Check Your Windows!

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   I recently had a problem with my shore power plug having shorted on the trailer side and after looking around my neck of the woods found a well-recommended independent repairer/rebuilder. 
 I had some other work I wanted done, but noted in particular that the exterior plastic and rubber components - the handles on the dump valves, the flanges on the dump valve covers, had UV fatigue and just snapped or crumbled from normal use in just a few years.  Then the window and roof seals, and the plastic bead that covers the main sidewall channels were both badly deteriorated.  Clearly an inability of the materials used to withstand just sitting outdoors for a few seasons.  Another example - rusting of the steel bottom frame - clearly a higher quality coating and painting of that frame would resist spot rusting for more than 3 years off the lot.
What do you think? I asked the owner.  His answer - the entire industry uses cheap components and quick construction methods to try and maximize their margins and slide through the warranty period.  Basically, "they don't make them like they used to".  His language was a bit saltier.  

As our conversation went on he took me over to look at a 3 year old Class A ... $150K plus motor home and showed me how many of the components were the same as on the RPod or 90% of RV's for that matter.  Fact is now a few component suppliers totally dominate the market - latches, hinges, seals, sealing compounds, window and door assemblies, piping, valves, appliances ... design and perhaps assembly technique is the main difference among many.

If RV's were built with the kind of materials and specs that are put into marine applications by reputable boat builders, they would stand up to use and the elements much better but the cost would put them out of reach of most of the folks who buy them now.  And lots of folks are remembering simpler times when heavier materials were used, amenities were much fewer therefore the product was less complex ... the entire attitude about obsolescence and replacement was different.  

Get the best bang for our buck and then take it upon yourself to maintain and repair and be vigilant because the durability is suspect otherwise.

It's the world we live in.  Things are not built to last as long as they once were, quite the opposite, they are calculated to find the lowest input costs to make them last just long enough to satisfy the standards of the marketplace.  When they start to really deteriorate whether from use or abuse they will generally be so outdated that it makes major repair unrealistic.  Forest River is playing in a marketplace where they watch the competition and the standards and price points, the quality of labour and supervision they can afford, etc.,. are well known to them.  I think it is great when people hold their feet to the fire and make them stand behind their promises as to quality, but at the end of the day the whole industry is in a race to make them shiny and pretty enough and cheap enough to roll off the dealers lots as fast as possible.