Has Grand Design gone down in quality?

[PHMadness]

I like the idea of an independent inspection, but where do you find such a person?

I just googled it. Only had about 3 options relatively nearby. Spoke to the 2 of them that had some certification and went with the guy I felt most comfortable with. He had good reviews and references, and I got along with him. Look for a member of NRVIA.
Just as an example, this is who I used.
https://mobilervsolutions.com/home/r...ction-service/

[RWFSAF]

I have gone through 5 campers in my "progression". Fleetwood, Forest River, Keystone, Rockwood, and GD.
I believe GD has been the best.
We are starting our 3rd season in a GD Reflection 295RLS 5er with no repairs to date. Plenty of Mods, but no repairs, thank the Lord above!
It is about time to do a roof touch-up with Dicor and the dump handles are getting tough to pull, but that's it...

[Spike32]

I know GD is known for their CS but has anyone noticed a decline in build quality?

As a Grand Design owner myself I've been pretty happy with my 2015 Reflection 317RST. I've had my share of leaks and repairs I've had to shake down over the course of time but the build quality has been pretty good. I've owned 4 RV's in the past from Forest River Salem's to a Keystone Cougar and none of those held up like my Reflection.

Our 4 daughters were growing up and more time was being spent in the living area. Bunkhouses seemed like a waste of space so we switched to a rear living in 2015. Fast forward and now we have grand children and a couple of our adult children still enjoy camping with us. On top of that we now go RV'ing with our friends and usually have another couple that stay with us. I really thought in 2020 it would be just my wife and I which is why we went with a rear living.


The floorplans available now are pretty sweet across all manufacturers compared to 2015 but we'd like to stay with Grand Design. We've been trying to find a 2020 reflection 367BHS in pebble for the last 2 months with no success. My wife and I decided to lower our expectations and settle for the cappuccino which are the earlier 2020 builds. We found 2 in stock at Colerain RV but where 2 hours away, one 2 hours north of us and the other 2 hours south of us. I convinced my wife we're going to have to do some traveling to find what we want. A two hour drive is no big deal except when you get there only to find issues.

The first one we looked at in Columbus, Oh had trim sagging and just looked dull and faded. It was when I climbed on the roof, I discovered the dicor on the rear corners to have 1" by 1/8" gap which means snow and rain has been leaking down the back corners of the roof. The second one is in Lexington, Ky which we thought was going to be the one! It was dirty but at least didn't have a dull look to it. No sagging trim, but the bedroom thermostat was just hanging by it's wires and missing bedroom door knob. Those small things are cosmetic and not a show stopper. I asked that the unit be plugged into shore power so I can inspect/operate everything before I decided to make the purchase. When I tried to operate the self leveling system it had a "Error LR Jack" on the display". My goal was to hook up my 2018 F350 SRW to check bed clearance, but I couldn't even get the jacks to raise enough to hook up. The front jacks would move a little and the display started dimming and the jacks quit moving up or down. Ok that can be fixed. I decided to move on and perform the roof inspection only to find the same thing! Not only is the rear corners of the roof been leaking but the TPO material on the driver side was separating from the roof. I don't know if water had penetrated and caused this separation or the TPO wasn't installed correctly.

I showed pictures of the roof to the local sales person at the dealership and he said he doesn't know what's going on with Grand Design lately, but they've been seeing quality issues lately. I called my local sales lady at Colerain RV and told her I'm getting frustrated driving around to look at these units just to find leaky roofs. Of course she said Colerain will probably send them back to GD, but I bet they just glob dicor over those corners and sell them to the next person.


I get it, roofs need attention and IMO these dealers need to spot seal these roofs. They don't expect buyers like me to climb up there and inspect the seams. On the other had is GD getting stingy with the materials they're using during the build process. When I purchased my GD in 2015, the dicor was applied very thick. If their really getting stingy on dicor what else are they scaling back? I've also been looking at Jayco Eagles that have been on the lot just as long and have not seen any sagging trim much less leaking roofs.

