Mechanics Reveal ALL - Which RV is the Most Reliable?

I had to know which RV was best.  We talked with the closest expert available, who happened to be the person in charge of pulling out our slide and doing a 2-day repair-- Carlos Armando Alonso.  Carlos is the son of the owners of America Choice RV (repair) Armando and Miram Alonso.  They'd been in business since 1979, and Carlos has 18 years of working experience.  He summarized everything he'd learned after seeing and working on thousands of RVs over the years.  I was an eager listener, since all of my brain-files were empty on the subject.  (It had just never been a matter of interest since I'd never wanted to give up working...and certainly never wanted to live in an RV.)  Carlos explained that the answer to my question was online...for anyone to see.  You just type in the name of the model or manufacturer you are interested in and read as much as you want to, including reviews. I told him I'd seen more Winnebago products than any other type in his shop.  I had two hypotheses:  I figured they weren't as reliable as they used to be, or they were so popular that they make up a large percentage of units in use.  Carlos said it was the latter, that there are more faithful owners of Winnies than any other make.  

We had a sad-bad room during the repair

Carlos said there really isn't a problem in the industry with any company producing lemons.  "They are all moving houses with lots of mechanical parts, and they all need repair at some point."  He said the big mistake owners make is they tend to park them and forget them....not knowing that they are nullifying their warranty.  I knew that all Four Winds have a warning in the owner's manual that you have to do a maintenance check at least once every 6 months.   Carlos said if you don't go around your RV and check the seals and roof and the integrity of all of the parts, your warranty will not go beyond one year...even if it is a 6-year warranty (which is what we have): no maintenance = no guarantees.  I think he could see I was a bit upset.  I mentioned the fact that the back corner must have separated along the roof line of our RV because I could see light from the outside when I looked up to the roof from inside my clothes closet.  Ouch!  I wanted to know what kind of sealant to use, but instead of telling me, he said when we came back from our (wretched) motel stay (necessary since our RV was going to be on the rack for 2 days), that he'd walk around the 31K with me and give me maintenance suggestions.  Whew.  That did put me at ease....somewhat. 

Rv Earthquake Mess

Why does a brand-new RV need maintenance?  The major reason is each time you drive your home down the road it experiences at least a magnitude 5 earthquake.  I know if you lie down on our bed in the back while traveling, your tailbone is going to slam (hard) into the wooden bed platform.  Ouch!  And we all know how cans love to fall out of cupboards.  Bob is fearless when it comes to the type of roads we travel, so we've experienced some news-worthy earthquakes in our time.  Once he went straight up a dirt road that went over a mountain divide.  It was on an impulse, as we had no idea where it went.  The road had no switchbacks.  It just angled up into the sky!  Within minutes my bike had bounced up and off of the rack and was drug along until the tread was ground off of its tires.  I became a witch about "no more dirt roads"...and our manual for our new RV actually states:  "no unpaved roads".  So there's multiple ways you can void your warranty.  One way, that I'm still amazed at, was demonstrated by an owner of a nice RV who backed down a boat ramp, right into the water, over his tail pipe...just to get his boat in the water.      Crazy....          Crazy about fishing, that it.

Sunliner's Provincial

I still thought there was one RV manufacturer that was the best.  Carlos liked Thor and said he'd never seen the problems our own Four Winds was having... but then he took some time to sift through all of his experiences and admitted that the BEST manufacturer (of all time) had to be Sunliner.  He said he had looked and looked but had never found any weaknesses in it.  He raved about its reliability to the point that I had to ask another mechanic if he felt the same way, and he said Sunliner was the best.  All of the mechanics I've talked with say there is no perfect RV...but Sunliner comes close.  If you go to their site, they definitely have a different approach and novel construction techniques.  Leave it to the Aussies, but Carlos said they went out of business.  Quality perhaps hurts the bottom line too much.....???

I asked a mechanic if my conclusion might be correct:  "If all RVs were made by Sunliner, then repair garages would be out of business."  He didn't hesitate to say, "That would be true."

#3 Visit to the RV Repair Station

We cut our trip short--to only a few hours--at Juniper Springs.  Larry called to say the part was in and we needed to return to Ocala.  No!  How could we interrupt our celebration of nature's best!?  I didn't want to believe it was true, but there we were turning our 31K over to the mechanics...again.  Was this coach put together by an imposter...an amateur?...or worse, someone who could care less?  I looked around to see if perchance a Winnebago might be in the garage.

