Buying a new camper is supposed to be a great moment. A new camper might be the second biggest purchase you make in your life, and potentially one of the largest vehicles to create memories with your family. That’s what my parents expected when they bought a 2022 Heartland Mallard M33 in 2022. This $62,800 trailer has found creative ways to break down on nearly every trip since it was new. Three years in, it’s still somewhat broken.
My parents pulled the Mallard out to their favorite camping spot last weekend, the cozy acres of Fish Lake Beach in Volo, Illinois. My family has been going to this campground regularly for the past two decades, and it’s always a great time no matter what you’re sleeping in. This weekend was no different. My wife and I rode in on the three wheels of a new Polaris Slingshot and got to enjoy some good eating from a grill, a campfire, and good times in our little plot of grass. These were experiences that you can’t get in a hotel, and part of why people buy RVs in the first place.
Unfortunately, the Mallard has been doing its best to challenge that previous paragraph. Some of it has to do with some truly baffling design decisions, but a lot of it has been just the fact that the camper has been finding admittedly amusing ways to break. Well, they’re amusing to me, anyway. The actual owners of the unit, my parents, are dismayed.
The 2022 Heartland Mallard M33 is a large bumper-pull travel trailer that weighs 7,746 pounds empty, stretches about 37 feet from bow to stern, and is advertised as being able to sleep at least nine people. As I’ve reported in the past, Heartland is a family-oriented luxury brand within Thor Industries with a focus on following the hottest interior design trends. In our unit’s case, it’s sort of emulating a generic farmhouse.
My parents bought it in March 2022. Back then, the Mallard M33 had a sticker price of $62,800, but my parents negotiated Camping World down to $58,000. According to the manufacturing sticker, the trailer had been finished only a few months before my parents picked it up. It smelled and looked fresh, just like all of the rigs I see at the RV shows.
Sadly, the freshness didn’t last very long because the camper has been a bit of a problem child ever since.
I’m Not The Only One Concerned With RV Quality
Before I continue, I want to be clear that my intent isn’t to bash Heartland RV or its parent, Thor Industries. Apparently, I’ve gained a bit of a reputation in this industry for being a bit of a harbinger of doom. Most RV blogs and RV influencers just repackage press releases for content. While I will also write about a new RV in the news, like this week’s Frank Lloyd Wright Airstream, I will also voice my opinion if I think quality or design isn’t up to snuff.
I’ve now been to a lot of RV shows and have seen hundreds (thousands?) of brand-new RVs. As much as I want to write about nothing but why some camper is awesome, it’s also hard to ignore when I spot glaring issues. Because if I see these issues, then someone spending potentially a significant portion of their net worth on a rig will probably notice them even more. I can just walk away from a poorly-built RV show demo and have content to write later, but it’s not as easy if you’re the owner.
My goal isn’t to sink the RV industry. I just want to see better quality because that’s a win for everyone. Buyers have a product they’ll love for years, the companies gain great reputations, and people keep buying RVs. I want everyone who wants to go RVing to be able to do so with a smile on their face, not with thoughts of regret. This is why you’ve seen me championing the industry’s recent affordable options and cheering the companies that do put in the work to make something that holds together.
It’s not just me. RV Travel also hasn’t been afraid to report on quality issues, and famed automotive lemon law attorney Steve Lehto frequently churns out videos about RV quality nightmares. Youtuber Liz Amazing also punches out so many viral videos about bad RV quality that she’s another person that the industry isn’t super jazzed about. Here’s one:
My point here is that people have been complaining about RV quality for a long time. This isn’t a problem that was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nor is it specifically any model or brand. You may remember when I reported on frame failure in Grand Design fifth-wheel trailers. That’s a brand of Winnebago, not Thor Industries! An update on that situation is also long overdue.
Broken From New
I think the best way to understand what’s happening with my family’s camper is to start at the beginning in 2022. Here’s what I wrote in a previous entry:
My parents took delivery of a unit that was broken straight from the factory. Right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed was that the unit had cool LED light strips on the front cap. However, not only were these strips the kind of crap you get from Amazon for $20, but they were attached to the cap with a weak adhesive. Of course, the light strips were already peeling off and the trailer hadn’t even been on a single trip yet.
Honestly, that’s a small problem, but it got worse from there. I moved to the side of the trailer and found that one of the RV’s aerodynamic side skirts (the dealer tech calls these “J-channels”) was halfway through deleting itself from the unit. How were these even bolted on? Through cheap self-tapping screws. Then I saw how the sealant around every window looked like it was applied by a seven-year-old kid.
