Overall Quality of the Forester Brand

[McCormickJim]

X2 on negotiating for new batteries.

Forest River used World Wide batteries in my 35' Georgetown.

Forest River does not warrant the batteries.

World Wide battery warranty is for 13 months, from the date on the sticker on the side of the battery (not 13 months from date of retail sale). If the batteries in the coach you are looking at are World Wide, they are already out of warranty and already degraded or bad.

Make sure the batteries you negotiate for are NOT World Wide batteries. and DO have at least a 5 year warranty.

[PenJoe]

Our Sunseeker was pretty decent except for one thing. The floor started to squeak. Determined the floor structure was 1" high x 1.5" wide aluminum tubing .040 thick. Note: three thicknesses of a pop can equals .045" Spacing is 24" to approx 32" on center. The space between frame members was filled with 1 inch sheet Styrofoam that compresses available at Home Depot for under $8/4x8 sheet. The underside is a thin fiberglass sheet, the floor surface is 3/8" OSB and covered by lino. I will say we were pretty disappointed with that aspect of the construction.

When we experience the problem, we contacted Sunseeker. they do not cover floor squeaks or soft floors except those cause by water intrusion. They were kind enough to send me the floor blue print.

[avanti41]

We are wondering if our 2012 Silverback 5th wheel, Cedar Creek, Forest River 29 qualifies fits under the characteristics for the FR applied above even though it is not a Class C?

[Modersical]

Thanks to all of you for your input. We are looking very close at getting a new 2018 (Ford) FR Forester 3011DS. Feeling better about this decision!

[Total Loss]

I'm happy with mine - especially for the price.
I paid much less than many HD pickups and I can live in it.
Minor issues.
I do not like the fact they did not put an easily adjustable thermistor on the fridge and no adjustable thermostat on the gas water heater. I did the thermistor, still need to do the water heater- got so hot it shut off the water pump when boondocking after taking a shower- thermal safety switch inside I guess

The only Forest River warranty item I had was a leaking taillamp- typical issue on the first gen led taillamps- dealer sent me another one and I put it on myself.

[Kirk S]

Originally Posted by s1njin

I noticed the genny on the rig had 17 hours on it. Maybe they were keeping things moving / healthy.

I can ask about the batteries but I may have missed that boat. At least they are cheap.

X3 on 2 new batteries! I don't think they were keeping things moving/healthy, lol.
See below.

A couple of issues that may be of interest from our 3051S experience were installed items not related to Forest River quality but needed addressing anyway.
A few Foresters built during late 2017 had defective generator genies (the controller box that pairs with the MyRV tablet system). I read about the issue on this forum and the give-away was the meter showing 17 hours. Sure enough when I checked my meter on the tablet it showed 17 hours and was stuck there. I called Lippert directly and the sent me a new controller (genie) and the swap was easy.

Second issue that we and others had was with the 18 ft. awning unraveling at the rear attachment on the coach. Forest River covered the fabric replacement under warranty along with a push button under-cabinet LED unit that failed.

The only actual Forest River quality issue we had was the ceiling track for the wooden sliding door between the kitchen and bath area detached from the ceiling. Forest River fixed that and replaced a defective bedroom shade at the annual factory rally in Goshen IN last August.

Front-end alignment is important and will be covered by Forest River if done within 90 days of purchase. They required an invoice along with a copy of the before/after settings from the shops computer.

Our Dometic AC has worked flawlessly but could not beat the summer sun in the South so we had the rear and side windows tinted and it helped. The 3 large skylights are like radiant heaters and I'll be putting a reflective coating on them before summer.
The 4 door Dometic refrigerator is nice but I don't like the door latch system. One handle broke and Forest River sent me a whole new set of 4.
It keeps up okay temperature-wise but I plan on adding 2 fans to the chimney to help the outside air flow across the coils.

Any other issues have been minor and 13 months into ownership and almost that much usage we would recommend and buy again.

Good luck with your purchase!

[Steve-W]

Originally Posted by PenJoe

Our Sunseeker was pretty decent except for one thing. The floor started to squeak. Determined the floor structure was 1" high x 1.5" wide aluminum tubing .040 thick. Note: three thicknesses of a pop can equals .045" Spacing is 24" to approx 32" on center. The space between frame members was filled with 1 inch sheet Styrofoam that compresses available at Home Depot for under $8/4x8 sheet. The underside is a thin fiberglass sheet, the floor surface is 3/8" OSB and covered by lino. I will say we were pretty disappointed with that aspect of the construction.

