lot a problems with wildcat 312bhx

[tornades1976]

hello! I thought I was the only one to have problems with my wildcat 312bhx 2013. firstly upon taking delivery there were anomalies, nothing too serious but we go on enjoying our new purchase with the family, it was the beginning of the problems.
*There were missing on the production of fifth wheel several little thing like the DVD player does not work, the heater girard that almost burn my children my wife and I because the thermostat is defective, a wardrobe that wins the ceiling, the wooden panel beside the refrigerator that is off, the cut by the tire son because son rubs above, I find that the more disquieting is the floor up the stairs it is not a the same equality between the boards on the width of the fifth wheel, a rack where the hinge is out of wood forcing me back to my dealer for a second time to make the repairs. My dealer is a 45-minute drive from the house and it is the only one in my area. then pass the winter and we look forward very avon to camp we start by cleaning the fifth wheel I start from the roof to avoid the black marks on the lateral panels and wow I notice that the roof is deformed at two locations this is the stage that are not retained by their screws. my warranty has its end because a year has passed I returned to my dealer to the roof and other problem repair because yes there are others.
*My dealer told me that will repair the roof, but he needs my unit for about three weeks and he does not want me to take this summer he told me he's going to apply a forest river to be able to repair this fall because my warranty is over and not get penalized for this summer I find it well and I'm still waiting for the news because he had not received the ok forest river. but unfortunately on my last exit still other problems the livingroom floor creaks a lot, one of my front jack not drop and the big slide out no longer closes as it should it is not waterproof at the bottom. my battery no longer holds its charge and the suspension makes horrible noise, but this is normal according to my dealer! ok good that why when I saw another of the same year no noise was heard?
*I had another fifth wheel 2004 Sun Valley Company and no problem of this kind no problem of battery and suspention still under roof and floors.
*Now my unit scares me because I do not know what might happen. the floor badly adjust the bathroom and one of the two defeat the roof boards are approximately in the same place. is that it is a problem of structure? a series of bad luck? unit Friday late shift? I do not know but it is me who is taken with the problems. sell? who will want to buy a fifth wheel almost new with creaky floorboards and a slide out which closes with a hard suspention scares? I do not think my problem may settle without your help you owner of a forest river I like my 312bhx for the floor plan and it's other great features but I must admit to be very disappointed with my investment and presently I not recommend a person as manifacturier forest river. By cons I dare to hope that I'm just a bad number in my hands
I have my wildcat since 31 may 2012

[tornades1976]

sorry for my english i am french canadian

[john lennon]

I have a 2012 322RK and I will not buy another on. (ie:Forest River),. The Girard water heater, numerous manufacturing issues that, I think are at the bottom of their issues that might be solved when they figure out how to ship these things over from Asia. I know, no one in North America wants to hear this but It is the truth.

[bob34787]

Originally Posted by john lennon

I have a 2012 322RK and I will not buy another on. (ie:Forest River),. The Girard water heater, numerous manufacturing issues that, I think are at the bottom of their issues that might be solved when they figure out how to ship these things over from Asia. I know, no one in North America wants to hear this but It is the truth.

what exactly are they shipping from Asia? surely you don't think the RV is being made in Asia. As far as FR products, yes they have there issues with QC but my friend bought a DRV at 125,000 and it came from the factory direct to her with just about 20,000 in warranty work, they all have issues.

[BarryD0706]

I believe it is his opinion that they would be higher quality if they were made in Asia.

[ependydad]

Having the unit go back to the factory isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you have documentation with your dealer that they have known and have been working warranty issues since before your warranty expired, then the warranty should still be honored.

In fact, that's exactly what is going on with my camper. I had my dealer identify warranty issues in June (warranty expired in July). There is a slide out issue that they can't diagnose, so they're sending it back to the factory. The Palomino/Sabre agreed to let me use the camper for July + August because we had trips planned. In fact, I'm planning on emailing the fellow at Palomino today to schedule the camper to be picked up.

Now, I wasn't getting the quickness of a response from my dealer that I had hoped for. They kept saying that the manufacturer was dragging their feet. I ended up getting copied on an email thread and could clearly see that the emails that the dealer sent were pretty awful. They lacked detail and didn't explain the problem at all (nor did they include pictures). No wonder the warranty manager needed more info!

In my opinion, you need to find out the warranty manager at Wildcat and contact them directly to find out what's going on and make a plan.

[dustman_stx]

Originally Posted by john lennon

I have a 2012 322RK and I will not buy another on. (ie:Forest River),. The Girard water heater, numerous manufacturing issues that, I think are at the bottom of their issues that might be solved when they figure out how to ship these things over from Asia. I know, no one in North America wants to hear this but It is the truth.

Originally Posted by BarryD0706

I believe it is his opinion that they would be higher quality if they were made in Asia.

He's gotta be trolling for a response with that claim. I guess everyone else is feeling like me and decided it's not worth the time and effort to get into it???

[trudinator]

Originally Posted by dustman_stx

He's gotta be trolling for a response with that claim. I guess everyone else is feeling like me and decided it's not worth the time and effort to get into it???

