Forest River Not Living Up to Its Name

[mattsrv1234]

My wife and I bought a 2022 Forest River Cherokee Wolfpack 325 for $70K in February about 5 hours from our home. Not even 3 hours later, driving home down the interstate the left rear tire, hub, and everything came flying off down the interstate. FOREST RIVER RVs ARE UNSAFE!

Luckily the tire did not hit anyone. We called the dealership we bought it from and they said to have it towed back to them to be fixed or we could take it to another Forest River vendor to be replaced under warranty. We decided to drive it about 60 miles on 3 tires to a Camping World for repairs. 3 days later Camping World had an opening for the RV to be inspected. The technician said one of the hubs did not have a cotter pin installed and that more than likely the hub that came off did not have one either. The technician said we were extremely lucky the other tire did not fall off.

This is unacceptable. Forest River needs to inspect their RV's more carefully before saling them to vendors. We could have crashed, the tire could have hit another car, or worse someone may have even died. The CEO of the vendor we purchased from personally called us not even an hour after the incident to make sure we were ok and gave us his personal number if we needed anything. He also said to call him when we made it safely to our destination to make sure we got home ok. Forest River never reached out to make sure we were ok, to apologize, or to even understand how the hub came off from our point of view.

After several weeks of not hearing an update, I called Camping World and they said Forest River had them rewrite the warranty 3 times. After reaching out to Forest River for another week, I finally had a 3 way call with Forest River and Camping World to get the Warranty squared away. AFTER 5 WEEKS!!!! and multiple calls to Camping World and Forest River, Forest River finally approved the warranty and Camping World ordered the parts. ONLY 2 PARTS ARRIVED at Camping World. Camping World said they did not know where the other parts were. After calling Forest River for 3 days a lady finally got it approved to pull parts off the floor and plant to be sent. FOREST RIVER NEEDS TO STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCTS!!!

This has been a stressful, ridiculous process that could have been avoided if Forest River inspected the RV more carefully to make sure the hubs were put on the correct way and had cotter pins. The process, also, should not have taken this long for the RV to be fixed. After calling Camping World and Forest River every day for weeks at a time, each one pointing the finger at the other, feels like no one wanted to do their job and just get our RV fixed. Forest River never even reached out to us or Camping World to say parts were not in stock. We could have called a 3rd party or figured something out. I will not be buying anything Forest River again. Please inspect your RV carefully as I have read other threads where the tires have fallen off as well. After all this I just want my RV back. It has been 3 months.

[HangDiver]

Wow. Thats quite story. Sorry for all the issues you're having to deal with. Be advised that when this is over and you get your 5th wheel back, it is possible if not likely that the single tire on that one side may have been compromised from being overloaded. Maybe.

Good luck...

[wildmanabe]

Totally agree with ya that FR isn't what it use to be. Got a 2021 Arctic Wolf back in Nov. Issues never got fixed. Finally got a hold of FR. Customer Service said he get with the Warranty Rep and get back to me. That was a month ago. Not sure who's worst, FR or Camping World. Could be a Tie for 1st place.

[wmtire]

Hate to hear this happened to you and the RV. From what I can tell from your post, you are saying that the hub on the axle, came off. This hub is what the rim is bolted to, which the rim is what the tire is mounted on. See diagram:





A missing cotter key (#7), is what keeps the axle nut (#6) from backing off.....which the axle nut holds the hub (#24) on the spindle. The reason I am explaining this to you, is that this isn't something that Forest River would have a way of knowing that was missing, since they purchase axles from other vendors and do not make them in house. The only way they could know the cotter pin was missing, would be to disassemble the axle to verify....which no RV manufacture is going to do, or expect to do. They purchase the axles, like a television, and expect it all to be right by the manufacture of the axle.


Now that you know that FR does not make the axle and it's not a realistic expectation to think they are going to disassemble axles before installing them on their RV's....., how they handle the problem after they were made aware of it, is 100% on them.


I am curious as to who the axle manufacturer is. You should have had paperwork in the RV, of what axles are on this RV. The reason for this question to you is that if the axle manufacturer has actually left cotter pins out, then this is a safety issue that needs to be addressed with the NHTSA. The NHTSA is the govt agency who would force a recall on these axles should the need arise. They need to know of this.


Here is a link to them, where you file a complaint/form.


https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index


As you can see from the screenshot, trailers and RV's are included.


P.S. I may go ahead and edit your post to accurately state that the axle hub is what really came off, and not just the tire.

[Jackfacente]

Actually from my experience with my last Three CedarcCreek 5th wheels this is typical and to be expected. I could list 20 items I've driven off the floor with only to find in the first few weeks of use. All resulting from poor workmanship. They expect the already over loaded dealer network to fix thier shortcomings. Last time mine was in shop for a Thule Awning repair.1 week shy of 3 months. Between approvals and parts issues it's a mess. If your not at all mechanically or electrically oriented you can expect to wait long intervals for service.At least here in Central Florida.This will be our last RV. 90% of the problems come from poor workmanship. Loose coax connections, leaks in plumbing behind walls, damaged ceiling panels from bent staples,battery cables crimped with no insulation removed,inadequate size wiring to operate Thule Regal awning,Duct tape balled up and left in ac duct, hearting ducts blocked with trash,gray tank not emptying correctly due to plastic debris left in tank, dishwasher drain hose pushed on with no clamp flooding kitchen on first use, lug nuts on wheel over tightened had to torch one off were a few of my last 10 year items. It's not going to change, it's the RV Industry. These were all very large high end models too.

[stephndudb]

Hate to say it, but nothing from the OP’s post surprises me. RVs have always been bad, with very low QC, and they're only worse post-COVID. No way I'd buy a mass-produced RV built after March 2020.

