The RV has been in and out of the shop for the last 3 months!
As a full-time RVer, I recommend anyone who owns an RV to be acutely aware of issues that other RV owners are having. Become members of facebook pages for the same brand/model of RV you own and educated yourself of the most common issues that could happen with your own RV. One of the major issues I had been seeing with both the Make/Model/Year RV I own is called “frame Flex or Upper Deck Flex”.
In November of 2023, we had arrived in Arizona after nearly 2,000 miles and 2 weeks on the road. We always do an inspection of the RV inside and out before and after a long haul. Damage to the RV is usually minor… a broken drawer rail or a bit of crown molding came off… but this time we had some early signs of bigger issues!
Our biggest concern was that we had a large separation in the caulking at the front cap. The caulking is where the front of the RV meets with the roof, and after one long haul, that connection was separated significantly! Other smaller signs were that we had as squeak in the floor just above where the welds would be, cabinetry pulling away from the walls in the bedroom, and a change in the pin box position.
After safely returning back to Texas and our home base in December, I reached out to the manufacturer of my RV, Grand Design, and let them know of the changes I was seeing and experiencing. It took a few weeks to hear back, but they did give me instructions on the next steps to take to ensure the safety and integrity of my home! Once I completed all the steps and provided them with all the information they had been requesting over the last few months, it was decided that they would send a technician from Elkhart, Indiana (their manufacturing warehouse) and have them look at it personally.
Today, that technician is here in Texas and working on our RV. After he looked at the exterior, he did tell us that he is not seeing the major signs that significant problems are present but he did say that he will be doing the required “fix” to ensure we do not have issues in the future. I am interpreting this as a “recall repair” of sorts… we have some early signs of issues but nothing is broken… YET…
It has been a long couple of months, but the experience has been easy overall… I noticed a problem, reached out, and Grand Design has been working to make it right. Fixing an issue before it becomes a major issue is HUGE and puts my mind at ease knowing that after this, our home is truly safe to travel and for more summer adventures!
We are so grateful, once again, for the foresight to establish a home base before transitioning to full time RV life! When issues started to arise, it was so easy to just head back to The Barn and lay low without worrying how we would get our home repaired.
RV life can be difficult at times and this is a glimpse of that reality…
One thing I learned throughout this process is that how you handle a situation will greatly impact the outcome!
