6 months and endless warranty work

[traveldawg]

geesh!!!! I feel so bad for you. I don't have any words of wisdom other than you've gone this far, don't give up; continue to keep you cool and know that there will be times when you are away from home you're going to have to fix something just to get back on the road - it's just a matter of time.

Maybe find a new dealer? Maybe call GD and just ask to take to an area rep or someone like that and tell them about the dealer and ask if there is another one you can too. Maybe even a non-GD dealer?

Anymore it seems to me that the best advice to anyone getting into this RVing 'thing' is to be prepared to undertake a good portion of you own repairs. Dealers can be such a bad experience - unkept promises, appointments, breaking things while 'fixing' things. Good grief!!

Imagine the poor person who paid over $300k for a Class A and still has all those issues - it happens every day!

[Overtaxed]

Anymore it seems to me that the best advice to anyone getting into this RVing 'thing' is to be prepared to undertake a good portion of you own repairs. Dealers can be such a bad experience - unkept promises, appointments, breaking things while 'fixing' things. Good grief!!

Sadly, that seems to have become the case with just about everything. I live where tractors are a "must have" (to take care of the land) and I've bought both new and used, 2 different brands. Both dealers suck. Their mechanics can't fix much, they make other problems trying to fix what I brought it in for, and just generally make a mess of it. Oh, and then provide a huge bill at the end of it. If it's "routine" they can do it, but whenever something starts with "figure out why X is doing Y", well; I might as just well ask my dog, he's as likely to find the answer as the "mechanic". And I've had horrible experiences with cars too, both expensive/luxury cars and American. Both are very good machines, but, if you need it fixed... Oh man, good f-ing luck.

It's a sad state of affairs, and it's just the general lack of respect/interest for really skilled people in all the "trades" type fields (construction, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, etc). There are great people in all those trades, but, good luck finding them, and, if you do, keep it to yourself! The best remodeling GC that I know has a "years long" backlist of people waiting for him to work on their house. Because he's good at what he does, shows up on time, has pride in his work, and I know, without question, I'm not going to be following his work with my caulk gun trying to "fix" issues.

These service experiences are just a symptom of the broader "everyone goes to college" problem. Sure, we can all be paper pushers, but, when someone needs a bin built to put all that paper into..

[Timmer]

Hello everyone. I have an update.

Good news:
- The dealer performed the scheduled replacement of the refrigerator today. It's the first time the dealer's service department kept an appointment. They started today and finished today. The fridge is still in the process of cooling so I can't say it's working perfectly yet, but I can hear fans and noises I never had before, so things are looking good.
- The dealer filled our propane tanks as a small positive gesture.
- After sitting for a couple of days with the awning retracted/closed, it appears to have fixed itself. I can't recreate the issue. I tried before and after it traveled to the dealer and it's working fine.

Bad news:
- The control panel inside the fridge is out of wack. It's hanging down on one side over a 1/4" and you can see the wires and inner workings through the crack. I tried moving it. It wiggles, but it resists being in any position other than where it is. At this point it's appears to be cosmetic, but is that acceptable? Or maybe the fact that it wiggles will be another item that has issues after rattling over time?
- We mentioned the trim to the service guy but we didn't officially put in a service request for it. The trim did not get fixed. To add insult to injury, we had the trim in the island sink, and they must have thought it was left over materials from their work on the fridge, because the trim is now gone.

Good news / bad news:
- My wife mentioned that there was a noise when bringing in one of the slides. The dealer tested it and found a problem they say has to be addressed. I'm only saying there is any good news in that it didn't fail while we were out camping. The bad news is they are going to submit yet another warranty claim and we will have to schedule another appointment.

I have been reflecting on my original post. I stated that this camper has had more issues in 6 months than the last camper had in our entire ownership. It's actually been more like 8 months, but an understatement no matter the timing. It's had more issues than both of my last 2 campers combined, and then some. Also, I noted it's a trip in for service for every camping trip. My wife and I did some counting. Granted, we've chosen to take the camper back between diagnoses and waiting on parts for warranty repair (rather it's in my shed - no thieves, vandals, or hail), but we are averaging more than 2 trips in for service for every 1 camping trip. At this point all I can say is I'm exhausted. I don't feel like fixing anything any further, but that is only hurting me and wasting my money. We just can't get any luck, this camper has just been stress and misery.

[SGT ROC]

Gosh I feel really bad for those having issues like this. We have had hardly any, and all have been minor and easily fixed myself. Any time I needed something a call to the dealer or Grand Design got me what I wanted quickly. One thing of note that I have posted before. Grand Design rarely makes any recall lists. Unfortunately that is of no help for all of the things that are not recall worthy.

