Every once in a while I get the idea to pick myself up a modern RV. Then I shudder at the thought of the thing falling apart. RVs have long been known for bad quality, but recent reports suggest that quality has taken a dive. Now, even dealerships are fed up with it. Reports on current RV quality are damning enough, but don’t really illustrate what it means to a buyer. My parents just bought a travel trailer fresh from the factory, and the thing is so poorly put together that a safety chain and an emergency brake cable already broke.
If you’ve owned a motorhome or a travel trailer before then you know what I’m talking about. RVs take the difficulty that comes with owning a house and combines them with the difficulties of owning a car, truck, or bus. Something will almost always be broken and if you’re unlucky, it won’t be a cheap fix.
Take my parents’ 2007 Thor Adirondack 31BH for an example. When they picked the 36-foot trailer up in 2016 I saw the telltale sign of water damage: bubbling in the outside walls. You can even see the bubbling in this picture that I took in 2019.
The dealership that sold it to them said it was normal, but I knew that it wasn’t. Fast-forward to 2021, and my parents have found that the last 15 feet of floor is rotted out from water damage. The water made it into the camper from a breach in the roof seal near the bathroom unit. The water didn’t just make its way through the walls–causing that “normal” bubbling – but got into the wooden floor. More damage is occurring up front, but hadn’t made it to the floor.
And that is just the worst issue. In 2017, the latch for the black tank started a fast leak, pouring literal crap water onto the highway. In 2018, the power converter shorted out and started smoldering. Later, the awning decided to get a divorce from the rest of the trailer. And that doesn’t even mention the countless cosmetic issues that come from the thing being built from hilariously cheap materials. And those were the problems with something that was only 9 years old when we got it.
Now, in the wake of record-breaking RV demand, the quality has apparently gotten even worse. New RVs seem to be as janky as used ones can be. In RV Travel’s report, dealerships minced no words in saying how bad it has gotten:
“It’s some of the worst stuff I’ve seen in 30 years,” said one longtime RV dealer. “It’s horrendous inside and out. But we have no recourse but to put it on the lot and try to sell it. You take what you can get, and you move on.”
The East Coast dealer said RV manufacturers are “building them as fast as they can, and there just isn’t any quality control. Manufacturers are not doing a good job of taking care of their customers. It’s gone from bad to worse.”
The RV Travel report wasn’t alone. Thompson Research Group surveyed RV dealerships in 2021 and the dealerships surveyed there echoed similar concerns as the dealerships. Some dealerships even took to YouTube to point out some models that may be more problematic than others. Friend of The Autopian attorney Steve Lehto even covered these reports on his own channel.
Dealerships surveyed by Thompson Research Group were kinder to the OEMs, but still detailed some rather silly problems:
“One of our RVs came with electric recliners but with no plug behind to plug into,” the dealer said. “What happened was the OEM putting it together could not get a regular couch so they just used the electric furniture they had in stock.”
“It’s hit or miss,” another dealer said. “One unit could be perfect and the next might have a bad fridge.”
New RVs are arriving at dealerships with missing parts, the wrong parts, or parts not put together correctly. It’s easy to say all of that in words, but how about a physical example? As luck would have it, my parents have decided to replace that Adirondack with a 2022 Heartland Mallard M33 for $62,800.
This beast weighs in at 7,746 pounds and measures in at 37 feet-long. Its tongue eats up 702 pounds of your tow vehicle’s payload and it has a bunch of slides. The travel trailer was just built in January, yet it feels older than that. And some ways it’s falling apart are surprising.
Let’s start with the little stuff.
If you stare long enough at the front of the trailer, you’ll notice some cool LED light strips.
These are supposed make the Mallard look cool at night. But look closer and you’ll notice that not only are these LED strips the cheap kind that you can get off of Amazon, but the weak double-sided tape holding them down is already giving up.
This isn’t too surprising as you’ll find cheap materials throughout a camper, but I’m still disappointed.
Moving down the body, the perimeter of the trailer is lined with these thin metal skirts. The dealership service center calls these “J-channels” and told me that they’re there to aid in visuals and aerodynamics. Well, the skirts on this trailer appear to have been secured with self-tapping screws and they’re already coming off.
