Motorhome Build Quality and Recalls

[Jim]

We don't have too many motorhome recalls made in the UK. But they do in the States!

I know the market is much bigger, but in the USA it seems they have half a dozen every month. Just this week Winnebago recalled a C class Where the wheel bolts holding the spare underneath the van were not installed! Travel Trailers with insecure water heaters. Fifth Wheels with the pin box detaching!!!! Forest River with Water tanks falling off. Grande Design RV. Recalling vans for electrical faults for ill fitted battery warming pads, that can short and start fires. The same company is recalling 30,000 RVs for a leaking gas fitting. A double whammy if you have the burning battery warmers!

Is it that much worse out there, or are they just quicker to recall than we are?

 

[dryad]

am thinking they’re quicker to recall because of their suing culture maybe..

I could be wrong I suppose and that their RV builders like to produce a perfect product……

 

[funflair]

We don't have too many motorhome recalls made in the UK. But they do in the States!

I know the market is much bigger, but in the USA it seems they have half a dozen every month. Just this week Winnebago recalled a C class Where the wheel bolts holding the spare underneath the van were not installed! Travel Trailers with insecure water heaters. Fifth Wheels with the pin box detaching!!!! Forest River with Water tanks falling off. Grande Design RV. Recalling vans for electrical faults for ill fitted battery warming pads, that can short and start fires. The same company is recalling 30,000 RVs for a leaking gas fitting. A double whammy if you have the burning battery warmers!

Is it that much worse out there, or are they just quicker to recall than we are?

A bit of both possibly I can think of a few recurring common problems on our van but these are not ones that would warrant a safety recall so possibly the Germans are better after all

 

[Neilfg]

We rented a Class C van in Canada 2023, Coachman Freelander built 22/23, had about 700 miles on the clock. Quality was appalling, cables just left dangling under the chassis, mastic on the shower walls, furniture panels coming off small screws, all the power, heating and plumbing was dated LEDs and big switches.

Went to look round a dealer just to check out other makes new Jayco's supposed better quality, equally appalling.

British vans much, much better

 

[Jim]

A bit of both possibly I can think of a few recurring common problems on our van but these are not ones that would warrant a safety recall so possibly the Germans are better after all

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[gus-lopez]

Is it that much worse out there, or are they just quicker to recall than we are?

Yes I agree that it is probably due to the lawsuit potential.

 

[Sandancers]

am thinking they’re quicker to recall because of their suing culture maybe..

I could be wrong I suppose and that their RV builders like to produce a perfect product……

I think you could be correct in the above.

Another problem could be high turnover of staff in the factories. We found that Americans, possibly, because of easy availability of jobs (at the time we were there), would just walk away from a job as there was another round the corner. For instance, we were working with an American crew on an oil terminal, a piece of equipment got stuck in the pipe outlet and an American decided it was too much for him and quit on the spot.

But I have also found that some American engineering can be a bit "fur coat and no knickers", like nice and glossy on the outside and not very substantial on the inside. Obviously just some of the kit, not all of it.

For instance, does anyone recall the TV show "porn stars" and it's spin off "Rick's Restorations" ? Rick was the guy who restored old Coca-cola machines and old cars.

One time on a visit to Las Vagas we visited his premises. Let's say we would have been wary of working in the place. They had one of the cars on the lot which had been featured on the programme as "fully restored", yet looking underneath showed quite bad rust !

 

[Jim]

yet looking underneath showed quite bad rust !

With older RV's; American rustproofing = build it with thicker steel

 

[nicholsong]

And then there is Boeing recalls, costing Billions of $

 

[Terry]

They have started building small RVs using Ducato base vehicles so in another couple of years we may see recalls on them for air bag Ecu and auto gbox faults

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[4b2b2b]

We don't have too many motorhome recalls made in the UK. But they do in the States!

I know the market is much bigger, but in the USA it seems they have half a dozen every month. Just this week Winnebago recalled a C class Where the wheel bolts holding the spare underneath the van were not installed! Travel Trailers with insecure water heaters. Fifth Wheels with the pin box detaching!!!! Forest River with Water tanks falling off. Grande Design RV. Recalling vans for electrical faults for ill fitted battery warming pads, that can short and start fires. The same company is recalling 30,000 RVs for a leaking gas fitting. A double whammy if you have the burning battery warmers!

Is it that much worse out there, or are they just quicker to recall than we are?

I have watched a YouTube channel called ‘Liz Amazing’. It’s a channel devoted to the issues many people have with RV’s.
It’s incredible the appalling standards of manufacturing in the US. I thought we had low quality standards here until I watched some of her Vlogs.

 

[Terry]

With older RV's; American rustproofing = build it with thicker steel

Then put staples everywhere just in case - Wonder if they all got staple guns as a Christmas bonus

 

[G1969]

We don't have too many motorhome recalls made in the UK. But they do in the States!

I know the market is much bigger, but in the USA it seems they have half a dozen every month. Just this week Winnebago recalled a C class Where the wheel bolts holding the spare underneath the van were not installed! Travel Trailers with insecure water heaters. Fifth Wheels with the pin box detaching!!!! Forest River with Water tanks falling off. Grande Design RV. Recalling vans for electrical faults for ill fitted battery warming pads, that can short and start fires. The same company is recalling 30,000 RVs for a leaking gas fitting. A double whammy if you have the burning battery warmers!

Is it that much worse out there, or are they just quicker to recall than we are?

I have recently had an (out of warranty ) earth fault corrected at the dealership , which I am pleased about not having to pay. When I collected the service chap said that this should have been recalled but somehow they missed me???

 

[lorger]

We had a recall on our Knaus about 18 months ago, it was the fender as they called it between the cab and the hab area, I believe it was just clipped on and they added a couple of self tappers for security. I’ll take a photo later.

 

[gus-lopez]

It’s incredible the appalling standards of manufacturing in the US.

It isn't when you watch various you tubers across Mh's ,cars, rv's & Lorries- Lorries appear to be the worst. European trucks are light years ahead of the yanks .

I thought we had low quality standards here until I watched some of her Vlogs

No it is incredible how bad there standards are. Amazes me anyone puts up with it.

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[lorger]

Here’s the fix they did during our recall, 3 of these fitted on each side and all very neat and tidy.

 

[Blackadder]

Back in the day their cars were the same. That's why everyone bought Toyotas and the US car industry went down the pan. Been to Motor City (Detroit) recently - it's a wasteland.
Same with Harley-Davidson. Focus on production and profit rather than quality and investment led to a virtual shutdown. Fortunately someone from the management buyout had a tour of the Honda factory and realised where the previous owners went wrong. Within a year or two they were so successful they asked the president to remove the protective import tariffs on their competitors!

 

[akadingbat]

We used to have a UK built fifth wheel and met up with someone with an American one and we had a good look round both units and I have to say the American one was crap compared with the UK one although it was about 2/3rds of the price of the UK one. Would never touch an American built RV or fifth wheel.

 

[Tony50]

And then there is Boeing recalls, costing Billions of $

When my son was Pilot training on Helicopters, they have to walk around and check helicopter, the mechanics said he had got a good pair of eyes, one example split pins missing on rear rotor !! Also he had a Jimmy SUV, that caught fire on a main highway that had just been in a garage for a engine change, he just managed to remove his paperwork from the glovebox car was burnt out