Looking for any advice/sympathy. We purchased a 2014 Outdoors RV Creekside new in 2014. We noticed saturated carpet on a trip back in 2015. We ran a commercial dehumidifier for a few days and had the dealer inspect. Dealer apparently fixed a seal above the slide that had failed. While we have not used the trailer much in last few years, I do take time to inspect the roof/seals/caulking etc. Last week I decided to sit inside and "driveway camp" for an hour reflecting when the kids were younger and enjoyed camping. I almost stepped through the floor up near the front bedroom wall. Ironically very near the spot that we had water back in 2015. I have taken to trusted repair facility for inspection. The floor is wet and rotted under the vinyl from point of slide to under front pass through storage. He cut underbelly and removed handfuls of saturated insulation. Immediate inspection does not reveal source of leak as roof and seals/caulking look good. Initial repair estimate is $3,000 minimum and could go up depending on extent of rot found when torn apart. Needless to say I am not happy. An email to ORV for guidance is now over a week without response. Anyone have any advise? Been through anything similar?

I doubt you will here anything from Outdoors RV since it's out of warranty. About the only thing you can do now is get it fixed and move on. Water had to come in from somewhere need to find out where.

So you didn't use it in the last few years? Did you do any preventative maintenance, like caulking? Did it just sit outside?

I love our ORV trailer (2019 model purchase a year ago), but had some warranty questions in the first couple months. . Three phone calls to the manufacturer went unanswered and messages unreturned. Called the dealer and said that the manufacturer denied the warranty request since we inspected when we signed the paperwork. . As much as I love the trailer I don’t trust the manufacturer to make good on anything without some serious hounding. I gave up on my issue as it’s something I could fix myself and not worth my time and frustration. Sorry to hear of your problem. Hope it works out ok.

Why, why when we aren't using our RV, it stays inside in my tractor shop. Only time it goes outside is when we use it. Did the same with my last one as well. Sold it at 12 years old, just like new inside and out. Got top buck and no rot. Even the decals on the outside weren't faded.I see so many RV's sitting outside winter and summer, uncovered, cooking in the sun and rain and snow and I think to myself...You paid all that jack just to let it sit out and rot.

ORV can be hard to reach, but when you do reach them, they take very good care of you.But for the OP - This is a 5 year old trailer. It's out of warranty. Trailers sometimes leak, and it's your responsibility to identify leaks and correct them before they cause other damage.There's a good chance the initial leak was simply never dried out enough (you have to dry everything below too!) and that's the source of the rot.The good news is the body itself should be sound still, so replacing the rotted section of floor should be pretty straightforward.

Rotten Floor in my Outdoors RV | Good Sam Community

colliehauler
Explorer III
Jul 26, 2019
I doubt you will here anything from Outdoors RV since it's out of warranty. About the only thing you can do now is get it fixed and move on. Water had to come in from somewhere need to find out where.
goducks10
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
So you didn't use it in the last few years? Did you do any preventative maintenance, like caulking? Did it just sit outside?
HuckleberryHunt
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
I love our ORV trailer (2019 model purchase a year ago), but had some warranty questions in the first couple months. . Three phone calls to the manufacturer went unanswered and messages unreturned. Called the dealer and said that the manufacturer denied the warranty request since we inspected when we signed the paperwork. .
As much as I love the trailer I don’t trust the manufacturer to make good on anything without some serious hounding. I gave up on my issue as it’s something I could fix myself and not worth my time and frustration.
Sorry to hear of your problem. Hope it works out ok.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 27, 2019
Why, why when we aren't using our RV, it stays inside in my tractor shop. Only time it goes outside is when we use it. Did the same with my last one as well. Sold it at 12 years old, just like new inside and out. Got top buck and no rot. Even the decals on the outside weren't faded.

I see so many RV's sitting outside winter and summer, uncovered, cooking in the sun and rain and snow and I think to myself...You paid all that jack just to let it sit out and rot.
carringb
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
ORV can be hard to reach, but when you do reach them, they take very good care of you.

But for the OP - This is a 5 year old trailer. It's out of warranty. Trailers sometimes leak, and it's your responsibility to identify leaks and correct them before they cause other damage.

There's a good chance the initial leak was simply never dried out enough (you have to dry everything below too!) and that's the source of the rot.

The good news is the body itself should be sound still, so replacing the rotted section of floor should be pretty straightforward.
carringb
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
HuckleberryHunter wrote:
I love our ORV trailer (2019 model purchase a year ago), but had some warranty questions in the first couple months. . Three phone calls to the manufacturer went unanswered and messages unreturned. Called the dealer and said that the manufacturer denied the warranty request since we inspected when we signed the paperwork. .

The cause of denial possibly bad paperwork on behalf of the dealer. Or more likely... they never even filed a warranty claim, because they'd rather do retail work.
whjco
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
Yes. We purchased a 2006 Starcraft that was three years old. Several years later, the floor started developing soft spots. I pulled up the floor, followed the water tracks and discovered that there was a leak in the shower. The water was leaking into the space between the bottom plastic barrier and the chipboard floor and had saturated the insulation. I replaced the rotten floor with some marine glued plywood and replaced the insulation under the floor. I added venting and also ran a dehumidifier to try to pull all the water out of the lower wall plates. Once the water gets into those closed spaces, it's almost impossible to get it out. Several years ago I noticed that the front part of the frame was notching into the diamond plate on the front of the trailer and an inspection revealed that the frame was fine but the trailer was settling down on the frame. Last fall we had a 1' piece of rotten floor plate fall out of the back and we finally accepted the fact that the trailer was going to require more repairs than I wanted to put into it so we traded it in for a new one.
Dick_B
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
emails are frequently overlooked because so many are scams companies, and some individuals, just don't read them.
The best way to communicate is by registered letter addressed to an individual, the president of the company is a start, or the customer service manager. They have to sign for it and, thus, can't claim they never got notified. Then you can follow up with an email or telephone call.
mgirardo
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
We had water leak in our Forest River HTT. The factory didn't seal the bottom of the storage doors, so I never bothered to either. Unfortunately, the front most storage door leaked and a good portion of 1/3rd of the floor needed to be replaced. I did the work myself with the help of a friend. Pulled out all the furniture in the front half, pulled back the vinyl/linoleum. Then pulled up all the rotted wood. Let it dry out for a week in the GA heat. Then put it back together.

Materials were relatively cheap, I think all told we spent about $100 (that included a floor trowel for the adhesive since I didn't have one). My friend helped me with the demo, I did the rest. We spent 2 days, about 6-8 hours each day, pulling up the furniture, floor and rotted wood. Then I spent about a day putting it back together. Friend came back to re-lay the floor.

Considering how much time I spent doing the job, with about 24-30 total man hours, $3000 isn't unreasonable.

-Michael
westernrvparkow
Explorer
Jul 27, 2019
What reply could the company possibly give? They are obviously not going to cover water damage in a 5 year old rig. A "sorry for your troubles, but your rig is years out of warranty" response doesn't do either party any good. Pointing out what the owner should have/could have done to prevent or mitigate damage is just rubbing salt into the wound. For the life of me I can't think of anything better to do than just going dark.

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