[SKI367BHS]

I feel your pain and have been there. Not with our GD 5th wheel but another brand.
In our case the manufacturer wouldn't stand behind anything even under warranty. The single thing they chose to pay for was the cheapest ( an awning repair for about $150) but they wanted us to fill out 1099 paperwork to get reimbursed minus the taxes of course. I declined and we decided we'd spent enough time/$ on it, and traded it in. The GD dealer was very sympathetic, and told us they'd wholesale the old unit. We'd fixed it all and made sure they got a working unit but that was it. We've had some issues with our 367 in the 1 1/2 we've owned it too. Somethings I just decide are not worth a hook up and tow to the dealer. Some are. Trim, and small stuff I just deal with and have mentally decided that it's the cost of towing and use. Some of the roads in Colorado and other places we travel suck to say the least and just beat up a trailer. (I-25 n & s has been under-construction for 2 yrs and is very rough)
I'm wondering if your dealer isn't making things worse? Not keeping an appointments to me signals more sub-standard work. (I could be wrong as I don't know your dealer and haven't seen a repair) and Shoddy work could be an issue. You stated that you've been back several times for some of the same things, which makes me think it could be on them.
It might be worth a call to GD and see about another facility or see if they'll authorize a mobile person to at least give you a second set of eyes? Or maybe you could escalate your call to someone who you can speak to who could take a look at this situation as a whole and see what they might do. A thought maybe to appeal to someone yourself and make your case to see what they say. I don't know, maybe they might want to see the trailer back at their facility to look it over.
For what it's worth I hate that you are going through this and hope that you are able to get through these issues and enjoy camping again. .

[geotex1]

Hello everyone. I have an update.

Good news:
- The dealer performed the scheduled replacement of the refrigerator today. It's the first time the dealer's service department kept an appointment. They started today and finished today. The fridge is still in the process of cooling so I can't say it's working perfectly yet, but I can hear fans and noises I never had before, so things are looking good.
- The dealer filled our propane tanks as a small positive gesture.
- After sitting for a couple of days with the awning retracted/closed, it appears to have fixed itself. I can't recreate the issue. I tried before and after it traveled to the dealer and it's working fine.

Bad news:
- The control panel inside the fridge is out of wack. It's hanging down on one side over a 1/4" and you can see the wires and inner workings through the crack. I tried moving it. It wiggles, but it resists being in any position other than where it is. At this point it's appears to be cosmetic, but is that acceptable? Or maybe the fact that it wiggles will be another item that has issues after rattling over time?
- We mentioned the trim to the service guy but we didn't officially put in a service request for it. The trim did not get fixed. To add insult to injury, we had the trim in the island sink, and they must have thought it was left over materials from their work on the fridge, because the trim is now gone.

Good news / bad news:
- My wife mentioned that there was a noise when bringing in one of the slides. The dealer tested it and found a problem they say has to be addressed. I'm only saying there is any good news in that it didn't fail while we were out camping. The bad news is they are going to submit yet another warranty claim and we will have to schedule another appointment.

I have been reflecting on my original post. I stated that this camper has had more issues in 6 months than the last camper had in our entire ownership. It's actually been more like 8 months, but an understatement no matter the timing. It's had more issues than both of my last 2 campers combined, and then some. Also, I noted it's a trip in for service for every camping trip. My wife and I did some counting. Granted, we've chosen to take the camper back between diagnoses and waiting on parts for warranty repair (rather it's in my shed - no thieves, vandals, or hail), but we are averaging more than 2 trips in for service for every 1 camping trip. At this point all I can say is I'm exhausted. I feel like not fixing anything any further, but that is only hurting me and wasting my money. We just can't get any luck, this camper is just stress and misery.

Clearly, much of your valuable time is being wasted with the dealer. Do you have a reputable independent mobile technician in your area? Grand Design will work with them too, and this could greatly reduce your wasted time and frustration. Dealers across the RV industry are the biggest problem IMO. They have utterly degraded to a loathful evil to contend with, and yes, I do, remember a time when it was completely different. I am personally steaming right now with ours because of GD insisting on ordering parts through dealers. I started the process of doing so in February and the dang dealer got the order to GD 1.5 weeks ago!!! I did all of the work with a detailed spreadsheet of part names, SKUs, quantity, etc. All they had to do was put it in the electronic order system. To boot, I found out my price is a 50%, yes, fifty percent, markup on their cost!!!

