2013 SolAire Shakedown trip in the books.

[SPPD]

Our new SolAire came out of storage and my wife and I did 3 days in N. Central Illinois. Overall we loved the new SolAire and had a nice weekend. Day 1 rain and cold all day, but was mostly getting the camper set up and testing things. Day 2 warmer around 44° and evening rain. Day 3 sunny windy and around 75°.

We had a couple major issues and a few minor with the shakedown.

Major:
The evening of day 2 it was raining pretty good when we hit the bed. My wife was awakened by a steady stream of water running down the wall at the head of the bed and her pillow was wet. In the AM I dried out everything and inspected the roof as best I could and could not find anything obvious. The water was finding it's way to the lowest point in the pass-thru storage about a half and inch or more. Dried it all up and left the compartment open all day which seemed to dry it out well.

Underbelly enclosure membrane on the front slide out came out at the trim and is now open and hanging. It looks like the factory cut the piece a bit short and with minimal flexing it pulled out.

Found the outside kitchen faucet is also leaking at the water connections, but could not find a way under to tighten them up.

Minor:

Found a few missing screws and a few hinges that need adjustment.

Everything else worked the way it should.

Here is the best part.

After buying our SolAire we liked the salesman so much I became friends with him on Facebook. I made mention on FB that we had a few issues with our new camper. Within minutes the salesman called me to ask what what going on. I explained it to him and told him I would call the dealership in the morning to make an appointment. He told me he would call me back in a few minutes. In a little while he called me back and told me to lock the keys in the trailer and leave it at the campground. He said a service tech would be there first thing in the morning to get the trailer and tow it to the dealership. A few hours later I got an email from the owner of the dealership asking me to describe the problems and send it to the service manager and they would start to fix it first thing tomorrow. I have never had better customer service in my life!

Hopefully this will resolve all the new trailer issues and we will be good to go for the remainder of the season.

SPPD

[jtstromsburg]

Dealer name? Might be good to share, maybe you did in the review section?

[SPPD]

I did a write up of our dealer in that section, but I will share again.

It is Collier RV Super Center in Rockford, IL.

They have far exceeded our expectations from when we first talked to them via email last year all the way through the sale and even after they got our money. I am extremely pleased with them!

The issues with the Palomino SolAire are a little disappointing, but I am sure once all these issues are dealt with we will have many issue free years. The unit seems very well built, just quality control stuff at this point.

SPPD

[SPPD]

Follow up!

Got the call today that my SolAire is all patched up and ready to go. The service advisor said he found leaks everywhere on the trailer. Roof in 12 places, front marker lights, scare light, and the outside kitchen door. He said that he took a bunch of pictures to send to FR because the roof was one of the worst he has ever seen on a new unit. He made a comment about terrible QC from the factory. They also took care of all of the other issues that we discovered during our shakedown trip. Now I am concerned about hidden damage since my trailer rolled of the assembly line in August 2012 and spent most of the winter in outside storage. Any tips about how to inspect for hidden damage would be greatly appreciated. I am also going to ask the dealer to try and get something in writing from FR to cover possible issues down the road that may have been cause by this leaking.
The great customer service from my dealer continues though. They came out to the campground and picked up the trailer when the roof was leaking on our shake down trip saving us about 60 miles of towing, and today they offered to bring the trailer to my house or my property to save me a trip out there. The dealership is about 60 miles from my home, and 60 miles from my property. I declined and will pick it up myself just so I can give it a once over before it leaves the dealer lot.

Our next trip is planned for Mid May so hopefully all the new trailer issues are behind us and we can start to enjoy our new SolAire.

SPPD

[Jimmerinwi]

If you had leaks in 12 different places, I would be worried about the damage that was done that you can't see.

[SPPD]

Right Jimmer, me too. I trust my dealer amd that is a topic I will bring up when I go out tomorrow or Friday to pick the trailer up. What bothers me most is I walked the roof for about 30 minutes during our PDI and did not see any signs of leaks or issues. There was nothing up there to indicate an issue. The dealer said they used a machine of some kind to find the leaks. Not sure what kind of machine, but I will ask more about that when I go get it. I am going to see what they can do for my piece of mind about possible hidden damage when I go to talk to the dealer.

