RV Build Quality?

[TooTall2]

I'm seeing a lot of quality issues with my Forest River Mini Lite. I've had many RV's and all leave a little to be desired when it comes to build quality. Your thoughts, see the short video below. I'd love to know for future upgrades which MFG has the best build quality. Exclude Airstream. ha.

RV Build Quality? Your thoughts?

[goducks10]

TooTall2 wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
Less welds means less weight. That's how they can call it a Mini 'Lite'.

I didn't know that. I glad I didn't get the Micro lite. It's probably duck taped? Pahahahahaha.

:B

[TooTall2]

goducks10 wrote:
Less welds means less weight. That's how they can call it a Mini 'Lite'.

I didn't know that. I glad I didn't get the Micro lite. It's probably duck taped? Pahahahahaha.

[goducks10]

Tequila wrote:

deltabravo wrote:
Northwood Manufacturing (Arctic Fox, Snow River, Desert Fox, Nash) are pretty decent from what I've seen.

My parents started with a AF 26X, then downsized to a 25J.
I started with a Desert Fox 21SW toy hauler, then downsized to a 811 truck camper.

None of the above have had any issues.

Had plenty of issues with mine. The one big advantage they have is strong frames, but I have had more than a few issues with plumbing and leaks. Rihg tnow my slide storage compartment is soaked so I have to figure out how water is getting in there.

You're one of the very few that have had plenty of issues. I've been reading on the Northwood forum for 3+ years and very few have lots of issues. Everyone seems to have a few. We had a few with ours, but none of them were hard to fix. Actually we had only two NW induced issues. One was a very small water leak from a wrong fitting that NW employee installed. 2nd was NW's idea of cramming 10lbs of duct work in a 2lb hole. It popped every time you stepped into the bedroom. A quick trip to Home Depot and $20.00 worth of duct work and I fixed it in a couple hrs.
I always look at who's behind the problems. Is it a sub MFG like Lippert. Dexter, Norcold, SurFlo, Jensen, etc. We sometimes criticize the wrong people. MFG don't make all the components, they assemble them. It's during assembly that you can blame the MFG. Hard to blame the MFG for a fridge circuit board that goes out. You can blame the MFG for the pinched gas line to the fridge though.

[GrandpaKip]

The only thing I've had to repair on our Dart has been a leaky skylight. We've had it a year now and put about 10,000 miles on it. With proper maintenance, we would like it to be our last camper.

[deltabravo]

Northwood Manufacturing (no S in the name Northwood) who build Arctic Fox, Snow River, Desert Fox, Nash are pretty decent from what I've seen.

My parents started with a AF 26X, then downsized to a 25J.
I started with a Desert Fox 21SW toy hauler, then downsized to a 811 truck camper.

None of the above have had any issues.

[DanNJanice]

colliehauler wrote:
It's been said over and over that people shop price not quality.

LOL! Exactly!
They then post threads about poor quality.
The RV/FW/TT market is littered with companies that tried to build better products and are out of business.

[rbpru]

I like my Dutchmen Lite but Lite does mean less materials. The biggest issue is not being able to walk on the roof.

I am sure there are other steps taken to lighten the load but they are not quite as obvious. We have not had any significant issues and we bought the TT used three years ago.

[colliehauler]

It's been said over and over that people shop price not quality.

[westend]

TooTall2 wrote:

westend wrote:
Really poor welding on the seat supports. Anyone thinking about how to tack those all together would have just moved their hand over to the other side to put another weld on them.
I'm not really up on the latest and greatest but from my reading, the Livinglite aluminum trailers seemed well built and folks that own them do like them.

Thanks, and yes, maybe 10 seconds to add another bead and weight of the extras bead is not a factor.

I've done a fair amount of welding, food processing, shipyard, and general equipment. When joining a support made from angle material, there is always more than one weld bead on the joint. This is just common sense. Yes, the total weight of all the welds is insignificant.

[LFish]

We are happy with the quality of our Nash, from Northwoods Manufacturing (maker of Arctic Foxes)

[trail-explorer]

jmtandem wrote:
It seems that Arctic Fox quality is not what it used to be. This is not the only thread regarding AF quality recently.

LOL. this thread isn't about the build quality of an Arctic Fox, it's a general "hey, who makes better RVs than others" thread.

I can pretty much guarantee though that if a build issue of an Arctic Fox were brought up on the AF forum, the admin would censor the thread.

[jmtandem]

It seems that Arctic Fox quality is not what it used to be. This is not the only thread regarding AF quality recently.

[ScottG]

Just keep in mind that "quality" is a very subjective term with RV's and all of them, including those already listed here, are far from being truly high quality compared to other quality items in every day life.

[3oaks]

goducks wrote:
Exactly, well put. Probably why you usually only get a 1 year warranty. Pretty sad that you can spend upwards of $50-80,000 MSRP and only get a 1 year warranty. That alone should tell us about what the RV MFG's think of their own quality.

I think that covers it quite well! 😉

I already have done more rework and repair work on my 2016 Arctic Fox TT than I have in the 10 years I owned our previous Sunline TT.

While Arctic Fox trailers may be better than most on the market today, I take issue with their build quality.