Talk about Quality Control....

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Concerned about Montana's Quality Control????

Check out this post at RVUSA about HitchHiker....
Bad quality control by Manufacture
And this guy got photos, lots of photos.

As I have said before "Montana is not the only one"

[richfaa]

My point exactly.It is not only Montana..As I have said many times quality control in the Rv industry sucks and we the users seem to accept it as normal//"oh well it's not that bad".. it is that bad. We are paying big $ for a"quality" unit and we should expect that level of quality. Poor workmanship issues CAN be corrected. I have E mailed Keystone via their web site and told them I will not purchase a Montana till I see evidence of better quality.Each of you that have a problem with poor workmanship issues..no matter how small..should let Montana know about it..Go to the web site tell them about their problems. If they begin to think that quality control issues will hurt their sales...thay will act...

[CountryGuy]

I feel real bad for this couple, what a horribly frustrating situation they are in. Got to give em credit, they are not taking this lying down!

Best wishes to them, they need it.

Carol

[campbud]

That is really terrible. Was it a brand new unit? I really agree that the RV Industry has bad quality control. I can only hope enough people complain to each company and things get better for all of us that own an RV.

[Chester]

And Glenda and I looked quite intently at a 2005 HitchHikerII before we decided to stay with our tried and true Montana product.

With such a great and honest forum as we have here, we certainly hear about everyones issues with their Montana. That's a good heads up for us but we have to keep in mind that what we hear on this forum does not conclude that the Montana line is worse than any others. In fact I still think that when considering Keystones willingness to stand behind their product, Montana is a pretty good product.

[Bowie]

WOW! It sure looks as if these folks got a raw deal and deserve a lot of sympathy for the misery they have been through. Yes, quality control is a big issue in the RV industry and we ALL need to be seriously concerned about its impact on our lives.

There are several things to take into consideration. On this forum we have noted troubles with various Montanas and seem to find a recurring theme of attempts on the parts of most dealers and Keystone to resolve these issues. Obviously, depending on who you are talking with the quality of the repair may vary--just as the quality of the dealer may vary. So we have to conclude that the element of human variable steps into the picture. Whether Keystone has better or worse quality control than the RV industry as a whole we cannot say. They are our only RV experience outside a RoadTrek where the service was so exceptional and the product so well manufactured as to be mindboggling. We would have it still if we hadn't needed more space. But it didn't have the space--and now we have the Monty. Ours is not perfect--but our dealer (who some forum members have issues with) has been working with us and we hope that all will be resolved satisfactorily before the warranty runs out. Thus far we are quite pleased with our choice.

One of the respondants in the thread about the HH issues brought up the point that the unit had such serious defects that it might have been in an accident. Perhaps....that might account for some of the problems at hand. But it does not take into account the other issues such as bubble on the roof etc. Our question--what kind of PDI did these "experienced owners" of a HH have when they bought this unit? And what did the dealer provide in the way of paperwork to prove where this unit had been during its life? If there was neither a proper PDI nor paperwork, the folks shouldn't have purchased.

Additionally, if you have ever had the pleasure of being involved in building a stick house with a contractor, you know all the problems of quality control that you can run into. This is not to serve as an excuse for Nu-Way's failure to produce a quality unit. It is just by way of saying that quality control is an issue everywhere. We had a house built by a reputable MD builder in a very nice suburban DC neighborhood. When it came time for our walkthrough (despite the fact that we had been on the site every single day!)it took a full day and part of another to complete the inspection. The list of items needing attention was nearly 10 pages. We marked every problem in the house with a piece of blue masking tape and used up two rolls. Never want to see that stuff again! Our point is that if you are the consumer you had better be watching out for yourself before you sign on the dotted line--or you can wind up in serious trouble. With a house, you put a big hunk of change in escrow so you can get your gear out of storage and move in. With an RV you don't buy if you have issues. If the issues appear later your only recourse is what we call the "Rottweiller Defense" which these folks seem to have utilized.