[itat]

I’ll add this to wmtire’s comments. Forest River is a huge umbrella company. Each of its divisions works largely independently. While the Cherokee division is a Forest River brand, the OP will be dealing with the Cherokee factory and their warranty staff. I’ll also say that the entire RV industry is setup this way. As a whole, a vast majority of the industry suffers from a lack of QA, but some brands are much worse than others.

This is the first I’ve ever heard of a wheel hub coming off on the drive home from the dealer. I totally agree that this is a matter that the NHTSA needs to be made aware of. Lippert likely made that chassis and if one axle went out without a cotter pin then it may have happened on others. This needs to be investigated. I’d look first at whether the dealer had the hubs off for some reason.

[traindrv]

What's interesting is that this RV had already been towed possibly many miles from the manufacturer to the dealership and then the assembly departed the RV after leaving the dealership.

[snowdog50]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Hate to hear this happened to you and the RV. From what I can tell from your post, you are saying that the hub on the axle, came off. This hub is what the rim is bolted to, which the rim is what the tire is mounted on. See diagram:


Attachment 273266


A missing cotter key (#7), is what keeps the axle nut (#6) from backing off.....which the axle nut holds the hub (#24) on the spindle. The reason I am explaining this to you, is that this isn't something that Forest River would have a way of knowing that was missing, since they purchase axles from other vendors and do not make them in house. The only way they could know the cotter pin was missing, would be to disassemble the axle to verify....which no RV manufacture is going to do, or expect to do. They purchase the axles, like a television, and expect it all to be right by the manufacture of the axle.


Now that you know that FR does not make the axle and it's not a realistic expectation to think they are going to disassemble axles before installing them on their RV's....., how they handle the problem after they were made aware of it, is 100% on them.


I am curious as to who the axle manufacturer is. You should have had paperwork in the RV, of what axles are on this RV. The reason for this question to you is that if the axle manufacturer has actually left cotter pins out, then this is a safety issue that needs to be addressed with the NHTSA. The NHTSA is the govt agency who would force a recall on these axles should the need arise. They need to know of this.


Here is a link to them, where you file a complaint/form.


https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index


As you can see from the screenshot, trailers and RV's are included.


P.S. I may go ahead and edit your post to accurately state that the axle hub is what really came off, and not just the tire.

This is solid information. Thanks for posting.

[Wolf26]

"Forest River Not Living Up to Its Name". But they are living up to their reputation. (Poor)

[Bob K4TAX]

I agree this is a very unfortunate issue. Sure puts a sour taste in ones mouth with regards to FR.

I seem to believe the frames and axles are purchased and supplied to FR. The axle/frame company should be aware of the incident.

As to new, I always say"new guarantees new but not necessarily good".

Dealers as I recall have a hold-back for taking care of warranty issues. The less they have to do in this regard the more money remains as margin.

I find it is necessary to do or oversee any and all maintenance, repairs, and safety checks. Almost everything I do myself. I learn about the systems, save money and time.

[Sbosserman]

From my experience with both, I’d agree with you about Forest River & Camping World being a tie for last place. But I’d give Camping World a slight edge for being at the bottom. Ah, the hours & hours of stories I could tell about both. ☹️

[jkoenig24]

"This is unacceptable. Forest River needs to inspect their RV's more carefully before saling them to vendors."

Yeah, good luck with PROPER Quality Control Checks EVER happening.

[Bruce511]

I bought a 2022 Forester MBS 2401b in January at a show and went to pick it up a week later after they were to have checked it out and cleaned it up. It had so many issues to include safety that they couldn't release it. It took 3 months to get the warranty approval, parts and install them so our new RV was 4 months old and surprisingly had 300 additional miles on it when we got it. We are on our check out trip and immediately found they didn't correct the chassis battery sensor (shows .1 amps) and the solar controller (601 error) along with several other issues like black and grey tank sensors crossed. The outside shower hose doesn't connect to the fitting so I assume they provided the wrong one. And then there are Forest River design flaws: waste hose holder too small for a typical waste hose with fittings; no ladder to the roof which I believe is critical for checking on roof systems.

Forest River should do a better job building their RVs, but since they aren't the dealers and especially service centers need to step up. The one we bought from in Ft Myers Florida has failed time and time again. I'm hoping we can find one in Virginia when we arrive for the summer to make this RV whole.

On a final note, we love the maneuverability, floor plan, and all the storage in this Forester and plan to travel thousands of miles and hundreds of nights if we can get it working right.

[RookieRV]

Bottom line……They made the sale…..Glad you and everyone around you were not injured!

[Tabasco_Joe]

My brother had his TT serviced at a dealer before a trip to Florida. On return, he started hearing noises from his wheel area. He was only about five miles from home when this happened. Turns out the mechanic at the dealership missed all four cotter pins.
Axel was damaged. He got it repaired at a shop close to where he found the issue, and the dealer ended up paying for the complete repair. Including an axel.

So, all the way from Delaware to Florida and back before the nut backed off enough to cause a problem.

[kfergiez]

Originally Posted by Wolf26

"Forest River Not Living Up to Its Name". But they are living up to their reputation. (Poor)

Yeah... this was my thought as well. They've always been a special kind of garbage.

[wmtire]

OK, this vent thread is being closed. The OP has not been back or asked for any help/ As per the guidelines:

Customer Disputes: This forum is not intended to be a mechanism for people to solely vent frustrations about services, products, vendors, or sales. Please settle your differences with the seller, provider, manufacturer, or dealer through other means but not through our community. You may post about problems you have with Forest River products in an effort to learn from others with similar issues, however the use of the forums to repeatedly attack or bash Forest River, Forest River products, or Forest River owners is strictly forbidden.