Community Forums

RTegarini · 06-03-2017, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonnTerF

"The dealerships just want to sell not service after the sell. Want to push it to someone else not my problem."

As an example, a local RV dealer near me just closed their parts and service departments; they are now only selling new and used RV's and I guess if you buy a new RV from them and have a warranty issue, you have to drive to who-knows-where to have it repaired. My local Winnebago dealer bailed out years ago, six months after I bought a new motorhome from them. -RT

TarasParents · 06-04-2017, 03:45 PM

We all need to realize Winnebago is there for us, and not to question their intentions. Patience is the virtue and repeated visits to your dealer, or Forest City are to be expected. Someday your desire to have the defects thrust on the local dealer corrected may be possible while expecting the Factory to do so is appropriate, may be all a dream.

We need to have faith that, Mecca, truly wants us to be happy with their product. I welcome all the apologists reply's.

smlranger · 06-05-2017, 06:01 AM

Donna, sorry to hear of your ongoing issues. Obviously only you guys can make the decision as to go/no-go on RVing. After owning RV's since 1985 and spending a lot of time on RV forums and talking to RV owners all over the country, I can only offer some observations/opinions and what seems to have worked for us:

1. Quality/Quality Control is an issue across the RV industry and no matter how much you pay for a coach, getting one that is relatively trouble free is a game of odds. I believe it is due to many factors....buyer's expectations that coaches have every feature/gadget/creature comfort known to man, shortage of qualified workers who give a hoot about quality, manufacturers who are building them as fast as they can for profit knowing that their industry is vulnerable to changing economic factors, and more.

2. We owned two Winnebagos....a '97 Adventurer and a 2002 Journey. Both were relatively trouble free. However, they were simpler designs and, more importantly, the Journey had the tried and true HWH hydraulic slide system. From all that I have read, Winnebago quality overall has suffered and, IMO, they were just absolutely stupid to abandon the HWH system for the cheaper, flimsy slide system they are now using. I remember seeing the first Winnebago coaches at a dealer with the little tracks on the slide boxes. I asked a salesman about it and he said it was Winnebagos 'new' slide system made by Schwintek. I suggested my simple country boy common sense told me it would not hold up.....I was right.

3. I can only say what has worked for us. When we decided to upgrade from the Journey, we dismissed any idea of buying a new coach of any brand. We had the money but just did not pay the new price, eat the huge depreciation, and take a chance on the quality roll of the dice. So we targeted gently used high end rigs. We ended up with the coach we now have. One owner, well maintained, built well from the beginning, and while fully featured, not so loaded with complex gizmos that break. And, with the HWH slide system on three slides and the old tried and true Power Gear system on one slide. We paid far less for it than any new coach we would have considered. Yes, there has been stuff to fix but nothing much that had to do with coach build quality.... mostly normal wear and tear and some self inflicted stuff. The only issue that has ever caused trip interruption and caused us to stay in a hotel was related to the Cummins engine.

I have spoken to many owners of used Country Coaches in our travels. Many much older than ours. I have yet to speak to one who has regretted their purchase.

So, if you decide to jettison the Winnebago, maybe consider gently used higher end rigs. In any case, hoping you get things fixed and continue to enjoy your travels.

TJFogelberg · 06-09-2017, 03:39 PM

We picked our MW 31D today after waiting 3 weeks for completion of warranty work and installation of max air vents. They tested it several times in the "dishwasher" and identified and sealed the leak in the firewall in the cab. Other items tended to were relatively minor and covered by warranty. Now time to hit the road and do some serious camping. Service rep was responsive. We had no trips planned so the wait wasnt an inconvenience for us this time but we can understand the frustration of OP who comes from much farther away and cant run home and had to return.

donnariley53 · 06-09-2017, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJFogelberg

We picked our MW 31D today after waiting 3 weeks for completion of warranty work and installation of max air vents. They tested it several times in the "dishwasher" and identified and sealed the leak in the firewall in the cab. Other items tended to were relatively minor and covered by warranty. Now time to hit the road and do some serious camping. Service rep was responsive. We had no trips planned so the wait wasnt an inconvenience for us this time but we can understand the frustration of OP who comes from much farther away and cant run home and had to return.

Glad to hear you are "back in business"!

We haven't made any firm decisions regarding our RV. We need to think things over as we don't want to regret our decision. On the plus side, we still have two years on our extended warranty coverage.

Honwing · 06-09-2017, 11:16 PM

Putting our 2016 Vista LX 27N up for sale as soon as we get our Dinette Slide and leveler repaired for the second time under warranty. Also have to take it back to Ford for the 3rd Check engine light in 4 months. Picking up our new to us 2004 Itasca Horizon 40AD next Thursday. Original Owner, Garage kept since day 1 with complete service records. A dream to drive and not a scratch inside or out. Drives like on a cloud and quiet. Can't wait for the change. Wish I had listened and bought quality used instead of entry new.

smlranger · 06-10-2017, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honwing

Putting our 2016 Vista LX 27N up for sale as soon as we get our Dinette Slide and leveler repaired for the second time under warranty. Also have to take it back to Ford for the 3rd Check engine light in 4 months. Picking up our new to us 2004 Itasca Horizon 40AD next Thursday. Original Owner, Garage kept since day 1 with complete service records. A dream to drive and not a scratch inside or out. Drives like on a cloud and quiet. Can't wait for the change. Wish I had listened and bought quality used instead of entry new.