Somehow, it still got worse. One of the safety chain hooks fell off of the trailer on its first tow, the emergency brake cable disintegrated in my hand, and then there’s the rust. The trailer was just a few months old, yet the underbody had a surprising amount of surface rust. By that summer, the frame had more surface rust than our family’s old camper, a 2007 Adirondack by Thor. Don’t worry, the absurdity of that statement hasn’t escaped my family.
I was shocked when the dealer told us that the “solution” to the frame rust was a can of Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer. I’ve asked around to other dealers and all of them recommended the same thing. With all due respect to the Rust-Oleum Corporation, Rust Reformer is a band-aid, not a fix.
It’s fine if you’re just trying to get your crapbox car through the winter, but it’s frankly insufficient for a brand-new $62,800 travel trailer. This rust issue doesn’t appear to be an anomaly, either. I always check the frames of campers at every RV show, and most of the Heartland units have exhibited a surprising amount of rust only a few months out of the factory.
Anyway, all of these issues were discovered before my family even took the trailer camping for the first time. So, we delayed our plans and sent it back to the dealer. Somehow, the trailer was still broken when we got it back months later, from a previous entry:
In addition to the safety problems, we found three light switches that weren’t even screwed in, random staples everywhere on the ceiling, a window valence that fell off a wall, and a bathtub that wasn’t even close to being installed correctly. In fact, the bathtub wasn’t even screwed in or secured, but just sitting in place. Because of this, there was a huge water leak when we tested the shower and tub. Amazingly, that wasn’t even the only place water was gushing out into the wrong places. The water heater also sprayed water all over everything inside and outside of the trailer.
All of these new problems meant that the trailer spent its first year sitting at the dealership. Sometimes, it took the dealership multiple tries to get things right, too. For example, the loose bathtub was finally screwed in by the dealership, but whatever tech did the job mounted the tub in a horribly crooked position. It took the dealership two more tries before the bathtub was finally correctly mounted in and as you’re soon about to read, it may have to go back again.
The rest of the year was spent waiting on parts or just a free technician. Our local dealer says it was swamped with work throughout the pandemic and immediately after, so even when the parts did come in there might not have been anyone to work on the camper. Oh, and while our camper was at the dealer for a year, someone broke in and stole some really specific items. They took precisely three dinette cushions plus all of the silverware, plates, pots, pans, and towels that my mom stored in the trailer.
The dealership later admitted fault for the missing items. Apparently, the cushions were removed from our trailer and were placed in a Mallard that had arrived from the factory missing its cushions. This assertion is insane. It means that someone at the factory screwed up and shipped a trailer without three cushions. Then, instead of ordering new cushions, the dealer took cushions out of a used trailer that was in for service and put them into a new trailer.
Maybe it didn’t actually happen like that, but it was our local Camping World affiliate that made such a wild claim. At the very least, the dealer did reimburse us for the lost items and give us new cushions, so we were made whole in the end. But, three years later, I’m still left thinking: Who the heck steals disposable plates?
New Year, New Problems
All of this happened in our first year of ownership. Because of it and the long wait between repairs, my family took the unit out only once or twice during that period of time. But hey, summer 2023 was a new year, so maybe the camper was finally going to work, right?
Well, I had more bad news to report:
We first discovered things weren’t quite right when we tried to turn on the kitchen’s LED lights, which now don’t work.
Then, we tried to open the refrigerator to put food in it. The door jammed on the second closure, and when we tried to clear the jam, the door responded by snapping off its handle. I couldn’t help but laugh so hard that I started crying. This is the kind of stuff from a comedy movie, but a dumb one like an Adam Sandler flick.
And we’re not done yet. We found that the water heater wasn’t working. While I was troubleshooting it, I opened up the outdoor kitchen, which revealed that the refrigerator had pulled itself from the wall, taking its holder with it. Meanwhile, the ceiling of the outdoor kitchen is separating, causing a snow of particle board dust.
Inside, we found that the window shades don’t like to stay open on their own and perhaps thanks to Chicago potholes, interior wall trim is falling off. Also comical is the fact that every single fixture mounted to the walls is crooked.