We were really hoping to have our new 367BHS by our Beach trip in June but it's not looking very promising .
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I just filled in several gaps in my dicor sealant on my 2020 Imagine 2970RL which is only 10 moths old. Not a happy camper.

[swimbody]

We have a 2018 reflection 29 RSTS. We are trying to deal with some mistakes we made after we lost our Keystone Outback to hurricane Harvey. I have been noticing that in the short time that we've owned it I have had more problems with this RV than I did with the Keystone. My wife bemoans the fact that we do not have the Keystone anymore. Maybe we just lucked out on the day that that thing came out of the lot in Indiana but I digress. I am debating whether to put a solar system into a grand design or two plunk another $2,500 to pay down the loan and get it sold so I can move on to a class a.

[Roussell]

We just bought our first GD, a 2020 Imagine 3100RD travel trailer. We loved the floorplan and have friends that have always spoke well about the quality of their GD travel trailers and 5th wheels. We 'upgraded' from a small Coleman 19' bunkhouse with no slides, it had fiberglass walls but by most definitions would be considered "low-end" We bought the Coleman in early 2018 new, and only recently traded it for the Imagine.

In short, I've had more problems with the Imagine in two months than the entire time with the Coleman.

The first trip out the bedroom slider mechanism broke loose from its mount and had to be repaired. The 'closed' side of the rail the door slides on was held to the wall by one screw, "toe nailed" into the exterior wall. The problem was, it's only a 1x3 piece of lumber, and it was screwed into on the 3/4" side, which didn't provide enough support to hold the weight of the door so split the wood the first time we used it.

The next thing on the first trip out was the hot water heater. Long story short I can lay most of the blame on the dealers poor PDI here. The drain plug was gone, and the heating element wasn't even connected, and it was still left in winterizing mode. I had to make a trip to the hardware store for a drain plug, Google how to de-winterize it by finding the valves under the sink and behind two drawers, and then dismantle most of the sink cabinet to get to the water heater to connect the element.

Next up, the entry door - we had to slam it to get it to close - HARD. I thought the strike plate just needed adjustment so grabbed a screwdriver to find that the two screws were stripped out and the plate freely moved in the slots. Another trip to the hardware store to get larger diameter screws to put in the extremely thin aluminum door frame.

My wife (120 pounds) was stepping out of the shower and dented the bathtub drain that is as thin as a beer can. I'm waiting for that to leak

It started raining our last day, and I noticed that there is a small gap in the weather stripping where the awning attaches to the trailer - I guess where two pieces join together. Guess where that gap is? Yep, right above the entry door so when its raining, a solid stream of water flows out of that gap and right on the heads of anyone going through the door, even with the awning out. Another trip to the hardware store for some silicone caulk.

On the way back from that first trip we lost trailer brakes. On the side of the interstate I found that the brake cables were just dangling loose a couple of inches from the ground and one of the connectors had been ripped off, I guess from some road debris. Some electrical tape and zip ties got us home from that first time out with the brand new Imagine.

This weekend on our second trip out, I noticed the big slide -the one with the the fridge, pantry, stove/oven and couch- is starting to cut the linoleum on the main floor in front of the oven. Also the plastic latch that holds the smoked glass covering the radio broke, and one of the speaker grills on the ceiling speaker refuses to stay on.

I've also noticed very cheap construction practices, like a flimsy panel under the bathroom sink, only there to block a small heating duct but taking up most all of the storage. Poorly fitting and seemingly look wall panels behind the seam tape on walls.

Very annoying is the SINGLE GFCI OUTLET IN THE BATHROOM THAT HAS EVERY OTHER OUTLET IN THE RV ON IT! Yep the recliners, outside outlets, TVs, all ran through the bathroom GFCI outlet so if my wife pops that with her hair dryer or other hair stuff, everything goes off.

