Forest River Owners Forum

[jponyboyace]

OMG just purchased a 12 berkshire bout a lil over a year.....36fws...what a nightmare of problems....have not really even taken on a maiden voyage.....drivers side window rattle ....batteries bad ....leak through the refrig vent.to the point it warped the floor slide ..on the full wall slide..now hangs up?!!! now they want to take it back to indiana.....UNCLE....really love the diesel however how much more can one person stand.....Would like to know if anyone has had good luck with this rig...thanks...pull in to my rv dealer ....nothing but problem Berkshires

[harlin]

We just purchased a 2013 Cedar Creek 36CKTS. We love it so far, but having a lot of little issues with it so far. Has anyone had any trouble with the light bulbs above the Island burning out? Just one after the other. Also having trouble with the big awning over door. It wont go out. Had to hand roll it in to be able to move. They tell us its in the hand remote control that is bad. Now we find our TV in the bedroom wont come on with the remote. What is going on??? Please let me know if there is anyone else having these problems with their new Cedar Creeks. We are several miles away from a Cedar Creek Dealer and need to get these issues taken care of. Just waiting for something else not to work.

[Loda]

Would the 2011 F150 Ecoboost truck pull the 317 RL Wildcat - please advise, thanks.

[Trailboss59]

Morning all, We just picked up a 2007 Georgetown XL 359 TS. I could really use any insight as to problems encoutered on these rigs. We traded in the 06 Jamboree hoping to upgrade for more enjoyable travel and living conditions. Currently I am in Afghan and wont even see the RV until August, but, my wife is making all the dreams come true.. I will pick up a 20ft cargo to haul the Ultra and any info will be greatly appreciated. Have a great weekend and keep it between the ditches.

[lakefront5]

Originally Posted by harlin

We just purchased a 2013 Cedar Creek 36CKTS. We love it so far, but having a lot of little issues with it so far. Has anyone had any trouble with the light bulbs above the Island burning out? Just one after the other. Also having trouble with the big awning over door. It wont go out. Had to hand roll it in to be able to move. They tell us its in the hand remote control that is bad. Now we find our TV in the bedroom wont come on with the remote. What is going on??? Please let me know if there is anyone else having these problems with their new Cedar Creeks. We are several miles away from a Cedar Creek Dealer and need to get these issues taken care of. Just waiting for something else not to work.

We have had our 2014 Cedar Creek 34 RLSA for six weeks. After three trips of 4 to 5 nights each, we haven't had any problems at all. We have noticed that the awning goes in and out very slow, much slower than our previous fifth wheel which had the exact same awning. No problems with the bulbs over the island going out. I think they are regular 1056 12 volt automotive bulbs. Most all the other lights are LED which have a lifetime warranty, I think. We are 155 miles away from our dealer thus I try to trouble shoot and repair things myself if at all possible. Keep us informed what you find out the problems are with the lights and awning.

[airnokr]

I'm pretty sure Thor and Forest River are different companies. I've owned a Thor toy box for 10 years. Love-hate thing going on. Utility is great. Construction quality is very bad. In market now for a Class A gas. I will not buy another Thor product. Forest River owned by Berkshire Hathaway which is Warren Buffet.

[myredracer]

Originally Posted by Loda

Would the 2011 F150 Ecoboost truck pull the 317 RL Wildcat - please advise, thanks.

With an unloaded vehicle weight of over 10,000 lbs, no way. Loaded weight would be close to 12,000 lbs and pin weight over 2,000 lbs. You *could* go weight your truck at a scale to determine the actual payload capacity, but it would prove too low anyway. But would be good to know for shopping around. Even our 3/4 ton could not handle that 5-er in payload terms.

If that there is all there is to deal with on the Cedar Creek, someone is dang lucky! The awning on our TT did not work well from new. Put some dry silicone lube on the moving arm hinge points and it worked perfectly every time after that.

Burning out bulbs could be caused by a number of things. Could be as simple as a batch of bad bulbs from offshore. Who uses incandescent bulbs in a new trailer now? I thought many RVs have switched to LEDs now. It pretty easy and cheap to convert to LED and I found the inexpensive Ch*nese ones on ebay worked great in our last TT.

If you read the FR forums long enough, I think you'd shy away from a FR product. Not only lots poor quality, dealer and factory support is often really bad. Our last TT was a FR product and we'd never buy another one because of build quality, dealer quality and factory support problems.