SPPD

[Jimmerinwi]

Originally Posted by SPPD

Right Jimmer, me too. I trust my dealer amd that is a topic I will bring up when I go out tomorrow or Friday to pick the trailer up. What bothers me most is I walked the roof for about 30 minutes during our PDI and did not see any signs of leaks or issues. There was nothing up there to indicate an issue. The dealer said they used a machine of some kind to find the leaks. Not sure what kind of machine, but I will ask more about that when I go get it. I am going to see what they can do for my piece of mind about possible hidden damage when I go to talk to the dealer.

SPPD

Hopefully it'll turn out that there wasn't significant damage done. Good luck.

[SPPD]

Thank you!

[luv2drum]

We just took delivery on a Solaire 28QBSS this past week. While I haven't seen any leaking in our trailer (other than a substantial leak in the shower faucet which the dealer is fixing this week for me), I'm curious if you have any further details about the locations your dealer found leaks and what they did to fix them. I'd be curious so I can check my roof, lights, hatches, etc... to ensure I'm not going to see a similar situation. Any other things you've found with the overall build or function that would be helpful to a fellow Solaire owner would be great.

We're overall pleased with the unit, although we haven't taken it out for our first trip yet.

Thanks!

[SPPD]

Luv2drum,

PM sent.

SPPD

[luv2drum]

Hey. Well, we just got our 28QBSS back from the dealer, after they had to fix the shower faucet. The factory had drilled one of the mounting screws into the plumbing line, which needless to say caused a substantial issue when I went to pressurize the system for the first time as a test.

So that's fixed, but now, I just discovered my two front outdoor compartments have water getting in. We have had some rain in the past 48 hours and when I went to open them up yesterday, there was water in both, more on the right side. I haven't even taken the thing out yet, and now finding a second problem.

Did you have any issues with your exterior compartment doors leaking and if so, what did you or the dealer do to fix them? I'm hopeful, and confident its just the doors themselves letting water in, but who knows.

-Lars

[SPPD]

I thought that the water was possibly coming in through the the compartment doors, but it was coming in the marker lights directly above the doors. They did find a leak on the outside kitchen compartment door. They fixed that by re caulking around the door frame. The door seals were not the problem. I hope this helps you figure it out. Let me knoe what you find.

SPPD

[luv2drum]

Just returned from our first weekend out with our Solaire. Overall we were pleased with the experience. We do have several "minor" things that need attention, which I'll be addressing with dealer this week and taking it there for fixes.

1. Our bathroom door doesn't latch. The strike plate is set too high, so the latch in the door doesn't line up. The rear bunkhouse door also doesn't sit quite right, and needs adjusting.

2. We have about 3 pieces of trim that are just coming off. Looks like the factory just set the brads they used too low so they went through the trim.

3. After two nights, using our furnace only at night, a burner on the stove one time, the rear grill for one meal, the hot water heater being on for the two days and the fridge running on propane for about 4 hours, one of our 20lb tanks was empty. That doesn't seem right at all, given that our usage was really nothing I'd consider excessive and we only got 2 days on the tank. Either our dealer didn't fill the tanks fully when we took delivery, or there is a leak in the system someplace. Either way, I'd like it fixed and to know I can get more than 2 days out of a single tank. On our prior class c, I could almost go a season on a 30lb tank, so I'm hopeful for a whole lot more usage on a single tank!

4. We have two screens we can't open as they're just wedged in the window frames. Hope they can be fixed somehow.

5. I still have a small water leak in the front compartment door, so they can look at it and hopefully figure it out.

Our experiences definitely point to some quality control issues at Palomino, which have resulted in some poor craftsmanship. My dealer said Palomino has typically been better than many other brands, but recently she's seen some definite quality issues. Don't know about other manufacturers enough to know if that's a common issue across the industry.