The sliding doors were all crooked (if not broken) and required adjusting to close properly, although my wife will still occasionally get stuck in the bathroom and I'll have to let her our because the bathroom door gets caught on the bottom slide guard.

The Jensen radio and speakers, especially the tiny outdoor speakers are complete and utter crap - I would have rather had nothing in it that that garbage. We use a Sonos One in the camper and a portable bluetooth speaker outside, but sound like audiophile quality compared tp the Jensen garbage.

There is a leak in the propane system I've yet to find. A full bottle will be completely depleted in a week if I forget to turn off the tank. On the Coleman I never shut off the tanks (yeh, I know) and it never leaked.

Oh yeh, the remote shutoffs for the grey and black tanks leak when closed, that's fun...

There are a few other annoyances, that make me think these are assembled on the same lines with everything else. My wife and I now laugh and say "Grand design, terrible execution"

I had almost got a similar Keystone Cougar when we fell in love with the 3100RD floorplan. and despite all of the above, we DO love the camper, we just feel like we might have bought a Harley - a motorcycle known for its name and heritage, not for it's quality. We plan on keeping it for a long time, so I'm content to just keep fixing the things along the way, but it's doubtful I'll ever buy another, or recommend GD to anyone, based on my experiences with this one.

Some may ask why I don't take it back to the dealer - and I may for something like the linoleum being cut by the slide, however most of this stuff happens while I'm out camping a lonnnng way from the dealer, so I fix it on the spot, and fix it right so there's no need afterwards.

Terry

[Buckaroo]

We just bought our first GD, a 2020 Imagine 3100RD travel trailer. We loved the floorplan and have friends that have always spoke well about the quality of their GD travel trailers and 5th wheels. We 'upgraded' from a small Coleman 19' bunkhouse with no slides, it had fiberglass walls but by most definitions would be considered "low-end" We bought the Coleman in early 2018 new, and only recently traded it for the Imagine.

In short, I've had more problems with the Imagine in two months than the entire time with the Coleman.

The first trip out the bedroom slider mechanism broke loose from it's mount and had to be repaired. The 'closed' side of the rail the door slides on was held to the wall by one screw, "toe nailed" into the exterior wall. The problem was, it was only a 1x3 piece of lumber, and it was screwed into on the 3/4" side, which didn't provide enough support to hold the weight of the door so split the wood the first time we used it.

The next thing on the first trip out was the hot water heater. Long story short I can lay most of the blame on the dealers poor PDI here. The drain plug was gone, and the heating element wasn't even connected, and it was still left in winterrizing mode. I had to make a trip to the hardware store for a drain plug, Google how to de-winterrize it by finding the valves under the sink and behind two drawers, and then dismantle most of the sink cabinet to get to the water heater to connect the element.

Next up, the entry door - we had to slam it to get it to close - HARD. I thought the strike plate just needed adjustment so grabbed a screwdriver to find that the two screws were stripped out and the lpate freely moved in the slots. Another trip to the hardware store to get lsrger dimeter screws to put in the extrememly thin aluminum door frame.

My wife was stepping out of the shower and dented the bathtub drain that is as thin as a beer can.

It started raining our last day, and I noticed that there is a small gap in the weather stripping where the awning attaches to the trailer - I guess where two pieces join together. Guess where that gap is? Yep, right above the entry door so when its raining, a solid stream of water flows out of that gap and right on the heads of anyone going through the door, even with the awning out. Another trip to the hardware store for some silicone caulk.

On the way back from that first trip we lost trailer brakes. On the side of the interstate I found that the brake cables were just dangling loose a couple of inches from the ground. Some electrical tape and zip ties got us home from that first time out with the brand new Imagine.

This weekend on our second trip out, I noticed the big slide -the one with the the fridge, pantry, stove/oven and couch- is starting to cut the linoleum on the main floor in front of the oven. Also the plactic latch that holds the smoked glass covering the radio broke, and one of the speaker grills on the ceiling speaker refuses to stay on.

