Our Lemon Forest River just squeezed some more juice

[NanciL]

I have been replying to various posts here with people asking about Forest River's quality and warning them how bad our brand new Wildwood is and once again last evening I heard water gushing out from under the trailer and I have another broken or disconnected water pipe.
For what it is worth, we have only towed this trailer three miles from the dealer to our RV site. We bought it brand new in October.

Is there such a thing as a Lemon Law for travel trailers ?

Jack L

[capsfloyd]

NanciL wrote:
I have been replying to various posts here with people asking about Forest River's quality and warning them how bad our brand new Wildwood is and once again last evening I heard water gushing out from under the trailer and I have another broken or disconnected water pipe.
For what it is worth, we have only towed this trailer three miles from the dealer to our RV site. We bought it brand new in October.

Is there such a thing as a Lemon Law for travel trailers ?

Jack L

FR has been good to us . 2012 super light weight signature
2015 diamond edition . no problems.

Take it back to them . On your PDI do you run everything ?

[Chaz59]

I had great luck with my forest river, I sold that piece of junk in 3 months, problem solved.

[DiskDoctr]

NanciL wrote:

proxim2020 wrote:

Crabbypatty wrote:
I'm just wondering. Did you energize all systems before signing on the line and paying for it? I see to many people complain when in fact its on them as they didn't check it all out before paying. That's when the dealer is paying the most attention as they can small the money, but you have just one more question. Regarding the broken pipe, did you use a restrictor on your garden hose to limit water pressure? Full house pressure can rupture plastic pipe.

FR is a good brand but quality control today on everything isn't good. So perhaps one slipped through. Its up to the consumer to fully check everything out today, not believe the seller before buying anything. Just my 2c

Really people have a right to complain when they find flaws in their units and as loudly as they want regardless of what level of PDI they performed. The units aren't sold with "Some Assembly Required" stickers. They're sold as complete and functioning so that's what should be delivered to the dealer's lot.

I understand stuff happens. It's a man made item so things will slip through the cracks and parts fail. However, the dealer and the end user really should not be the quality control department for the manufacturer. We have to change our way of thinking because that way of thinking really that just contributes to the delinquency of the industry.

Thank you !

My thinking exactly!

We pay 40 K for a new vehicle and fully expect that all will be perfect unless we get a recall.

Yet many above have paid good money for their "new" RV and are completely willing to accept all kinds of broken fixtures, cabinets and other items.

My warning was for newbies that are looking at 2017 Forest Rivers

Jack L

Hear Here!

IMHO consumers and especially RV'ers should be supporting each other when these things happen, not taking it as an insult to their brand loyalty.

It serves everyone's best interests, even though short term the mfrs don't think so...but forcing better performance from them helps everyone.

Unless your water pressure is over 90psi you absolutely should NOT be having water leaking problems of any sort. Water leaking is the most basic failure that can only be the result of poor workmanship or materials.

I do agree that you MUST take it back to the dealer. Even where a seller is 100% liable, they must be given the opportunity to remedy the situation.

BTW, I believe in spreading the truth about a product and company. If they do poorly, post it up. Encourages them to fix it. If they fix it, praise their efforts- if not, condemn their poor service.

It may be that you are condemning them before giving them a chance to service it. Complain and post pics and details for sure, but IMHO you missed the middle step, which *hopefully* will get your camper fixed. That is good for everyone 😉

Is there some reason you cannot tow it the 3 miles back to the dealer? If it is a matter of tow vehicle, surely you can pay them to come get it around the block?

At the end of the day, everyone wants your camper fixed- including the dealer. Get it there and let them fix it.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you!

[1stgenfarmboy]

We bought a 2017 Foresr River on purpose, after owning 5 different brands, 7 different campers, reserching for over a year, we are very very happy with it and the quality of the build, ......the OP got a lemon.


that beeing said, we have decided with cars/campers/motorcycles/houses just about anything, the way you treat and take care of your stuff is more than 80% of how nice it is and how long it last.

to the OP, if you find something you think is not right from the factory take it back and have them fix it.

[RDMueller]

Guy Roan wrote:
Evidently a lot of posters here have not had or talked to any one who has bought a new Forest River Wildwood in the past few years.

They are absolute junk. We are thinking of taking a loss and dumping ours for another brand that we can actually use.

Guy

Not exactly our experience. Two full years of camping now in our 2015 FR Wildwood and we've only had a few minor issues that I chose to correct myself instead of taking it back to the dealer. Maybe we got lucky or more likely you got a total lemon. If they were absolute junk in general, people would stop buying them.

[ctilsie242]

I bought my Palomino Puma in 2011. While you can tell it is an entry level rig (no underbelly, the minimal equipment, 1 stage charger which eats batteries), so far, it has been decent for what I use it for (I drag it to the renaissance faire, use it on weekends for 12-16 weeks, drag it back to storage in April.)

