dmatt
Ventura County, CA
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If what Beacher said is correct (not doubting it by any means), then I would see about arranging my own shipping if they will allow pick up at the factory. I have heard of truck lines that will "rent" out empty space for trucks going cross country. I bet it would be alot cheaper....
As for the dealer mark up....RUN, don't walk, away from this dealer!
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Tent-Trailer Trash
Walmart parking lot in West Virginia
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Joined: 08/31/2009
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ACE! I completely understand buying a trailer and expecting that it work as sold and when it doesn't, going to the manufacturer and getting it fixed. However, if the warranty is as you state and the buggers are going to charge you $1,800-2,000 anyway, when do you get to a point where you throw up your hands and say you'll fix it yourself? Have you obtained an estimate on what it would cost to FIX your roof instead of replace it? (BTW, I don't know what wrong with your roof besides the fact that I just read that it is leaking. I didn't read the previous thread.)
I realize that paying to have it fixed yourself is gut wrenching based on the moral if not legal obligation of the company to make their product right, but again if the cards are stacked against you and you have to come up with 2 grand to have them fix it...WTH! If having it fixed locally is cheaper (I wouldn't use the buggers that are trying to make a profit off of your misfortune), then I say go ahead and bad mouth the dealership and company for having such a warranty and save your money.
My advice is worth what you paid for it.
Best of luck resolving this issue. I feel for you.
Regards,
Cleofus Butterbrickle III
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mike4947
N. Syracuse, NY
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Beacher, obviously you haven't had much freight shipped. I've the invoices and even the invoice to the nearest dealer is currently over $400. The last west coast invoice I had in my hands, back when gas/diesel was $1.50 a gallon was over $1200. LTL (less than truckload) freight rates are horrendous, and crossing the Mississippi just about doubles them.
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Beacher
Long Beach, CA
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mike4947 wrote:Beacher, obviously you haven't had much freight shipped. I've the invoices and even the invoice to the nearest dealer is currently over $400. The last west coast invoice I had in my hands, back when gas/diesel was $1.50 a gallon was over $1200. LTL (less than truckload) freight rates are horrendous, and crossing the Mississippi just about doubles them.
Au Contraire, Mon Frère! As an executive in the aerospace manufacturing industry I ship tons of freight daily, (well, "my people" do it). Locally, Nationally, and Internationally. By planes, trains, and automobiles, (er... trucks too)!
An object that is the size, shape, and weight of a 12' PopUp roof can be shipped from one end of the country to the other, (as I mentioned coast to coast), for approximately $400 +/- 5% by a large corporate entity. That's the price that industrial commercial ventures doing regular business shipping freight would ultimately pay, (not what the invoice that can be shown to the end customer would say).
There is markup, margin, overhead! The guy on the street is going to pay significantly more than that for freight. That's partially where the RV dealership can justify the $1,800+ charge in a court of law, if they needed to.
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Ace!
So Oregon
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Joined: 05/23/2005
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Tent trailer trash, I don't know what is wrong with the roof actually, except that water comes inside and the roof is bowed in the middle (from the inside/ceiling, not on the outside). I think it's delaminated based on what it looks like but I'm not familiar with it's construction. Getting it repaired is a great idea and I didn't think about it. I just thought warranty and the dealership said it needed to be replaced. I think I'll call some other places though that do RV repair. There is one that my father had a really easy time with on a repair and the repair was top notch.
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PopUpTom
West Tennessee
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Ace!;
You didn't mention when you bought the trailer. The warranty starts the day you pull the camper off the lot, not what year/month it was made. Was your year really up when you called the dealer about the roof?
If your time was up, the roof could be repaired. I'll bet the weight of the water has pulled the inside layer of the roof away from the middle layer/structure. This could be fixed with holes drilled throught the layer and adhesive pumped between layers. Several plastic push fasteners in a nice pattern would hide the holes.
But first the external flaws have to be found and sealed. Just a hairline crack in the caulking will suck in an unbelieveable amount of water. I'm not familiar with the 06 roof, but if it has the seam in the middle - leave it alone! Your leak is somewhere else - likely in any roof-rail system for roof mounting of accessories. That was a big problem in the new '04 and up roofs.
Good luck.
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Ace!
So Oregon
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It was about 18 months or so from when I pulled it off the lot.
I don't know if it has a seam in the middle, however, if it gets a little dirty say after pulling it a couple hundred miles, or offroad you can see a line down the middle. I don't know if that's a seam or a support underneath. I also don't know where the water comes into the roof but it seems to be mostly pooling in the trailer near the rear, in the middle near the rear bunk. The ceiling also bowed right in the middle of the roof (there are two braces I was told were installed in case I asked for a/c, and there is a small water bubble (very small) in the middle/front near the front bunk. If you were to look at any water spots/damage it would all be right down the center of the ceiling but only significant near the rear bunk and where it's bowed right in the middle. If it had a center seam it would seem that was the culprit, however I'm more inclined to think water just pooled down the middle of the roof.
Also, it appears you can see roof material on the front of the roof, on both the left and right, as if it's not sealed. It looks like styrofoam on the front corners, but I don't know if that's supposed to look like that or maybe it was opened a little for the diagnostic the dealer did. I'm not sure what's supposed to be visible there.
It's really a frustrating thing to have what I consider a new trailer with water damage and a leaking roof. I didn't try too hard to get the deal of a lifetime because I was buying exactly what I wanted and feel a dealer/salesperson should make money on their item. They didn't gouge me on price, but we didn't get a steal. If I'd gotten an extra thousand off the price, which I won't think would have been too unreasonable I'd have felt better about having to pay nearly $2000 for the repair. I have a friend that just bought a trailer without a manufacturer warranty (they went out of business) but the trailer was so cheap that he'd be able to justify any repair not covered by the manufacturer (and he still has individual warranties on components/accessories). If that were the case with us I'd feel different, but my thought is the dealer made his profit on the sale of the PUP and shouldn't be making a 30% on warranty work.
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Ace!
So Oregon
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Joined: 05/23/2005
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I'm still waiting for a response from the service/parts manager regarding total cost for me.
My wife has a friend that owns a sticker business and we're having our vehicles, cars/truck and trailer, outfitted with some decals/stickers that outline our issue so others in town will see it when we drive around town. We live in a small enough town that it should make at least a small difference. That's if we can't resolve this issue. The manager hasn't responded to my last email so I don't know what to think at this point.
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larson6
Eldon, MO
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Joined: 03/27/2007
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dmatt wrote:If what Beacher said is correct (not doubting it by any means), then I would see about arranging my own shipping if they will allow pick up at the factory. I have heard of truck lines that will "rent" out empty space for trucks going cross country. I bet it would be alot cheaper....
I was under the impression this was not an option. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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mike4947
N. Syracuse, NY
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You are not wrong. The company policy is to ship the roof to a dealer and the dealer to install it.
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