Community Forums

Kent and Sharon · 12-16-2007, 06:06 PM

I have followed this forum for months and it's time I said something. We own a 2006 Alpine and we love it. Have we had problems? Yes. Has WRV worked with us to solve those problems? Yes. Have we been frustrated at times and wanted to scream and yell? Yes. Have any of you complainers ever built a new house? If you had you would know that nothing is easy and the walk-thru punch list is usually long. You work thru the problems and move on. Today, I replaced my kitchen faucet. It went bad, things happen. Did I call WRV and ask them to send somebody to fix it? No, like a house, I fixed it myself and moved on. Yes we live in a home on wheels, we are full time, and we expect problems here and there but we don't expect someone to come to our rescue for every little thing. If a serious problem arises, WRV should answer the call and in our case they have. This is a great forum to share information and offer assistance to all of us in the community. Why don't you work with WRV to solve your problems rather than airing them here before you have a resolution. The Alpine family is a great group as far as we can tell and we enjoy every day we are in our coach. Merry Christmas and may 2008 bring you joy and happiness.

Kent and Sharon · 12-16-2007, 06:06 PM

I have followed this forum for months and it's time I said something. We own a 2006 Alpine and we love it. Have we had problems? Yes. Has WRV worked with us to solve those problems? Yes. Have we been frustrated at times and wanted to scream and yell? Yes. Have any of you complainers ever built a new house? If you had you would know that nothing is easy and the walk-thru punch list is usually long. You work thru the problems and move on. Today, I replaced my kitchen faucet. It went bad, things happen. Did I call WRV and ask them to send somebody to fix it? No, like a house, I fixed it myself and moved on. Yes we live in a home on wheels, we are full time, and we expect problems here and there but we don't expect someone to come to our rescue for every little thing. If a serious problem arises, WRV should answer the call and in our case they have. This is a great forum to share information and offer assistance to all of us in the community. Why don't you work with WRV to solve your problems rather than airing them here before you have a resolution. The Alpine family is a great group as far as we can tell and we enjoy every day we are in our coach. Merry Christmas and may 2008 bring you joy and happiness.

rmmpe · 12-17-2007, 02:38 AM

Kent and Sharon.

Nicely stated. Fact is, like there are some that should rent rather than buy a home, there are some that should rent a MH from Cruise America rather than own one. If you are not at least little "Handy", it'll be a constant struggle and will frustrate the heck out of you. Not everything will work forever and even new things have been known to have their problems. Especially when that new thing is a collection of parts produced by others.

Merry Christmas to all and I hope you have a very good coming year.

"Be careful out there".
Truth is, I like to "Tinker" and having bought an older Coach in excellent condition allows me to do this without making it a full-time job.

big jimbo · 12-17-2007, 07:06 AM

OK you happy campers.

First off, this is not our first RV, it is our fourth motor home, and I have run the gamut since 1968, from camper shell to camper to motorhome to fifth wheel and back again.

We purchased our Apex at Guaranty, and in all fairness to them, we had to leave for So. Cal. immediately after taking delivery due to a family issue.

Guaranty tried very hard to get the coach ready for us so we could get going.

The first night after leaving Junction City, things started to go wrong, and continued to go wrong for the two weeks we were in So. Cal.

We were supposed to go to Arizona for the winter after leaving So. Cal. but by the time we were going to go, our list of isssues with the motor home was so long, we decided we better go to the factory instead (so much for our winter in a warm climate), we are still hoping to get to AZ for some of the winter.

WRV was very accomodating. They squeezed us in and we spent four weeks at camp WRV. They seemed to work very hard at taking care of our issues.

We spend two days getting home from WRV and have not had a chance to take the coach out and use it since leaving WRV.

There were numerous other Alpine owners there, who were grumbling about how much time they had spent there, and how many times they had gone back since owning their coaches.

