I ran into the same problem when I bought my Isata 3 in June 2016 at a dealer in Mesa AZ. I am in San Diego CA and had very few Dynamax dealers within a hundred miles. I actually drove the 550 miles back to the dealer to get one issue resolved. The Dealer paid for my gas and overnight stay at an RV Park. Cudos to "Desert Autoplex." The dealers that do sell Forest River are so busy that they only work on the ones they sell themselves. I currently have a water heater issue and my appointment is 10 weeks out at a local dealer.
Dynamax has been really good to work with and sent me a check to pay for a problem that had to be resolved by Mercedes Benz on the Chassis. I called Matt Swihart at Dynamax and he sent me an email listing of all the dealers within 100 miles that they work with. It was a big list and helped quite a bit. Dynamax has several times sent me replacement parts free of charge.
Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with an Isata 3 especially if you are pretty handy with tools. I have 14,000 miles on mine in 18 months and love it. The biggest issue I have is the cost of service to the MB Sprinter chassis. Even though the Service Interval is 20K miles, I am not comfortable with that. I plan to service it at least annually and the first one cost me $637 for an oil change and Fuel Filter Change (which they recommend annually). This was at 12K miles. You could do the Fuel Filter Change yourself for under $100 instead of $376 if you are willing to buy the special tools (MB Crimpers). I will probably do that soon.
I plan to change the Transmission Fluid every other year at probably a 24K mile interval. I have been monitoring the Trans Temp with an Ultragauge on my smart phone and it is rarely under 200 degrees while towing my Jeep and usually in the 215 - 230 degree range. These RV's are almost always at close to Max Cargo Capacity (11,030) or Max Combined Capacity (15,250) just the nature of the build.
Good Luck with your purchase.
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2016 Dynamax Isata 3 24FW
2016 Jeep Willys JK
Yellow Lab Buddy Biscuit Eater
USN-RET/DOD-RET
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