The Joys of Owning a New RV

Our plan after moving into our 2007 Damon Challenger was to live in it until John was fully retired and we were ready to hit the road full-time.  In preparation for that final (hopefully) purchase I was always looking at floor plans as those are critical when it's your primary home.  My thought was this would save us time as we would know what year, make and model to look for used when we were ready to make that purchase. 

In early January of this year we were out and about on a Saturday and as usual while John was driving I was playing with my phone.  I was searching Camping World's inventory and there it was - a 2013 Thor Challenger with a floor plan I had never seen and it looked very interesting.  So as usual we made a spur of the moment decision and headed north to check it out.  We had our dogs with us and yes Camping World loves dogs so we were able to take them shopping with us. 

We found a very nice salesman who took us out in the yard to check this unit out and we we fell in love with it at first site.  It had a 4-door refrigerator freezer twice the size or more than what we had.  The bath area had two sinks!  The commode was porcelain and in a room of its own and the shower was much larger than ours.  It also had a place for a washer/dryer that was not one of our clothes closets.  There were two slides in the living area and it had a fireplace.  There were so many other options that were much better than what we had and the price was greatly reduced.  We were NOT planning to buy this early but this unit was amazing and they were offering us every bit of what we wanted for trade.  So we made the decision to move forward and purchase it.

Now I have to tell you that once you but a brand new unit and actually start living in it you then find its short comings and it was probably a good idea to have this before we hit the road so we have time to work out all the kinks.

Once we had all the financing worked out and the pickup date set it took us hours of going in and out of the two units (they were side by side) move our stuff.  Lots and lot of up and down stairs.  The joints in these old bodies were really sore after a day of that type of activity.

So the first major problem was when we were ready to pull off the lot and they were closed.  We disconnected from the power and the cameras all quit working.  Obviously they were run by the coach batteries but when we pressed the switch to turn those on absolutely nothing happened.  I was driving so I had to rely completely on my side view mirrors and hope for the best that I didn't run somebody off the road. 

As I pulled onto the highway I then heard this loud banging and it was really loud.  It sounded like it was in the slideout right behind me.  I radioed John to drive around me and see if there was anything swinging around outside and he saw nothing.  So we went home and hoped for the best. 

Since this was the middle of winter it was cold and once we were home I plugged a space heater into the plug by the passenger seat to keep the front of the coach a bit warmer.  The front is always colder because of the large window and dashboard with some airy spaces.  Not long after doing this all the entertainment equipment shut down.  Well it took getting the manual out to figure out that the inverter was wired to that plug and the space heater likely blew a fuse on it.  So the hunt was on for the inverter.  It should have been close to the converter and accessible through one of the basement storage bays but alas it was not to be found anywhere.  We actually had to call Thor and give them our VIN # so they could tell us where they put it.  It was under the head of the bed!  I know - why in the world would they locate this under the bed?  Go figure but we found it, reset the fuse and on came all the entertainment stuff. 

In the meantime we still have not figured out how to get the coach batteries on.  I'm searching the web for anything I can find.  We are searching the manuals and absolutely nothing is helping.  About 2-3 weeks after the purchase John decided to push and hold the switch and after about 5 seconds on came the batteries.  Wow - how simple would it have been to put that in the manual.  So another problem solved.

Another problem we encountered right after arriving home was how to get the hot water flowing.  The hot water tank was also located under the bed - ugh!  I am the only one that can fit under there without taking the entire wooden top off and there is no other way to access this thing.  So under it I crawl and turn the 3 levers the way the manual shows they are supposed to be.  We are getting some warm water but it never really gets hot.  Finally we decide to call Thor and they tell us to reverse the levers and there it is - lots and lots of hot water.  They were installed backwards!  They levers are used to bypass the hot water tank when winterizing. 

Three weeks after arriving home one morning the refrigerator has a code on it instead of the temperature and when we open it it is not running.  I push the button to turn it off and on several times and it comes on each time but in less than a minute goes off and back to that code again.  I had to go to work so I just left and when I arrived home and tried to turn it on about 5 hours later it came on and worked fine.  This has happened three times and followed the same pattern over the course of four months now and still is not resolved.  The code is a communication code that says there is a communication problem between the two computer boards but who knows.  So today we are having the lower board replaced which is apparently the most problematic for this unit and we will see if this does the trick.  Thank goodness it only seems to warm up about 6 degrees so we are not losing food.

Each morning that we had condensation and/or frost as it warmed up outside we started to get a major drip of water on the dashboard from just behind the windshield.  This drip lasted a few minutes and then stopped.  It turns out that the seals around the driving lights on the roof were not done right and had to be redone.  No more dripping now.

The electric steps were making a horrible popping sound when they extended and that is now also fixed.

The final straw happened on a Saturday night after dark and below freezing.  All of a sudden a horrible sound from the heater brought us out of our chairs.  Apparently the plastic fan complete obliterated.  At that point we had no heat so we had to pack up us and the dogs, getting a hotel room that takes dogs and head out to town.  I packed us up for a week and on Sunday we came back out to the unit to pack the food into coolers with dry ice and drive the unit up to Camping World.

We decided to have them not only fix the heater but all these other issues we had come across except the refrigerator as we had somebody else working on that.  So now we know that we could possibly be in a hotel for several days which can get really pricey.  So note to self, you need to set aside some funds for hotel stays if needed.  After two nights one of our friends called us when they heard we were in a hotel and invited us to come and stay with them, dogs and all.  Yes they have 3 dogs and 3 cats as well so we were going to be one big happy family.  I kept telling her this could be 2-3 weeks and they weren't put off.  What great friends.  Their house design was awesome and it was very comfortable staying there.  Our pets could be kept separate and we had our own living space so we didn't have to be in each other's space.  As it turned out we were there for two weeks! 

Camping World had everything fixed in two days except the slideout banging problem.  They assigned an advisor to us that kept us informed all the time and she was great to work with.  Not sure she always had the right information but she was always very friends and willing to return our calls.  Over the course of the two weeks it was our understanding that Thor, Lippert and Camping World were on the phone with each other trying to figure out how to resolve the problem.  At one point our advisor suggested we call Thor as well which I did.  They were great to work with and immediately called Camping World after my call to keep at the problem.  Eventually they came up with a fix and it seems to have worked.  There has been no banging and the slideout seems to work just fine. 

So as you can see we have had our hands full with a variety of problems.  I find it interesting that the manufacturer doesn't do a better job of inspecting the units before they leave the factory as so many of these things could have been found there.  I actually sent them a letter with my thoughts and they called me to say they had received it and were reviewing it.  Not sure if any changes were made but I felt better!  You would think it would save them a lot of money in warranty work if they just did a better job when building and inspecting their units.  From what I can tell this is a problem throughout the industry. 

So by the time John retires we should have a coach that maybe is problem free??