I could go on and on, but the main point I have been trying to make is: Most of these problems should have been taken care of before the coach ever left the factory in the first place.

I do not feel that having paid this much for a coach, I should be going through all of this aggrivation. Also I am quite handy but do not think I should have to do the fixing until we have owned the thing for awhile.

By the way, we have built two new houses, and have not had this much trouble. Of course, the contractors were local, not 750 miles away, and it was not hard for them to come fix the few problems we did have.

To those of you that are so happy with yours, I am glad for you, but don't be critical of the rest of us, UNTIL YOU KNOW ALL OF THE FACTS

Birddog Pilot · 12-17-2007, 04:45 PM

As the owner and maintainer of three motorhomes it was not my desire to start a shooting contest as to my responsibilities regarding our new Alpine Coach. I totally agree that one must be ready and able to repair, improvise and when necessary seek guidance from others if you're going to keep these houses on wheels rolling. I have done that for the last 25 years on these Class A vehicles and fully expect to do so on the Alpine. Incidentally, regarding my mechanical abilities, I built a plans-built Pitts Special aerobatic biplane that I flew for over 25 years, and have maintained, restored, and modified various aircraft throughout my 55-year professional flying career. So, turning wrenches and understanding systems has never been a major problem or mystery for me. A motorhome and its systems are certainly no more challenging or difficult than any of these activities.

It was fully my intention to work with Western R.V. to resolve the many issues of a pre-delivery inspection list; a list that continued to grow the first two months of our ownership. I wasted the first three months trying to schedule an appointment, at the factory's convenience, for any time they could accommodate the work. Then I was finally told to take the problems to Guaranty at Junction City, "They could probably do a better job." That statement was a real confidence builder in the Yakima operation. Keep in mind folks, none of my problems, and yours, would, or even should, have existed in the first place if quality control had been "Job One" at the factory. The issue of quality control and the inability to provide necessary replacement parts to the repair facilities has been a constant problem. Just ask the excellent staff at both Junction City and Cummins what kind of support and response they have received from WRV; you might be surprised to hear the truth. Incidentally, I can not say enough good things about Service Advisors James Talbert and Mark Burbee at Guaranty; they are absolutely outstanding. But, to do their jobs they need the necessary backup; something they have not always received.

As I've said before, "this has been a "Love-Hate" relationship so far with our Alpine." We love the coach for its excellent driving qualities, advanced engineering features, a fantastic floor plan and windows to die for. But, the hoops we've had to jump through to begin enjoying all of these benefits has created an extremely frustrating ten months.

I must add that since my posting last week, I have received a tremendous outpouring of support and concern from WRV. Enough so, that I have renewed hope that we will soon see light at the end of the tunnel and begin to enjoy our Alpine Coach for trips other than those to maintenance facilities. Western R.V. seems sincerely dedicated to turning the corner on a new operating philosophy dedicated to customer satisfaction and product reliability – for this I applaud them.

For those of you that have had, shall I say, less frustrating experiences; I'm very happy for you and we too look forward to better times ahead.

Dick and Susan Bunting
San Diego, CA

rmmpe · 12-18-2007, 03:14 AM

OK folks, you can stop dodging the imaginary darts. My statement was not aimed at any particular person.

Granted, there are legitimate issues with some WRV Coaches but it has been my observation that quite a few complaints originate from people without a good thing to say. All that does is foster ill feelings.

For the record; in a former life I worked for Chrysler Corp. at a large inner city Detroit assembly plant producing 55 vehicles per hour. Those of us at higher levels were given a vehicle fresh off the assembly line to drive, evaluate and report upon. Each vehicle was to be driven at least 50 overnight miles and/or 300 miles over a weekend. As warranties are for specific and limited mileage, the odometer of these vehicles was not connected and temporary indicators were installed. When the vehicle was returned, the check sheet for it was gone through and any observed problems repaired. This assured a random evaluation of the day's production and items appearing with a pattern were traced to the cause, be it the quality of a particular item or with a specific workstation.

