Numerous Problems - Time to Vent (And a bit of rant, sorry)

[Clark2262]

We have been camping for almost twenty years and this is our third 5th wheel. We thought we were doing something good when we moved "up" from the mass produced models. Clearly our expectations were way too high.

We bought a 2017 Madison in June of this year while in Myrtle Beach. Here is the list so far:

1. Leak from rain water in pass-thru storage. Fixed door gasket, okay now.
2. Leak in pass thru storage door (the door itself). Still can't get it fixed, nor can the dealer. Caulked just about everything, still fills with water. (See picture.)
3. Both water heater lines were barely threaded on and leaked in space behind storage wall. Was a slow leak so the wood box the water heater sits on was saturated. Hope it does not fail.
4. While in there, I found the top to the very expensive surge suppressor was laying off to one side. No screws in sight. (See picture.)
5. The filter/strainer on the water pump was not even hand tight. Another leak behind the wall in the pass thru storage.
6. The outdoor shower has a split in the pipe that blends the hot & cold (I have never been in any freezing weather, yet).
6a. Oh yeah, the Anderson "Kantleak" valve is leaking. Evidentally, it "kan" leak. Maybe I should not have turned it while pressurized but it sure would have been nice to have been told that during the PDI (I did not get a manual).
7. The water heater will not work on electric (that is a new one).
8. The satellite hook-ups for bedroom and living room were reversed. I spent way too much time trying figure out why my living room satellite would not work.
9. Awning light switch and porch light switch are reversed.
10. Three-way light switch for closet lights does not work like a three-way. If the switch closest to the closet isn't in the "on" position, the other switch does not work.
11. Wood trim around windows falls off due to nails that are barely embedded 1/16".
12. My shower doors will not stay locked down when traveling. I have to use "charley bars" to keep them open.
13. My closet doors will not stay closed with the supplied locks when traveling. I have to use binder clips to keep the locks, locked and doors from sliding back and forth. One of them is damage from sliding back and forth.
14. Does the factory not own a shop vac they could use to vacuum up all of the wood and metal shavings?
15. The master lighting/control panel was installed at waist height so I have to sit on the steps to read any of the labels and at night I have to use a flashlight to see them at all. Very poor design.
16. Master awning is installed poorly so it hangs-up terribly when opening. To fix it, will probably result in relocating one of the arms and additional holes in my camper wall.
17. The water filter was hanging on by a thread and the pipes were destined to be cut-off by the mounting bracket if we took one more trip. (And the wrench they gave me is for a different brand and does not fit.) (See picture.)

We are not new at this so we thought our expectations were realistic. What a disappointment. We are not full-timers but we do camp every weekend. And every weekend, I spend my time fixing something not enjoying my wife, our dog and the mountains. None of this is acceptable and we would never put up with this kind of shoddy work if it were a new car.

 

[Mark-Roberta 051995]

I am sure we all feel your pain, I know we do. We purchased our new LM365 Charleston in August. We had 36 items on our PDI that needed repaired or ordered. Our unit goes into the dealer next week for the remaining 14 items. We had satelite cable issues not tightend or connected, trim pieces falling off, stove top burner not working correctly, theater seating heat and USB not working, fridge not set correctly - to far out and hitting island when traveling (dent in door), cabinet doors broken on edges and then smothered with putty.
I did have one leak and when I went to fix it I went through and tighened every connection that I could find, see and touch - most were loose.
We expected much more from LM than what we got but it seems to be par with the industry. We have had discussions with LM on our concerns and they seem willing to work with us on the issues as I expressed my concerns on the dealer networks not being adequite in repairing these things correctly. I just received a stove top from Furrion as they told me I could replace the item since it did not work correctly - just send the old one back. It is a shame that we have to repair these items vs. the dealer or factory as we cannot keep putting them in the shop after every use.

Good luck on all of your items and that they get repaired. Keep us posted.

Mark

 

[Clark2262]

Thanks Mark. I sincerely appreciate your commiserating response. Misery loves company.

 

[Gaffer]

Did you do a PDI?

 

[Clark2262]

Did you do a PDI?

Sure. But most of this was not evident until after living in the unit. The leaks were/are behind the wall. The awnings were out when I arrived to do the PDI. I closed them - no problem. Flip light switches on/off, no problem, until you get them out of sequence. It wasn't raining so the storage door did not leak.

Other problems arose after driving it down the road a few times. I didn't know that hangers would not stay on the pole or doors would slide back and forth after they were locked, etc.

A couple of design flaws like the height of the lighting/slideout control panel. Probably generic to the Madison and maybe not other models.

The water heater just stopped working on electric this weekend. As I mentioned with the Anderson valve, if you aren't supposed to turn it while under pressure, that was not explained during the PDI so I did not learn that little trick until I started searching for a new one.

