I would like to preface this post by saying that it was not prompted by any issue I am having with my travel trailer. It is however driven by what I am seeing day in and day out on-line with todays travel trailers, fifth wheels, etc. Everyday new RV owners are experiencing serious quality issues with their new rigs. I am seeing brand new RV’s that are having serious issues that a brand new owner, or even the owner of a “newer” RV should never experience.

Greg Gerber said a few years ago in his article on the RV industry, that RV’s were being manufactured as if they were Walmart grocery bags. They last just long enough to get home (to the dealers lot) before they fall apart. Truer words were never spoken. Why is this?

Something horrible happened in 2008.  A recession that severely affected the RV industry (as well as everyone).  You as a consumer were most hurt by what happened next.

Remember all the great manufacturers of travel trailers over the years; Fleetwood, Mallard, Dutchman, Coachmen, just to name a few.  During that recession many RV companies struggled and were subsequently bought out by big conglomerates.  These conglomerates like Thor, Berkshire Hathaway, and the REV group now basically control the RV market.

The names on trailers you see rolling down the road today are not the same companies.  The only thing they have in common is the name stamped on the front of the travel trailer.

So what does that mean to you?  You have a few companies controlling the market which means less choice, and quite frankly, less competition.  Less competition means several things, fewer choices and poorer quality.  Why?  If only two companies make candy and they are both bad, what choice do you really have if you really want a piece of candy?

Competition in the marketplace is always a good thing; just look at the impact of the foreign car market on the US auto makers.  The US had to compete with the better quality cars coming off shore which made them produce better quality vehicles here.  Unfortunately, I don’t think you are going to see any RVs coming from overseas anytime soon.

Adding to the quality issues is the high demand for Travel Trailers for the last five years (this year the shipments are down 22% so far over last year; more on that in a minute.).  The manufacturers pushed them out at the speed of light, and I believe with the knowledge that there were quality issues.

All of the trailers that we have purchased since 2008 have had quality issues that should never have passed the manufacturing inspection process.  This is now the world we live in; buying a new travel trailer really requires an inspection by an independent RV inspector.  Travel Trailers are built by hand, not by robots, and there is pressure to make those hands work faster than they should; and the workers are incented to push them out as fast as possible.

Let’s for a moment transport ourselves back to the pre 2008 days.

Our 2007 Coachmen Captiva 288FKS which we purchased new had no problems the entire 8 years that we owned it.  For being such a large trailer, about 35 feet long, it was light weight but very solid.  The only thing it lacked for us was seating in addition to the couch.  There was pride in the workmanship and it showed.

I can say the same thing for every trailer we bought prior to the Coachmen Captiva.  Never did we have trim come off inside, air conditioners leak, electrical problems, etc.  All of our trailers were built solidly and had no quality issues.

For those folks that say “RV’s have always been made poorly”, well my experience does not back up your position at all. In fact, the trend of consumers buying slightly older Travel Trailers to make sure that all the bugs have been worked out of them, certainly proves my point.

The RV industry needs to wake up, especially in light of the 22% drop in the RV market so far this year.  If you want to sell more trailers, make them better and quit incenting your workers to pound them out.  Most consumers now are looking at which company has the best customer service because they have resigned themselves to the fact that they are going to have issues.  Every day you will see people post on social media that “All trailers have issues”.  It’s a disgusting but true admission.

Quite frankly, if the Travel Trailers were built correctly to begin with the manufacturers would cut their cost in customer service because it would rarely be needed.  In addition, the Service bays at the dealership wouldn’t be crowded with people waiting to get their RV’s repaired which would lead to greater customer satisfaction.

If a boat can be manufactured to be waterproof, certainly an RV could be as well.  This whole idea that an RV is in an earth quake every time it travels so you need to expect problems is a fallacy.  We’ve had boats, and I can tell you that they take a much more brutal beating on the water and don’t fall apart by the time you get to the dock. If boats or cars were made like travel trailers, one can only imagine the fallout.

The RV industry needs to worry less about lobbying against lemon laws and more time trying to figure out how to product a quality product where no lemon law would ever be needed.

Lastly, not all issues with travel trailers are the fault of the owners neglect.  Many RV’s just are not manufactured correctly to begin with.  Given the power of the internet more and more people are realizing this every day.  So the RV industry better decide how they are going to handle their quality issues before their slump turns into a long winters nap.