In truth, this was an extremely good method of attacking problems and the customer got a better vehicle.

But, as can be expected, a number of people complained about some vehicles perhaps having more miles on it than were indicated. Consequently, the practice was stopped. Know that the test miles had absolutely no impact on the warranty period, which started only when the new owner took delivery of the vehicle.

WRV cannot possibly produce those numbers or institute a "Test period" for each Coach in a meaningful manner. Consequently, I'd suspect most of the problems appear after some period of time, be it a day, week or month. It is obvious to me that WRV, or any other MH manufacturer, cannot devote an extended period of time to the testing of individual Coaches. And, if by some stretch of the imagination they could and did, there would be some complaining about "Excessive pre-delivery use".

I suspect this forum is for the exchanging of ideas and a form of "Fellowship". Using it only to complain will do nothing more than to dishearten WRV employees, perhaps causing them to ignore real issues with an individual unit. In my mind, this is not a good thing.

Kent and Sharon · 12-18-2007, 04:36 AM

Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers. As I stated my observation was over several months and was not pointed at any recent postings. The state of customer service today in any industry is generally bad. Each of us thinks our problem is the most important and should be addressed first and that means right now. I'm guilty of that too. As far as Alpine and WRV are concerned, they use components manufactured by suppliers who sometimes let them (and us) down with the quality of their work. Sure they make errors but that is to be expected, at least I feel you should expect it. I was in a park recently with a 6 month old Prevo. The guy paid $1.3 mil. for it. He'd had it to the dealer and factory 6 times, still had issues, one of which when going up small inclines he was lucky to get 30 mph out of it. Said he wished he had my coach instead of his.

My comments were just meant to say let's use this forum for comments that can help each other solve problems we have with these homes on wheels. There are other avenues if you think you've got legitimate issues with your coach and you should utilize them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Basil Shannon · 12-18-2007, 09:36 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I was in a park recently with a 6 month old Prevo. The guy paid $1.3 mil. for it. He'd had it to the dealer and factory 6 times, still had issues, one of which when going up small inclines he was lucky to get 30 mph out of it. Said he wished he had my coach instead of his. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I LOVE my Apex but will trade even for the $1.3 mil Prevost problems and all.

Happy camper in sunny Casa Grande, AZ
Basil Shannon
2006 40' FDQS Apex, #6 off the line

big jimbo · 12-18-2007, 02:46 PM

Our previous coach was a 1997 Marathon/Prevost with no slide outs. Maybe that explains some, if not all of my problems.

skyguy62 · 12-19-2007, 05:35 PM

I love my Coach, I love my Coach, I.....just wish it loved me! Flashing forward through two years eleven months and one week of frustrations I revisit my trip to Cummings in El Cajon (final attempt to use the 3 year LIMITED Warrantee; to get something right. I am a proponent of ANY extended Warranty you can afford (at least untill I try to file a claim). I knew going in to Coach care I would have to pay up front, and I expected to wait for parts, I wasn't disappointed.

The Charge Air Cooler was the big failure (cracked and leaking). The unit was covered under a one year manufactures Warrantee (who knew) so no coverage. The supplier had a notorious reputation and has not been used by WRV for sometime (but inventory is never wasted). Finally to the point: while waiting a month for a check and a call to say the parts were in I called WRV to find that the paperwork was about to be filed and oh the cooler is not covered. Reimbursments, Information and Parts in a timely manner should not be too much to ask!

As a full timer if I don't move it only little things fail and I can stay in Love; I will accept on faith that Alpines I a great driving machine.

Tom and Patty · 12-19-2007, 06:37 PM

skyguy62,

Don't lose the faith. 3 1/2 years and 35K miles, Alpines are a good Driving Machine. In fact our rear license plate frame says, "Alpine the Drivers Motorcoach"

Merry Christmas Everyone