Lexington owners!!!

Dave T · 08-16-2012, 11:04 AM

I had the bad luck of a tree branch putting a hole in my roof. This happen during a very bad wind storm on July 2nd. It poked a 2 inch hole about 2-3 inches deep but not through the foam. But the water got into the wood that the fiberglass roof is glued to. So the roof had to be replaced. That exposed troubles of poor workmanship by Forest River. There is a seam where the roof meets the side walls, that is where the troubles are. Screws holding the strip down were over torqued & broke off. The strip causes a dam holding water on the roof & finding it's way under the strip to the wood. I had 2 spots on the drivers side where the wood was rotten. Add this to all the other poor clauking on the rest of rig & you a have a major problems! The dealer no longer carries Lexingtons because of problems with them. I don't care who I ofend with this post. I can't believe I am the only one with these problems. These problems take a few years to show up but when they do you have big problem! If you own a Lexington & want to know where to look ,PM me. The roof costs over $5000 to be replaced

**bclemens** · 08-17-2012, 08:41 AM

Maybe next year you can attend the rally Dave (or the next one coming). I know you hate when people comment about how they have had no problems, when you've had problems, but I must say if no one is here to talk about the good things, then everyone thinks there are only bad things.

Read a few of the posts from the rally. We're not out to "get" anyone. Everyone here at Forest River truly wants to do the best possible job that we can. Maybe talking to one of our people face to face will solve a lot of problems.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...-17178-29.html

Dave T · 08-17-2012, 01:54 PM

Bob,
I'm not trying to start a flame up. My main reason for posting is too inform people of where to look for troubles. I do like this rig & get compliments on the rig at very campground I take it to. I have been trying to catch up to poor job of workmanship but it's been hard. So far I have caught problems before they have gotten bad. A lot of these will take years to show up & than it's too late. It's not that clauking is being missed but it seems to have been just going through the motions. Again I can't believe it was just my rig. The sad part of this is that the Lexington should have a better reputation . For dealer to quit selling it , says volumes.
I do plan on keeping it. I can't make it too FROG. Thanks for inviting.

Here is a picture of where the latest leak came from. I put the clauk on the joint because it came from the factory without any. The slideouts & compartments are another bad place for leaks . No pictures. I get the rig back from the dealer tomorrow after 5 days putting on a new roof.
Dave

**bclemens** · 08-17-2012, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave T

Bob,
I'm not trying to start a flame up. My main reason for posting is too inform people of where to look for troubles. I do like this rig & get compliments on the rig at very campground I take it to. I have been trying to catch up to poor job of workmanship but it's been hard. So far I have caught problems before they have gotten bad. A lot of these will take years to show up & than it's too late. It's not that clauking is being missed but it seems to have been just going through the motions. Again I can't believe it was just my rig. The sad part of this is that the Lexington should have a better reputation . For dealer to quit selling it , says volumes.
I do plan on keeping it. I can't make it too FROG. Thanks for inviting.

Here is a picture of where the latest leak came from. I put the clauk on the joint because it came from the factory without any. The slideouts & compartments are another bad place for leaks . No pictures. I get the rig back from the dealer tomorrow after 5 days putting on a new roof.
Dave

I understand. I will say, "take what a former dealers says" with a grain of salt. We canceled 20-30 dealers last year for poor performance as a mandate from the president of the company. We had too many customers going to a dealer (listed on our locator) to find ONE or NO units in stock. "Oh, we can order you one". What we ended up with was some very unhappy customers. We got tired of sending them to dealers that were not a good representation of our company. We also did that to dealers that we got multiple complaints about service, warranty, customer service (most were both).

So if you ask a dealer why they no longer carry something are they going to say "well, we didn't want to stock any units for you to look at and our service got horrendous scores" or will they say "that product sucked so we dropped it". I'm not saying that is the case here...but I can tell you I have personally seen this happen.

blueox · 09-27-2012, 05:57 PM

Well --- I don't usually get into this kind of "chat", but I have a 2006 Lexington [purchased new] #283 w/E450 V10. The Dealer I got it from was about 230 miles from home, so I knew I would be doing most of the PM myself. The dealer knew that I wanted to do that and was cool with it, an would take care of me. In a hard wind storm on I10, mother nature took my local channel antenna and I called them on the road and I had a new one at my house when I got home. The rear camera pooped out later and they sent me the parts. My unit has been nothing but fantastic from the get -go. The factory sent some trim pcs that I needed at no cost. I have nothing but good to say about the dealer and Factory. I'm sorry that you are having problems with your rig, but just wanted to let you know that I have been a very "Happy camper since I purchased it. THE BLUEOX SAID THAT!
P.S. Ford could have fed them ponies a little better tho.