If that wasn’t aggravating enough, the kitchen sink suddenly became about as sealed as a sieve. But hey, at least this time my family was able to get a few great trips out of the unit in 2023, so it wasn’t all bad. The water heater also had some sort of internal failure, which caused it to induce a steady water leak. Thankfully, the broken heater leaked to the outside of the trailer, so that was good.
Maybe Next Year
A new year brought new challenges, and the camper continued its record of breaking in 2024. By that year, my parents had used the unit only about five or six times. It spent the rest of its time either at the dealer or in storage.
The Mallard had a great start to 2024. Camping World spent winter 2023 replacing the faulty water heater, fixing the bad interior LED wiring, replacing the broken handles on the refrigerator, straightening up the crooked fixtures, removing the random staples from the ceiling, securing the outdoor kitchen’s refrigerator, and stopping the sink from losing its drink. All of this was done because, come 2024, the trailer was due to lose its bumper-to-bumper warranty. But truth be told, so much of this should have been fixed in 2022 at the factory.
From that point forward, my parents would be responsible for fixing the dumb things that broke, and the trailer didn’t take its foot off the gas when it came to breaking things. Things went well in 2024 until my family took it out for a trip in early September:
Dad reports that first, the cap for the tanks blew off on the highway. Ok, that’s stupid, but something that does sometimes happen with campers. Then he made me laugh immediately after when he said “Then, the handle for the black tank blew off.”
Alright, that one is new to me and I still cannot stop laughing. Look, it’s a small issue because you can still pull on the rod with your hand or a pair of pliers, but still, that’s silly.
Then there’s the glob of foam around the tank exit, which is supposed to protect the wiring underneath and keep wildlife out of the trailer’s underbody. Well, some animals have been trying to get their way through the seal.
Sheryl and I arrived at the camper on Saturday, and we found that my parents had filled the interior refrigerator to the brim with steaks and such, so Sheryl’s drinks had to go outside. That’s the great thing about having more than one refrigerator! Upon opening the hatch, I found more of the particleboard “sawdust” material sprayed around the outdoor kitchen. The shifting wall problem has not been resolved.
The materials of the trailer also hadn’t aged well. Wall and ceiling trim began popping out or buckling all over the trailer’s interior. The paper-thin walls flex when you hit a light switch or adjust the thermostat. Even the shower liner came out of the wall all by itself. Everything in this trailer feels almost insultingly cheap, from how the wallpaper is peeling by itself to how the interior upholstery has the strength of wet noodles. Check this out:
The rust also managed to make some decent progress. Keep in mind that we do not use this trailer at all in the winter!
All things considered, the Mallard didn’t have that bad of a 2024. The equipment held together in 2024, and nothing truly awful happened. Everything that went wrong was purely cosmetic.
One More Time
My parents pulled the Mallard out of storage about a month or so ago. Then, they took it to their favorite RV shop to have it prepared for the summer. Now, things get really bizarre right from the jump.
This time, we didn’t discover missing cushions or cookware that was Thanos-snapped out of existence. Instead, we found that someone had gone through the trailer’s liquor cabinet and emptied the bottles. Judging from the random footprints we found all over the trailer, someone seemingly threw a party in there. I hope they enjoyed themselves, I guess? This time, nobody took responsibility for our bizarre discovery.
But, fine, whatever. Missing alcohol isn’t the end of the world. What was rather confusing was how, on our first trip this spring, the power awning refused to deploy. Hit the button and you get nothing. Thankfully, the trailer’s electrical panel has a fault-checker system, so I used that to see if a fuse had blown or something.
Nope! The fuse was just straight up missing. Huh? I interviewed my parents and my brother. None of them even knew where the electrical panel was. Did the fuse blow, and the dealer forget to replace it? Fuses just don’t disappear! I still don’t have an answer to this mystery that I’m satisfied with, but a new fuse restored function to the awning.
A few really amusing failures happened this weekend. My mom attempted to open the refrigerator, only for us to now hear the snap that we’re now familiar with. Yep, somehow, the door handle broke again. Thankfully, it didn’t break off fully this time, but this is getting quite weird. We haven’t broken a single refrigerator door handle in the Adirondack. Are these handles just worse? Is my mom stronger than she thinks?
My mom was eventually able to remove the meat from the refrigerator for cleaning. But the sink wasn’t about that business. The seal that the dealer had replaced in 2023 failed again, sending a deluge of water into the area under the island, where it eventually began leaking out onto the rest of the floor.
