Pre delivery inspection question

[GalsofEscape]

Originally Posted by rmac04401

May have to do with the type of RV you are looking at. I gave all locals an opportunity. Keystone did not carry any Puma Toy Haulers.

Agree. Just underscores the importance of shopping around.

[kevin211]

We are from Lancaster, maybe our travels will pass and we can have a beer

[rmac04401]

Originally Posted by kevin211

We are from Lancaster, maybe our travels will pass and we can have a beer

UPS feeder driver? I worked local sort during college

[kevin211]

Originally Posted by rmac04401

UPS feeder driver? I worked local sort during college

Yes, I’m out of Lancaster

[boatpaddle]

On the PDI remember it's your money, till you sign the check. After that its all warranty work so take as long as you need and if you have to hire a outside independent inspector. Dealers hate them guys. Last year i bought a new Surveyor. When I crawled under the camper the Tech doing the inspection with me said " you got to be sh __ing me"

[Jakieboy]

Excellent advice from all contributors. Do not sign final sales documents until: (a) you are satisfied with the condition of the new unit, and/or (b) you get a written document guaranteeing that the dealership will fix all warranty issues before you take final delivery. Make sure that document includes a time schedule. We fought our dealership for more than four months before we were finally able to resolve all warranty issues to our satisfaction. My wife and I spoke to more than half-a-dozen employees about fixing the issues, then when we came back to check on progress, that employee had been fired!!!

[corocky1998]

We live in Colorado and we bought our 5th wheel in Texas online. Our agreement with the dealer was we wanted to do a PDI and then we stayed on the lot for 1 night so we could really go over everything on our time. We signed the paper work the following morning and we were on our way back home before mid morning.

There were only a couple of minor things that needed to be fixed, dead led ceiling light and a loose piece of molding, they fixed that right before we signed.

The most important thing was I made my intentions clear with the dealer beforehand in an email that they acknowledged, so we all knew what was expected in the deal.

By the time we got back to Colorado, we found about a dozen screws rolling around in the camper, never found out where most of them belonged! I guess they were extra. We still had to take it to a local dealer for some minor warranty work in the fall after we were done camping for the year, they kept it for about 4 months and fixed about half the issues and killed my new battery, since then I have done most of the work myself, with the help of this and other forums.

Good luck!

[pmsherman]

When we bought our new 2011 Georgetown, I believe the PDI took over two hours. This was our first (and still only) owned rv so we wanted a thorough explanation of how everything worked. We were not total neophytes with an rv because 25 years ago we spent five weeks in a rented (based on price, I call it stolen) rig from U-Haul. We did miss a couple of things in the PDI though. The bathroom counter top had an assembly flaw that while not effecting function did make using the sink a bad hassle. We had two other severe issues that couldn't be detected during a PDI.



1. The roof of the street side slide was not correctly assembled. The problem was hidden by the installed topper awning and showed up after a couple of years when we were caught in a multi-inch per hour downpour with high winds. Rain was blown under the awning and it ran into the slide instead of off of it. The repair took ten minutes to do. FR replaced valances, day-night shades, and the dining bench seats.



2. The generator worked perfectly but was unusable. Every time we used the generator, the CO alarm was set off, shutting off the propane and disturbing any neighbors. I discovered, after a bit of research, that the generator installation satisfied RVIA requirements. When I spoke to FR about the issue almost a year after purchase at the international rally, FR told me to bring it in to the dealer and FR would ship them a replacement exhaust pipe that would solve the problem. The new exhaust pipe moved the exhaust from under the slide to behind it and resolved the problem.



Phil

[parver]

Thanks to all for a lot of great info here. I have a much better understanding now. Has anyone done the PDI, signed the papers, then not able to actually pick up the unit for a couple weeks?

[frank4711]

Dealer made the appointment allowed 3 hrs ... our tour guide was ready and smart ... had to slow him down a few times .. minor issues but very few... there were a lot of questions he was able to answer all and demonstrate functions ... unit was hooked up with everything running 62 degrees inside A/C was cranking then he ran all the heat ... they got the hitch ready unlocked the Turning Point and installed B&W wedge I brought with me ... hooked it up and away we went ...