The first RV I spotted was...yep, a Winnebago.  Sad.  Lined up beside this ailing RV was a Class-A Itasca Ellipse (a Winnebago product), a Fleetwood Prowler with its innards showing, a 5th wheel Mobile Suites (advertised as having "the best bang for the buck") and one wounded Dutchmen RV.

 Below is a closeup of that Fleetwood Prowler with its forward slide pulled out.

A quick walk just around the corner revealed another surprise:  a Winnebago product, a new looking Cambria.  Oh, no...what could be wrong with it?

By now I was rubbing my eyes, because in the very next bay was another Mobile Suites ....

It was like there was a race on to be "popular" in the garage, as I found yet another Winnebago, a Four Winds (not ours) and this shiny Windsport (shown below).  

Next I found a Georgie Boy Landau Motorhome, a Safari Zanzibar (shown below in the rain) next to a Crescendo by Gulf Stream....an Itaska Sunrise (Winnebago product) an Infinity coach, and an Independence,

 TWO Hurricanes by Thor, and one brown-striped Dolphin by National (a bankrupt company)...  All were being worked on today. 

The next day I found two more Mobile Suites trailers had moved in for repair.

Winnebago products are still in the lead, however.

A Bighorn by Heartland had joined the ranks, looking a bit small next to the Fleetwood Excursion.

I know the Bounder is a very popular RV, so I had to find out why it came in today.  Ahhh...nothing mechanical, it just needs a little body work (although I couldn't tell where).

So...now I'm going to ask the mechanics which type of RV they see most often. 

I've got to know!  When it comes to anything RV, I'm pretty much ignorant.

RV Repair Shop - #2 Visit

Larry called from America Choice RV Repair and said he needed to count the cogs on the gears that required replacement on our 31K Chateau.  RU kidding?  I swore I'd never leave this sanctuary.  Silver River State Park has become my refuge.  I refuse to go back to "civilization"....and its billboards and red lights and dirty streets.  Bob felt otherwise and packed up so fast I didn't have time to finish my email.  He was driving and I was still typing away.  We needed to drive to North Ocala, but unknown to me Bob was heading to SOUTH Ocala.

When I finally noticed we'd been driving too long of a time, we were lost and far, far from our destination.  We endured stop and go traffic all of the way across Ocala to get to the shop.  Our stowed goods were scrambled in their cupboards.  It felt like a nightmare, so I tried to think positive:  This is an interesting tour of Ocala, and soon we'll be one step closer to getting our slide in working order.

While Larry was counting cogs, I decided to see what kind of RVs were in the shop today.

Surprise!  It looked like that Winnebago was still in the shop.  Unbelievable (to me) as I hadn't accepted the review stating Winnies had problems with reliability.

I walked around to the other end to see if it really was the same RV.  It wasn't....which was another surprise.  How many of the much-loved Winnebago RVs could be in the garage for repair?  This couldn't be happening.  Were the high numbers due to the fact so many are on the road?

I needed to collect more data before giving up my prejudice for Wini RVs.  I found this Fleetwood Class A in the shop.  What's behind it?

Why it's a Cambria....made by Itasca of Winnebago.  What!?  Larry has finished counting his cogs, so it's time to end my data collection....at least until the next time we are in the shop.



Vehicle Type for Camp Hosting

When you apply to be a camp host you are asked what you will be living in and what you will be driving. We had a 1986 Mini Winnebago when we were first hired last year....and a 1996 Ford Aerostar van. Your employer doesn't seem concerned with what you live in, if it's comfortable for you...but be careful about the vehicle you drive. You may be expected to use it on the job. So it's a good idea to ask before you sign on: "Will I be expected to use my own vehicle to do the work required of me as a host?" Some campgrounds are very tough on vehicles...and some jobs require you to drive between areas that might be spread out over quite a few miles. Gas prices must be considered. So again you need to ask questions: "Will a vehicle or cart be provided?" "If I have to use my own vehicle, will I be reimbursed for mileage?"

We loved our Wini...but it didn't have a hot shower...and most campgrounds hiring hosts did not have showers....so we sold our $6500 RV to a cute girl who turned it into a hippie pad and took it to live on the California coast.