We all Fall Down.
The environment inside a travel trailer is frequently described as “a rolling earthquake”. The designers of RVs have to balance the desire for sturdy construction with the need to keep the vehicle as light as possible, and sometimes this is hard to accomplish. Upon arrival at St. Pete, I discovered this upon entering the camper:
Further inspection revealed evidence that this had happened before, possibly during transport from the factory to the dealer. There were two sets of mounting holes in the wall and the valence, indicating that the brackets had been moved and the assembly remounted.
A bit of probing into the holes revealed that the side walls of the slideout are empty of insulation (a surprise to me) and there is no structure for the fasteners to attach to – the threads of the half inch wood screws in the thin plywood is all that holds the assembly in place. The valence itself is made of multiple layers of quarter inch plywood, so it is fairly heavy – perhaps 4-5 pounds.
No doubt the dealer will simply repeat the remounting procedure as before, which seems destined to fail again, so I am thinking about a better method for attaching a weight to a thin wall in the blind. A visit to Ace hardware is probably in my future!
This will be the first in a series of posts detailing repairs to my trailer. The purpose is not to bash Winnebago Industries, but to assist other potential Minnie owners in learning where potential trouble spots may lie. Overall quality of Winnebago trailers is considered to be higher than average for RV manufacturers, but the current industry standard is to “get them out of the plant fast and let the dealers handle the QC”. That can lead to disillusionment of buyers new to the RV world when they find their shiny new camper comes with some things that must be fixed right off the dealer lot. The situation is not ideal for consumers, but as long as you anticipate shop time for warranty repairs in the first few months of ownership it is tolerable. Just another part of the lifestyle, folks.
Back room conversation at sales office: “We have a great product! Right after we sell a camp, the customer leaves town so don’t worry so much about him coming back for us to fix anything.”