Waiting on parts from factory

[jumbo131]

How long does it take ro receive parts from the factory? I accidentally hit the over hang on the house backing up our 344QB. The dealership were I bought the 5er from and the one doing the work told me the wrong panel arrived and they were sending it back. That was two weeks ago. I talked to them yesterday and they said they're waiting on the new panel and didn't have an eta on the panel. They've had the camper for about 5 weeks now.

[ependydad]

(cough) bypass the dealer and call the factory (cough)

It's not always the case, but I definitely found that in my case- my dealer was a hindrance to getting accurate and quality information to the manufacturer.

https://dealers.forestriverinc.com/D...nformation.pdf

[jevanb]

Bet that sound of crunching made you sick. I almost did that putting it behind the house. A little bit of bondo would fix that right up.... btw no ladder installed??

[Cajun Po-Boy]

I've been told by more than two FR Dealers that the parts dept is a SLOW process whether it's an order for them or you as a customer...but when you get the right person, it's delivered fast!

[jumbo131]

Originally Posted by jevanb

Bet that sound of crunching made you sick. I almost did that putting it behind the house. A little bit of bondo would fix that right up.... btw no ladder installed??

I have the ladder on the passenger's side and the impact was on the driver's side. Yea I suddenly became ill. I thought about bondo but when I slid the slides out there was a bow on the inside. I wanted the panel pulled to check for concealed damages. We use the bunk room for afternoon naps for the young guns, so I talked dealer into removing the back windows when replacing the inside panels. They agreed since it would make installing all the new stuff easier. No measuring and cutting windows on the fiberglass or inside panels. And they're tapping into the brake light wiring on the back of the trailer and putting me a 4 pin flat connector so all the wires will be hidden in the wall.

[jumbo131]

I'm going to give it the rest of the week to see if the parts arrive then I'm going to start putting pressure on the dealer for a pickup date. If they can't give me any real answers then I'll try getting a hold of the manufacturer from the list provided in an earlier post

[bikendan]

NEVER believe what dealer says about parts delay.
many dealers will hold parts orders until they get enough to save money on shipping costs.

they'll always blame the manufacturer on the delay, but when the customer calls FR parts dept., they find out that the dealer hadn't placed the parts order yet.

[jonrjen]

Wow Buddy, I sure hate to see that happened. Can you tap around the damaged area to see if there is any support studs that may have been damaged or not? I had read somewhere that most of the rear wall was of non structural design, but then don't hold me to that. Of course if that is the case I can see where what support is there would be of much needed strength.

Other wise I would say clean the surface around the damage and grab a roll of duct tape or monster tape cover it up and hit the road.

[comfun1]

It might be worth checking with shops that repair fiberglass boats.

[jumbo131]

The camper is too new for me to slap some duct tape and call it good. And the fiberglass shops were wanting somewhere around the $800 to repair the fiberglass. Since the wall was pushed in I wanted the dealer to look at for piece of mind. But I do agree that the rear wall is not a load bearing structural wall.

[jonrjen]

I wasn't talking duct tape for a permanent fix, just for use until parts come in. I am curious, did the dealer give you a cost figure to replace the back wall skin?

If you do away with the rear window, how is the interior wall going to be taken care of when the window is removed?

[jumbo131]

Their bid came in at $2100 to replace the skin and fix some broken studs in the wall. I have a $250 deductible on insurance. They had to take off the interior panels to fix the studs and they're replacing with new panels. Dealer said when the panels come in the dealer is responsible for measuring and cutting the windows into the new panels. So instead of doing that they're putting the interior and exterior panels up solid.

[jevanb]

If you don't put windows in isn't it going to be really dark? I wish ours had Windows in the slides for more natural light

[jumbo131]

Yea that's what we want. Our 2 & 4 year old take naps back there and the darker the better. Plus we do a lot of summer camping and the kids normally don't make it till dark before turning in for the night. So the extra dark room will help with all of that. If we need light there's plenty of lights in the room. We don't do any dry camping so the electrical use won't be a problem.

[jeepman71]

I have to wonder about the factory being slow. I ordered the Voyager camera from Wildcat Parts last Thursday and received it today. Possibly the delay is due to them having to make the wall panel.

[jevanb]

Originally Posted by jumbo131

Yea that's what we want. Our 2 & 4 year old take naps back there and the darker the better. Plus we do a lot of summer camping and the kids normally don't make it till dark before turning in for the night. So the extra dark room will help with all of that. If we need light there's plenty of lights in the room. We don't do any dry camping so the electrical use won't be a problem.

we don't dry either, and the wife puts towels on the windows at night for the kids to make that room like a dungeon

[Stg1]

jumbo131, I did the same thing to my new Wildwood (metal) on the passenger side. The bill for mine is $16,836 with a $500 deductable. Our parts just came in. Found out that the dealer waited two weeks to order the parts, even though I had the ins check in hand. Hope repairs go smoothly.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Stg1

Our parts just came in. Found out that the dealer waited two weeks to order the parts, even though I had the ins check in hand.

Like I said.....

[jumbo131]

I just called and left a message with the parts department atthe factory. I called Kyle from the list of numbers that wasnposted on the second or third post on this thread. Hopefully he'll call my back in the morning. It was 15 minutes till 5pm central time when I leftthe message.

[jumbo131]

The manufacturer called first thing this morning and said the panel shipped yesterday and should be in Dallas by Wednesday or Thursday. The dealership called right before lunch and said the same thing. Hopefully in about 7-10 days should be camping again! This time I'll watch for overhangs on the house when backing in the driveway.