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Old 05-19-2016, 09:56 PM   #21
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Your post is kind of funny. I'm curious how many dealings you have had with Forest River. I'm 1 week into this issue and so far Forest River has done very little. Forest River warrenty service gave me the phone number to 2 dealers. I called both these dealers and they pretty much started the conversation by saying they are really busy and have no idea how long till they can get me in. As the conversation progressed they said they didn't have any idea how to do the repair and that I should look else where for help. So I called Forest River customer service again. For the third time they said they would talk to the supervisor and get back to me. I haven't heard from them Since. The dealers are there to repair or replace appliances ect. They do not want to get in the middle of a front cap, sidewall and roof replacement project. And the last thing I want to be involved in is pimple faced Johny spending his summer screwing up my motorhome. This is a major design flaw and they only resolution I will be happy with on a 75 day old motorhome is a replacement motorhome. If Forest River was customer friendly at all they would jump on this and take my rig back to the factory and have the guys that designed it and assembled it take it apart and make sure it doesn't ever happen to another of their customers. I don't think my first year of ownership should consist of a project I can't use but still am making payments on.
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Old 05-19-2016, 10:04 PM   #22
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I agree with you and your frustration is valid. . If you look at the numerous posts on this forum FR has usually always stepped up to the plate to correct problems. . That includes many here who have had their units sent back to the factory for what most claim excellent work. I was trying to say that a problem exists and stay persistent with FR. In no way claiming your problem is normal or trivial. .
And actually I have dealt with FR and my dealer and have always come to a satisfactory resolution.
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Old 05-19-2016, 10:51 PM   #23
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I have some pictures of mine. I removed the caulking from the front cap and took some pictures, not real good, of the gap between the front cap and the roof . It was sunny and could not see anything on the screen but when I get them down loaded I will Post. It took over 1 tube of dicore to just fill the gap of the seam, from one side to the other, just to the back edge of the front cap and will take at least another tube to finish sealing the front cap to the roof.
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Old 05-20-2016, 04:28 AM   #24
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Should be a Lemon Law

Quote:
Originally Posted by theboyss View Post
Your post is kind of funny. I'm curious how many dealings you have had with Forest River. I'm 1 week into this issue and so far Forest River has done very little. Forest River warrenty service gave me the phone number to 2 dealers. I called both these dealers and they pretty much started the conversation by saying they are really busy and have no idea how long till they can get me in. As the conversation progressed they said they didn't have any idea how to do the repair and that I should look else where for help. So I called Forest River customer service again. For the third time they said they would talk to the supervisor and get back to me. I haven't heard from them Since. The dealers are there to repair or replace appliances ect. They do not want to get in the middle of a front cap, sidewall and roof replacement project. And the last thing I want to be involved in is pimple faced Johny spending his summer screwing up my motorhome. This is a major design flaw and they only resolution I will be happy with on a 75 day old motorhome is a replacement motorhome. If Forest River was customer friendly at all they would jump on this and take my rig back to the factory and have the guys that designed it and assembled it take it apart and make sure it doesn't ever happen to another of their customers. I don't think my first year of ownership should consist of a project I can't use but still am making payments on.
Unfortunately, there is not a Warranty Rights Act (Lemon Law) that covers the coach portion of a motorhome or travel trailers. If there was, manufacturers would be forced to clean up their acts and/or they would be buying back some MH and TT.

There are too many stories of folks who spend more of their first year of ownership with their MH/TT at the dealer trying to get major defects repaired than they do out camping. A Lemon Law would remedy this. If I were making payments on an asset while it was stuck at a dealer awaiting approval and/or parts, I would be livid. At the very least, the manufacturer should be willing to make your payments if your MH/TT is unavailable for an extended period of time (say over 30 days) - but that isn't going to happen.

In some ways, we only have ourselves to blame. We continue to purchase without adequate research (very true in my case) and we bring our new MH/TT home and fix "stuff" rather than endure the slow and sometimes incompetent dealer. We should be demanding better of both the dealers and the manufacturers.

It feels like the 70's and 80's where many of us bought cars from the Big 3 automakers that were poorly designed and assembled. Fortunately, the Japanese embraced Demming and brought us vehicles with unheard of reliability. The Big 3 were forced to respond, although it took years and several taxpayer-funded bankruptcies to cure.

