One Week Old, and Already Had to Fix Something

[Mike and Cha]

I've had to replace a few screws, and tighten some others, but nothing major so far. I did bring it in for some waranty work only because I needed the parts, but they ordered the parts and fixed it while I waited. I would rather do the repairs myself if I can, then I know it was done right, and if it fails on the road I at least know how to fix it. So far I have been real happy with the Newmar quality, but they do miss some things. One dealer told me that all manufacturers of any type of vehicle, boat, plane ect. from high end to low end have repair shops because things do break. I guess what frustrates most RV owners myself included is shoddy work from the start, that is not acceptable no matter what the cost of the product.

[Mekanic]

Originally Posted by "007"

Now that's not to excited to get upset about, think of this traveling through Canada on vacation and over a couple of days the smell in my 1/2 bath was really getting the best of us.
We arrived at a campground for the night with of all things they used 6" SEWER PIPE for their pedestals we thought that was interesting.
So we hooked up and there was water or should I say #1 fluid all over the water bay floor and the top of the black tank, how nice.
It was getting dark by now so got flash light and took a look around top of tank things seemed normal so went inside and took a look down the toilet hole.
Surprise I saw a half moon of toilet paper looking at me.
Who would have guessed the 3" sewer pipe has dropped out of floor flange into the black holding tank. Is that suppose to happen.
I had to fix it the smells were going to cause a restless night for all of us.
What to do the 6" pipe hit me they must have some sewer pipe glue laying around someplace, went to office and sure he said help myself in barn there is pipe there too.
So pulled the toilet apart, removed the toilet flange, checked it and the inside was as clean as a whistle no old glue.
Next thing had to carefully pull up 3" pipe with vise grips so as not to pull completely, pull pipe out of holding tank, had to work pipe back and forth as it slipped through the rubber collar on tank got pipe up high enough to fit in flange, put pipe cleaner around pipe and inside flange than pipe cement inside the flange and carefully slipped the flange around pipe as to not push the pipe back into tank.
In a couple of minuets everything fused together, screw flange to floor and remounted the toilet.
While in the barn notice they had some bleach, washed out top of tank under floor with water hose than sprayed the area with the bleach for a couple of days and things got back to normal.
So that was my RV MOMENT with my new coach anything else that happened was small change compared to that incident isn't RVing just great.
Why did this happen I can remember some bumpy roads day before and must have been enough to drop pipe out of flange, of course this was the second month of ownership and couple of camping trips to check out coach for long trip.

pipe not glued such a FAIL on part of the OEM.

working at my old Maintenance Mechanic job we always had a Card to fill out as to what we worked on that day.
we had Work order numbers then a Maintance Code

Codes were as follows
PO - Planned Outage
PM - Preventive/Predictive Maintenance)
NM - Normal Maintenance
BM - Breakdown Maintenance(AKA Bowel Movement )
that is really what we called break downs.

Sound like the pipe gluer took a BM during your units build.

Originally Posted by TeJay

Here's a couple of things.
........
2. ....... The RV industry fully expects to spend about 6% of the cost of the RV in warranty repairs. That figure is built into the cost. If you and your dealer don't take advantage of that they are losing a lot of $$$$$ and you are not getting your money's worth. AND the manufacturer is getting another 6% profit. Yes I know for many of us it's just as easy to do the repairs because of fuel issues, inconvenience and many of us can do the repair better than they will.
I would keep the 6% idea in mind. If you bought a $100,000 MH try to get your $6,000 worth of repairs. If they replace a bad awning motor get an idea of what it cost. If they have to fix it again don't subtract that cost twice but just once. The dealer should fix it the first time as well.

For me I don't mind working on a few items here and there. That's what makes it our home away from home.

TeJay

I'd be ashamed if I was the OEMs and had to plan for 6% extra cost on average per unit. That is just terrible.
When I worked for a engine parts company (Crane Cams) we had a warranty return rate of less then 1%. and of that only half or slightly less were defective parts. the others were replaced under warranty if the customer bought the wrong cam or didn't like the results.

Originally Posted by djpauls

In my previous life I was an RV dealer. I sold motorhomes for 20 years (the last one in 1991). I told everybody that I sold a motorhome to that an experienced motorhome owner had a toolbox and knew how to use it. I then gave examples of things that will come up and how to fix them. It didn't work for everybody but managing expectations went a long way to a long lasting good RV experience.

So what is you take on the industry today?

[ARTWERKE]

As much a PITA as these things are, they're just a fact of life. As soon as man started putting things together, some one had to start putting them back together again.

[JMonroe]

You made it a whole week before something broke! Wow, those Newmars are well made!

Seriously, we didn't get out of the PDI area before we were making a list. Lets just hope this is the most serious problem you have.

Here's to many happy (s)miles in your new rig.

[millerj]

One thing I will say is that while I have had 36 problems with the coach in a year and one half I have only had one issue with the engine/transmission/chassis and it disappeared after about 15 minutes and has never reoccurred again. So I am very impressed with Cummins, Allison, and Freightliner.

[Gordon Dewald]

Originally Posted by Mike and Cha

I've had to replace a few screws, and tighten some others, but nothing major so far. I did bring it in for some waranty work only because I needed the parts, but they ordered the parts and fixed it while I waited. I would rather do the repairs myself if I can, then I know it was done right, and if it fails on the road I at least know how to fix it. So far I have been real happy with the Newmar quality, but they do miss some things. One dealer told me that all manufacturers of any type of vehicle, boat, plane ect. from high end to low end have repair shops because things do break. I guess what frustrates most RV owners myself included is shoddy work from the start, that is not acceptable no matter what the cost of the product.

I like your line of thinking. There are some things I will not do myself but most things are achievable.