The dealership says that the best that they can do is have the skirt refitted. I don’t see these sticking around for long.
Let’s move back a little bit to the rear. Like most RVs today, this one is covered in swoopy graphics. These appear to have been applied a bit crooked in some areas. Then when I stared at the windows I was shocked at how bad the application of sealant was. The coverage looks like it’s too little in some areas and too much in others.
I wonder how long it’ll be before this one leaks.
Alright, all of this has thus far been cosmetic, and could be fixed by a DIYer. Now let’s get into what’s really bad about this almost $63k rig.
Let’s get down low and look at the frame. This trailer was manufactured in January and hasn’t even been taken on a camping trip yet. But the frame already has surface rust creeping up all over it.
The service department believes that there isn’t anything in the form of rust prevention there. And the department went further, saying that the trailer was delivered to the dealership from the factory with surface rust. They recommend spray painting whenever surface rust creeps up.
Even today, the Adirondack’s frame looks cleaner than this.
Next, let’s move to the towing business-end of the camper. In the event of a ball or coupler failure, your chains are a layer of redundancy to help try to keep your trailer and tow rig under control. Sometimes, those chains can even save your life. So it’s critical to have chains that actually do their job. My dad reported to me that one of the chains on this trailer had to be replaced on the first day because the hook just fell off. How does that even happen?
Another layer of redundancy is this braided cable.
When this cable is pulled hard enough, it triggers the trailer’s brakes. The idea is that if the trailer were to become detached from your tow vehicle, it will attempt to stop itself rather than turning into a 7,700-lb missile.
But this cable? Yeah, it broke in my hand.
All I did was pull on it just a little to hook it up, and it just broke in my hand. It wouldn’t have done a thing in an emergency. It’s one thing to fail at the cosmetic stuff, but these are safety redundancies designed to keep people safe. Of course, the interior also has its own quirks.
I didn’t get the chance to climb inside, but my parents told me that at delivery they found that the bathtub wasn’t even secured into place.
Looking at reviews for the Mallard, it seems my parents have actually gotten somewhat lucky thus far, as others have experienced far more baffling maladies. Thankfully, all of this will be fixed under warranty.
I should also note that they’re towing this with just a 2010 Chevy Suburban 1500, which is a bad idea. Their SUV has an 8,000-lb tow rating and a 1,500-lb payload. The trailer comes within 200-lb of the tow rating and sucks up nearly half of the payload. That leaves very little room for passengers and gear in the SUV, and basically no room to carry anything in the trailer.
Towing right at your vehicle’s limit is never a good idea. The Suburban struggles to get up to speed, struggles to keep stable, and chugs fuel like there’s no tomorrow. My parents will be getting something more capable.
I have reached out to Thor Industries – parent company of Heartland RV – for comment on the potential quality struggles that manufacturers may face today.
Americans are still pouring into RV dealerships with the goal of getting something to take on the open road. I’m happy that more people are getting into RVing, too. But if you’re going to buy a camper, be sure to have it looked all over. You can still get a good RV out there, but not all of them are created equal.
“I should also note that they’re towing this with just a 2010 Chevy Suburban 1500, which is a bad idea. Their SUV has an 8,000-lb tow rating and a 1,500-lb payload. The trailer comes within 200-lb of the tow rating and sucks up nearly half of the payload.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is a huge problem. They’re not barely under their tow rating, I guarantee you they’re _well_ over it. That 7746 lb number is DRY weight, which means there is nothing, including propane or water, onboard. The GVWR on that trailer is 9600, which is generally the more realistic number for what a trailer is going to weigh when in use (unsurprisingly, most trailers are not built with a lot of headroom in the weight department – they’re built to handle a normal load of cargo for camping and absolutely nothing more). The RV industry is so sketchy that the dry number often doesn’t even include “optional” things like microwaves and such too. No RV will ever weigh its dry weight again after it’s been weighed. That number is completely meaningless.
I would put money on the fact that they’re at least 1000 lbs over their tow rating when that thing is loaded up to go camping and they’re probably even further over the GCVWR for the Suburban and trailer combined. Keep in mind that 700 lb tongue weight becomes more like 900+ when fully loaded. Also, payload ratings only account for one ~150 lb driver, so you can subtract your parents’ combined weight above that from the payload.
