Just Discovered Some Plumbing Trouble on my new 18RBE

[Dadeo6472]

We are about 800 miles from home and pulled out the draswer to wipe spillage from the Dog's dish, when I found this kinked hose which seems to feed cold water to the hot water heater.

This looks sloppy, shouldn't this be blue pex with an elbow for such a bend?
I think this has got to be done by the dealer, its not an easy place to get to.

[geotex1]

If you search, you'll vinyl these vinyl hose leads are a common GD issue and folks are changing them out, Given parts might be a real challenge right now to acquire, you can remove the kink be splinting the hose by wrapping with something like duct tape as you press the kink out.

[Dadeo6472]

After we retruned from our shake down trip over the last few weeks I took the Imagine 18RBE into Meyer's RV where we bought it. I called them Friday morning and they were able to get me in Saturday morning. They removed the kink in the hose by cutting the hose and adding an elbow. Problems solved. Or so I thought!

After I parked at home I went to remove the trailer from the car. The electric trailer jack didn't work. I cut the power at the car and battery and then traced the wires back to the battery. After I discovered that fuse was intact, I found that the heavey gauge wire had been cut thru before the fuse. Whoever wired the front of the trailer routed them through a metal loop on the trailer. Then it occured to me that all the wires on the front trailer frame ran on top of the trailer cross frames, which have quite a few sharp metal corners. There were no rubber grommets or protective covering, nor any strain relief at all on any of these wires. My initial reaction was WTF?! I've been dealing with the wiring on cars and boats for years. My RV's wireing is clearly NOT up to even automotive standards, let alone marine standards, where you can't run a wire for more than 18 inches without support, and no wire can be run thru wet areas or thru metal unless it is protected. I now understand why there are so many electrical issues on RVs. Its because the wiring workmanship is dangerously awful. None of this wiring would pass automotive, marine or USCG standrards. It a joke. I was lucky that the wire wore thru fast, or I could have had a nice fire back there.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon adding magnetic drawer closers to the big drawers. I won't know if this will do any good until our next trip. Then I wanted to change or clean the air filter on the furnace. I didn't find one. (Is there one on this thing?) .

Instead I found that the air duct that goes beneath the floor was not connected to the furnace. The furnace had an open hole and the duct was laying on the floor under the fridge. Every time the furnace was going on it was blasting hot air out under the fridge, instead of under the floor. HEY, Can anyone tell me why the furnace under the fridge? This seems like a REAL dumb place to put a furnace, ya know hot air rises. Anyway I did to the duct what GD should have done at the factory. I connected the duct to the furnace, where it belongs, and secured it with a sheet metal screw, so it would not come off again!

Finally I realized that the rain I had been driving in was now leaking thru the ceiling air conditioner. Is this to be expected? Is this normal? What do I do to stop it on my next drive in the rain?

I am new to this RV'ing thing. All I can say is that I am really, really, really disappointed at the quality of what I see in my GD, compared to what I have found in boats and cars. Even a decent name like Grand Design appears to do little quality control. In fact I see nothing here that tells me that they have instituted any independent quality standards like ISO quality manufacturing standards. There is no ISO certifications on any of the equipment, and nothing about statistical quality control manufacturing or TQM on the GD website. It appeaars that unlike the Marine standards organizations that manufacturers of boats subscribe to, that RV manufacturers have no standards at all.

What the heck have I got myself into here?

[Houndbb]

Doug and Patti,

Most everyone here has been there. Once the initial shock has worn off, consider-you are still under warranty, so get the dealership on the major things right away. The leaky AC might be a case of the bolts not torqued correctly (from reading here). Also, as water lines leave your water heater, follow them along to the point where you begin to see soft (vinyl) hose. Keep an eye on those joins, as the heating/cooling tends to weaken them, causing drips/leaks. Many threads on here in plumbing. You can also purchase inexpensive water alarms that take 9V battery. I think you already have the right attitude: fix what you can, get the things you don’t want to mess with fixed under warranty. Given current circumstances, the techs might not be busy right now.

Most here have had that initial disappointment, just don’t let it ruin the fun you and your family have on your adventures. Find the appropriate threads here to read (re: soft hose, AC leaks) and also read about contacting GD customer service if the service department seems to be stalling.

Happy travels and fixes,
Nancy

[Dadeo6472]

Houndbb:

While I still hope to have some fun in this thing, I stand by my statement that RV quality is dangerously low. It's so low that affter three weeks of travel, repairs and 2 returns to the dealer, who is 2 hours away, I wonder whether it makes sense to sell the travel trailer, my current pickup and my current 20 foot boat and buy a towable 25 foot cruiser, boat trailer, and larger pickup for the added weight. I have direct experience many different boats. Even my cousin's two rather mediocre SeaRay cruisers over 30 years were better than these things. We would have never put up with the same level of dangerously low workmanship I see here. In fact if a boat trailer frame was wired like my GD trailer it would result in a recall in the boat trailer world. The fact is that boats are built to survive salt water waves of 5 to 10 feet while my travel trailer doesn't seem to be built well enough to withstand a bumpy salted road in early spring like I-81. No, I would never have found the drawers opening in his 26 footy cruiser. Not even when Lake Ontario was throwing up 10 foot chop.

My neighbor runs a marina and campground business on a lake nearby. He's owns a dozen or so trailer campers that people rent on site. He repairs them himself, but he only repairs his own. Most of his business is repair of boats. I asked him this morning what he thought of RV workmanship. He laughed. He said there is no RV workmanship, no matter who makes it or the type. His word for RV workmanship: "oxymoron". That's why he refuses to deal with repairing those he doesn't actually own. He says he used to repair those he didn't own, but he stopped because he hated working on them. He says that there are no standards even within a model and year, that no two trailers are identical underneath. It's why when you get an RV you get a hand printed build sheet list of model and serial numnbers. The frames, air conditioners, heaters, tires, pump valves, water heater, thermostats, trailer jacks, even the fridge installation changes during a one year model run depending on what's available and cheapest. I can't imagine if cars or boats were built like this!