As some of you may be aware, we bought a new 2011 Palomino Hybrid back in February. Overall, I'm happy with it, but the little things going wrong are driving me nuts. It mostly comes down to lack of attention to detail during construction, combined with use of incorrectly sized fasteners or the wrong type of fastener.
Some of you might say, just take it to the dealer and have them fix the problems. That might work if the dealer were nearby, but the closest Palomino dealer is an hour away (with no traffic) which would mean a 4-hour round trip (drop-off and pick-up) to get a 30-60 minute problem fixed. To complicate things, almost all of the below were discovered just far enough apart that I had fixed the earlier problems before the next one came up.
So far, I've had to fix the following:
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[li]The water pump was dead before the first use[/li]
[li]The bracket holding the shepherd's pole to the roof for DS#2's bunk was loose - this was because they used a screw that wasn't threaded all the way to the head, and therefore had no way to actually to tighten up.[/li]
[li]The face frame of the primary galley cabinet - The large galley cabinet door swung open and wrenched one of the face-frame uprights such that it split the wood. This prompted me to replace all the catches. I fixed the split by gluing and screwing the affected area. This was complicated by the way it was attached to the cabinet, so I couldn't easily remove the face frame.[/li]
[li]All drawer and cabinet catches - the ones installed were too weak to actually hold things closed and the cabinet doors kept popping open during travel. The ones that worked best were these: , but they came with the wrong type of screw. They should use pan or round headed screws, but came with flat head.[/li]
[li]The inner support for the drawer slides on our bank of drawers wasn't attached to the floor, and had pulled part. I needed to fix the support and attach it to the floor[/li]
[li]Needed to reattach the support for my fresh water tank. One of the screw heads had snapped off due to being over-torqued, apparently in an attempt to close the gap between it and the frame it was screwed into. A fender washer between the frame and the bracket solved that problem. [/li]
[li]The arm rest on the couch pulled apart due to shoddy construction (staples) combined with hitting the floor due to the next problem. I fixed it with pocket screws, which it was how it should have been constructed in the first place.[/li]
[li]The one I discovered last night - three of the four screws attaching my slideout's motor mount to the floor and wall worked loose and stripped out the holes. One was flat out missing, another was sitting on top of the bracket, and the third was about 1/3 of the way backed out. No wonder the slide was tipping when it went in and out. The screws backed out primarily because they used machine screws that were smaller than the holes in the bracket. When you do that, the screw will have a tendency to pull the material into the hole of the bracket, stripping out the hole, instead of pulling the material tight against the bracket.[/li]
General note to manufacturers -- if you're trying to attach something flat to something else flat, use a screw with a FLAT bottom (pan or round head), not a conical bottom (flat head). Only use flat head screws for things that need to be counter-sunk.
On top of that, I also found out yesterday that the morons who did the maintenance on my car last didn't put my air filter canister back on properly which left it open at the bottom, nor reattach the intake air vent to the canister, nor tighten up two related bolts. My engine sounded much louder than I remembered when I floored it, which is what made me start looking.
So, do any of you have stories of poor quality construction on your pop-up or HTT?
Wow. The issues I had with my 2011 Livin Lite Quicksilver 8.1 pales in comparison. The 12v plug in the camper didn't work. I contacted the manufacturer and they said it was a common grounding issue and told me I can either bring it back to the dealer (180 miles away) or they can give me instructions to do it myself. Needless to say I opted to fix it myself and it took all of 10 minutes. I just had to splice a ground wire from the negative terminal of the battery cable to the frame. Then they forgot to include a steel rod used to put tension on the stablizing jacks and one of the privacy curtains. They FedEx those to me. I had to order the camper thru a dealer and when the dealer finally got it they found out that the manufacturer had the wrong size bed support poles so I had to wait another week for them to arrive before I can pick up the trailer. Other than that I think that was it.
I looked at about fourteen different brands of hybrids last year before I bought my 2011 Passport Hybrid in June of 2010.
It came in with a Kitchen cabinet door that was scratched it transit by drawers inside the door. The dealer replaced both drawers slides and the door.
It happened again a year later, they will fix it again. However, i think I will need to do a mod to the door to stop it from opening again on the road.
Also, the kitchen sink had a crack in it and was replaced.
That was it however. I haven't found any loose screws or sawdust, etc inside underneath cabinets unlike a lot of the other units I looked at.
I do wish someone would up the ante and use some better materials inside the hybrids like one piece countertops, better quality foam in the beds, enclosed heated basement to keep waste tanks from freezing.
Overall though, I am very satisfied, especially with the sunbrella fully sealed bunk ends.
Once upon a time, when the economy, the American work force and industry was in better shape, we had better construction, better materials and better service.
The industry is doing everything it can to reduce production costs, and workers making at best minimum wage, plus those who have been employed longer and at a higher rate but are having to do three other's job to boot. It's a sign of the times, "globilization" they like to call it. And it affects us all.
[quote author=flyfisherman link=topic=1015.msg7693#msg7693 date=1313769069]
Once upon a time, when the economy, the American work force and industry was in better shape, we had better construction, better materials and better service.
The industry is doing everything it can to reduce production costs, and workers making at best minimum wage, plus those who have been employed longer and at a higher rate but are having to do three other's job to boot. It's a sign of the times, "globilization" they like to call it. And it affects us all.
Thats correct!!
I drive two americans car, owns two american boats (I have had 6 ), more than 30 american brand fishing rods and all my 80% of buyings are in your country.
I will keep confidence in the made in USA but can not say the same for customer service and attention.
Still lovin your kind of products the way they made.
Just wanted to add, that after almost 2 complete seasons, no other issues have been found.
The cabinet door and slides were just replaced for the second time.
I had asked the dealer for a fix so it didn't happen again, when I picked up the trailer the new door and slides were on and it had two door catches installed.
Hopefully this will be the last fix.
Overall, I have no complaints at this time.
Generally decent quality for the money.....
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