Like I said however, overall, I felt good about the first time out. I do wish the bathroom was a bit bigger on our trailer, but we'll get used to it I guess. I was grateful for the 7' wide profile, especially when trying to squeeze into the site we were given. And our pull vehicle (a GMC Sierra 1500HD 6L) pulled it just fine. I'm still messing with the WD hitch and sway control to find the best setup, but it traveled well.

Anyway, just thought I'd share our experience with a Solaire after our first trip, again the 28QBSS. I don't see many posts about the Solaire line so maybe others can benefit from your experience, and ours as well.

Hope you're enjoying your's still!

[SPPD]

Thanks for your update and experiences. I am continuing to have a few issues, one being the same issue with trim. I agree that the staples seem to have gone right through most trim pieces especially around the dinette area. It looks like the water leaks may have caused some hidden damage as the front end is now starting to develope a wavy appearance in the fiberglass. Not sure if this is the early signs of delamination or something else. The rubber roof is also developing large bubble air pockets up front where you can actually feel that the adhesive has failed underneath. just did 3 nights over the weekend and one propane tank is empty. We have a total of 9 nights now on this tank. I am going to assume that the tanks were not filled and they used them for all the demonstratons of the unit prior to us taking delivery. Like you on our old Jayco we would use less than 30lbs of propane every 2 seasons. The weather has been colder this year so the furnace is working harder, and it is a much larger unit with slides. I am planning to make my dealer aware of these issues, but I have camping trips planned throughout the summer and early fall. If the issues don't make the trailer unsafe or unusable I am gonna plan on dropping it off at the dealer in October and let them have it all winter to make the repairs.
I am not sure why, but my wife and I still love this trailer. It just feels like home away from home despite all the problems. I am hoping that we make it through the season and by next year all the problems will be worked out. We have the b2b warranty through March 2015 so lets hope it all gets worked out by then.

Happy Camping!

SPPD

[Marshmstr1]

I have a 2013 Solaire 26bhdsk, overall I'm pleased with camper. I have 17 nights in it and I'm still on same 20lb bottle. Only real issue was leaking slide outs (picked up on a Saturday, rained Sunday, brought it back Monday haha). Other than that only minor things that you should expect on something that is towed behind a vehicle bouncing and flexing for hundreds of miles example loose screws etc...only thing I'm nervous about is slide out type...I know a lot of campers are going with this type of slide mechanisms, but I'm still skeptical, I believe they work great on small slides (bedroom) but nervous about big/heavy slides like living room

[Fish guy]

Hi, I just wanted to add my two cents regarding the Solaire. I picked up a 2013 269 BHDSK about three months ago and I must say the build quality is poor on this unit anyways. To say my slides leak is an understatement. I was just wondering if this is common to all these units, as mine has a pebbled roof (slide) and a black rubber strip is all that holds the rain out, well half of it, the rest goes on my carpet. Seems to me that they missed a step at the plant? To make matters worse my schwintek slide drove itself out of the wall during it's second time being put out. 7 of the 10 screws were broken off, and I'm worried about the rest of these areas.

I'm new to this forum, so if I posted in the wrong spot I am sorry,

I can add pictures if anyone wants to compare builds.

Thx

[SPPD]

My slides have given me no issues at all so far. Mine seem to operate smoothly, and they seem to seal well. I have had severe rain on every trip so far this season, and I have not had any water leaks around the slides. Have you tried having your dealer take a look? My dealer has done a great job taking care of our issues. Good luck.

[Fish guy]

Ya, dealer has been great. They have fixed most of the leak, and I repaired the slide myself, I too picky just to have some holes drilled here and there, so I had a new bracket made. If you don't mind, can you look at this picture and tell me if it looks like the way your slide is manufactured? It is a picture taken from the inside of the trailer of the top of main slide (with slide in) of what would be the backside of the wooden trim piece. The blue gap is where all the water comes in. I'm just wondering if yours has this gap. My dealer sealed it with some sort of caulking, but long term I'm a bit scared of more water. Appreciate any comments

Thx

[Fish guy]

[ATTACH]http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31757&stc=1&d=13699528 75&[/ATTACH]

[Fish guy]

that picture should have been rotated 90 degrees to the right........