.
Since its a brand new unit and not even a month old, of course I told them just swap us out for another unit and as it's a pain, I think that's fair. Then we don't have to wait possibly months for all this to pan out, we can go about our camping, start fresh, no hard feelings. Not to mention the $1,000 we just paid for a membership at Indian Cove that's now wasting away by the day. Of course they said it's not that easy, that option would have to come from Corporate Camping world. And I even told them we didn't have to have the same model, just something comparable trying to be super flexible.
At this point, I'm not sure to just hand it off to an attorney, or what. Just supper bummed and heartbroken. First ever camper, first hobby to build in our new marriage together, and now this. Anyways, again I apologize for the book, I just wanted to be as through as possible a nd tell our story. Super Bummer and even "if" we get it back, I'll never have the confidence that the mold won't come back, or that I will not have fiberglass delamination issues shorter than what I should due to a factory default.
