Concerned over issues with the grand design quality

Most forum posts on any product are about problems. I’ll try to balance things out. We bought a 2021 Imagine 17MKE in February. Today we took it out of storage, dewinterized it, and exercised every system in detail once again. Zero issues, none. Everything works perfectly, so we’re confident our trip next week won’t involve serious problems with the trailer.

I did call GD with a couple of questions this morning. They answered promptly and knew who I was from my phone number. Pretty impressive so far.
 
Like most people I hardly ever post when things work. They are supposed to. That’s what you pay for. When things don’t work people gripe, rightfully so.

I too was a little worried. Camped a few times and every place we stayed had Grand Design RVs. Have not run across an owner yet that didn’t think GD was the Best Buy for the dollar spent. It’s human nature not to admit you bought a piece of junk, but these owners seem to really like their rigs.

My only problem so far are a Westlake tire that didn’t last 2,000 mile and a Westlake spare that may have a very slow leak. Never been on the ground. Hated to replace basically new tires, but I sleep better with the Goodyears on the ground.
 
We too have had very good service out of our Momentum. The learning curve solved the one issues we had, we didn't understand the relationship with generator output and the EMS unit.

I would like to thank everyone who responded to this thread to show a better representation of the Grand Design family.

Red
 
This is my first travel trailer in over 30 years and most probably my last. I bought it because it because after looking at many many trailers I kept coming back to it because of the floor plan, the way it was equipped and the wife liked it. Some minor issues after taking delivery but what I like is GD allowed me to take it to a local RV repair shop in lieu of taking it to the dealer for warranty work. No experience but from what I hear you take it to the dealer and drop it off and you'll be lucky to get it back in three or four months. With the local guy I drop it off and if he can fix it with no parts I get it back in a day or two. If he has to order parts he gives it back to me until the parts come in and then takes a day or two to make the repairs and I get it back. In the meantime if it's not a critical repair I have use of the trailer. Also the local guy is more than happy to deal with GD on warranty repairs. He said they are fare and easy to work with.
 
The 261 does have a design flaw with the furnace that has been inordinately painful to fix. I’ve had three trips to the dealer and paid $1000 out of pocket to upgrade to a 35k btu furnace. I finally can heat the unit but the front bedroom is still cold. Other than that, the trailer has been great for us. We have the 2021 and have spent two weeks in it to date. My first new purchase. I think I lucked out on my old 05 keystone Zeppelin because I never had any issues in the 5 years I owned it. My friend who has a new Jayco has been very frustrated with his warranty issues. And he has way more of them than me.
 
I think it's hit or miss with any manufacturer. Our last TT was a Jayco, and in the five years I owned it not a single thing went wrong. I'm not getting warm fuzzy feelings from our 261. The build quality is way lower than the Jayco, though I do like the layout a lot better. I'm trying to stay optimistic :). Probably should have bought a used pre-pandemic 2020 instead of ordering a 2021.
 
If it makes you feel better, we have a 2400BH that was built in Sept 2020, picked up in November 2020, and we've been living in it full-time since January. It's been almost flawless. Nothing leaks, everything works, and the only assembly defects are a bit of cracked trim over the slide and some less-than-stellar leveling sealant on the roof.

When we were shopping, we looked at trailers by a dozen manufacturers. In other trailers, there were small but visible differences in quality, like cabinetry not assembled correctly or trim cut 1/8" too short and the gap filled with putty. I figured if that was the attention to detail on the parts you could see, what shortcuts did they take where you couldn't see them?
 
I think it's hit or miss with any manufacturer. Our last TT was a Jayco, and in the five years I owned it not a single thing went wrong. I'm not getting warm fuzzy feelings from our 261. The build quality is way lower than the Jayco, though I do like the layout a lot better. I'm trying to stay optimistic :). Probably should have bought a used pre-pandemic 2020 instead of ordering a 2021.
Funny you say that you should have bought a pre-pandemic. The stars must have been perfectly aligned for us last spring. We were looking at a 2021 rb221 and it was sold before we could decide. Due to Covid-19, none were available. Caught an ad on rvt.com for a 2020 & bought it sight unseen!! So glad I did.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 
Personally, I would not buy an rv now, knowing what I know after 10+ years of rv’ing, if I was not handy. If you have to have an rv tech fix every little thing that breaks, it could become very expensive. I have owned Keystone, Lance, Winnebago, and now Grand Design. They all have things break or leak. As someone else stated, the components are made by other suppliers, so you can’t blame GD for that. So far, I am happy with my GD.
 
How is your mattress?
[MENTION=52985]Gertrude69[/MENTION] -

This is a long thread and it's not clear who you are asking. Here are a few forum tips:

1) If you use "Reply With Quote" (to the right of "Reply") as I have here, folks will know to whom you are responding and that person will get a notification.

2) You can also tag folks using the "@" symbol and their user name (as I have done yours) - they'll also get a notification that way.

3) You can create a signature block with your RV and tow vehicle information (see mine below). That way you won't have to repeat that information whenever you post or ask a question - and others won't have to ask. You can create a signature by going to:

Forum Actions (on menu bar) -> Edit Profile -> Edit Signature (under My Settings on the left)

Note: you'll need to have a paid subscription to add an image to your signature.

Rob
 

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom