The Trip to The Factory

The trip to the factory came after a surprise phone call on the 25th of September, just four days after they started repairs on the unit. I was really expecting that it wouldn’t be ready until the date they gave me; which was the 9th of October.

Tammy was having shoulder surgery on the 30th, so I would need to leave Saturday the 26th. The plan was to drive there and stay in their campground until Monday, at which time I could meet with them and talk about everything they found and repaired. Unfortunately, things are never that easy; at least for me.

At 7:00 AM on Saturday the 26th I drove straight from the Dallas area to Middlebury, Indiana, and pulled into the campground about 11:30 PM eastern time. I was a little concerned that the new diesel truck might wake up my neighbors; but they all told me the next day that they never heard a thing.

There was a young couple in a new momentum fifth wheel to the left of me. They are full timers, traveling with their son who is 13 years old. They also had a Boxer that was very cute, and I wanted to go over and pet him; but I didn’t want to intrude. I believe they were in the shop for repairs to their auto leveling system.

A retired couple were in the spot to the right of me. You would never find friendlier people than these two folks. They had just gone full time and were in for some repairs to their radio system I believe. The technicians had already diagnosed the issue but were waiting on a part that was due on Monday. Their trip to the factory would take a nasty turn on Monday after their repair, due to no fault of their own. That however might be a good story for a blog at a later time.

A Heavy dew covered everything on Sunday Morning. However, by 10:00 AM I felt it had evaporated enough so that it would be safe to go up on the roof. The last thing I needed now was to slip off the roof. As I came around the rear of the trailer I noticed immediately that my ladder was bent.

Then I walked forward on the roof and could see that not only had they not completed the front seal caulking, but there was roof adhesive all over the top of my front cap. Needless to say, I was NOT a happy camper at this point.

Next I decided to go inside and look at the skylight in the bathroom, as I knew this had been removed. The inside of the sky light had been scratched all the way across in three different places.

This is not the kind of work I expected from the folks that birthed my Travel Trailer. This is the kind of work I’ve come to expect from a dealership. The whole point of the “trip to the factory” was to avoid poor workmanship.

There were other minor things, that bothered me as well. Service had promised that my electric jack blocks would not be missing; that they would put them in the storage area. They were missing. When I reported this, they said they were there – I think they were looking at my rubber jack pads. So net/net, I need to order some more blocks; in the grand scheme of things a very small issue. They also left my chains in the sand while they were in storage so now my tow chains are rusty. They also removed my propane tank cover, apparently to do a system check, and broke my Tire Pressure Monitoring Sending Unit from its mounted location inside the cover, as well as tearing the sending units negative wire at the battery. They also broke off the cap to my black tank flush port. Overall, just a real lack of care taken with my unit.

I met with the head of their service organization on Monday Morning after sending her an email on Sunday. They moved my rig into their shop quickly and repaired the ladder, skylight, and front seal as well as removing the adhesive on the cap. I left their parking lot around 11:20 Eastern, and drove to Memphis for a stop over at the Memphis KOA. The next morning I drove home.

On the flip side of all of this, I have to say the roof looks good; much better than when it was new. Also, I appreciate the fact that the company stood behind their word to take care of the roof. That says something about their integrity as a company. I can’t say a bad word about anyone I dealt with at Grand Design. They are all very friendly and treated me well.

I wrote a quick letter to the President of Grand Design, not so much to complain as just trying to inform. I’m sure that he doesn’t hear everything that happens down at the shop level, nor would I expect him to. However, things never get better in a vacuum, so I sent a note. I don’t expect him to reach out to me, and that’s fine. However, if by chance he does I will come back and add his comments.

(Update: It has been five months since this blog, and he never responded so I must admit I am disappointed.)

I still love my Imagine Travel Trailer and I still love Grand Design as a company; I’m just disappointed. I realize my experience is probably (hopefully), not reflective of most of their customers. Would I take another trip to the factory for repairs? Jurys out on that one!