Since we live so far away from our dealer and because I’m reasonably qualified to do this work, and because of all the horror stories about months in dealer lots waiting for Warranty work, we decided to fix most (all) of these things ourselves. Besides, I found many of these screwed up things as I was working through the trailer on other issues. It would have required many trips to take care of all these. I’d still, to this day, be waiting to get my trailer back from a dealer. I called the Forest River Warranty number, explained the situation and it seemed to me that I was told I could be reimbursed for work I performed if I kept records. I did all the work listed above and submitted my bill and was promptly told – “I can only reimburse you for actual, replacement purchases”. No payments for labor. Fine I say, send me the check. A week or two later: “I can only reimburse you our cost on the chairs.” Fine I say, send me the check. “I need receipts for the chairs.” Fine, here they are, send me the check. It tooks months since my first attempt to be reimbursed and I was only paid half the value of the replacement chairs. I was not reimbursed for ANY other work or replacement parts even though many of them were the direct result of manufacturing DEFECTS! In case you don’t remember, this is Forest River, Flagstaff. .
So this probably isn’t a surprise to most of you. I was surprised at the phone call that implied I could be paid, but I would still have done the work myself because of the hassle of actually getting a dealer to do the work. Besides – I wasn’t impressed by what I saw at the dealer and there are many stories out there that say dealers do warranty work only when all the other work is done, because manufacturers do not pay the going rate of warrenty repairs.
So, my advice may mean nothing since I’ve never used my Warranty in the normal sense, but I would suggest you go over your trailer very carefully before taking it in. Make a clear list and share it with your dealer before you go in and get some expectation from them of what warranty will cover and what it won’t. They will be “happy” to go ahead and perform several hours of non-warrenty work while the trailer is there and expect you to pay when you pick it up.
So, my warranty is likely never going to be used unless something really big goes horribly wrong.