Finally, if you note the dates on the correspondence between the parties involved, you will find that there is, generally speaking, about two weeks between the responses. It is now a month and there has been no posting of the current status of the dispute. This brings up some question about what did Nu-Way offer these people? What did they accept? What did the lawyer get? And why, if they have been so good about documenting their complaint thus far, have they failed to keep it updated?? We'd really like to hear how it turns out. Is Nu-Way waffling? Has the lawyer filed? Or have the folks booked a cruise as they threatened instead of heading to Alaska in the HH in April as they had planned?

And that brings us to the last point which is....Why do you hear so many complaints about the poor quality of merchandise from consumers who feel they have been imposed upon by shoddy manufacturers and who never NEVER tell you about the great way a manufacturer took care of the issue? Too often we think that complaining publicly feels so much better than saying 'Thanks for taking care of the problem" publicly. Which is why we value the Montana website. We hear about the good stuff, the bad stuff and the indifferent stuff. And most of the time people tell us how it all turned out. Thanks guys!

[Jeff Heiser]

What is really sad about this is that this is not the only manufacturer that has done this quality type work. We experienced a very similar experience with our Fleetwood. It was so poorly built and the defects so well hid it was almost as if it the problems being hid were intentionally coverd up. And , then to boot they turned around and tried to say it was my wife and I that caused them to not have a stop block for the slide out or the structural stress fractures in the side walls. And, it was my fault that I stepped on a part of the floor covered by carpet that had no flooring under it.

I am glad I found my 327RKS. I checked it over with a fine tooth comb and so far so good.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

[Bear Hunter]

Buying a new or used RV can be a real "crap shoot" if the buyer is not well versed on what to look for and must depend on a sales person to guild them along. My wife and I bought our first 5er in 1988 from one of the largest dealers in Michigan. We depended on the salesman to guild us along. We bought a 24 ft. Mallard new. The setup was a nightmare. It was as level as a Tennesse mountian road taking most of the weight off the front axle. We had almost no tongue weight because of that and the 50 gal water tank under the couch at the back of the unit. I could not wait trade it in. After that I talked to other 5er's and learned what to look for and not depend on a sales person wanting to push another one out the door to get his commission. Our 3255 is a great unit. We spent over a year looking and asking questions before we bought it. The only complant we had involved the overhead storage on the road side and across the back that opened up. My wife was built a little to close to the gound so opening them and getting something out was a problem. I removed the hinges and replaced them to swing out. Problem solved. I related this to a Keystone factory rep. I see they changed the doors on the 2005 to swing and not lift. At least Keystone does listen. Bottom line when you shop for a new or used unit ask questions of people in the know, the people who use them then talk to the sales people.

[padredw]

Just a quick note in response to Bowie's excellent post above. In all the pleas of this couple with the HH, I do not see once where they questioned the reason why there were such structural problems. It does seem that there may have been a rebuilding of a unit involved in an accident [just a theory, I admit]. If it was not that, what was it? And the second question, I do not see where the dealer is involved in this at all. NuWay says they do not sell retail, but evidently someone did. There should be some kind of joint responsibility, but if there was evidence of this, I missed it. A truly sad story, and surely there is some underlying reason which i wish we knew. I cannot believe that is a normal unit from NuWay bearing the HitchHiker II name.

[NJ Hillbilly]

Looking at the tire pictures the "New other trailer picture" shows shackles that are wrong. The left shackle has the spring above the equalizer and the spring on the right is under the shackle. Just look at the angle of the equalizer, it is not level.

Lockwashers are not needed with nylon locknuts. The broken teflon disk means nothing to me, I have torn one before. He shows some issues without telling where they are. The step brace welded in th wrong place, that should be anyone's biggest problem.

The bent steel isn't right along with the gasket issues but many of these problems are definitely industry wide ones.

I don't doubt the severity of some problems but with a fine toothed comb problems can be found on anything manufactured. I had a 50+ item punchlist on a $375k Fire Truck. QC is a problem in EVERY industry.



John

[DHenry]

Looks like it went from bad to worse. Hope he gets satisfaction.