Would I buy another Forest River TT? If I were to buy a new TT, I'd probably go for something a few notches up. If I wanted to not bother with slide-outs, I'd go for a Dune Sport model (just so I can have a built in generator for A/C in the Texas summer.) If I wanted slide-outs, I'd probably go for a Jayco model. If I bought something from FR, it would be a class "C" like a Sunseeker.

[Guy_Roan]

Evidently a lot of posters here have not had or talked to any one who has bought a new Forest River Wildwood in the past few years.

They are absolute junk. We are thinking of taking a loss and dumping ours for another brand that we can actually use.

Guy

[lbrjet]

lbrjet wrote:

lbrjet wrote:
So what exactly was the problem? Certainly you have it fixed by now.

So?

Must have been operator error I guess.

[NanciL]

proxim2020 wrote:

Crabbypatty wrote:
I'm just wondering. Did you energize all systems before signing on the line and paying for it? I see to many people complain when in fact its on them as they didn't check it all out before paying. That's when the dealer is paying the most attention as they can small the money, but you have just one more question. Regarding the broken pipe, did you use a restrictor on your garden hose to limit water pressure? Full house pressure can rupture plastic pipe.

FR is a good brand but quality control today on everything isn't good. So perhaps one slipped through. Its up to the consumer to fully check everything out today, not believe the seller before buying anything. Just my 2c

Really people have a right to complain when they find flaws in their units and as loudly as they want regardless of what level of PDI they performed. The units aren't sold with "Some Assembly Required" stickers. They're sold as complete and functioning so that's what should be delivered to the dealer's lot.

I understand stuff happens. It's a man made item so things will slip through the cracks and parts fail. However, the dealer and the end user really should not be the quality control department for the manufacturer. We have to change our way of thinking because that way of thinking really that just contributes to the delinquency of the industry.

Thank you !

My thinking exactly!

We pay 40 K for a new vehicle and fully expect that all will be perfect unless we get a recall.

Yet many above have paid good money for their "new" RV and are completely willing to accept all kinds of broken fixtures, cabinets and other items.

My warning was for newbies that are looking at 2017 Forest Rivers

Jack L

[Community Alumni]

Crabbypatty wrote:
I'm just wondering. Did you energize all systems before signing on the line and paying for it? I see to many people complain when in fact its on them as they didn't check it all out before paying. That's when the dealer is paying the most attention as they can small the money, but you have just one more question. Regarding the broken pipe, did you use a restrictor on your garden hose to limit water pressure? Full house pressure can rupture plastic pipe.

FR is a good brand but quality control today on everything isn't good. So perhaps one slipped through. Its up to the consumer to fully check everything out today, not believe the seller before buying anything. Just my 2c

Really people have a right to complain when they find flaws in their units and as loudly as they want regardless of what level of PDI they performed. The units aren't sold with "Some Assembly Required" stickers. They're sold as complete and functioning so that's what should be delivered to the dealer's lot.

I understand stuff happens. It's a man made item so things will slip through the cracks and parts fail. However, the dealer and the end user really should not be the quality control department for the manufacturer. We have to change our way of thinking because that way of thinking really that just contributes to the delinquency of the industry.

[tnrv_er]

chesterb wrote:


I personally like my Forest River trailer. One thing that helped me was I had an inspection checklist before purchasing it and the dealer and I went through everything on the list. I was honestly impressed with the trailer at delivery. There were a few things that needed fixed and addressed after the first couple trips but nothing I thought was unreasonable. That's my experience anyway.

This is true IMO^^^^^^^^^^^^ We had 3 trailers all the same manufacturer and same model to choose from. Two were fine one was clearly not assembled as good as the other two.

If you can see the visible flaws IMO the ones you can see are more than likely there also.

[Crabbypatty]

I'm just wondering. Did you energize all systems before signing on the line and paying for it? I see to many people complain when in fact its on them as they didn't check it all out before paying. That's when the dealer is paying the most attention as they can small the money, but you have just one more question. Regarding the broken pipe, did you use a restrictor on your garden hose to limit water pressure? Full house pressure can rupture plastic pipe.

FR is a good brand but quality control today on everything isn't good. So perhaps one slipped through. Its up to the consumer to fully check everything out today, not believe the seller before buying anything. Just my 2c

[tragusa3]

OP, I understand your frustration...any of us would feel the same. However, warning against buying FR isn't necessary.

We've had ours for 2 years, towed over 25k miles and camped about 150 nights. We've had 2 minor issues that were fixed right away.

My kids busted a lens on a side light with their bike and FR sent us a new lens at no charge. Small, but effective in communicating to the customer.

Unless things have changed, Wildwood is their budget price point trailer? In which case, my experience has been that buying a "second tier" product is wise (most of the time). Not to say second tier is great, but I do notice small differences. I think the industry should adjust itself, as the current second tier is what I'd call "barely acceptable".

[computerbug]

We have had many different RVs. Forest River has been great. We've had some real issues. Slide breaking out of warranty, water heater problems, replaced awning, even head lights that weren't bright enough. Steps that were misaligned,etc.If they don't answer the phone leave a message they usually get back to you the same day.
We have an 2015 FR3 28 the quality and customer service has been fantastic.