Riverstone Factory Tour

[lcv800]

Just wanted to give a shout out to Nick Simeri from Riverstone, who took time out of his busy day to spend a few hours giving us a factory tour in Millersburg Indiana and answering a ton of questions for us, narrowing our choices now between the 38MB and the IK (dressed as a Legacy). Stayed at the Goshen County Fairgrounds, which I guess is where the FROG rally is held. Very convenient and reasonably priced. Thanks again Nick.
Rusty

[dblr]

Hope you make your decision and get it before the Goshen rally, we need more River Stone units there, only had 3 last year

[youroo]

The FROG Rally is held at the "Elkhart Co. Fairgrounds"! Youroo!!

[clr]

I have a camping buddy that bought a new Riverstone unit a year or so ago. The unit is beautiful and comes with many top of the line type features such as disk brakes. He lives in central Illinois and had to buy his unit in Indiana since there was no local type dealer. He had to make the long trip to Indiana several times for warranty work.

He drove the unit to the east coast and when he auto leveled the unit the axles fell to the ground. He called his dealer and Forest River they sent out a mobile rv tech that had to also bring out a local welder to repair. The welder stated that the hanger brackets for the springs that hold the axle were only tack welded to the frame, they had never gone back and completely welded the hangers in place. Forest River did take care of the problem in a timely manner but this is a type fault that him and his wife could of been killed or seriously injured if this happened while they were on the road.

They were very very lucky I think. So check your hanger brackets if you decide upon the River Stone.

[Brewhedd]

Originally Posted by clr

The welder stated that the hanger brackets for the springs that hold the axle were only tack welded to the frame, they had never gone back and completely welded the hangers in place.

That's pretty hard to believe that the tack welds held while towing but then the axles just "fell off" when leveled.

[clr]

Well it is some what hard to believe but he is a good friend and I know he was telling the truth. All that we could come up with was that the weight of the unit and the positive pressure allowed the brackets to be held in place. When he leveled the unit and negative pressure was applied the bracket welds failed.

[dblr]

Your friends problem is probably the WORST issue I have heard about yet, so glad no one was hurt as yes it could have been a lot worse.

[lcv800]

On the positive side, Forest River immediately responded to his issue and sent a tech out to address the problem. While I was in Florida the RV'er next to me pulled up in his Riverstone IK (which sold me on going with a Riverstone/Legacy). He bought his RV in Michigan and had barely done the PDI before heading south. Just sold his house so he is full timing it. Well, after a week or so of use, he discovered that the valve to his black water tank was improperly installed and was leaking. Forest River again picked up the tab for a mobile tech to come out and fix the problem at no charge since he was unable to bring it in. That's a confidence builder. It is a problem with so few Riverstone dealers, even trying to see models, which according to Nick, Riverstone is trying to address. I live near Chicago and my closest dealer is 125 miles away. Hopefully I won't have many repair issues and it won't be an issue.
Rusty