[Jakieboy]

corocky1998 - Your experience is similar to ours, although your dealer was at least a three hour drive from your home base. This is sadly a typical experience for those of us who love the RV lifestyle, whether it be pop-ups, TT's, Fifth-wheels, or Motor Homes. The RV industry in general falls far behind most other retail businesses in the mode of customer service. Most of the dealers we have dealt with over the past many decades could care less about customer service and satisfaction. Quality control at the RV factories we have visited seems to be almost non-existent.

If there are leaders in the RV industry who really look to the future, they must address these issues of quality control, product excellence, customer service, and dealer responsiveness or else there will be no more buyers.

[twdenman]

Originally Posted by rmac04401

Here are a couple from the internet.

Don’t let them rush you on PDI. They will say most will say they only set aside an hour. That is not enough time for proper PDI. When I went with my brother I told them we will look it over then when we are done you can come do your walk through. Was about 2 1/2 hours total but that is with both my brother and I splitting the PDI list to check things out. That dealership was good and we only found a couple of minor things. .

I read here, on this forum, prospective buyers are afraid of their dealer. DON'T BE! YOU have the power, at least for that moment. The power shifts at the time of purchase. I didn't sign any paperwork prior to my PDI. The only "paper" I had with me was a my check. My PDI took 6 hours. I warned my dealer, before we scheduled my PDI appointment, that I would starting on the roof, and work my way to the creeper, underneath the RV. I took an electric outlet tester, a Phillips screwdriver, and a square head screwdriver, and a good flashlight with me. We had two problems to resolve. Want to know how to get things fixed in a hurry, fill out the check, in front of the dealership's manager, and right before you sign it, tell him find a toilet seat, and kitchen drawer handle, or no sale. 10 minutes later, a seat, and drawer pull, magically appeared. The dealers are paid for a buyers PDI, NOT much at all, from the receiving PDI. That's why just about every RV you tour, needs something fixed. Enjoy the purchasing journey, don't be afraid of it. Cheers

[pgandw]

Since I was already familiar with FR A-frames, I wasn't so much interested in "how" to make stuff work. I was much more interested in "where" stuff was, and it's condition.

The dealer had shown us a pretty rough-looking new A-frame. It was the model (early 2019 TBHW) we wanted, and the wife liked the interior and exterior colors a lot better than the later 2019 models were getting.

We spent an hour doing a preliminary inspection with the dealer (no hookups at that point) so we could arrive at a fair price with the nicks and scratches in the interior, and likely caulking issues on the exterior. When the dealer started cleaning it up for delivery, he found it more scratched and in worse shape than he thought, and decreased the price some more.

We gave a deposit with an inspection contingency (similar to a house inspection contingency) in the sales contract. As I said, the PDI was more of a condition and appliance verification than demonstration. We found a couple of things, dealer fixed them on the spot. We were very impressed with his efforts to hide the scratches on the interior cabinetry - almost impossible to detect unless you had known where they were. All the sawdust had been vacuumed out - something my wife really appreciated.

Very happy, not one warranty claim in the 1st nine months. I could have made one for the WFCO converter not working correctly (never went into trickle mode), but just replaced with a PD converter instead. Would use the same procedure and dealer again in a heartbeat.

Treat it like a home purchase - that's our advice, and the closest parallel we know of. You know you are going to have some tasks to make it yours after the sale. But you need a good inspection to find out if there are deal breakers or things too expensive or too difficult for you to handle yourself.

Fred W
2019 T21TBHW A-frame
2008 Hyundai Entourage minivan
camping Colorado and adjacent states one weekend at a time

[leecallahan]

Last year, I purchased my forth new RV (5th wheel, 2018 Cherokee Arctic Wolf 265DBH). I should have taken much more time during the PDI; it could have saved me several unwanted trips back to the dealership eighty miles away. During the PDI, I identified a problem with a front landing leg pin. A technician worked on it; I did not check the work until arriving home. I should have insisted on a new pin and bracket; my fault, I was being polite. A second issue not identified during the PDI was the oven; turned off after five to ten minutes of use. I did not discover that problem until first trip. My subsequent research showed a type of recall for a commonly known problem.