Good choice, IMO. The mid 2000's seemed to be good years for Winnebago in terms of build quality. The Journey/Meridian/Vectra/Horizons all seemed to be solid rigs. The HWH slide and leveling jack systems were very reliable.

V. Hunt · 07-13-2017, 03:25 PM

I agree with RonTerF. It's not just Winnebago. We have had a few motor homes and they are all different on the workmanship or design problems. We had a 2001 Newmar Dutchstar that gave us nothing but fits. Especially the floor. Every time we took it out the tiles on the floor would crack. Leaks under sink, slide malfunctions and more. After about the 6th time taking it in to have tiles replaced we had them replace it with laminate at their suggestion. Not so good - leak again and bubbled up. We were waiting one day to pick it up and browsed through the inventory on the lot and ended up trading for a Revolution that we had no problems with. Too bad we had to cut retirement short and sell it. We are now checking out our Winnebago Vista 29VE before the first trip and have found several things that were overlooked or quality of work wasn't there. While we were doing things this last weekend I remarked to my husband that this unit must have been the last one on the line one day. Plumbing fixtures don't match, fan on dash heater only worked on high, over cab bed wouldn't go all the way up due to the straps being out of alignment. And it rattles. Under side is taking some tweaking also. Just to mention a few things we are finding. I also am wondering if it will be a nightmare for us with this one. I certainly hope not. If you read through the forums I'm sure you'll find that every brand has a lemon or two. I don't think it matters how much money you put into them except maybe the million dollar units. Sometimes it's an off day at the factory or something. In the end the great times you'll have will outweigh the bad experiences.

marjoa · 07-30-2017, 05:34 AM

Here's the reason why quality craftsmanship is lacking and post service are weeks out if at all.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/the-...ord-highs.html[/URL]

Mudfrog · 07-30-2017, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marjoa

Here's the reason why quality craftsmanship is lacking and post service are weeks out if at all.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/28/the-...ord-highs.html[/URL]

Read the article and saw this

Quote:

They also allow RVers to use their slide-out, a way to extend the space in an RV while parked. That last one may sound simple, but it's something public campgrounds don't allow and a major deterrent for RVers, according to Broom.

I've never been to a campground that didn't allow slide out usage. I'm sure there are some out there but is this really that widespread?

Other parts of the article seemed a bit off as well. One thing stated was that lighter materials are used but at the same time, units more durable. This of course, talking about those cheapy entry level trailers. I can't imagine them being of great quality, especially since they're being produced so quickly.

creativepart · 07-30-2017, 10:07 AM

We all know that us "end consumers" are the final quality control and new system beta testers for everything the manufacturers throw together. And, with all the dozens of 3rd party parts used to assemble our motorhomes stuff is bound to be built to the lowest cost possible.

We bought a new WBGO last weekend. Yes, we love it. But it's already had 3 pretty major repairs before we even left the dealership area.

REV Group makes a lot of RVs. And, from what I've read here in the Fleetwood forum many of them have a long list of problems. But what REV has done is both novel and wise. They have opened 3 or 4 FACTORY service Centers around the country.

For me, it's 1,100 miles to Winnebago's Factory Service Center... but only 230 to a REV group Factory Service Center. We ended up not buying one of their products, but we were seriously swayed by this fact and almost purchased their product as a result. I hope we don't regret that decision in the future.

Tom-NC · 08-01-2017, 09:22 AM

Hi use the slide out lock

**Petro** · 08-01-2017, 10:35 AM

First is I want to give you folks my sympathy with the slide problems most of you are experiencing. We are in our 5th MH. The last 3 being Winnebago. Four of our RVs have had HWH jacks and the last 3 have had HWH slides & jacks. Other than normal maintenance issues we have had no major problems with our RVs.

Last July during GNR we had Winnebago install 3 new slide covers over our 12 year old slides. The Tech who did the service said he inspected the slides and found everything to be working correctly. He said he could not see any potential problems that he could see. His remark forced me to ask this question. Our coach is 12 years old and you say our slides are in great shape. How could WGO manufacture coaches 12 years ago that are still working great today and your lot is full of coaches who are having so many slide problems? He accused me of being facetious. I replied I was just trying to be factual.

I will likely get criticized by my friends at Winnebago for my following statement. I seriously believe Winnebago made a big mistake when they switched from HWH as a supplier of slides and jacks to the current line up of replacement suppliers for slides and jacks. I believe the cost of repairs and customer frustration has been expensive for them.

Don

indiana journey · 08-01-2017, 11:26 AM

Petro,
I agree with your observation. We have owned three Winnebago MHs. We have had very few problems with our HWH products. Our friends have had numerous problems with their Winnebago coach without the HWH products.
If we were going to buy a new coach, it would not have anything but HWH slides and jacks. Since Winnebago chooses to not use HWH slides and jacks on the MHs that we would be interested in we will be looking for some other brand.
Good Luck,
Indiana Journey