I've also noticed very cheap construction practices, like a flimsy panel under the bathroom sink, only there to block a small heating duct but taking up most all of the storage. Poorly fitting and seemingly look wall panels behind the seam tape on walls.

Very annoying is the SINGLE GFCI OUTLET IN THE BATHROOM THAT HAS EVERY OTHER OUTLET IN THE RV ON IT! Yep the recliners, outside outlets, TVs, all ran through the bathroon GFCI outlet so if my wife pops that with her hair dryer or other hair stuff, everything goes off.

The sliding doors were all crooked (if not broken) and required adjusting to close properly, although my wife will still occasionly get stuck in the bathroom and I'll have to let her our because the bathroom door gets caught on the bottom slide guard.

THe Jensen radio and speakers, especially the tiny outdoor speakers are complete and utter crap - I would have rather had nothing in it that that garbage. We use a Sonos One in the camper and a portable bluetooth speaker outside, but sound like audiophile quality compared tp the Jensen garbage.

There is a leak in the propane system I've yet to find. I full bottle will be completely depleted in a week if I forget to turn off the tank. One the Coleman I never shut off the tanks (yeh, I know) and it never leaked.

Oh yeh, the remote shutoffs for the grey and black tanks leak when closed, that's fun...

There are a few other annoyances, that make me think these are assembled on the same lines with everything else. My Wife and I now laugh and say "Grand design, terrible execution"

I had almost got a similar Keystone Cougar when we fell in love with the 3100RD floorplan. and despite all of the above, we DO love the camper, we just feel like we might have bought a Harley - a motorcyle known for its name and heritage, not for it's quality.

Terry

What is this?

[Roussell]

What is this? Stay home....you seem to be terminally bewildered.....troll.....first post BTW.....

I'm sorry, I thought this was a forum for owners to share experiences. Yes first post, as I said I just bought the thing and was researching others problems when I found this post. Sorry if the truth hurts your feelings. The only troll I see here is you. Thanks for a helpful reply. If you are typical of the lot I'll find on here, it'll be first and last post. Hopefully at 119 posts I'll be more insightful than you. .

Terry

[Buckaroo]

Honestly, I just can't figure it out. Where do these folks come from? Just go away and leave the rest of us to have a reasonable conversation......

[John303]

Roussell, sorry to hear about your experience. 4 years ago we took a new 303RLS on its maiden voyage to the local state park which was all of 4 miles away. The sound and smell of hissing propane was quickly noticed. There had been a recall on regulators, but ours had the older version. GD customer service tried to help over the phone, and after they confirmed the recall on our VIN, offered to have a mobile tech come out and fix; unfortunately there were none in our area that we could get in a timely manner. We made do with a portable induction cooking appliance until I could get it into our dealer. While your unit sounds like it has more than its fair share of issues, it would be worthwhile to give GD customer service a call and engage them. They cannot help if they do not know.

I am also curious about your dealer. Have had a good relationship with them in the past? Some of what you describe, as you mention, really ought to have been found in a PDI by the dealer.

At any rate, welcome to forum. Your fix it yourself attitude is a good one to have, and eventually things will get sorted out. Again, reach out to GD and give them a chance.

[minnow101]

I'm sorry, I thought this was a forum for owners to share experiences. Yes first post, as I said I just bought the thing and was researching others problems when I found this post. Sorry if the truth hurts your feelings. The only troll I see here is you. Thanks for a helpful reply. If you are typical of the lot I'll find on here, it'll be first and last post. Hopefully at 119 posts I'll be more insightful than you. Idiot. Run back to Instagram and troll people there. "Terminally bewildered" do you even know that means or did you combine two words of the day to try and sound intelligent behind your little keyboard?

Run away little turd, nothing to see here. Blocked

Terry

Don’t let the GD Faithful run you off. There is a lot of knowledge here and most members are friendly and willing to share their experiences.