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Old 10-04-2015, 12:06 PM   #1
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time in the shop?

Whats the longest your RV has been at the dealers shop to get warranty work done? Im at 5 months right now for a slide issue.
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Old 10-04-2015, 02:09 PM   #2
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Never had mine in for warranty work. Started to once but when the service guy said to set it down on the back lot, 4 to 6 weeks before they could have a look at it I said forget it, I'll deal with it myself. Ordered the gear pack for the slide from FR and replaced it myself. Took four days to get the part at no charge and a couple of hours work. Ever since then I take care of things myself, hasn't been much. My two year warranty expires 12/31/15, never used it not once.
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Old 10-04-2015, 10:44 PM   #3
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Tried going down that road as well. Lippert didn't want to replace the motor, said they didn't want to just throw parts at the problem.... Well now they have replaced every individual component; motor, harness, controller, support frame, bearing blocks. Now they are replacing the entire slide out. I have no problem wrenching on stuff myself, but no way would i want to deal with Forest River, Lippert, and my dealer going back and forth pointing fingers as to whats actually wrong with it.

My whole summer was shot. Five payments, no RV. The worst part is i almost got an RV without a slide, didnt want the extra moving parts. Should have went with my gut feeling on this one.
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Old 10-04-2015, 10:48 PM   #4
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Tried going down that road as well. Lippert didn't want to replace the motor, said they didn't want to just throw parts at the problem.... Well now they have replaced every individual component; motor, harness, controller, support frame, bearing blocks. Now they are replacing the entire slide out. I have no problem wrenching on stuff myself, but no way would i want to deal with Forest River, Lippert, and my dealer going back and forth pointing fingers as to whats actually wrong with it.

My whole summer was shot. Five payments, no RV. The worst part is i almost got an RV without a slide, didnt want the extra moving parts. Should have went with my gut feeling on this one.

Someone has to have a worse story to make me feel better.
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Old 10-05-2015, 07:50 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poorbuthappy View Post
Tried going down that road as well. Lippert didn't want to replace the motor, said they didn't want to just throw parts at the problem.... Well now they have replaced every individual component; motor, harness, controller, support frame, bearing blocks. Now they are replacing the entire slide out. I have no problem wrenching on stuff myself, but no way would i want to deal with Forest River, Lippert, and my dealer going back and forth pointing fingers as to whats actually wrong with it.

My whole summer was shot. Five payments, no RV. The worst part is i almost got an RV without a slide, didnt want the extra moving parts. Should have went with my gut feeling on this one.

Someone has to have a worse story to make me feel better.
If I were in your situation I would have been in touch with FR management, made an appointment and took it straight to the factory myself. Don't know your situation, I'm retired and able to go whenever. My RV is a 5th wheel not as complex as a motor home, probably easier to work on a trailer. I can only wish that it all works out for you and that next camping season is trouble free.
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Old 10-05-2015, 01:39 PM   #6
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5 months? Please don't scare me that way.....My brand new Palomino 5er is in the shop now. Had it for 4 days when had to have warranty work done. Slide and A/C sensor in bedroom. Slide needs a new motor and going on 4 weeks now waiting on that part. Or so says Camping World. Perhaps it is time to call Lipert?
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Old 10-05-2015, 02:08 PM   #7
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Our last trailer spent 3 months, almost all summer, 2013 in a shop for a manufacturer's defect. Our 2015 Wildcat Maxx was dropped off on the 26th of September for its first "Warranty Forever" annual check plus some very minor warranty defects since it was before it was one year old. Nothing like a bad slide or a major issue. When I set up the appointment in August I was told over the phone since I was setting it up so early it shouldn't be "more than a week".
Of course, when we go to drop it off there's no record of my appointment call in August, so the girl at the desk is saying "maybe two weeks?"
We'll see because 2 weeks is this weekend.
My wife may have gotten it right when she told her, "by Thanksgiving would be ideal!"
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Old 10-05-2015, 07:24 PM   #8
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My 2015 Surveyor was at Camping World for a few very minor "warranty item" concerns for almost 3 full (camping season) months. I finally DEMANDED to pick my unit up so I did not lose a beach trip with the grandkids. After all the BS about FR not approving items, I said call me when the "ordered" parts finally come in and I will pick them up. They tried to give my more run-around but finally realized I was not bending any more. When I arrived (at the scheduled time), the battery was stone dead, the land power coard missing, and checked off repairs NOT DONE. Quick action by a (scared) ast. manager got me headed home after another couple of hours.

They did call about a month later, I did pick up the parts, and I did all of the repairs myself in about 2.5 hours (and 3 Budweisers).

Like "PhoneDude8289" mentioned above, I will never take my unit back to CW. I'm sure I did better work, not to mention much faster. Mama is now happy so I back to being a "Happy Camper"

PS: We love our FR Surveyor Cadet 321BHTS anyway.
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Old 10-06-2015, 09:43 PM   #9
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My brother has had his 24FQSL in the shop for warranty work (mostly minor problems) for 3 Months now. One story after another. It's supposed to be finished this week. That's still yet to be seen.