Thankfully, we experienced only one more failure on that trip. I tried to open a blind to let some light in, and both of its anchor points failed in that instant. It was so stupid that I had to sit down because I was crying laughing.
This year, my parents have also started complaining about the trailer’s design. Previously, I noted how the primary bedroom is hot like an oven and is too small to get dressed in. I also noted how the exterior lights are awful and the primary bedroom has terrible ventilation. My parents found complaints that I hadn’t even seen previously.
One of the compliments that I give this trailer is to its main entry stair design. In the past, RV stairs bolted into the area just under the entry door. Over time, these stairs would rust out, jam, or just fall out of the trailer. The stairs also didn’t feel particularly sturdy under the weight of a heavy foot. They sucked!
But these stairs rock. They have adjustable legs so that the stairs sit firmly on the ground. Walking up these stairs feels no different than walking up a staircase at home. They’re wide, sturdy, and confidence-inspiring. At least they are to me. I also like how the stairs store inside the trailer, so they don’t get rusty.
My parents pointed out two big fails with the camper’s stairs. The rear door’s stairs hang so far up off the ground that they’re simply inaccessible for my elderly parents. The main entry stair? My parents have trouble climbing them without any sort of handle to grab onto. The only handle is that little afterthought shown in the picture.
RV buyers trend toward older age groups, so it is a bit weird that this trailer sucks for an elderly person to get into. Thankfully, RV supplier Lippert does sell a $67 handrail attachment that you can put onto these stairs. But I’m left wondering why this $62,800 trailer didn’t have it from the factory in the first place.
My mom also hates the trailer’s stereo. It doesn’t have any ability to connect to Bluetooth, and the radio antenna is so weak it barely captures local stations. Again, this is an issue that can be fixed with an aftermarket stereo, but still, you’d think that such a mod shouldn’t have to be done in a unit built in 2022.
Earlier, I said that the trailer has room for at least nine sleepers. How does that work? Up to two people can be expected to sleep in the primary bedroom up front. Two more people can take the pull-out sofa, one or two people can take the dinette bed, and up to four people can sleep in the bunkhouse in the rear.
The bunkhouse arrangement doesn’t really work. One person gets to sleep on a shelf above the outdoor kitchen. There’s no railing here, so I hope this person doesn’t toss and turn. Another person gets to take a bed that comes down from the wall. Two more people can sleep on the folding cushions on the floor. But here’s the stupid catch: If you fold out the cushions, you can no longer open the door to the bunkhouse without folding one of the cushions first. Brilliant.
Good Ideas, Bad Execution
It’s not all bad. There are lots of things that I love about this trailer.
I love how the blinds actually darken the trailer, so you can continue sleeping even after the sun has come up. I also like how stable the trailer is on the highway and how the stabilizer jacks aren’t weak arms. I also dig the power awning and those super secure stairs. I even like how the main entry door holds itself open using friction rather than a flimsy plastic prop. It’s even clever how the bathroom can be accessed from the outside for those emergency roadside visits to the toilet.
There are lots of good ideas here, but they’re just surrounded by bad quality.
Last year, my parents had already come to the conclusion that they didn’t want the trailer anymore. However, current Mallard M33 values suggest that selling it would result in a $30,000 loss. So, my parents aren’t quite sure what to do next. They’ve concluded that the Mallard experience was a failure for them, but they don’t want to stomach losing so much money. For now, my parents will continue reluctantly taking the trailer out.
If you take anything away from this, it’s that you should never buy a camper sight-unseen. Always look over a unit before you part ways with any money. If you don’t know what to look for, hire someone who does. As for the RV industry, all I ask is for better quality control. I don’t hate you! I love RVs! I just want them to be better.
Keep fighting the good fight, Mercedes. RVs have had a well-deserved reputation problem due to poor quality for decades. Maybe (but probably not) enough bad press will force improvement.
I’m all about tent camping. If an RV is needed, I would just rent. RVs make boats, a hole in the water you throw money into, seem like a sound purchase.
Lol and water is wet.
Also, we can rip apart China for pumping out poor quality products but doesn’t look like the US is doing anything above and beyond when it comes to making quality RVs, cars, trucks, etc. Hey, at least it was only 58 grand.
A couple of years ago (post COVID) was seriously looking into buying a small camper. My wife and I enjoy camping a lot, I finally had a vehicle capable of towing one, and had a place to store it.
