News article about poor quality of RV manufacturing

[John in Santa Cruz]

not fiberglass, but an interesting quick read.
https://www.rvtravel.com/pathetic-qu...oducing-1017b/

[Darwin Maring]

I sure am glad Scamp doesn't build campers with defects.

[Jon in AZ]

COVID labor difficulties combined with unprecedented demand are certainly a factor, but I don’t think anyone can say things were exactly good beforehand. RV quality issues have been well documented for years.

More first-timers buying RVs and discovering the problems could lead to stronger consumer protections. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Regulation tends to favor the big guys and squeeze the small players. Lawyers are often the only winners.

Given the status quo is unlikely to change anytime soon, there are several paths to a better RV. One, if you have the chops, build your own. Two, if you have the cash, buy from well regarded, low volume, semi-custom builders. Three, if you have neither, buy used and buy simple.

[John in Santa Cruz]

then there's the appliance problems which are universal. Dometic, Suburban, etc make JUNK and have awful parts support, especially Dometic.

[Mikmay]

When Happier Camper started a few years back many thought we were crazy not to be in Elkheart or near by and while it may have been easier to just follow the status quo HC decided to go a different route and source products and components from a wide variety of manufacturers and most with no ties to Indiana.Of course HC still needs some of these Ind companies Dometic being one of them and while what John said about there quality issues I know personally having been to their private event in 2020 that they were trying to shake off these issues and build a better product and not just cater to the big rv manufacturers . A week after that event COVID shut down and changed everything.HC as well as most small rv manufacturers have had to endure shortages and quality issues across the board and unless you had the foresight or crystal ball to see this pandemic having the effect it has you have been effected and I would think even more so if you are tied to Indiana.

[Darwin Maring]

America use to build quality products, that was when grandad, dad and then the sons would work for a company until they retired. The company took care of their employees. Now, It seams to me the companies just don't care so the employees don't care also.

I bought a new Vega back in 1973 and it came from the factory with employee damage on it. The union was fighting with GM and the employees inflicted the damage on vehicles. Mw, I was in Germany and picked up the vehicle at the port. It wasn't like I could just go pick out another one. How bad is that, they actually screwed me, not GM.

[Meadowlark]

Darwin, I grew up in Detroit when the Big 3 auto makers reigned the city. Everyone worked for the car companies and boy, the stories they told. I heard all sorts of tales about purposeful vandalism...ball bearings in the gas tank, bolts dropped in the driver's side door panels, etc. GM, especially, was targeted as they treated their workers like s..t. And Cadillacs were the favorite target because the typical line doggy (guy working on the assembly line) would never be able to afford one.
Your Vega...I knew a guy who had the exact same year..73 Vega. He drove it around for a year and his wife said she almost had a wreck in it because the brakes wouldn't work. They took it to a mechanic...NOT the dealer...and found out that the rear brake lines had NEVER been installed. In 77, it was found that the big Oldsmobiles had Vega transmissions.

The worst, though was on the Chevy line. One guy had the job of sitting at a front end alignment machine and punching in the numbers to align a car. They'd run a car up on the 'deck', the machine would align it according to the numbers, the car was backed off and replaced by the next one in line. No one gave a rat's ass that the guy at the controls was sound asleep.

In 1980, in Flint, MI, no one noticed that GM's executives were selling their houses. Then, in early 1981, several thousand GM workers showed up on a Monday to go to work to find: the gates locked and a sign that said, "Closed". They just shut down the entire plant without warning the workers.



And then they wonder why I have always bought and driven Japanese cars.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Meadowlark

And then they wonder why I have always bought and driven Japanese cars.

I too wonder why you have done that....

My new Ford Ranger, with the highest American made content of any vehicle sold here, and assembled in Wayne MI, is absolutely the highest quality and best engineered vehicle sold in the U.S. today.

And they wonder why I have tried them all and choose to reject Pacific rim vehicles.


But then the subject is RVs.
Generally while there will always be some flaws and complaints, molded fiberglass RV owners are spoiled by the consistent superior quality over stickbuilts.

[Glenn Baglo]

Friend of mine gave me a ride in his week old Ranger and the plastic coating on the cardboard door panels was already scuffed. That was years ago, mind you...

[Alf S.]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

not fiberglass, but an interesting quick read.
https://www.rvtravel.com/pathetic-qu...oducing-1017b/

Hi: John in Santa Cruz... The only pathetic quality RV is the one we own. The folks in the next campsite have the best!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Alf S.

Hi: John in Santa Cruz... The only pathetic quality RV is the one we own. The folks in the next campsite have the best!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

hah. I've had more than a few biga$$ sticky owners come over and admire my Escape. Usually they blame their wife for wanting the big palace on wheels.

[Carl V]

Nothing new in this industry.
This was written 5 years ago:
https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/R...ompilation.pdf

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Friend of mine gave me a ride in his week old Ranger and the plastic coating on the cardboard door panels was already scuffed. That was years ago, mind you...

Yes, like Gen1 from the1980's ...
Fortunately the quality has improved, I only drove my Gen1 Ranger 200,000 miles before I bought my Gen3 Ranger and my son in law drove the Gen1 another few years before giving it to his father who then moved to ND with it and we lost track after a couple more years.
I haven't been able to check but I'm guessing its door panels had scuff marks on them by then.
I do know that after 18 years my Gen3 Ranger's Door panels were still intact, if that's any consolation, and my Gen5 Ranger is now 2-1/2 years old and has twice as many door panels, all good so far! WHEW!

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Carl V

Nothing new in this industry.
This was written 5 years ago:
https://fifthwheelst.com/documents/R...ompilation.pdf

and the original authors website no longer exists, sigh... I was curious to see what some of the comments to those individual articles were. I skimmed about 1/2 of it after reading the first few articles, then jumped to the end, it did seem more than a bit repetitious.

[jwcolby123]

Anything stick built, including houses, are... just a bunch of sticks. A spectacularly bad idea bouncing over PA potholes for hours on end. Or Any other state you care to mention.

I currently drive an 18 wheeler and the potholes beat this thing to death.

My 19 scamp is a pair of shells, a bunch of fiberglass cupboards. Yea, too many rivets but still, damned few sticks. And fiberglass lasts for centuries. One of the problems in the marine industry is fiberglass boats sitting on the bottom which will be there for the next two hundred years.

I'll definitely take my glass egg.

[Meadowlark]

It's like a fellow Casita owner tells the folks in the big RV's when they scoff at his 'egg'...I can camp anywhere you can, but you can't camp everywhere I can.
THere's a Forest Service Campground in Packwood, WA, that was built in the 30's when camping meant tents. It's very nice but is impassable for the big RV's and fifth wheels. Still, they try...and then get furious because they're stuck in between two big trees and have to back out the one way road. They refuse to read the sign at the entrance that says the sites are small and the roads narrow and 'cannot accommodate larger RV's". My 17 ft. Casita fits just fine.

[John in Santa Cruz]

but we're stuck using the same Dometic and Suburban crappy appliances.

[Meadowlark]

If it makes you feel any better, even the gigantic, $750K RV's have...Dometic and Suburban appliances.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Meadowlark

If it makes you feel any better, even the gigantic, $750K RV's have...Dometic and Suburban appliances.

yeah, exactly. although SOME of the high end big RVs use maritime stuff like Novakool, Isotherm

[IMEd]

Buy a 3-5 year old RV.
Let someone else take the first big depreciation hit and deal with all initial defects.