Good luck to all when it comes to Warranty Work at the dealer.
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Old 10-07-2015, 05:06 AM   #10
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This is what I do for warranty work, I take camper in and let them take pictures and do what they have to do and I bring camper back home the same day. I keep camper at home until the parts come in and then at my convenience I set up a appointment and take camper back. It may cost me diesel fuel but I brought this camper to use not for the dealer to keep.


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Old 10-07-2015, 05:33 AM   #11
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1 hour for a minor repair for something I did to the corner and two weeks....... for a decal to come in. I left it over the winter one time but that was for non warranty work and for my and their convenience. When it snows I can not get the camper in and out of my yard.


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Old 10-07-2015, 05:44 AM   #12
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Quote:
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This is what I do for warranty work, I take camper in and let them take pictures and do what they have to do and I bring camper back home the same day. I keep camper at home until the parts come in and then at my convenience I set up a appointment and take camper back. It may cost me diesel fuel but I brought this camper to use not for the dealer to keep.


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left my trailer against my better judgement. I was getting some minor work done and told them to inspect and wash and seal my main roof that I would pay for. It dragged on for 3 weeks, kept telling me that they couldn't get it done because of weather. My slide roof ripped from where the Sirius radio antenna was located on top of the slide had to be patched. When I got my unit back the patch was so bad that I called the dealer to complain. He said if I wasn't pleased with there work to find another dealer. That pissed me off so I sent pictures to frog bob, and he got them to FR for me. I went to Goshen and they replaced the whole roof on the slide out. I told one of the guys that was there and he was the head of FR under Pete. He said yes I heard of the problem, and I told him what the dealer said to me. He said that he knew the dealer and would call them. About a month went by and I got an email from the dealer saying that they got the call from him and apologized. Said I can come back for service at anytime. Needless to say that will never happen. Being out of warrenty I found a private shop. They built custom made RV's from the frame up. They now do my work when needed. My dealer charges 90.00 per hour and he charges 70.00 per hour and has my unit either repaired when I wait or If I leave it and he say's 3 day's That's when I get it back. Never again will I use a dealer for the exact reason, they are more interested in selling and doing PDI work then taking care of person who owns one already. I have bought 3 FR rv's from them and never will I go back again.I agree with spock123 it may take an extra trip but you can still use the trailer I always waited being they where so far away and I could see what they are doing except that time and learned my lesson
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Old 10-07-2015, 05:53 AM   #13
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It looks like we may have a small bubble in the fiberglass above the WH in our TT. We have the 2nd year warranty. I think we will wait until the end of our camping season and then inquiry about getting a repair. Maybe by November service won't be as busy. not much good camping weather in Ohio then.
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Old 10-07-2015, 02:40 PM   #14
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Many of these RV dealers don't seem to realize that good service is what brings in repeat business and referrals. I've been reading the RV forums for several years now and it seems that dealers all have the same excuse for not doing the work as promised, either "waiting for parts" or "sent wrong part from the factory" seems to be the programmed excuse. They must think the customer is not too smart and will believe the BS they throw at them. I would say lack of adequate parts inventory and incompetent service techs. I realize that they don't pay these guys top dollar since service is somewhat seasonal but I would think a good service tech would be a money maker and should be paid appropriately. Before you purchase any RV have a visit with the service department personnel and see how promptly they handle repairs and see what kind of parts inventory they have. If they can't provide a satisfactory answer, move on. The dealer I purchased from has a service manager that doesn't want to have a RV left there if at all possible. When you make an appointment for service they jump on it soon as you pull in the lot and put 2 or 3 men on it and it isn't long and you are back on the road. Maybe I'm lucky, the only problem I had of any major nature was a AC that wouldn't cool (a Dometic problem not FR). The service manager said don't bring it until he made sure he had a replacement if needed. When he call back and said when you want to bring it they jumped on it. 2 hours and I was headed home.
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Old 10-09-2015, 04:55 PM   #15
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As much as I want to blame the dealer on this one, I don't think it's their fault. Between Lippert and FR trying to blame each other on what the problem is and whose fault it is seems to be the biggest issue. The dealer has copied me on all the emails, or at least all the emails for the last few months. Five months in and the "tech" pulled out a tape measure to find out there isn't a square side on the slide out. I called and talked to Russ at FR and he was unaware of that issue, I have the email sent to him four days before explaining the problem. Left a message for Mike and haven't gotten a call back in days. Funny, when I posted to their face book page about sales events I got called within six hours.

So disappointed, in the six months we actually had the RV we put 10,000 miles on it, over 45 nights. My baby boy spent his first week out of the hospital in it.v Wasn't a few trips here and there. We live at the end of nowhere, so even grocery trips to town turned into weekend camping trips. 5-6 hours from the dealer, and they were the closest one.

How backwards is the plant that they can't even cut two pieces of wood the same size?
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