But the experiences my friends have had with their trailers and the stories you have posted soured me on the experience and ultimately I never bought anything. Camping is supposed to be fun and not a struggle, and dealing with constant problems because some tweaker in Elkhart was having a bad day. I’m into amateur road racing so I already have one money-sucking hobby that often causes more grief than joy. I don’t need another.
When my dad retired, my folks bought a big bus of a motorhome. I know basically zero about motorhomes, but this thing was big and had a 6 figure price tag. It was also built like ass. Not quite this bad, but much worse than you’d expect for the price tag. They ended up keeping it for about 3 years, then during The Plague, the dealership where they stored it made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and they ended up selling it and damn near broke even. Apparently demand at that time was crazy high and the dealership was having an impossible time getting any new inventory. So, good for them for getting rid of it at the right time.
When I was a kid, we had some kind of pop-up camper that obviously wasn’t as nice as a proper camper, but it was nice and comfortable enough for a family of 4. We dragged that thing all over the US for basically my entire childhood, and we never had an issue with it. I think my parents had that thing for close to 20 years before they finally sold it. It was built in the 80s though, so maybe the RV industry actually cared a little bit about quality back then.
My family had a very similar experience with the pop-up tent trailer my dad bought new in ’93. The quality was great and that thing lasted for a very long time
We still have an ’80s tent trailer. Still rocking and rolling. Store it inside for the best results.
I have a sneaky suspicion the build quality on Cousin Eddie’s “ARE-VEE” far exceeded this here Mallard.
The old line about motorhomes/RVs I’ve always heard was, “At the Winnebago factory, they start with a leak and build an RV around it….”
Sort of how a car is built: first the heater core comes down the line and then…. That’s why replacing the heater core takes all weekend.
This is why it’s always better to rent an RV, than purchase one.
If it flies, floats or some other word. Rent it!
I was told this at an engagement party…
Those big girls aren’t worth…oh wait
But regarding boats, I grew up in Florida and a nice simple boat with an outboard is fine (a pontoon too?) You start getting to inboards and inboard outboard, yea.. but they don’t have nearly as much cheap cardboard wood looking garbage, cheap overpriced appliances etc as a camper unless you are getting into cubby cabins/weekend type boats.
Lol!
The “some other word” part: Also a recreational vehicle…..
The RV industry is well known to be full of poor quality.
$62k ? That’s a lot of really nice hotel stays to equal that amount.
They get a little upset when you start cooking s’mores on the balcony.
FWIW, the Andaz Savannah has a firepit outside, and offer s’mores kits every evening. I thought that was brilliant.
Former travel trailer owner here, though never experienced the circles of hell you’re dealing with.
I know you’re not trying to shame the manufacturer, but that’s what they deserve. I know so much pandemic era inventory suffers from dubious build quality, but there’s a point where Heartland needs to do right by people spending mid-five figures on a home away from home.
It’s one thing for cosmetic issues to occur, but when anything that touches water or power isn’t up to snuff, that’s not alright with me.
It’s the one time the old HIMYM axiom of “new is always better” isn’t true.
These things are such pieces of shit. We sold our house in 2022 so we could build our dream house in the mountains. Huge 5th wheel, rear bunk house for my son, “winter package”. 1st summer fall was fine, honeymoon period. Then north Idaho winter came. It wasn’t ideal but was tolerable. Obviously not like living in a house. It was an assumed sacrifice. The next year, holy shit this thing is garbage. Trim falling apart, any constantly touched components just wear away. The 2nd winter was full of mold fun stuff. We had to encase the slide outs in 4 inches of foam to keep the condensation away from the interior. Countertops peeling, MOLD everywhere. Just horrible. Now that the house is done (I built it myself so it took 2 years to move in) it just sits. We initially planned on selling it even for a small loss but they have cratered in value with interest rates and nobody buying toys like this anymore. Probably will just let it get repossessed over writing a 30k (!) Check to get rid of it. I know living in one is hard on them but still.
In hindsight, I would have been better off buying a real large shed/barn kind of thing and insulating it and adding plumbing/electrical, or built a tiny house 1st.
Moral of the story: don’t buy one of these pieces of crap unless you REALLY like camping. Stay in a hotel.