In short, that Suburban is drastically overloaded. They may get away with it for a while, but eventually it will bite them and wreck a vacation and/or hurt someone. PLEASE encourage them to get a bigger tow vehicle if they insist on a trailer that large.
Why is it Positive to Black Wire and Negative to White Wire?
Isn’t all the rest of every other Industry Negative/Ground is Black wire?
For US residential 120V wiring like in your house Black is positive, White is neutral and Green or bare is ground.
I wouldn’t be surprised if RVs are a mix with the exterior “trailer” part using automotive (black is ground) and the interior “housing” part using residential (black as positive).
Thought I did agree with you on this. They have always been junk.
I had a job briefly 30 or so years ago gutting and rebuilding these things, and they were shit then.
Particle board that did seem to be compressed correctly. Hinges for the cabinets that were made from compressed tin foil. Walls held together with about a third of the needed fasteners.
RVs have always been garbage.
I know I’m a few days late but this quote is *chef’s kiss*
“It’s some of the worst stuff I’ve seen in 30 years,” said one longtime RV dealer. “It’s horrendous inside and out. But we have no recourse but to put it on the lot and try to sell it. […] Manufacturers are not doing a good job of taking care of their customers.”
So he admits to selling stuff that he knows is literal junk, then complains about someone else not taking care of their customers.
LifeProTip, well 2 of them, actually.
1. Don’t buy anything that says Forest River anywhere on it. Boats, RVs doesn’t matter – they build garbage using the cheapest labor and materials they can. There’s companies out there building decent RVs. Find them.
2. Just… Don’t buy new RVs. I’m sitting here sipping a beer after taking a claw hammer to the rot in my 1976 Prowler. When I’m done with this project I’ll have less than 1k wrapped up in “restoring” a 29′ camper I bought for $300, and it’ll be every bit as campable as a new unit – gas/propane fridge, AC, 12/120v electrical, blackwater, the works. And it’ll have the same “cheapest thing Menard’s sells” interior furnishing as the Streeters’ mallard.
“I don’t want to put that much elbow grease in.” Fine, but any modern RV is going to need at least as much work done before you’re done making 1/2 of the payments. You could pay an RV tech to do it all and still come out at 1/6 the price.
The market has shown manufacturers that size and price mean more to shoppers than quality.
So, I’m sure most of us have played the game where you put the word ‘anal’ in front of RV names because it is often hilarious (two that spring to mind are Leprechaun and Adventurer) but it seems like a lot of newer RV’s don’t yield results as hilarious as they did 10 years ago. My immediate thought is that I might have matured but my wife confirms that is not the case.
Pretty sure that game is why they are giving them lame names.
Anal Mallard sounds more like a disease than an occupation.
Mine was Anal Sportsmen, which wasn’t bad, but my friend’s is Anal Avenger which…let’s be honest is amazing.
Take all the problems you can have with a house add in all the problems you can have with a car. Then shake liberally. This is what it is like owning a RV/Trailer.
I have a poorly kept secret for you, Mercedes. RV quality has always been shit unless you shell out stupid money for something like an Airstream. Most RVs and camper trailers have very few safety requirements and are thrown together following the “low investment = high profit” business model.
Also, do you ever play the “anal RV” game when you’re on trips? It makes for a fun road trip.
I have never understood why american trailers have the wheel axles so far back?
Big heavy leaf springed cars can of course take a lot of weight before going all nose up, but the tongue weight should be easier to balance if they were centered, like we use it elsewhere in the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeEEC5eVNCk
YES! I’ve been asking myself that question for ages. David (anybody really!!), wouldn’t that be a nifty new article? Because I never really found the answer myself. So far I just figured that an old school (ideally single cab) leaf-sprung-rear-end truck is so light in the back that it would be not as nice to drive with the 150 to 200 lbs tongue weight you’d get from a maxed out euro-style trailer.
It’s because higher tongue weights allow you to drive faster without losing stability (up to a point), and Americans don’t want to drive 55 while towing. American tongue weights are usually 10% of the trailer weight, while European trailers usually put about 5% of the weight on the tongue (and are legally limited to 90 km/h, about 55 MPH).