If I ever buy another MH, you can bet I will do a lot more research and it likely will not be a new one. I'll let someone else go through all the anguish of fixing defects that should have been designed out and/or caught at the factory prior to delivery. I don't buy the argument that "you can catch it during PDI". You shouldn't have to.
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Old 05-20-2016, 08:18 AM   #25
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This issue / design flaw has me re-thinking a 3011DS purchase. I can deal with,and deep breath through some poor quality control issues, but leaking roof issues due to design, is too serious of a problem!

Although our plan is to order one, I have to wonder how many are out there on lots, being rained on, and drip....drip ...dripping into the units.
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Old 05-20-2016, 10:57 AM   #26
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Get with your dealer and give them a chance. If it doesn't get fixed in a timely fashion please send me your info and I'll get with warranty.
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Old 05-20-2016, 11:03 AM   #27
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I sent you a PM and am expecting a phone call. Going back to the dealer I bought it from is not an option. My wife wanted to walk away during our purchase because of how we were treated and now I'm wishing we did. Joshua please call me this is not something a dealer is going to fix. This is a complete roof tear off sidewall replacement front cap replacement and replacing the cab over floor along with all interior wood. Not in a dealers capability and not something I would trust them with. Call me please. I'm begging you to help.
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Old 05-20-2016, 11:32 AM   #28
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If you want, I can spell out the specifics of our purchase experience with one of your largest dealers along with names. But I don't think any of us want that. Needless to say it was abusive to the point that the dealer offered to drive 6 hours to my location and take the unit back and make it all go away. Looking back it was another missed opertunity. Needless to say we did not get the opertunity to give a review because somehow they pushed the purchase under the rug so we wouldn't get the chance. So again, I'm asking you to respond to the PM information you asked me for and give me a call so we can get through this. The dealers within 2 hours of me have turned me away. It makes my wife cry every day, the reason we bought the motorhome was to spend a couple years spending time with our kids before they went off to college. All we accomplished was getting rid of the money to do that and shipping the motorhome off to some dealer for months for a repair that is not their doing or mine. So so so sad.
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Old 05-20-2016, 02:36 PM   #29
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Scott,

Since you have posted this Mike Jankowski has made contact with you and advised you where to take it and what to have done.
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Old 05-20-2016, 03:31 PM   #30
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Yes, Mike has called and gave me another dealer in my area ( a Jayco Dealer) the contact info for. I've contacted them and will be taking the motorhome there for a 15 minute evaluation as to the extent of the damages an how to continue. Mike has offered that if the repairs are beyond the dealers ability that I will be able to bring it back to the factory after the short Minnesota camping season and have the repairs done by trained staff.
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Old 05-21-2016, 10:06 AM   #31
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So after reading this I checked my new 3011DS yesterday and can't see any obvious issues. My thoughts are to monitor the front cap area for any potential issues before applying any Eternabond tape as a precaution. If a problem becomes apparent before my warranty is up, I want to make sure that I can visually see it so that I can get it addressed sooner than later.
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Old 05-21-2016, 02:08 PM   #32
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Checked mine every other month because I'm particular. Almost 2 yrs old and no problem. May do the eternabond tape as a precaution.

Absolutely love my Forester, we can't wait for next trip this Wednesday.


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Old 05-21-2016, 02:12 PM   #33
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Everyone should watch this area if you have a fiberglass front cap. Not only the top of the front cap but also the top of the rear cap/roofline. These are areas that can cause conciderable damage because the water piles up on the roof edges before running over. So any puddling on the roof will be resting against the caulk joints of the front and rear caps. And if the joint is not sealing the water will run into the coach before it runs over the side edge.
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Old 05-21-2016, 03:56 PM   #34
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some pic's
took the pic's after just putting my knife under the caulk at the corner and pulling up and back. the whole seam peeled off in 3 pieces. You can see the vertical gap between the cap and roof.
The yellow stripe above the seam is the white rubber insert on the screw channel.
1st pic is the corner that was leaking, I removed as much dirt as possible with compressed air.. You can see at the far right the bulge where the cap is pulled down to the roof and screwed th the side wall . That is a real big and deep void that I filled with non leveling dicore and covered with self leveling dicore. Both corners.
2nd pic shows the depth of and height of the void.
3rd pic is about the middle of the RV.
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Old 05-21-2016, 05:32 PM   #35
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We climbed on the roof and checked our 2016 3171 today and it looks okay. We will probably Eternabond the seam out of an abundance of caution, though. I bought the 4-inch tape and some Dicor from Amazon.
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Old 05-21-2016, 06:04 PM   #36
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This may be a stupid question, but should everybody with a fiberglass nose use the eternabond and dicor where the cap meets the roof just as a preventive measure?
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Old 05-21-2016, 06:30 PM   #37
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Yes you should - buy eternabond and dicor off amazon - everything including the primer should cost about $200. I would not say that that makes the roof impenetrable but it is way better than nothing. Really how else would you notice that there was a leak ? By the time you look at the roof and see a crack what are the odds that no water has got in that crack ? I check my roof all the time and I didn't even see a crack the first thing I saw was little brown stains in the corner of my headliner of the front cabover. I will actually give Forest River props in this area for their construction because there was only a minimal amount of damage - This is not a problem isolated to Forest River pretty much every motorhome and trailer leaks at some point lol. It is just the nature of the beast we have to take as many precautions as we can regardless of the age to prepare for what is pretty much inevitable. Out of curiosity though has anyone here had a spray on bedliner or polyurea coating done to their roof ? Like rv flex armor etc ?
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Old 05-21-2016, 07:45 PM   #38
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For anyone who is curious - this is what it looks like inside the front bunk roof (note the styrofoam is what makes the roof crown - the aluminum supports are flat - you can't see in the pics but the screws from the front cap to the fiberglass roof are pulled out of the luan)