I could never fathom the kind of person who could allow such dreck to be built under their tutelage. Excess pride is often seen as a negative quality, but the people in charge of building these have so little pride that it’s to the point of a moral failing, showing only that they value money and that’s not a value. The shame they feel should be so great that they couldn’t live with it, but this is just Tuesday for them. One off, hey, shit happens, don’t buy something built on a Friday before a holiday during a pandemic but this being pretty much the standard of the industry and it’s so aggressively, tauntingly horrible that it surely must be an intentional insult to their customers. Making stuff this bad for that kind of money should be criminal and they should have all their assets seized and forced to live in one of their shitty trailers near a landfill where they have a job sorting trash materials like the ones they build their junk out of for recycling at minimum wage.
Additionally, look who is doing the repairs. Camping World. Not the original manufacturer. Not that that is an excuse for the piss-poor repair jobs. Regardless where it was taken, it should have been fixed correctly.
That’s it, we’re sorting out the land fills now!
They are called tweakers
That’s a different issue. My bigger problem is with the people in charge. While I get that good help is hard to find, the reason is often cheapskate management and they are ultimately the ones who control what goes out the door. With big compensation should come big responsibility, but living in what’s essentially an inverse meritocracy, we get the opposite.
Probably the same way people build crappy new houses, flipper grade remodels and disastrous flip cars. Either they don’t care, or they are deliberately cutting corners for a quick buck.
Put them on the list!
Proudly made in America
More specifically, Indiana…
Perhaps the best way to get a good trailer is to buy a 3 year-old trailer from a recent widow or widower, where the spouse fixed all the fails before going on to that great KOA in the sky.
In the past, some RV manufacturers were considered deliberate racketeers in that state.
If you take anything away from this, it’s that you should never buy a camper new
Used may be even worse. Somebody “fixed” the toilet in mine buy using a 14″ braided water supply line (like what you’d see under your home’s toilet or sink) and three pieces of galvanized threaded pipe couplers (one with inside threads, the other two with external threads) to correct a problem with the factory PEX supply line apparently being just a bit too short, so the motion of the trailer stripped the plastic threads off the end of the toilet valve.
To winterize, we drained everything, opened up all the faucets and flushed the toilet to drain the lines, just like we did with the prior camper.
Unfortunately they didn’t trim the PEX line before they installed the new pieces, leaving a big loop in the toilet line that held water and it of course froze and fractured the toilet valve sometime over the winter.
We found the leak the day before our first trip of the year, and since there was no shut off valve, we had to go without water for the weekend.
And that’s just one of the half baked customizations we’ve discovered so far.
Or maybe just never buy a camper. I’ve thought about it in the past and it seems like there’s really no good options. Its all the problems of a house and a car rolled into one depreciating beer can.
You’re not wrong. That said, if you like the outdoors, it’s much better than tenting it.
I like having a toilet and shower available without having to share facilities with random strangers. And a nice comfy bed, A/C, heater, etc…
We actually downsized from a 30 ft to a 22 ft unit, both used. Paid less than $11k total for both of them. (We really need to sell the big one, but the market is so saturated with people bailing from their COVID era purchases, it’s hard to move one right now. Fortunately we’ve got space to park it, and it’s at a point on its depreciation curve where it won’t hurt much for it to sit a bit.)
I can’t imagine spending $60 grand plus on one of these, though. My first house cost less than that, three decades ago.
Pretty sure Mercede’s parent bought a slightly used one not long ago, and I believe it too was a disaster. That may be what pushed them to buy new
Mercedes, if you’d like a good news story, check out Foretravel.
Solid with great support. Great used buy.
Foretravel is on my list for an RV history piece! I think you were the one who originally suggested it. 🙂
If nothing else, for their choice in automotive lighting donors. I can’t think of another RV with Isuzu Impulse tail lights.
I lived not far from their factory for a few years and would sometimes see them driving bare chassis down the road.
My headlights are from a Bronco. And those Impulse taillights are unobtainium. U320.
Maybe Torch has interest also, cuz, you know, taillights…
Sorry this happened to my family I’m either going all Rambo or I’m writing BBB, the AG, and everyone who writes a blog even in Antarctica. This is a Lemon Law violation if it was a car let alone a trailer. I could never laugh at my parents being screwed like this. If my kids laughed at me for this they would be out of the will.
That being said Mercedes I think you might enjoy the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnez 1957 movie The Long Long Trailer.
My parents are laughing a bit, too. It’s sort of how they get through the madness of it all. They approve of me writing about this! So, there are a few really sad realities here:
1. The BBB isn’t a government entity and has no real power. You might find some sympathy if the company cares about their BBB rating, but that’s it. RV dealers and manufacturers already have terrible reviews and not much has changed.