And don't get me started on the warranty/registration process. I had to remove the cover of each A/C unit (x3) to get the serial and model number. Then, after trying unsuccessfully to register them on-line, I called them and the nice girl at Dometic informed that there is a "trick" to the serial numbers known only by them. Two of the digits are "place holders" and need to be replaced with "71" or something like that. There's another two hours of my life down the drain.

 

[sengli]

Yikes! And with the demand at an all time high, they are building these units faster, and faster.

 

[farside291]

It's aggravating and we all know what you are experiencing. Most of us have had too many problems initially when new to list in one place. But be assured, once you get these little things worked out and fixed you will have a very reliable and well built home. I went through an entire years worth of problems now, I have not had a single problem in close to 2 1/2 years. I travel with it every other month for a month at time. I was to say the least frustrated that I spent all that money and I only used the unit 2 months in the first year. Have faith, sounds like most problems should be easily fixed...permanently.

 

['Lil Guy']

If you pop your cover on the outside of the water heater, there is a reset switch for the 120V. Seen this before. Press the reset and I'm pretty sure you'll solve that issue. The petty leaks can be a real pain. We had our unit opened up with power and water hooked up. Had the basement walls down to check for leaks. That is how our dealer preps the RV. We tested everything including the fresh water using the pump looking for leaks. A lot of your issues are due to a poor make ready by your dealer. That is the reason for you wanting a complete inspection before taking delivery.
I'm sure you'll love your rig after you get the bugs worked out. I believe all makes and models have these issues from the factory spitting them out. It's up to the dealers to make it right for you and it's up to us to make the dealers do it.
Good luck getting everything repaired and enjoy your new LM.

 

[Clark2262]

If you pop your cover on the outside of the water heater, there is a reset switch for the 120V. Seen this before. Press the reset and I'm pretty sure you'll solve that issue. The petty leaks can be a real pain. We had our unit opened up with power and water hooked up. Had the basement walls down to check for leaks. That is how our dealer preps the RV. We tested everything including the fresh water using the pump looking for leaks. A lot of your issues are due to a poor make ready by your dealer. That is the reason for you wanting a complete inspection before taking delivery.
I'm sure you'll love your rig after you get the bugs worked out. I believe all makes and models have these issues from the factory spitting them out. It's up to the dealers to make it right for you and it's up to us to make the dealers do it.
Good luck getting everything repaired and enjoy your new LM.

Thanks for the tip with the water heater. I did try the resets but that did not help. I found a great video on YouTube that shows how to troubleshoot each component. That will be this weekend's project - along with the valves.

Sorry, but I disagree with you. This is not a dealer issue. My car dealer doesn't go around and check hose connections that are behind walls. Our campers are checked at the factory in a spray test before delivery - my car dealer doesn't recheck to make sure the doors are water tight. These are factory issues. They were not readily apparent during the PDI - most of them took days to appear and were probably exacerbated by towing. These problems could not have been found or may not have existed during the PDI.

 

[kowAlski631]

Been 5 years since we took delivery of our BH, but we know that there were hoses that were tightened by our dealer before our PDI. The dealer is paid to do an inspection after the unit is delivered. They showed us which ones and we were encouraged to do a water pressure test before we completed the purchase. Purchasing a car isn't comparable to a trailer. Just our experience and thoughts......

 

[akf15e]

Not surprising at all. We thought the same - that we were moving up in quality. That turned out not to be quite true. Our list includes fridge failures, tank leaks, and delamination, plus all of the "little stuff." I sold my SOB because I no longer had confidence in it. I will say that every time I pull out of the driveway now in my Landmark, I am wary of what will go wrong. Haven't lost complete confidence, but getting close. That said, I'm on my 5th camper, so I've learned to fix a lot of these things myself now. Good luck getting things fixed!

 

[meagle]

I agree that there is a general lack of quality workmanship and quality assurance at the factory. I've had a lot of problems that was due to poor manufacturing and lack of adequate quality control. As I've said before in the forum this is my favorite fifth wheel as far as comfort and floor plan but my least favorite when it comes to problems. I could have been a loyal customer and purchase a new Landmark in a few years, but now I will look at other brands as well as the Landmark when it is time to replace my current RV. In the long run these problems will hurt Landmark. I found it interesting at the rally in Jackson that the dealer brought a DRV to display. I was told that they are going to quit carrying Landmark due to a lot of issues.

 

[tdp100508]

We also took delivery of a new Landmark 365 Newport in July of this year. I have been fixing things since day 1. We are full timing in ours so it is not convenient for us to bring it in for repairs. I do have to say that Heartland service has been good to work with so far and they have sent me the parts that I needed to make the repairs. You really need to have the skills of a service tech to own one of these. We were very disappointed with the build quality and shoddy workmanship as well. We thought it would have been much better being the luxury line. I was also disappointed with the dealership not doing a very good job of prepping and cleaning the new unit prior to delivery. We do like the unit and are overall happy living in it. We will be testing out the Yeti package soon as we are staying in the cold Northeast until the end of December. We wish you all the best and thanks for sharing your experiences with your Landmark so far. I guess we are not alone with the displeasure.