Has Grand Design gone down in quality?

[Skiddy]

Today wife went out put something in the trailer and the drawer under the oven fell out on her foot. Quality and GDRV in the same sentence is kinda an oxymoron.....this is what was in the drawer.

The “one screw” driven into nothing finally let go. Good news is with this COVID stuff, lots of time to make it right.

[Albertasaurus]

I also don't understand why dealers don't do small repairs when the unit is sitting on there lot. Things like the attached pics are easy repairs and would make it a little more eye pleasing when customers are walking thru the units.
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The top picture I can kind of understand happening, but how the hell did that RV make it out of the plant with a door handle missing?

We are still in our 2014, and it is holding up well. I had to re-attach some moulding in the kitchen/dining area; had the infamous KantLeak valve issues; and the docking station door struts just failed. The rear jacks have a stripped gear so the electric lowering no longer works (the jacks need to be hand-cranked down and up), but I attribute that problem to the neighbour's rotten kids playing with the button. All in all, we are very pleased with GD and are looking at the Solitude line now.

Cheers!
Al

[Bill G]

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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The degradation seems to have begun with the 2018s when Winnebago took over, it seems. That is par for the course with many products.

[offtohavasu]

The degradation seems to have begun with the 2018s when Winnebago took over, it seems. That is par for the course with many products.

I disagree.

[FreddieMac]

RVs are hand made by humans for the most part, these types of things can be expected. I have not see any difference between the Forrest River TT I have and the GD Fiver I am buying. I would say GD has better quality at this point. I had to rebuild the booth in my TT because of problems like screwed hitting the edge versus middle of a board. It happens.

[fam5mel]

I would like to join in this discussion. Our first Grand Design product was a 2018 Reflection 337. Loved the unit but it had major issues. Started with Ac units not cooling the trailer down due to duct work. Many threads here about that issue. Our main problem was the main slide continually tearing the floor up. Again many threads here about that issue. On its fourth visit to the dealer to repair the slide it was discovered that the floor had separated from the slide walls and it also had water intrusion. The bedroom slide also had begun to separate from floor . Grand Design did step up and agree to cover repair costs. Because the dealer was going to have it for quite a long time we decided to trade up to a Solitude 2930RL.We love the floorplan. BUT we have owned it for 9 months and it has issues! Our first night the main AC unit blew hot air and the hot and cold water was reversed thru out the unit. Minor inconvenience but back to the dealer. Ac wires were crimped with insulation still on. Dealer straightened out plumbing. After our first trip out the floor area around kitchen island and pantry developed loud squeaks when stepped, on very annoying. Called Grand Design and told they don't cover squeaky floors. Gave me a lecture that since this area of the floor sits above the holding tanks they use less floor supports in this area. That could be why it squeaks. Very annoying and I wonder if there is structural issues. Dealer was willing to look at floor but when Grand Design would not cover under warranty they rescinded that offer. We just got back from a trip past week. AC again went out. After taking vent cover down and poking around I found that the 110 Volt common wire connection had come apart. When we opened unit up to unload from our trip I had three pieces of trim laying on the floor to greet me. What's interesting is they had nail holes with no nails. Trim had just been wedged between cabinets. Press fit I guess they must call it. Construction adhesive made it an easy fix. I cant answer the question if Grand Design quality has gotten worse since Winnebago bought them because I have yet to see it. What has changed is their customer service and warranty. The 2018 they listened to the dealer and I and agreed to fix unit. The 2020 Solitude is a big fat NO. Usually when we camp someone will ask how we like our Solitude. I let the unit speak for itself. When they step on that squeaky floor I usually get a funny expression and a what is that noise. That's as far as that goes. Would we buy another one, probably not. I know there are lots of good reviews out there but this has been our experience. We love the floor plan and size of unit. If it wasn't for the floor and fear of more trouble down the road I'd give the unit a great review. Unfortunately the squeaks speak for it.

[Skiddy]

The degradation seems to have begun with the 2018s when Winnebago took over, it seems. That is par for the course with many products.

I tend to agree with you. We know folks who have a 2017 Imagine, the build quality is night and day compared to our 2019 Imagine (they are different models). As our unit ages, more and more is slowly falling apart from drawers that lose support, doors that swell and don’t fit, staples that pull right through the panels and putty stick that falls out exposing the staples that haven’t pulled through. We wanted the floor plan of the 2450RL, it was not available when we bought. We were set to take a bath on trade and get the layout we wanted, but a careful look over a couple of different 2450RLs convinced me the devil I know is better than the devil I don’t know. Perhaps the other GDRV lines are fine but would I recommend the Imagine line, definitely not.

[dryfly]

A common thread here appears to be small RV manufacturers that turn out quality products, then become popular, then become bought by the big guys. My previous trailer was a Crossroads Cruiser 5th wheel. I bought it in 2010, the year after Thor purchased the company from the original owners.

Prior to the sale of the company, Crossroads got glowing reviews on both their trailers and customer service. I was fortunate in that the slide in quality had not yet begun. However, it the following years the Crossroads forum started seeing many unhappy owners with typical construction issues.

So far I'm reasonably happy with my 2020 Reflection. As I mentioned in my previous post, I see an overall lack of quality from my previous trailer but hopefully I can keep it running a few years. The comments I'm seeing on this forum are identical to those I saw on the Crossroads forum a couple of years after Thor began managing production.

[Second Chance]

... The comments I'm seeing on this forum are identical to those I saw on the Crossroads forum a couple of years after Thor began managing production.

The difference between the two situations being that Winnebago does not manage Grand Design production. GD still operates as an independent business unit. If customers are noticing a decline in construction and assembly quality, I would attribute that to rapid expansion to meet demand with quality systems that could not keep pace.

Rob

[Wicked ace]

If customers are noticing a decline in construction and assembly quality, I would attribute that to rapid expansion to meet demand with quality systems that could not keep pace. Rob

AMEN to that!