Guess we're all in a mellow mood today and don't want to have to beat anyone over the head who thinks Asia is the answer to superior quality. Didn't Toyota just recall 400,000 vehicles? but I digress.....

[john lennon]

I realize there will be issues but the quality control issues I had should never of gotten by an inspector, let alone a workers own pride in his work. Then when I had an issue that required me to call the dealer he directed me to the manufacturer of the equipment...not wildcat, not forest river, the company that manufactured the part that broke. The point about my comment about RV's being built in Asia was meant to indicate the lack of competition the RV manufacturers have and that once they figure out how to economically ship RV's on boats, the North American builders will be in trouble.
If an auto manufacturer put a product out like this, then told the customer to call the Hydralic jack manufacturer when it broke....they wouldn't get past the first year of business.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by john lennon

I realize there will be issues but the quality control issues I had should never of gotten by an inspector, let alone a workers own pride in his work. Then when I had an issue that required me to call the dealer he directed me to the manufacturer of the equipment...not wildcat, not forest river, the company that manufactured the part that broke. The point about my comment about RV's being built in Asia was meant to indicate the lack of competition the RV manufacturers have and that once they figure out how to economically ship RV's on boats, the North American builders will be in trouble.
If an auto manufacturer put a product out like this, then told the customer to call the Hydralic jack manufacturer when it broke....they wouldn't get past the first year of business.

Difference is ford/gm/dodge either makes all the parts installed in there automobiles or outsources there parts built to their specs and their name on them.
You cannot even remotely compare the automotive industry to the rv industry as they are two completely different worlds.
Like comparing trees to gravel.

[bob34787]

I would assume if he were directed to the supplier of said bad part it would be due to the RV being out of warranty period and therefore no longer FR problem to deal with, many components on the RV come with a longer warranty period than the 1 year from FR and defective components would have to be dealt with in that manner. I have also swore I would not buy another FR product.... 4 times now and am looking at no. 5.

[TURBS]

I would assume the same.
A/c
Fridge
Furnace
Water heater
All carry longer warranty from the actual manufacturer.

[mjones12]

Still, john lennon makes an interesting point about the lack of foreign competition. It was foreign competition that put a stop to the junk American auto makers were putting out in the 1970's.

No one wants to see American jobs go overseas, but if it weren't for the butt-kicking given to us by Toyota, Datsun and others in the '70's, we'd still be driving exploding Ford Pintos and Chevy Luv trucks.

[dustman_stx]

Originally Posted by john lennon

I realize there will be issues but the quality control issues I had should never of gotten by an inspector, let alone a workers own pride in his work. Then when I had an issue that required me to call the dealer he directed me to the manufacturer of the equipment...not wildcat, not forest river, the company that manufactured the part that broke. The point about my comment about RV's being built in Asia was meant to indicate the lack of competition the RV manufacturers have and that once they figure out how to economically ship RV's on boats, the North American builders will be in trouble.
If an auto manufacturer put a product out like this, then told the customer to call the Hydralic jack manufacturer when it broke....they wouldn't get past the first year of business.

I think they do make RV's that are just as "dependable" as a vehicle. They are called Airstreams and cost ~5x what a similar size trailer does that utilizes a traditional frame type construction. Up front, we all know that RV's have (typically) a 1 year warranty. After that, individual components may or may not have a separate factory warranty. If you want, for example, a 3 year factory bumper to bumper warranty, you're gonna pay for it. My assumption is that the RV market is unwilling to pay for it, or it would be offered.

[dustman_stx]

Originally Posted by mjones12

Still, john lennon makes an interesting point about the lack of foreign competition. It was foreign competition that put a stop to the junk American auto makers were putting out in the 1970's.

No one wants to see American jobs go overseas, but if it weren't for the butt-kicking given to us by Toyota, Datsun and others in the '70's, we'd still be driving exploding Ford Pintos and Chevy Luv trucks.

I think my point can be made from my other post, but I'll state it again here. I don't think we have to look overseas for the kind of quality control john is talking about. I think what we see with the market is that people are unwilling to pay for that level of QC and therefore assume some risk. There are manufacturers of RV's that have excellent QC and product longevity records, and the masses are unwilling to pay for it. Many of us pay 1/2 or less as much for our RV's as we do for the vehicle that tows it. Even though the RV may be 2x as big and chock full of high dollar appliances, and then we complain that it's not built as well as our vehicle. It was years before any auto maker outside the US made a full size truck, but we still saw incredible gains in quality. I think much of this can be attributed to advances in technology rather than overseas competition. If you consider that vast numbers of different floorplans in the RV industry as opposed to the relatively few layouts of vehicles from each individual auto maker, you can see how improvements in technology and mass production can more easily lead to higher quality there. RV's are hand built, and even the most popular models don't come even close to the production numbers of vehicles. The production process just cannot be automated like in vehicles.

[ependydad]

Good stuff, wrong thread. Anyone care to start a thread on this OR want me to split this one off?