American tow vehicles are also supposed to use weight distributing hitches at much lower weights than their maximum tow ratings in some cases, to mitigate some of the stability issues pointed out in the video you posted.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/the-great-american-anti-towing-conspiracy/
I drove the class C and A RVs to the dealerships for a couple years. I had access to the invoices of a few of the units I drive. All of them had at least a 100% markup from factory to dealership MSRP. From what i understand, the markup on travel trailers is even higher. Let that sink in for a minute.
We bought a 2021 Bullet back in October. Nothing broken but my god the build quality is shit. Terrible sealing on the outside, stripped screws everywhere, the dinette was not installed straight. Rows of staples not even contacting the stud behind them. Just overall shoddy work. I’ve gone through it and most was relatively easy to fix. Everything works as it should, it’s just infuriating to buy something new and have to put in hours of work to fix these things.
We had a 2020 Jayco before this a (sold because we had another kid and needed something bigger. Actually made 2k on the deal too) and it seemed to be a bit better put together. Who knows though. I’m sure the quality from trailer to trailer is miles apart.
Also one thing to realize is going into these things it’s almost always best to fix problems yourself, unless we’re talking dead appliances or major problems. It will sit for literal months at the dealer if you drop it off for things that seem minor.
My in-laws sold their boat and their 5th wheel camper for the same reason. They got sick of dumping $1,000 into the damn things every time they wanted to use them. They kept their boat and camper inside an insulated pole barn, so I can only imagine how bad it would have gotten if they had to leave them outside.
I know there is a culture of having a camper trailer for vacationing in Australia, the UK, and parts of Europe. Are the campers that are made in and/or for those markets having the same QC issues as the ones in the US?
I’ve spent the last couple months of weekends surrounded by rotten flooring and insulation while rebuilding a vintage airstream. I needed this reminder that this is the right path (rebuilding everything instead of buying a stock RV)
In the end, you will have a vastly superior camper for the same or less money. Be of good cheer.
I’ve been interested in RVs,since I was a kid but my parents weren’t interested and most of our family vacations involved a cheap motel and the grandparents’ spare room.
Since the kids are older and we have a truck we have looked at trailers and rented a couple off RV Share. The neighbor’s semi restored vintage Shasta was reasonably well built but cramped and incomplete. Most of the mass market stuff is cheaply built and the 2018 Coachmen we rented had peeling panels in the shower, a crappy mattress and flimsy hardware. The 2018 Lance we rented was much nicer and much better built and designed as one would expect from something costing twice as much. The Lance still had stupid issues with the electric tongue jack where the buttons came off and you had to cover it so the controls wouldn’t get wet and short.
The sad thing is Airstream has been having quality issues lately so it looks your best bets are fiberglass trailers and a handful of premium trailers like Lance and maybe Black Series. I wouldn’t even look at motorhomes especially some of the big Class A diesels that cost more than my house and apparently heve more jank than The Autopian comment system.
Renting seems like the smart move for now since I don’t need to make payments or park it and my pickup has many uses
I would rather buy the shell of a 1970 Airstream and spend $60,000 restoring it than buy literally any new trailer that retails for the same dough.
Why does everyone not recommend towing at max capacity of the vehicle? I’ve towed over my capacity in an 2019 F150, verified with scales, and it towed perfectly. I remember growing up I would tow a 5000 lb boat with 190 HP 4.6 liter V8 and that was harder than 10,000 lbs with 400 hp and a 10 speed automatic. Never had any overheating issues with 2019 but I definitely had transmission overheating issues with mid 90s trucks. If I had gone F250 gas over my F150 it would have been $10,000 extra and 5 MPG less mileage so it wasn’t worth it, under my license I can only tow 10,000 lbs anyway.
The issue is almost always the brakes and the transmissions. The motors are just fine. The brakes just aren’t made to stop things that heavy. It might be fine once in a while and if you know to baby the brakes and take care of it, but too many people will just drive it like normal and slide right through intersections/etc when the brakes fade, glaze, or just straight up don’t stop you in time.
Best safety advice I’ve ever heard from 50 Drunks. The Uber drivers must make a killing at that bar, not a one of those Drunks is driving that way!
