Camper fell apart - what's reasonable from the manufacturer?

[rtate]

I have a 2 year old truck camper. (I'm not going to mention the manufacturer by name because I don't want to generate negative publicity unnecessarily) I have been pleased with the camper and had no significant issues before now. But, on the 19th, the camper appears to have had a spontaneous structural failure. The basement fell off. Based on the photos that I sent to the manufacturer, the service manager agreed that nothing appears amiss or broken other than the structure that detached spontaneously. I can't tell if it was a design flaw (are others constructed this same way?) or whether there was a manufacturing error and the camper structure wasn't built to standard. The camper cannot be transported at all because the basement is unstable/off. I reached out to the manufacturer on the 20th and have been waiting for them to decide what to do since then. They e-mailed me this afternoon and said that they could send the truck camper factory line supervisor to the camper's location the first week of October.

The whole situation is compounded because I was in the middle of selling the camper. I have medical issues that have limited my travel during the past year. Then my truck got a terminal diagnosis in early July so I decided that I needed to sell the camper since buying a new F350 would be too costly for my current medical situation. I'm so glad that this didn't happen just after I sold the camper to someone! But I am $1200 out of pocket from having to stop the sale. Plus, I may not be able to sell the camper at all until next spring now. I had been intending to sell the truck camper and buy a small travel trailer from the same manufacturer that is towable by a vehicle I already own. The camper is also not where I live (thankfully, it fell apart while in a relative's driveway) so I'm going to have to go home for medical care and then return in October to meet the manufacturer's team. 

I've never had an issue like this before and was hoping to pick your more experienced brains. Is the manufacturer's timeline reasonable? Is there any other resolution that could be pursued? I'm grateful for any advice!

[Kirk W]

18 minutes ago, rtate said:

I have a 2 year old truck camper.

Is the manufacturer's timeline reasonable? Is there any other resolution that could be pursued? 

In my opinion, because the camper is now 2 years old and likely out of any factory warranty, and the fact that the manufacturer is sending their rep to the camper I believe that they are making a reasonable effort to make things right. Even the best manufacturers have occasional disastors so the key to this is in what they are going to do in an effort to make things right. 

[2gypsies]

Sorry for your troubles.  I think you're very lucky to have a factory rep come to you.  That wouldn't happen much for a 2-yr-old RV.  Think positive for a good outcome!

[rtate]

I agree with you both - thank you for the feedback! It's a stressful situation because of the logistics and the location where the camper is stuck, but my impression was that the manufacturer is doing all that I can reasonably expect right now. I feel better now being able to tell that to the people around me who are even less familiar with RV stuff than me.

I'm surprised, though, that any company wouldn't care if a 2 year old rig disintegrated. Really gives me pause about buying a replacement camper. I never dreamed that any respectable company would walk away from that. Who buys a camper with a one-year lifespan?

[Kirk W]

2 minutes ago, rtate said:

I never dreamed that any respectable company would walk away from that. Who buys a camper with a one-year lifespan?

It looks to me like they are trying to make good on it. Perhaps you should give them a chance to see what they do? Remember that they are sending a factory rep to you at their expense and after the warranty has expired. If they thought that this was normal do you really believe that they would do that? 

[rtate]

7 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

It looks to me like they are trying to make good on it. Perhaps you should give them a chance to see what they do? Remember that they are sending a factory rep to you at their expense and after the warranty has expired. If they thought that this was normal do you really believe that they would do that? 

Ah, no, I believe you misunderstood. I'm not saying anything negative about the manufacturer I'm dealing with. I was just struck that both you and 2gypsies implied that it could be expected that, in general, a manufacturer wouldn't respond to a structural failure in a 2 year old rig. I was surprised by that. 

[richfaa]

These factory reps are professionals  no one knows how the unit was treated  in those  two years or how it occurred.These guys are professionals  and have seen it all;They will be able to  determine  what caused the failure.They have seen it all. If it is a design flaw they would want to know.I see it as positive that they are sending factory reps out.

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, rtate said:

I was just struck that both you and 2gypsies implied that it could be expected that, in general, a manufacturer wouldn't respond to a structural failure in a 2 year old rig. I was surprised by that. 

I suspect that there are many manufacturers who would not go to that extent, especially for the lower priced models. I suspect that most would give you a chance to get the RV to them for a look, but only the better companies would send someone to you, in my opinion. I know someone who owned a Winnebago motorhome that was 2 years out of warranty when they had a major structural problem which the factory repaired at no cost to the owner, but in this case they were able to take the motorhome to the factory. Yours is the first case that I have known of where the RV could not be moved. Said Winnebago was taken to the factory on a truck at the owner's expense, but the factory repaired it and reimbursed them the cost of shipping, although the owners did travel to the factory to pick it up. 

[rtate]

Wow, I figured this was a pretty unusual problem but hadn't really considered how unusual. Having the weight-bearing part of the truck camper disintegrate means there's no way for the camper to be transported anywhere without destroying all the plumbing/basement systems. It's a mess! Thank goodness it happened while the camper was on the jacks and so the basement didn't take the full weight of the camper.