DrMarrs said:
Today 03:34 AM
I'm suppose to be picking up my 261bh next week... lately I've been second guessing my choice since I have heard many people complaining of problems with the grand designs right out the gate in the Facebook owner group. Most of them around around waterleaks, furnace issues and the refrigerator failures.
Someone ease my mind as this is my first RV and I think I have researched this to death therfore have a jaded view now on grand designs quality.
The first thing I would say is you need to consider the source of your information. Some online platforms are more negative than others. It is human nature for people who perceive they have a gripe to gripe about it. In general, negative people write negative reviews and speak negatively about the things they don't like more loudly than the people that are perfectly satisfied or happy with their situation. If you go hang out on the Jayco or Forest River social media groups I'm sure you will come away with the same if not worse impression.
I'll start by being positive and saying,
WE LOVE OUR 2021 GRAND DESIGN IMAGINE 2970RL! ZERO COMPLAINTS! We got exactly what we expected. Actually we love it more than expected.
Looking at the forum numbers there are 29,613 members in this forum with 32,470 discussion threads. I have been on this forum since July 31, 2020. I read the forum regularly, probably too regularly, and since my joining I can recall 3 maybe 4 posts where someone said they were completely dissatisfied with GD and wish they had never bought one (paraphrasing). So I think that is a low percentage of completely dissatisfied owners.
If you have indeed researched this to death I hope you have run across some folks that have said, "buying a trailer is not like buying a car" which is what I think some people think. There will most likely be some issues to be resolved. Another example, if you have a new home built and the refrigerator stops working 2 months after you move in do you associate the broken refrigerator with the qualify of the home builder? I wouldn't. Because Whirlpool made the refrigerator that broke, not the homebuilder. The same with RVs, there are many, many components in an RV that were not made by the RV manufacturer. But for some reason when the Dometic refrigerator breaks and Grand Design gets blamed. Bottom line is quality assurance for manufacturers involved in the RV industry is not all that good. That applies to everyone - Lippert, Dometic, Coleman, Furrion, Norcold, Highpointe, Westlake, and the list goes on.
The problem is not the problem, because stuff happens - things break. The problem is when the folks you hope can help aren't there for you. My information in speaking with other GD owners, and posts on this forum, is that GD steps up when necessary. Even when they don't have to but they do. It seems for other manufacturers when you reach out there is no one there.
The only thing I can say to ease your mind is for you to have a realistic expectation of the RV experience. Things will happen and things will break. As many members on this forum have stated, "I expect to have to work on my rig when things might break." If you are buying an RV and expect to do nothing on it and take it to the dealer for everything then your experience will be different than mine. If you are going to depend on the dealer for every thing then your RV will be in the shop, more accurately waiting to be worked on, more than it will be in a campground.
Problems do come-up and do exist in RV's and the industry. That is why it is so great to have a forum such as this one! (Thank you moderators!) We help each other out when needed. We are all in the same storm. We can pick which boat we are in with realistic expectations.
. I assume the value went to zero when I towed it away from the dealer, so whatever it's worth in six years when we get rid of it, so be it. I waved goodbye to the money when I handed over the check. We'll have a good time, and that is what I bought.