[boyscout]

GD insisting on ordering parts through dealers. I started the process of doing so in February and the dang dealer got the order to GD 1.5 weeks ago!!! I did all of the work with a detailed spreadsheet of part names, SKUs, quantity, etc. All they had to do was put it in the electronic order system. To boot, I found out my price is a 50%, yes, fifty percent, markup on their cost!!!

Rob, isn't there a dealer in Texas who will order parts for you and ship them to you? I've read about that a few times here but can't find the posts. Maybe Grand Design would tell you about them if you asked?

@Timmer believe it or not your dealer doesn't sound like the worst around. Our trailer was on the dealer's lot for five months of the first year that we owned it, and some of that time was due to the dealer "forgetting" to order parts. We've had over fifty problems, including lots of trim falling off because of the completely-inadequate pin-nailing system Grand Design is using. I hope you get to a relatively-calm phase soon - I'm hoping after two years that we're getting close to that.

[gbkims]

That dealer is Pharr RVs.

Pharr RVs Parts Department - https://www.pharrrvs.com/parts-motor...lership--parts
Pharr RVs
806-765-6088
320 N. Loop 289
Lubbock Texas 79403

[Fsalmy]

Hello everyone.
Bad news:
- The control panel inside the fridge is out of wack. It's hanging down on one side over a 1/4" and you can see the wires and inner workings through the crack. I tried moving it. It wiggles, but it resists being in any position other than where it is. At this point it's appears to be cosmetic, but is that acceptable? Or maybe the fact that it wiggles will be another item that has issues after rattling over time?

Continue to feel your pain. That control panel is part the "eyebrow board". Ours did the same thing as yours and got worse over time. The buttons became difficult to push and would not always engage. The whole thing had to be replaced. GD sent the wrong part the first time, so we waited another 2 weeks. New eyebrow board has no sag or gap. Of course, refrigerator wood door panels were damaged during eyebrow board replacement, so, all new door panels were ordered and replaced.

- My wife mentioned that there was a noise when bringing in one of the slides. The dealer tested it and found a problem they say has to be addressed.

Same thing happened with out LR slide. Dealer lubricated and the noise was lessened, but there would still be an occasional loud "clunk" that would make the slide shudder for a brief second. Slide motor was replaced and that eliminated the clunking.

I just dropped off our 312 at the dealer this morning for 4 new and 3 ongoing warranty issues. The list is now approaching 50 warranty issues. Some are minor (AC vent cover in bunkhouse fell out because tabs were broken), and some are major (kitchen slide tore hole in vinyl flooring). Some are third party component issues, some are a direct result of construction/design. Without exception, all but 2 of the issues developed AFTER we took delivery. The service writer said to me today, "you just can't win or get ahead with this rig". It's not a good feeling. We, too, seem to take one camping trip for every two or three trips to the dealer.

On my way out, I saw a new arrival Solitude S-Class 3740BH on the lot. We have seriously been considering trading out of the 312 and have been looking at several bunkhouse plans, including the 3740. I decided to take another look at the 3740 and really poked around the 3740, pulling drawers out of their slides, looking at trim, etc. Multiple areas of loose trim, including in the outdoor kitchen. There were metal shavings and sawdust everywhere, not just under drawers and in cabinets, but on counter tops, the floor, you name it. All of the recessed ceiling light fixtures looked like they had saw dust in them. The kitchen sink was not caulked. Door trim misaligned. Couldn't get the master BR door to close due to misalignment. One of the sliding closet doors was missing an upper track roller. Full bath sink faucet was not centered on sink. I couldn't budge the black tank valve handle for the MBA - it was open and I tried to close it. L-brackets for outside fridge were loose, installed at odd angles and spacing, and it looked like screw holes in counter top were stripped. Now, a lot of this should be/will be corrected and cleaned up by the dealer, but it sure doesn't instill much confidence as we consider upgrading. I keep telling myself, "All brands can experience these issues, but at least GD stands behind their product". My wife, however, is done. She doesn't want to hear anything about it anymore.

[geotex1]

Rob, isn't there a dealer in Texas who will order parts for you and ship them to you? I've read about that a few times here but can't find the posts. Maybe Grand Design would tell you about them if you asked?

Yes, I had them quote the items too, and as it turns out they are charging a healthy markup as well but I didn't go with them because the freight they quoted was even more ludicrous and because I also had warranty items and a dealer gift card involved as well. The hope was 1 large order, a unitized freight bill, and receive everything at once (economy of scale situation). The reality has been a far, far, different picture, and all bumbled by our dealer. Today, GD management has stepped in and is taking control after I got to the right folks and promise to sort the mess out for us.