More Whining about Thor Freedom Elite

I mentioned earlier that we bought a new 2016 RV and it had all sorts of problems. The parts that were supposed to take a month instead took two months to arrive. We have now spent four days in the Camping World lobby as we wait on repairs with more days planned.

Additional problems have included:

  

• Screw heads popping off inside the RV. Scared us the 1^st time, but 8 heads popped so far. The inside ones are mostly fixed.
• Since the last repair visit, we had screw heads pop on an external bracket. John’s trying to come up with a fix on this. It’s scary how poor quality the screws are. Or did the engineers design the fasteners without the proper safety factor? If these are popping on brackets, what about the frame?!?
• The mattress has failed. I’d say it conforms to your body, but it’s not supposed to. So you roll into a low spot. The manufacturer was refusing to replace the mattress because we took the tag off (the one that consumers are allowed to take off!).
• Another rain leak, this one under the mattress. The leak is fixed but things molded so parts have to be replaced. Actually, this is lucky for us since the mattress is moldy too. They are replacing it.
• A water pump failed. Replaced.
• The TV antenna doesn’t work as well as the last one. We may be buying a new one.  There are other parts of the RV that aren’t as good as our old RV like the oven, vent, and fans. It seems they went for cheap, not good.

We naively thought buying a new RV would mean fewer problems. That hasn’t happened so far. We’ve heard horror stories from other who bought new RV’s. One couple said they had their RV in the shop over 30 days in the first year to get things fixed. That doesn’t work if you are living in the RV!