New Lance 855 Anyone else having so many problems?

[Pondking]

Just bought a new 2014 855 without the slide, a closeout and the last new 2014 non-slide that we could find. Traded in our good old reliable 2002 820 that we have had for 12 years. Hope we didn't make a big mistake.

Our first night out the plastic check calve on the water heater blew and flooded the basement. The next morning the battery panal monitor for the solar charger quit reading. Took it back to dealer and they took care of it, replacing the plastic valves with brass and reconfiguring the plumbing. Said that the plastic ones were required in California and they normally replace them. Guess we weren't normal until ours broke. One shop guy said our solar panal would start working again but when I showed it to the other guy he said they had had alot of problems with those and quickly replaced it.

Next thing we noticed is our Norcold is apparently much more sensitive to leveling than our old Domectic refrigerator. No problem, I leveled the camper better in my driveway and so far so good. Now 1 week after purchase our air conditioner won't come on, seems to be thermostat related but don't know.

Jenson stereo will not play a cd past the 10 minute mark. Tried numerous cds, both factory and our homemade ones which play fine in all our other vehicles.

Lighting in this unit was not nearly as well thought out as our old 820, so we are buying battery powered LED stick-on lights.
Our 820 had a storage compartment for the electrical cable, and cable was permanently attached. this one does not and we have to remove cable and store it somewhere. Gripe gripe gripe

I wish we had not been in a rush to buy this, don't really know why we were, not typical of us. Also bought out of state with assurances that Lance dealerships are great about warranty issues so hoping our local dealer will uphold that standard.

Kind of ranting here, but would love to hear if other folks have had similar problems so soon after a purchase and if they had good luck with Lance warranties.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

2003 Dodge 2500 Cummins
Firestone airbags, Rancho shocks
2014 Lance 855
Fort Worth, TX

[turboo]

Old Days wrote:
I like the Lance 855.You bought a great camper. The check valve on my water heater is outside if it would fail the water would run down the outside wall. You should check all the plumbing connecters,plus look for any lose wire nuts. Have fun its camping season:)

We like our 2013 855 also, and have seen no big problems. However the cabinet latches are horrible, and I don't like the siding windows , although they are more efficient I prefer the old school crank outs, anybody wanta trade?

[Pondking]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Yeah, I was used to fixing little things on my 820 and felt pretty good about knowing it in and out. Maybe a little naive thinking a new one would be trouble free and thats what I really wanted for the price I paid, but hopefully all the little bugs will work out or be taken care of by Lance. Kinda crappy what I have been reading about the Jenson. I've never had problems like these with new cars.
We don't use it much in summer here in Texas, we hit the CO mountains in August, TX coast in Oct., and west TX deer lease and trout fishing in Oklahoma through the winter. Thats when we will really find out what she is made of. Fingers crossed!

[Pondking]

got it at holiday rv in colorado. i am the wife and i gotta say i love it. i think once the bugs are worked out it will be great. more storage but dinette is a little funky. less lighting but we are putting more in. i like the skylights
one thing-got to get used to that extra inside step. it is trying to kill me.

[Droland]

May I ask where you purchased your 855? I have been looking at a couple out of state.

[Reelescape1]

I have a used 855 that also replaced my 820. There are some things I like more about the 820 but I think the 855 is a nice one for the $$$. So far minor issues. Camped for four days Memorial Day weekend. AC wouldn't cut on. I replaced the heater circuit board this winter and never checked the AC operation. The power cord to campground power had come unplugged just enough to cause this. 🙂

[jimh406]

Sounds like most of your issues are appliance related. Not exactly a reason to bail on your Lance. They seem to be all fixable. I'm not saying I'd be happy, but you have it now.

[Bedlam]

HMS Beagle wrote:
All this is pretty normal in the RV industry, really.

Since you are probably going to need them, first thing I do on a new RV is take all the drawers out, open every access panel I can find, and collect all the screws, wire nuts, wrenches, plumbing, and other spare parts they have left for me there. Then vacuum all of the construction detritus. Take a good look under, inside, etc. so WHEN stuff breaks or goes wrong you know where to start looking.

Not knocking Lance particularly, they are just trying to compete in an industry where the standard of excellence is astonishingly low.

Although my Weekend Warrior toy hauler had a bunch of construction debris and extra hardware in the cavities, I have not seen this on my Arctic Fox.

[twodownzero]

Somehow I'm not surprised either, but I'd be happy to trade you my 815--which has no issues--for your brand new 855 in a heartbeat.

[HMS_Beagle]

All this is pretty normal in the RV industry, really.

Since you are probably going to need them, first thing I do on a new RV is take all the drawers out, open every access panel I can find, and collect all the screws, wire nuts, wrenches, plumbing, and other spare parts they have left for me there. Then vacuum all of the construction detritus. Take a good look under, inside, etc. so WHEN stuff breaks or goes wrong you know where to start looking.

Not knocking Lance particularly, they are just trying to compete in an industry where the standard of excellence is astonishingly low.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

Not the 855 model, but new Lances nevertheless.

On our recently finished road trip, stopped by a Lance dealer in Joplin, Missouri to take a first hand look at the 1172 Lances they advertised.

They had two on the showroom floor. While entirely impressed with the floorplan and layout of the campers, I was certainly NOT impressed with the quality control issues these had.

For instance, the rear couches had levers in the sides to extend the foot rests. They didn't all work.

While the pantry at the rear, side entrance is nice, the door and latch were not aligned properly and one could see problems in getting it to close correctly.

One of the two units had trim pieces along the sides of the slideout inside the camper already peeling off and hanging loose for half their length.

Folks, these were new, showroom units! I repeat, I was really not impressed.

The final clinker in the whole tour was when I climbed up the outside ladder to check roof arrangement. One model had slide toppers on both slides. I'm still trying to figure out how a new camper, with new slide toppers, ended up with huge stains in the middle of the slide topper material. It looked awful!

So again, on a whole, great floorplan and layout, but not impressed with quality.

Mind you, this may be more of a dealer problem also, as they're showing these units and should notice these things. If they let them go without attempting repair, well, that just does not say much for that dealer.

[tc-lance]

We had a number of small problems with our new 850, mostly different issues than yours. Except for the DVD, the Jensen has rarely played an entire DVD. I read that it might be a cooling problem. I read up on the Lance warranty. Warranty for the stereo is handled by Jensen, not Lance. Lance does not provide warranty service for any appliances, windows, doors, and toilet tubes ;-).

I guess I will take a shot at Jensen warranty support. Comments I read on the Lance Owners forum are not encouraging.

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[Old_Days]

I like the Lance 855.You bought a great camper. The check valve on my water heater is outside if it would fail the water would run down the outside wall. You should check all the plumbing connecters,plus look for any lose wire nuts. Have fun its camping season:)

[midnightsadie]

theres a used lance coming up for a auction in my area, kinda want to see how things go.