In the case of my pickup 5.0 F150, it shares its brakes and transmission including the cooler with the 13,000 lb tow rating of the 3.5 EB F150, so my 9,600 lb tow rating is strictly due to power, especially since a 3.73 over my 3.55 bumps the tow rating up to over 10,000 lbs.
But I guess my point is you shouldn’t tow over your tow rating unless you know what you’re missing, but I don’t understand why people and the internet it seems says to buy an 3/4 ton pickup to tow 7500 lbs less than a 1000 miles a year.
https://www.airstream.com/travel-trailers/classic/floorplans/33fb/
Yes, as always,, quality costs money. List price for a new Airstream 33FB is $206,000.
I have some friends that bought a brand new air stream in 2019 and the cabinets will all their dishes fell off the wall with under 1000 miles on it.
We bought a 2007 23′ Airstream last year, and it’s been great trailer, but it much cheaper than a new one, even though.a new one doesn’t look much different. Everything works as it should and it tows great.. Based on reading the Airstream forums, they are also having the quality issues because there are many of the same equipment suppliers for components. I do hope to keep my Airstream for a very long time.
We are on our 3rd Airstream (2007 28 International CCD). We also have a 2017 Bambi (16) and a 1978 24 foot Argosy. I think the 10-15 year old Airstreams are the sweet spot. Especially is stored indoors. The newest models finally do away with the wood subfloors as they moved to composite a few years ago.
Pretty scary stuff. Not good to spend to spend too much and to spend more to make something right. So tent primitive camping anyone?
Sounds like it might be a better idea to get a bus and convert it to an RV with some Diy skills.
I think Mercedes can tell you why the Schoolie isn’t the dream RV. Now a GM RTS transit bus on the other hand…
I’ve worked in the bike industry and with cars and just had our kitchen renovated. I have seen quality go WAY down in an effort to keep profits up in the face of rising labor and materials costs.
I have a friend that went into converting a ( I think ) VW Transporter Combi into a camping car.
He just removed the back seats and built a set of wooden boxes that once spread over the back form a flat area larg enough to make a bed for two.
And that’s it… When de decides to sell it, he will just have put back the seats.
Now it can be rough compared to American RV, but consider that in Europe most of the US RV and a decent chunk of the RV trailers would require a commercial driver license…. Have road restrictions and would be unable to park on a roadside for the night….
( I won’t had the camping ground hunt issue… because not many in France can host a bus/coach sized RV or semi-trailer RV )
This makes me wonder…If you’re going to do this, why not buy an older trailer or RV? Get it inspected, of course, but if they are this crappy when new, why not buy an older/cheaper one, spend a little time sprucing it up to fit your wants then use that? It’s something that you use for recreation, so it makes little sense to blow that much on what is essentially the equivalent of a “weekend car.”
I spent a bit of time online looking at these things this week, and aside from some terrible aesthetic choices (lots of brass and movie theatre seat patterns) and the question of where does one put one of these beasts, it makes way more sense to go used if one is at all handy.
There is an unfortunate external reason to buy newer: many private campgrounds have an age limit for the rigs they allow to rent a space. My wife and I have had a rock-solid 1986 Fireball 23′ since 2014, and when we were Towing it cross-country, there were some campgrounds we could not have stayed at. Which is fine, because State and national parks are cheaper with better scenery anyway. We don’t get out in the camper so that we can tow our own hotel room to a luxury resort – in fact, our inside joke is that our favorite vacation spot is “Out Of Service Area.” Man, it’s been too long. We’ve got to get back there sometime.
I guess we can add “campground gentrification” to our growing list of signs that the apocalypse is nigh.
” ..one of the chains on this trailer had to be replaced on the first day because the hook just fell off. How does that even happen? ”
Is this as stupid as it sounds?? Was something that is made of solid steel , somehow not solid steel?
– or perhaps a connector wasnt tightened, which would make more sense?(but still bad)
Ouch.QC is even worse than i thought.
My Sister and BIL bought new a few years back.They had to take theirs back to the factory at least once for warranty repairs.
It was 1200 miles to the factory…
Something tells me their next one will be bought local.