[Flanagan]

It would seem that FR/Coachman needs to consider replacing some people. Their designers are great. I fell in love with the 2014 Encounter that has bunks & residential fridge. Showed it to DW and she WANTS it. Much mor appealing than the inside of our 2008 Winnebago 35J. However the number and magnitude of complaints I read here have convinced me to stay away. Quality control and service seem to be poorly managed at this time. Perhaps new leadership in these areas could turn things around. Warren, do you ever read these posts about your products? I have no quality or performance issues with my 6 year old Winnebago. I guess I'll keep it.

[golfpro]

forest river quality control? never heard of it. I own a FR TT and God help me the problems we had and finally got them corrected BY ME. FR did nothing to correct any thing. talk to them on the phone and you get more results from a dog. One of my pet peeves is they put 14" and 15" tires and wheels on my TT. do to the odd size set up I had blows like crazy. I finally got tired of waiting for FR to do something I went down and bought my own tires. I worked for a RV dealer and the tech was doing some pre delivery work and he put his hand on the wall of the bath room and he fell right through it. I have seen thicker wall paneling then the bathroom wall. Having owned and dealt with them as a professional, I know I will never buy another one.

[terryallan]

Originally Posted by Flanagan

It would seem that FR/Coachman needs to consider replacing some people. Their designers are great. I fell in love with the 2014 Encounter that has bunks & residential fridge. Showed it to DW and she WANTS it. Much mor appealing than the inside of our 2008 Winnebago 35J. However the number and magnitude of complaints I read here have convinced me to stay away. Quality control and service seem to be poorly managed at this time. Perhaps new leadership in these areas could turn things around. Warren, do you ever read these posts about your products? I have no quality or performance issues with my 6 year old Winnebago. I guess I'll keep it.

Hmm. you've never had a FR / Coachman. But you are qualified to put them down. All based on what you read on this forum. You do realize that you are only seeing a tiny fraction of the story, as very few RV owner's even know about this forum, and on top of that. Folks that have no problems rarely post about how great their RV is. They assume everyone's is as good as their's.

Case in point. My Coachman APEX is great. No problems at all. Follow up from the dealer could not be better. Not much else to say. WH works, pump works, no leaks, AC works, heater works. What else do you need to know?

[Flanagan]

My apologies to happy coachman owners. I should not have singled them out. My comments are Based on this websites posts in the owner forums. It appears that many brands have problems after the sale of new units. On the other hand people seem quite with used motorhome purchases so for me I'll just buy used.

[LKicklight]

Our experience with Forest River has gone from terrible to excellent in just a short year. They have gone overboard to please us and make our Crusader 270 RET almost perfect. We were up at Goshen, IN for the FROG Rally back in August, saw everything associated with production of this coach, sure they have made some improvements since our coach went down the line back in 2011. Start at the top and work down, you will get there attention:

Originally Posted by Flanagan

My apologies to happy coachman owners. I should not have singled them out. My comments are Based on this websites posts in the owner forums. It appears that many brands have problems after the sale of new units. On the other hand people seem quite with used motorhome purchases so for me I'll just buy used.

[steinjef]

Bought a 2014 Sports Coach Cross Country 404rb Motor Home.(Coachmen div of FR) at the Hershey show in September. Took delivery on 9/23. Had some issues noted during the PDI. Refused to sign any papers until i went over the unit thoroughly. Signed papers, took Big Blue home.

Took a short trip on Columbus day weekend. Found some more issues, nothing really major. Just 15 or so little annoying things. But for the money lets make it right folks.

So now, it has been in the RV Hospital since 10/22/2013. Supposed to be done on 11/22/13. Well.....I didn't hear anything so i emailed the dealer. Got a response from the service dept. (nice lady). The service dept. is still waiting for a reply from the "warranty" people for a few of the items. Huh?
I have only 1,100 miles on it, it is brand new, EVERYTHING is under warranty right?

So i told them not to touch anything they don't consider under warranty until i authorize it.

I hope I get it back by spring 2014. I sure would like to do some Walmart parking lots.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.
Jeff & Ginny

[golfpro]

Originally Posted by terryallan

Hmm. you've never had a FR / Coachman. But you are qualified to put them down. All based on what you read on this forum. You do realize that you are only seeing a tiny fraction of the story, as very few RV owner's even know about this forum, and on top of that. Folks that have no problems rarely post about how great their RV is. They assume everyone's is as good as their's.

Case in point. My Coachman APEX is great. No problems at all. Follow up from the dealer could not be better. Not much else to say. WH works, pump works, no leaks, AC works, heater works. What else do you need to know?

in reality the only thing you mentioned that works that is actually made by FR is the roof and no leaks, all the other things, such as A/C, WH the pump, furnace are all made by some one other than FR, the same things that may be found in my TT, not a MH but still the same appliances.