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These were the brown stains I saw -

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Old 05-23-2016, 10:46 PM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skylilymd View Post
For anyone who is curious - this is what it looks like inside the front bunk roof (note the styrofoam is what makes the roof crown - the aluminum supports are flat - you can't see in the pics but the screws from the front cap to the fiberglass roof are pulled out of the luan)
So you pulled your ceiling panel out? That had to hurt to do that

I've made a number of postings on my leak issues so I'm not stranger to the roof/ceiling leaks (and other leaks).

My last efforts to get help from Forest River ended with the familiar get it fixed and send us the bill and we will decide our responsibility.

Not bashing FR, Joshua or Brian but all the might of strength I can muster I can't bite my tongue to prevent me from saying that the roof design is bad engineering - particularly at the front fiberglass cap to the coach roof. This transition needs a far better system.
I'm not a degreed engineer however the simple physics - we know that a transition needs more than just the lip of material mechanically fastened (screwed) and a bead of sealant for weatherproofing.
Ideally the roof should be a monolithic system but this is not possible in the current assembly method of these RV's. The next best system would be a substrate flashing with a support bridge - another run of a ceiling joist at the overlap point of the fiberglass cap and the fiberglass roof. These two materials are mechanically joined into the new joist. In this way it secures the material to minimize separation caused by stress, vibration and thermal changes.

It's discouraging to have these leaks - especially in coaches so new. The front caps have changed a couple times since my model year but the transition piece remains the same. Reviewing the forum - this is not a new problem. I'm surprised that FR hasn't done much to improve this one area.

I have the similar soft spots but it is mostly the adhesive that has separated from the fiberglass roof and the luan substrate. I thought maybe to fix it from above, pulling the fiberglass and cutting back the wood or just re-gluing if that is all it needs. I hate to think what you will have to do to restore the interior after removing the your panels.
How did you remove the panels - old fashion pulling? What are your plans from this point?
I'm curious, I'm trying to decide my next step which includes quiting RVing. I've never worked so much on something so new and expensive. It has NOT been a recreational vehicle.
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Old 05-23-2016, 11:27 PM   #40
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Honestly I wouldn't have done anything except seal the roof but I smelled musty/mold smell. I sliced the headliner at the corners with a knife (with intentions of reusing it) seeing as it is attached to the roof and then installed on the rv as best I can figure... but it is near impossible to get it off without some foam pieces tearing off. Then I just was going to explore and go from there - I found good bit of mold so I cut the luan like drywall, about 4 slices with a sharp blade and took out a section about 2 feet by 2 feet. I found the perimeter of the mold area and stopped there, then cut out the styrofoam up to the top luan to inspect. It is all glued in so not so easy to do but I got to the top and saw that there was little damage to top luan layer. The leak must be real slow so mostly mold not water damage. I used my automotive scope to peek around things and didn't see much else in the cap or behind the wall. I used a thin strip of steel and put it below the screws from the cap and re screwed them in from the top to act as a surface to hold that corner together. Used construction adhesive to put it all back together and just cut a piece of 1/8 panel board to replace the moldy luan. Now I did have to buy a new headliner piece (150$) because even though it looks fine it stinks of mold so that is the last thing I have to finish. I would not want to do that again - I will have to take a pic of my roof that I have attempted to make water proof lol
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