Autonostalgia · 11-09-2012, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave T

Bob,
I'm not trying to start a flame up. My main reason for posting is too inform people of where to look for troubles. I do like this rig & get compliments on the rig at very campground I take it to. I have been trying to catch up to poor job of workmanship but it's been hard. So far I have caught problems before they have gotten bad. A lot of these will take years to show up & than it's too late. It's not that clauking is being missed but it seems to have been just going through the motions. Again I can't believe it was just my rig. The sad part of this is that the Lexington should have a better reputation . For dealer to quit selling it , says volumes.
I do plan on keeping it. I can't make it too FROG. Thanks for inviting.

Here is a picture of where the latest leak came from. I put the clauk on the joint because it came from the factory without any. The slideouts & compartments are another bad place for leaks . No pictures. I get the rig back from the dealer tomorrow after 5 days putting on a new roof.
Dave

As I also got my share of water leak problems with my 2 FR products (see Autonostalgia posted Nov. 3), I realize that some owners received good attention from the company and their dealer,which is not the case for me. I will supply photos later as I just drove my Lexington back home yesterday after 6 weeks at the repair shop: they finally found where the water was coming inside the front slide-out: 2 holes inside the upper frame and many screws leaking and rusted on a 2011 Lexington 255. Now,I saw that many caulked joints are cracked, so I will check & seal them all around. This is to let all owners know that these machines need a lot of attention and to be checked very often,especially when used on the poor roads in province of Quebec!!!

RickLSmith53 · 01-17-2013, 09:52 PM

Well guys, bottom line, RV's are basically "sticks and staples!" I have owned all the way up to a Travel Supreme Select 45" Class A bus. ($550K) Guess what, it was still basically sticks and staples! I will grant you they were fancy sticks and staples, but none the less, still similar to other RV's I have owned. It had plenty of problems, some major. I have come to the conclusion RV's are not for the faint of heart. You need to be a bit of a handyman, or you may be in for trouble. But anyway, back to the issue at hand... I have found my Lexington 255 GTS to be very well built considering it's very low cost. I honestly have to say, it is more than what I would have expected. We are very happy with our unit, and have found it too be a very good value!

Rick Smith

vannbranch · 04-27-2013, 12:10 PM

I wish I had seen this post earlier. I looked at a 'Lexington' in La. during a recent hard rain and the roof on a new unit was leaking...This kept me from buying it on the spot. I really liked the style, cost, etc. so I shopped for about two weeks to find the perfect unit....and I bought it yesterday in Alabama...it had better not leak or there will be a nice class action filed....manufacturers have to be held responsible for their faults...another thing I noticed with every unit I looked at...the caulk jobs are horrific...every unit I looked at had caulk 'shortcomings' in the shower, the entertainment center, and on the exterior. As soon as my unit is delivered, I will photo anything I find and post. Hopefully, Bob, I can report no findings....the dealer I bought from is Bankston in Huntsville, Al.

I owned a 'View' manufactured by Chrysler/Mercedes and another Motorhome company and had nothing but trouble with it. I spent numerous hours on the net making sure I effected their sales until I could get rid of the junk.

I'm hoping for and expect great results from my new ride.....

Autonostalgia · 05-02-2013, 08:48 AM

Dear Vannbranch,
I hope you can enjoy your Lexington more than I do: every time we use it,there is an issue! In november 2012, it has been 3½ weeks at the repair shop: water coming in from the front slide out,floor getting thicker and rough,upholtery fully wet,etc. Back from repair shop,had to return it a week later for another 10 days as it was worse: very badly installed seals,screw holes in the slide-out body,water even coming from the inner aluminium tubing frame!!! They had to install a membrane to seal the top of the front slide-out. A month later, another big leak as the outer shower dome was wrongly installed,being lifted 1/8 " on one side. The installer had not applied pressure evenly when installing: again all the roof upholstery and left side wall was completely wet...After many registered letters,Forest River offered me to"look at it" but I had to bring them my VR to Elkhart, leave it for a month, and go back to get it (2300 km.)...I fixed it myself at 34 F. temperature in February, dried all the interior with fans and heater,and will complete the job when warmer. Now I know why there is always a ladder fixed behind a motorhome: it's for doing repairs on top 3-4-5 times a year! I am very deceived also because we found loose parts under the cabinets,some mouldings around the counters came off,found more than 50 loose staples from the verticalupholstering front molding,etc....

