2013 or2014

[GeoffG]

Question

If your "new" 2014 Soleria MS is coming on a 2013 Mercedes Benz chassis is it a 2014, or 2013 unit. And why didn't someone at Forest river or RV-Direct advise their customers of the change in chassis and the fact that the Murphy Bed will not fit in the 2014 chassis. Mr Clemens any thing to say?

[DebbieMH]

With a Solera, you have a chassis vin number and a house vin. My chassis is a 2012 but the house is a 2013. Not sure if that helps.

[mogman]

My Georgetown is a 2011 built in 2010 on a 2009 chassis. Must have been a slow time!!

[Farmer Steve]

MS units are not being built anymore. Only pre low profile 14's, DSF026730 and under serial numbers.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by GeoffG

Question

If your "new" 2014 Soleria MS is coming on a 2013 Mercedes Benz chassis is it a 2014, or 2013 unit. And why didn't someone at Forest river or RV-Direct advise their customers of the change in chassis and the fact that the Murphy Bed will not fit in the 2014 chassis. Mr Clemens any thing to say?

Man....everyone seems so hostile when they call me out. lol. Maybe I'm just reading it that way. I always picture a guy with a gavel and a white powder wig, banging the gavel "Mr. Clemens What say you?!!!" I have issues.

1. When we get a chassis, it is considered an "incomplete vehicle" (it is actually, it is just a cab cutaway, the back section is missing). In fact on the Ford title it will say "incomplete vehicle" on the model year. We, along with every other manufacturer complete that vehicle with the RV modification. So the newly completed unit gets the model year of the RV manufacturer. This is not just us, but all builders. It will get registered off of the RV VIN (except NM and some Canadian provinces). So a 2014 on a 2013 chassis is still a 2014 according to the DOT and every dealer in the country. When Chevy stopped building medium duty trucks we had some 2011's on a 2008 chassis.

2. "why didn't someone at Forest river or RV-Direct advise their customers of the change in chassis and the fact that the Murphy Bed will not fit in the 2014 chassis"

North America is split into territories. I cannot speak for everyone, but I notified the dealers in my territory. I also know that the Rep that handles RV Direct notified his contact (sits right next to me). Whether that trickled down to the sales people I do not know. When we did the redesign we start with the most popular floor plan first...the 24R, which ended up with some improvements. We then redesigned the 24S and finally got to the 24M. It was at that time they realized there was no way to make it work with the existing method. We discussed changing the design and addressing some of the complaints. One of those was, when the BED was down, you have no where to go. What if someone wants to stay up later. The 24B was the best compromise. It still has a full size bed and a small dinette. Granted, its not the murphy bed, but it was the best we could do until we find a murphy design that works how we want with the lower ceiling height.

[slow]

Great insights Mr. Clemens into the challenges faced by builders. I guess if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Thanks for sharing.

[Taylorgso]

If I recall correctly, bclemens posted that information on this forum as soon as they received those new chassis and began to make the change. I'll bet the reps responsible for other areas notified their dealers, too. I know bclemens is only responsible for the Northwest area, but we ALL benefit from his presence on the forum. Apparently the OP is a new forum member and was not watching the forum then. Seems that most of the miscommunication we all experience is between the dealer, their salespeople, and their customers, not between FR and the dealers.