2. The state AG office usually goes after illegal dealership practices like deceptive trade practices, contract fraud, illegal fees, and such like that. You can complain to the state AG, but 90% of the time absolutely nothing will happen. This is a better fit for a private attorney, and even then, you might spend tens of thousands and not win.
3. Most states do not have an RV lemon law. This is why people like Steve Lehto say to run as far away as possible from a new RV.
I hope you realize I don’t doubt the love you have for your family. And the stories you write are extremely funny and informative. I just hate anyone being screwed or taken advantage of. And while we readers are limited to not buying any RVs until they are worth it. I was promoting the auto journalism writers to unite and attack. Most of you have written together and know each other are not competing or enemies, I don’t get that, but if a field of reviewers can’t come together to question truly horrible quality at every corner at least stop covering it.
I’m rewatching Better Call Saul and found it amusing that Lehto, a lawyer, is wearing a McGill t-shirt.
Well, you wouldn’t have these problems so much in that fancy Airstream! Costs Three times as much but do some campers end up trading up to different rigs and spending just as much on a depreciating object? Former vintage Airstream owner here.
Current vintage airstream owner here.
At a certain point, aluminum was still aircraft grade.
Oh, and love the Plumber’s Putty in lieu of an actual gasket on the sink. WTF?! Like, this is a travel trailer. Duh! Any movement, like being towed down a road, is going to instantly break the seal. I can’t even…
My Grandparents were RVers and when we were kids would take us for a week every year, I feel like almost every other year they had a different RV, some of that was scaling up from motorhome to bumper tow to 5th wheel, but I remember even as a kid that things in it were very fragile.
Stories like this make me think if I ever did become a summertime RV camper type(with a spot on a lake like your folks kinda deal cause the price of gas to take it all over would be crazy), it’d be a bus conversion, cause at least then you know the foundation is fairly solid.
We are very different people. 🙂 I honestly can’t believe how patient you and your family have been. I would raised A LOT more hell than you all have. Like, every drop of the liquor would have been replaced and the unit professionally cleaned.
That said, I envy people who have patience and can react reasonably, for I would struggle mightily to keep my cool in these cited circumstances.
40-odd years ago, when I was in jr. high school through college, my folks got into RV’ing. First with a pickup slide-in, then a succession of bigger and fancier tow-behinds like this. Final one was a brand new Airstream for ALL the money. And they ALL completely sucked. Same sorts of issues. Just crap design and crap quality. I can only imagine how today’s “cost optimization” and the pandemic era production rush affected these rolling turds.
The worst issue? On the very firs trip with that new Airstream the thing start wagging around behind the Suburban. One of the axles had come loose on one side! Thankfully without doing any real damage, but the thing had to be towed away, and that was that for their weekend away. Thankfully, I never had to go with them, though I did stay in them when we had company as a guest room. The Old Man got so fed up with the problems he sold the Airstream and the Suburban and called it a day.
The only way I would do this is a coach conversion. At least a bus is DESIGNED to romp up and down the highway for a million miles or so. That’s an afterthought with these things. You will still have no end of issues with the house systems, of course, but at least the chassis won’t come apart.
RV and boat stories always make me feel so much better about all my poor financial decisions, keep them coming.
Boats and RVs have the same problems. Cheap ones suck, GOOD ones are for multi-multi-millionaires only, and even the good ones exist in extremely harsh environments that just pound the absolute piss out of them so they need constant care and attention.
I just don’t think it’s possible to make a mini-house with all the comforts of home and then some, light enough to tow behind a reasonable tow vehicle, for well less than $100K, and not have it be an epic heap of crap.
And then they have the OTHER problem of boats – the resale value of used toilet paper in most cases. Unless I had Bill Gates money (in which case my yacht would be the fully restored SS United States), I would never buy either new.
The issues of a mini house bouncing down the road is why I went with a hard sided tent bouncing down the road. Everything in that Aliner is about as generic RV as it can get. Perfect for me. Less in there means less to go wrong.
I find those interesting.
At that point, why not just a tent? Even less to go wrong.
But my idea of camping is slow room service, so unless it was made by Prevost I am not interested.
It’s impossible to air condition a tent. Being under hard walls during wind/rain is also really nice. So is rolling out of bed instead of hauling myself up off the ground. Meanwhile I get to enjoy some great scenery with my coffee.