When we experience the problem, we contacted Sunseeker. they do not cover floor squeaks or soft floors except those cause by water intrusion. They were kind enough to send me the floor blue print.

I too have had very few issues with my 2017 Forester 3051. No showstoppers, I was able to take care of most everything myself, with no charge parts sent to me by FR & Lippert (generator genie).
I also did have a floor squeak as Penjoe had. At last year’s Goshen rally the crew there resolved the squeek by adding 4 or 5 square tube support members to the frame in the “soft” area. I would have no issues purchasing a Forester product again.

[s1njin]

I found another thread on this site about the 17 hour genie problem. I forwarded some of the posts here and my concern over to my service manager to make sure this is looked at during their PDI. Thanks for the heads up - hopefully they get the part swapped in the 2 weeks they have it before I'm due to close on it.

[s1njin]

Originally Posted by Netgain

Second issue that we and others had was with the 18 ft. awning unraveling at the rear attachment on the coach. Forest River covered the fabric replacement under warranty along with a push button under-cabinet LED unit that failed.

Front-end alignment is important and will be covered by Forest River if done within 90 days of purchase. They required an invoice along with a copy of the before/after settings from the shops computer.

Our Dometic AC has worked flawlessly but could not beat the summer sun in the South so we had the rear and side windows tinted and it helped. The 3 large skylights are like radiant heaters and I'll be putting a reflective coating on them before summer.

The 4 door Dometic refrigerator is nice but I don't like the door latch system. One handle broke and Forest River sent me a whole new set of 4.
It keeps up okay temperature-wise but I plan on adding 2 fans to the chimney to help the outside air flow across the coils.

Good luck with your purchase!

Thanks for all your feedback. My awning is 15'6", so hopefully I won't have a unfurl problem like you did. I suppose time will tell.

The alignment on the Chevy chassis seems excellent so far. I know the coach is unloaded, but I was able to steer it w/ 1 finger doing 65 in my test drive. I felt that was very impressive !

As to the AC - I had a similar problem w/ the 32' dual slide Jayco Greyhawk I had previously. In full sun it was a struggle to keep the coach down below 78 degrees. We put solar blockers on the outside windows and that helped a bit. As my new coach will only be 25' long w/ 1 slideout, I have to believe it will cool better just from the simple fact there is less to cool w/ the same BTUs. Its ~22% smaller so that would equate to a hypothetical 18300 btu AC in my Greyhawk.

As to the fridge I suppose I'll see. Its not the 4 door model, so perhaps that makes a difference?

[HappyGuy]

There are a few items I would check on your rig. To the person looking at the 3011, the newer models appear to be having issues with their rear bed slide getting out of alignment. The fix is a set of rollers installed on the bottom of the slide opening but even then many of those rollers have been installed incorrectly and do not contact the slide when it is opening. Might want to check for those and get them shimmed if they are there and not in contact or installed if they're missing.

For the roof, my 2013 3011DSFs roof has held up quite well but has a weak spot where the front cap meets the roof. Where the two materials meet there have been problems with support and keeping them screwed together for years. If you search you'll find a post detailing my problems and FRs work to fix it. Since the fix I have been trouble free but I always set my rig with the rear angled down when I store it to keep water or snow melt from pooling at that seam, I never walk in that area, it's belly sliding only..., and I inspect it at least twice a year, removing the dicor, inspecting the seam every spring and replacing the dicor. We don't get much snow here but if I was storing my RV outside in the snow belt then I would also plan on clearing the snow regularly or investing in a large RV port.

There are downsides to every roof design unfortunately.

[PA Campers]

We bought our Forester, new, in June of 2017. Used it in July but had a roof leak (and other issues, mostly minor). Dealer was completely useless (would keep the RV for weeks but no work was completed). Called FR in September. They agreed to take the RV back to the factory to get it fixed. However, first appointment was in late November. They have had our rv since then. I talk to them every couple of weeks. I still have no date when we can get it back. So would I buy again? I guess it depends on how amazing the fixes are...and if I ever get the rv back.

[s1njin]

That sounds terrible ...