Community Forums

Tskadberg · 02-01-2023, 07:42 AM

My RV tech has been at this for 30 years. He said he now has to fix Airstreams with leaks in the roof. He said he has never had to do that before. He also said sometimes there just is no fixing the leaks. Said they use to use employees who were trained on airplane assembly and paid well. Now they hire anyone willing to do it for $15 an hour.

Cruzer · 02-01-2023, 08:18 AM

That's my point. Airstream was purchased by Thor many years back, as one of their first ventures. Since then they have grown without issues. It's only lately that you are seeing quality issues in any of these manufacturers. They just can't get people to work and that's the biggest concern at any of these manufacturers. The manufacturers are paying pretty good with base rates and bonuses and it's going up because there's a revolving door where workers are jumping ship regularly in Elkhart for a bigger deal. Getting harder to find long term employees for the most part. Can't speak for what an RV dealer pays however.

DRM901 · 02-01-2023, 11:37 AM

I think ultimately it comes down to engineering and front line worker skills with management leading the way. Putting the blame solely on management is off.

The number of skilled workers in the workforce is going down; they are aging out. Cars had to automate to raise quality. RVs need to do that, but they haven't spent the capital to do that yet.

Unfortunately, I think most people want price over quality. We want the biggest house, not a small one with higher quality. Only buy quality and sooner or later the cream will rise to the top.

KenJr · 02-01-2023, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRM901

I think ultimately it comes down to engineering and front line worker skills with management leading the way. Putting the blame solely on management is off.

The number of skilled workers in the workforce is going down; they are aging out. Cars had to automate to raise quality. RVs need to do that, but they haven't spent the capital to do that yet.

Unfortunately, I think most people want price over quality. We want the biggest house, not a small one with higher quality. Only buy quality and sooner or later the cream will rise to the top.

Most people spent the extra money for a Tiffin expecting quality and not receiving it. RVs will probably never get into automation like the car industry due to quantity and floor plan differences. It does boil down to management, if management gave a damn these things would be made better.

Coffee Guy · 02-01-2023, 05:40 PM

They did not close the lounge at the service center, they just cut it in half. The reason they did that was to free up space to put the offices for The Vanleigh 5th wheel line. They shut down the plant in Burnsville MS and are not going to service all of the units that have been sold in Red Bay. They also converted the bays where they replaced windshields to be Vanleigh service bays. They now send all windshield replacements across the street to First Class Glass. Not a problem with that as Dave Hester has been doing them anyway.

Adrift · 02-10-2023, 11:17 PM

OK, so we saved up for many years so we could step up to a Tiffin RED 2022 33AA, we has a gas, i wanted diesel, and with this being 2022 at the time, this is a roll off the lot new coach. We purchased it in Florida and first thing we did was get three miles from the dealership and the key would not start the engine, when the first tow truck showed up, called by the dealership, he laughed, said someone will be by soon and left. A Normal tractor tow showed up and took us back to the dealer, were we spent the night waiting for the chassis repair tech, who could not find the problem, i hooked up a pull-trigger starter jump onto the starter, turned the key to on, went to the back turned the engin over, and had to leave we were out of time. We had to get started across the country… yes, a new right, no start, and we drove towards CA. On the way i made a list of the things we noticed, when at first it was small stuff, minor gap in cabinet doors etc. By the time we hit CA the list was a sheet long, yellow lines, no gaps, by the time we made it to Washington it was two pages. I would say 100% of these issues were just lack of QA doing their job. After many phone calls with the dealership, they agreed they would cover 100% of the repairs at my local dealer. Well, thats odd, my local dealer said no, and i had to drive it 100 miles to get it fixed, they had it for three weeks, and only address some of the cosmetic issues and the engine start problem, aparently a loose connector on top of the engine. (As i suspected). I was and I still am VERY disappointed in Tiffin. I still have a problem with the driver slide, the Teflon spacer that the slide rides on fell out somewhere around Texas. Going to need help figuring how to get that back in there. Such a large investment and yet a two page report of issues with the rig.

kmeinke · 02-13-2023, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXiceman

You have to look at the past history of Thor acquisitions. They will buy a company with reasonable service and quality and in a matter of months turn down the quality of customer service and product quality control. Would you have really expected any difference with their acquisition of Tiffin?

Ken

Really. You do understand that Thor has acquired Airstream and Enter and Airstream's quality has remained the best and Entegra's quality has improved since they were acquired.

Yep, Thor ruins everything they acquire

2cyber71 · 02-13-2023, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kg6vvo

I was only a matter of time before Thor changed things and mucked up a great company.

It’s gonna get worse, I sadly think.
Watch what happens at Newmar too.
I was at Winnebago Factory Service in April 2022 for a few little items, dead headlight, entry door dead bolt snapped, drawers, doors adjustments, and factory service for Aquahot and Generator. The place was busy, but not as busy as 2021. Seemed they weren’t as rushed, they did a good job.

DRM901 · 02-13-2023, 07:59 AM

I think it has zero to do with who owns whom.

Parts quality is going down - across all industries. Just think about how Craftsmen tools, Tupperware, etc. came with a LIFETIME Warranty. How many have a working refrig from the 50s-60s - vs new ones that may last 15 years. Or how the new Coleman Mach ACs are dying in less than a year, but old ones last about 10 years.

Skilled labor is an oxymoron. I do most of my own work because I can & I care. I don't see that pride of work at most places. Yes, it is somewhat due to management offering $25/hr but charging $150. And using strict repair hour guidelines, so get it done one way or the other before you hit the hour limit. But there are still too few that really take pride in their work.

During the last major downturn, we saw some of the finest RV manufacturers go under (e.g., Country Coach), but the ok survived. Why? Revert to the mean?

I hope we have a shake out.