Autonostalgia

BigJohnD · 05-03-2013, 09:33 AM

Well, as I had posted a while back, I redid / added to all of the sealant on our roof before it left the garage on the first trip. Not that FR's isn't good enough, just that I know where they'll leak and I'm a bit more of a perfectionist. You could eat off of our roof. Those trim screws in your picture? I added dicor to all of them as they will weep water over time. I spent 2 good weeks going through the unit, adding sealant where FR says you don't need it, testing all systems, adding access panels, adjusting things and that's just the tip of the ice burg. Like mentioned in an earlier post, you gotta be somewhat of a handy man. If you can't handle a few problems, FR's fault or your own, you're in the wrong hobby. And as another mentioned, no matter what you pay, you WILL have some sort of issue if you actually use it. Learn from all the problems and it makes life easier the next go around. Knock on wood, 6 RVs since 2003, heavily used, and not one roof leak due to our system of roof maint. Now slide outs, different story. Had 2 of them leak. One due to bad design that I fixed, and manufacturer later did the same to all units, and our present unit due to improperly installed wiper seal. Didn't catch that till it rained.

vetteman62 · 07-24-2013, 10:25 AM

I might add that I just purchased a 2006 FR Lexington 283gts that was stored inside for about 18 months. After getting it home, it sat in some heavy rain and I developed a terrible water leak in the passenger overhead. Water leaked so bad in the headliner and visors that I had to drop it down and place a bucket under one corner. Took it to a Lexington dealer here in Florida that claimed that they have a pressurized system that will find any leak. After their test, they said it was leaking in several places and needed the entire roof re caulked to the tune of $500. I had them do it, returned home 75 miles away and the next day it rained and I had the same amount of water leaking in. Took it back and they discovered that the four running lights in the top front were the problem and siliconed the rubber and the slide in lights. I now have no leaks so I thought that I should mention this for a good place to start to find a leak in the front cab. Gary in Florida

I have another problem with this RV and I had mentioned it when it was being treated for the leak but they didn't check it out and now want me to take it back for them to look at but I am not in any hurry to go back to that dealer since they are not attempting to solve my problem over the phone and want me to drive it back another 75 miles each way and charge per hour so I posted this yesterday but have not received a reply as of yet so I am going to mention the problem here in case somebody may see it and have an idea to solve it.

Forest River Lexington 283GTS RV House Battery problem
Just purchased this 2006 Forest River RV and have a strange problem that I have not been able to figure out. Plugging in to my home 115v 15A has everything working in the RV. When I remove the 115v and want to start the generator it starts OK but will only run for about 2 minutes and then shuts off and everything is dead. Checking the RV house batteries, they read 12.56v. If I start the RV Ford engine, everything comes back on. If I then start the generator and turn on the A/C everything is fine and will continue running for hours. The RV house batteries read 12.56v all of the time whether the home 115v is connected or if the generator is running with the A/C on. I am trying to figure out why the house batteries always read 12.56v and do not indicate that they are charging whether the generator is running or if it is plugged into the 115v and why the RV is not getting voltage from the batteries even though the RV house voltage is always in the on position. Does anybody have an idea as to a relay or something that is not allowing the batteries to change over and or charge?

vetteman62 · 07-25-2013, 01:46 PM

The problem is solved but I cannot figure out how to edit or delete the post. Thanks everybody, Gary

**bclemens** · 07-26-2013, 09:25 AM

Don't delete, just add the solution in another post.

vetteman62 · 07-26-2013, 09:49 AM

Well, here is what happened..................
When I purchased this a few weeks ago in Alabama they had installed new batteries before I got there so when I was checking it out I tried the Generator and it started right up and the A/C worked great and drove the 600 miles home to Florida. About a week later is when the problem started where the generator would start but would shut off after a couple of minutes and I would have to start the V10 up in order to get the generator to stay on and then could shut the V10 off.
Going back to square one, I was rechecking the batteries that are not easy to get at on the back side and I finally noticed that there was no ground cable attached. I felt around in back on the batteries and found the ground cable, attached it and the problem is gone. Amazing how something this simple could cause such a problem for about two weeks. The person who connected the batteries up should have his butt kicked. When the batteries were fresh everything worked until they got down to about 12.5 volts from 13.6............

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