Quality control

[Navy Flier]

After being a member of this forum for several years I have noticed that many of the problems on the forum seem to affect coaches built 2001-2004. Not all of the problems, but many. The blinds are an example. Some of the problem areas were due to supplier quality control and Winnebago has taken much of that work inside, again, the blinds are an example. They now do that work in the plant for what I believe are three related reasons. The first reason is that they can more closely control the quality the second means they do not have to lay off as many workers and the third is that they do not have to pay someone else for a product and then add their own markup. A fourth possible reason is that they do not have to worry about a supplier going out of business.
During the 2008 GNR I took a tour of the cabinet shop and found out they had taken the blind manufacture in house. I mentioned the string problem and the tour guide said they were very familiar with the issue and stated that he thought they had stopped that problem by taking over the manufacture of the product. I do not remember reading as many issues with blinds on coaches built in the last few years. Of course, I do not remember as well as I used to.

[Hikerdogs]

Keep in mind the 2001 - 2004 was probably the height of the RV boom. I would bet they made and sold more units through that time period than any other in recent history. It would be interesting to know whether the percentage of coaches with problems was higher through that time period, or whether it remained the same.

I'm sure as you said Winnebago internalized more of the component manufacture to improve quality, profit margin, and keep a more stabile work force.

For the record we have a 2001 Adventurer and have been very happy with the unit. In over 80,000 miles there have been very few problems, and none I would equate to poor quality control.