2012 SV-301 problems

Hammertat · 05-22-2012, 10:42 PM

This is a brand new unit that we bought from a dealer in Ohio that after spending 2 nights getting it home we discovered that the bedroom slide was not adjusted properly, mis matched upholstery cover on the couch as well as a seam thet pulled apart from a poor stitch job. We droped it off at the closest dealer to our home for these issues to be looked at which took 9 days. We brought the TT home and left 4 days later for our first real outing and on the second day out the hot water tank started leaking which got the carpet wet up by the cabinets. I had to buy a pair of manual stabilizer jacks to put under the frame near the wheels in order to get the trailer to not bounce when you walked through it. In looking under the trailer there is a ton of rust on the frame and backing plates on the wheels, is this normal for a unit that is only 6 mo. old? Pictures were taken of the upholstery issues and am still waiting to see what FR is going to do about it (2 1/2 weeks now, no answer) Also discovered the trailer axle is not aligned at a 90 degree angle to the frame therefore it does not pull like it should. Silly me , I thought the towing problem was because the dealer that sold me the trailer and the equalizer hitch installed the wrong tow bars for the tongue weight I have, on second thought I don't think that helped matters either. The AC unit is so loud from the blower noise that when it kicks on you can't hear the TV so I ran a cable to the stereo head unit to play the TV sound through them and is still hard to understand what is being said because they put the 2 speakers up above the head unit instead of one in front of the living room and one back at the kitchen area so as to dispurse the sound better. Is this kind of stuff common with all TT or was mine built on a Friday or a Monday.???

PrairieBoy · 05-23-2012, 12:28 AM

Sorry to hear of your problems. I have sent you a private message with info on how to reach 1 of the Surveyor reps.

PrairieBoy · 05-28-2012, 08:32 PM

Where you able to get in touch with anyone

Hammertat · 05-28-2012, 10:26 PM

I got in touch with Susan , the Dept. manager for warranty work for Surveyor and she got the ball rolling in about 1 hour. They are replacing the entire sofa, potentially replacing the hot water tank and are sanding the rust off the frame under the trailer and repainting as well as replacing any bolts that are rusted which is quite a few. Turns out the dealer that towed this unit from the factory in Jan. of this year did not wash the underside down and everything rusted from salt on the roads in transit. All in all I am very pleased that they are taking care of the issues but am not happy that I had so many from the start. I am in the constructing business and I hold myself accountable for the work I do as well as being licensed and have to follow code guidelines and am not impressed that there is not any oversight of how things get done at the factories in the RV business. I have been told that this is not all that uncommon with any of the mfg. not just Forest River. It seems like at the end of the day it's all about the money to be made not necessarily how proud you can be to say that you build a very good product that someone (the consumer)will appreciate. Maybe I'm just too picky, and that's not a bad thing.

DonG · 05-28-2012, 10:37 PM

"Maybe I'm just too picky"
------------
Not at all, and you are right about Forest River only worrying about profit. Some of the things they do to save money really take away from the quality of their products.
The floor in my Flagstaff is only 1/4 inch of very poor quality plywood, at best, and I am sure if I jumped on it with any force, my foot would go right through. If I would have known they cheaped out that bad on material, I would never have bought the camper.

PrairieBoy · 05-28-2012, 10:59 PM

I am happy that you were able to get in touch with Susan. I just wanted to make sure that you were able to talk to someone as both Susan and Kristin gave me the OK to pass out their email addresses. I am also going through the same process with our new SV305. Will be placing a phone call tomorrow morning to try and work out some of the problems we are having.

Goomph · 05-29-2012, 07:45 PM

I am glad this got resolved ! You will be very pleasantly surprised with what they can and will do to satisfy their customers !

If the dealers we deal with had a small fraction of the customer service concept Surveyor factory folks have, we would never ever have to go to the factory folks. But I am glad I got to know quite a few of them over time, and I am actually happy I did.

I do not regret buying Surveyor one small bit, and if I ever change trailers, with absolutely no doubt, it will be another surveyor.

Please let us know how satisfied you are after the repairs are done.

hiflyer901 · 05-29-2012, 10:58 PM

Hey guys, I also think Forest River backs there product. I cant believe the shortcuts they take when building these things. When we got our 2012 SV 235RKS we found that they took a sawzall or something similar to route out a knotch in the cabinet where the valance went. It looked like they just cut the peice of wood to long and instead of re-doing it they hacked it out. They replaced all of that with no hesitation. Now, after 3 months my roof is aparently delaminating on the left front portion. I can not believe it. I want my money back or a new trailer. I dont believe for a second that the dealer has the experience or expertise to replace or fix roof delamination and I want it to go back to the dealer for repairs if they will be give me my money back. I really think it had the issue while sitting on the lot and the dealer missed it during inspection. They wont do anything for me though so I am stuck dealing again with FR. My trailer has been at the dealer more than I have had it. I have had to cancel 2 trips because of this and I have just had it.

Has anyone had experience or known of anyone getting a replacement trailer or a refund?

TURBS · 05-29-2012, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hiflyer901

Hey guys, I also think Forest River backs there product. I cant believe the shortcuts they take when building these things. When we got our 2012 SV 235RKS we found that they took a sawzall or something similar to route out a knotch in the cabinet where the valance went. It looked like they just cut the peice of wood to long and instead of re-doing it they hacked it out. They replaced all of that with no hesitation. Now, after 3 months my roof is aparently delaminating on the left front portion. I can not believe it. I want my money back or a new trailer. I dont believe for a second that the dealer has the experience or expertise to replace or fix roof delamination and I want it to go back to the dealer for repairs if they will be give me my money back. I really think it had the issue while sitting on the lot and the dealer missed it during inspection. They wont do anything for me though so I am stuck dealing again with FR. My trailer has been at the dealer more than I have had it. I have had to cancel 2 trips because of this and I have just had it.

Has anyone had experience or known of anyone getting a replacement trailer or a refund?

Send the unit back to fr to be repaired . ITS still under warranty let them fix it and move on .

Never heard of anyone getting there money back or getting a replacement unit Sorry.

hiflyer901 · 06-01-2012, 11:51 PM

Thanks f1000turbo. If it is under warranty will it be up to me to get it to FR.

KayDee · 06-14-2012, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hiflyer901

Thanks f1000turbo. If it is under warranty will it be up to me to get it to FR.

hiflyer - in regards to your question above... NOT necessarily. Please contact Susan (Warranty Manager for both Indiana & Oregon facilities) or me (Kristin - Sales Dept. contact, also for both Divisions).

Susan is who you should ACTUALLY contact, as she is the one that can "diagnose", and correct any issue you may be having. However, I am more than willing to be her "back up" and I can also take issues to the Sales People in your dealers area so that all issues are brought to the forefront and dealt with to (hopefully) everyone's satisfaction.

Surveyor has some of the BEST dealers in North America - but, everyone has "off" days, right? We at Surveyor will do our very best to get you back on the road and keep you on our "fan bandwagon".

Susan - sthornberg@forestriverinc.com
Kristin - kgriffin@forestriverinc.com

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