New 26RS with stress cracks?

[RV4US]

My wife and I just purchased a new (yes, new) 2008 26RS mid-September 2009.

In the process of washing it after our last trip I was outraged to find hairline cracks in the fiberglass in the opening for the rear slide!!! (at each of the 4 corners). Upon further inspection, I found a 5th crack at the curve where the end wraps up to the roof. There is also a 6" or so bubble (delamination??) directly under the lower right hand corner of the slide opening.

This is our first experience with a fiberglass sidewalled trailer (and slideout for that matter). This certainly can't be normal. We've only camped with it 3 nights. It's very discouraging to think what we spent for this trailer to end up with this problem.

It'll be on it's way back to the dealer but I was wondering if others have had this same experience with their rear slides and what was the outcome?

Thank you.

[shineysideup]

Originally Posted by RV4US

My wife and I just purchased a new (yes, new) 2008 26RS mid-September 2009.

In the process of washing it after our last trip I was outraged to find hairline cracks in the fiberglass in the opening for the rear slide!!! (at each of the 4 corners). Upon further inspection, I found a 5th crack at the curve where the end wraps up to the roof. There is also a 6" or so bubble (delamination??) directly under the lower right hand corner of the slide opening.

This is our first experience with a fiberglass sidewalled trailer (and slideout for that matter). This certainly can't be normal. We've only camped with it 3 nights. It's very discouraging to think what we spent for this trailer to end up with this problem.

It'll be on it's way back to the dealer but I was wondering if others have had this same experience with their rear slides and what was the outcome?

Thank you.

Oh no worries, you should be able to send your unit back to forest river and be without it for a couple months... After all, you only spent a $20,000++ for the trailer... I am sorry but to me $20,000 is still a good sum of money and you should be able to get a quality product for this amount. Forest river quality to me is questionable at best... Comparing themselves to other trailer manufacturers that are horrible is not a good point to start from. It doesn't take much to be better than that...

I hope that forest river takes care of you and you get your trailer back repaired without something else being wrecked in the process. I believe I will have my trailer back to the manufacturer in the spring for some delaminating that is appearing under my fridge... My trailer is 1 1/2 years old...

shineysideup

[4506dave]

Hey guys, what was the outcome with both of your units? Mine developed a crack as well and is being repaired under warranty. 335QBQ

[RV4US]

Sorry; just saw your post. We brought our trailer to the dealer Oct 2009. Forest River picked up in December by trailer truck. Was told the repair would take 4-6 weeks. We got it back in late March. (way more than 4 weeks!) They did do a decent job. We used the trailer maybe 10 separate trips from May through October and so far so good.

BTW we also had to have a new converter and AC was not wired correctly from factory. Both issues have been fixed and so far no new problems.

First few months of ownership were disappointing and left a sour taste in our mouths but glad that FR took care of the repair. It would have been nice to have received some sort of "sorry" letter from FR and/or dealer for the inconvenience.

PS: If you're a summer camper, get your's fixed over the winter so you don't lose time. FYI FR shuts down over the holidays for 2 weeks.