Next time, I will check every door, hinge, latch, button, etc. I will turn on appliances (AC, heater, water heater, refrigerator etc.) and let run for a good twenty to thirty minutes. If you are not thorough, you will most likely end of spending time later to correct. I unfortunately learned how poor the service department was at the dealership; I assumed a timely appointment could have been prioritized for a new purchase (not the case, was given an appointment three weeks later!). Forest River helped me find an authorized service provider that was much closer; Forest River mailed a replacement part in a couple of days and provider immediately installed. FYI, the not so great dealership was Blue Dog RV in Las Vegas.

Take your time during a PDI and check everything; it may be your only time to get a prioritized response from the dealership.

[Jakieboy]

Per my previous post, the RV industry in general has not approached anywhere near the need for customer service, dealership integrity and responsiveness, or quality control in manufacturing that the general automotive industry has achieved. We buyers expect top quality products when we shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for products that are advertised to be top of the line, exclusive, or unique in the industry. That ain't so.

There are quality control issues with every manufacturer, flaws in every product delivered, and deficiencies in the response of nearly every dealership we have ever encountered in more than 50 years of RV experience.

Stand up for your rights as a consumer at PDI. Make the dealership take as much time as you need to assure yourselves that the quality you expect is the quality delivered. If not, make them fix it. Do all of this before you sign off for the final time on the Sales Contract. You will really "piss off" the sales team at the dealership, but you will be happy at the end of the day so long as you get every discrepancy fixed, in writing, by the dealership.

Happy Camping.

[Nookaroos]

Short story
Don't count on the dealer to do a pre-check
Do as thorough a check as you are capable of and don't sign to own until issues are fixed or you have something in writing and signed that they will be
Two to three months in advance, make an appointment for warranty work about a week after your pickup date so you can use for the week to find issues
If you live far from your dealership, plan to spend some time camping near the dealer so you can go back for warranty repairs before heading home


Long story
Our dealer was 600 miles away and they assured us that they would do a thorough inspection of our RV before we picked it up. We did a special order and it was on the lot for 3 weeks before our scheduled pickup which left them plenty of time to check and rectify issues

From reading forums, I knew that most dealers have a 2-3 month wait for warranty work so three months before pickup we made an appointment for a week after our pickup date. The dealer said there wouldn't be any issues so an appointment wasn't necessary, we said we would cancel two days prior to our appointment if we didn't need it.

When we arrived for pickup we entered our RV and immediately saw a 1.5 inch rip in the flooring. The salesman was surprised and said it was no problem for us to get it fixed during our appointment in a week and that they could fix it good as new.

We had a tech spend about 2 hours with us going over how things worked and checking things out. We didn't know enough to check everything.

We were so excited to get on the road that we accepted our coach with ripped floor. Not a wise choice.

We ended up with about a dozen items to be repaired after our week of camping. We had faulty door seals that were obviously bad so the dealership clearly hadn't checked them out and we didn't find them either during our walk through. Most of our initial issues were minor except the flooring. They fixed the flooring and said it would be invisible and as good as new. Turns out after less than a year it started to peel up. The dealership wouldn't help us out and turned us over to Forest River. Our local dealership ended up replacing the entire floor and they did a great job though they didn't glue it down either.

We had our coach in for warranty work 2-3 times the first year (needing to wait 2-3 months) and everything was resolved. No trips to the shop after our fist year except for an upgrade -- and we got an appt in a week since it wasn't warranty work.

We're very, very pleased with our RV and Forest River has been good about helping us out when we've had a few issues or questions.


Good luck with your purchase.


Nookaroos

[bikendan]

1. Buyers need to stop thinking that the RV Industry operates anything like the Auto Industry. All they have in common, is that they sell things on wheels, at dealerships.
2. You don't have to take it back to the selling dealership, if they have have a bad service department. You can use an independent RV shop or mobile RV tech. You just have to get pre-approval from FR and be willing to be reimbursed.