There are tents, and then there are tents:
https://glitzcamp.com/luxury-tents-with-air-conditioning/
Nifty! Thanks for sharing!
That’s stretching the definition of tent pretty far. More like a fabric house than a tent. At that point, the camper is easier/quicker to set up. On a seasonal site, that would be killer. Pour a concrete pad and set it up. Also plausibly deniable as a temporary structure when the town has a ban on seasonal campers or would raise taxes a nutty amount for improvements.
How can you tell successful people from unsuccessful people? unsuccessful people own boats and RVs. Successful people have friends who own boats and RVs.
ROFL – seconded. Most of the reason I own an SUV is that I have a buddy who for years had a boat and nothing to tow it with. I towed his boat a few times a year, and I got to use the boat on the rare occasions I wanted to.
I just don’t get RV’ing – but I am definitely a “camping is slow room service” sort of dude.
The good news is that with its incredible resale value, you’re never in the hole on these babies!
$30,000 would’ve paid for a lot of nice holidays in the comfort of a hotel/airbnb!
However if you have multiple guests you need multiple rooms and restaurant reservations
Guests? I go on holiday specifically so I don’t have to deal with other people.
My wife doesn’t understand this.
Partially because she gets uncontrollable FOMO. I never get that, however, as I’m comfortable on my own path.
Spoken like a true goth
Still covers a lot of rooms and dining. And if you go with their Airbnb option, you can have room for everyone and still do your own cooking. And the end of the adventure doesn’t require emptying everyone’s shit from a tank.
Yup I’ve heard to many times how having a trailer/motorhome saves so much money on hotel stays, but I just can’t see any way the math adds up.
I think this only works for semi-nomadic retirees. If you’re living out of a camper for 100 days a year, traveling, then sure, I suppose that makes sense.
The only other use case I’ve been presented that made sense was a coworker whose son travels a lot for various sports tournaments that cover many full weekends throughout the year. These events are often in expensive places where hotels often charge peak rates during those weekends, and he’s gotten it down to enough of a science where he appreciates not having to take chances on random hotels/motels. I can understand that.
Oh and then there’s what I think might be the true best use case for such a thing, parking one permanently on a your own/your friend’s/your family’s vacation property. We know A LOT of people who do this. Some of these places have a modest main camp on the property with typical house amenities, and these sorts of campers provide the extra space needed to sleep people comfortably without the crippling taxation of a permanent structure.
It can work in very specific circumstances, if you buy one that’s cheap enough. My folks had five kids and bought a 20ish foot pull behind in 2003 for $14,000 new (roughly $22,000 today). We absolutely used the crap out of that thing. We took three or more weeklong family vacations in it every year, in addition to using it for sleeping space multiple times per year when we visited both sets of Grandparents who lived out of town. I think my Dad sold it for around $4,000 ten years later and probably invested another $1,500 or so in DIY repairs (it was a POS that had issues with water leaks, etc. but he fixed it right). In that case I think the math maths. That’s relatively low cost of ownership for the trailer itself compared to how money we saved. Especially travelling with a family of seven, where the alternative lodging is renting 2-3 hotel rooms and to spending a fortune on eating at restaurants.
I agree with you though that for most people who buy these it’s 100% not worth it. You need to buy something that’s not ridiculously overpriced and actually use it a lot for it to make any sense whatsoever. If you plan on using it only a couple times per year and/or can’t go without the “luxury” features on the most expensive models, you’re much better off getting a hotel/AirBnB or renting an RV if you truly want to go camping.
Where I camp there are no convenient hotels. The pets also enjoy camping.
Certain places the nearest hotel is 120 miles away.
And it’s fully booked, in spite of surge pricing at 7 Star hotel levels.
Those are just excellent reasons to stay home.
It’s a literal description of most federal parks and special interest spots I have visited.
Like I said, excellent places to stay home from. If I want nature (a vanishingly rare thing to start with), I want it to NOT be where everyone else is. And there really is no shortage of that in this vast country.
The person you are replying to is saying that they like to camp in places that are 120 miles away from the closest hotels and crowds of people. They camp where the only way to stay overnight is an RV or tent.
Or 62000 invested in a cd at 4% gets you a week of a cabin in the woods. The second week is paid for theoretically by the amount you are not paying for petrol and insurance lugging a piece Indiana shit down the road. Also Columbus Indiana is the coolest place in that whole dtste