BigBendFishing.Net

Well, like the title says, I have an '09 Cougar X-Lite 29 RLS, bought new in August 2008. I am pretty meticulous with maintenance, hand-washing the camper every 3 months or so, washing the roof about twice per year, checking the seams & caulk every time that I do so. Yesterday, I decided it was time to install the Eternabond tape and get rid of the nasty Dicor. Started with the normal scrape, prep, etc. As I was trying to seal down one end, I noticed everyone's worst nightmare... my SIDEWALL was soft. I had done a walk-around before getting on the roof, but failed to notice this:



I immediately had that feeling... you know the one, where you feel like you've been kicked in the soft fuzzy parts? I started doing a little inspecting, and found this:



I immediately called my dealer... who for now shall remain nameless. They told me (basically) to bring it in for service. I explained the situation to them... We are leaving Friday for Memorial day camping trip, be gone about 5 days, believe that this will be an extensive repair, yada, yada. Asked if I could bring it down to them to just LOOK AT, and they said, "sure." (This is after 12:00 on Saturday, so service was closed.) I asked DW to make the trip down with me, to be the voice of reason... I was NOT a happy camper, to say the least.

I got down there, called out the sales rep (also a long-time friend.) He commenced telling me, "you've got to maintain the seams, caulk the roof, windows, doors, etc." I quickly told him, "let's concentrate on the problems at hand, not on what NEEDS to be done in the future. I also asked him to have the owner come out and take a look...

I wanted some advice on what to do (in the short term), and also wanted to know that they will stand behind me (with the manufacturer) on this. They are the dealer, and from the looks of this problem it is NOT from lack of maintenance, it clearly looks like the corner molding has NEVER covered, from the factory, and they covered it with silicone caulk instead of an appropriate-width molding.









For what it is worth, here is the other side of the camper, same location. It is basically EXACTLY THE SAME, except it has no water damage... yet.



Note the hole in the silicone, and it was very soft and pliable (because there is nothing there except silicone.) I started poking around, cleaning out the caulk to recaulk it, and you can see what I found:









Anyway, thanks for looking at the pictures... if you are still interested, here is about a 3-minute video of the problems, damages, and a narrative explaining what the dealer told me.
[flash=]http://s869.photobucket.com/albums/ab25 ... D00015.flv[/flash]

Here is my opinion and a summary of the problems:
1) This is not good... water damage on a 2 year old coach is a bad deal. The wall is soft for about 18 inches down the radius towards the bottom front of the camper. The softness extends about 3-4 inches in from the edge of the wall. It is obviously rotten.
2) I don't believe that what I have here is right... it looks like shoddy workmanship from the factory, and the moulding is NOT wide enough. If the moulding were 1" or more wide, it may be okay, but as you can see from the photos, it is only about 1/2" wide.
3) My warranty is out. (1 year manufacturer's warranty.)
4) My dealer no longer sells Keystone products. He was a victim of the economic crisis, lost floor plan financing, and as a result had to completely redo his floor plan, and as a result, his inventory. Now, he only sells Forest River products.
5) As a result of #4, I believe that the dealer will have a HARD time convincing Keystone to make this good. I have tried contacting Keystone customer (no) service in the past, with bad results.

I asked the owner for his help, to help me try to make this a warranty and/or manufacturer's defect issue. He said he will try, but doubts he can get very far with them. The parts manager, who also looked at this, and shook his head (with a "that ain't right", thrown in), gave me a tube of silicone to patch it until after our trip for Memorial day.

At this point, I am so disgusted that I would trade, if I wouldn't take a bath on it.
I'm planning to blog this entire experience, add lots of photos, and hopefully get Keystone to make it right.

What ya'll think?

No doubt poor construction and it was only a matter of time until damage occurred! Hope you can hound someone until you get some adequate help!
Sad for sure! Best of luck!

Three recalls for the Couger here http://www.keystonerv.com/?page=service

Bob Martin is the new president of Keystone "a subsidary of Thor Industries" and his email is probably bmartin@thorindustries.com or BobMartin@thorindustries.com
Go get em tiger

Thanks Walden.

I feel a little bit better. I just spoke with the service manager at the dealership. He indicates that there is a 2-year structural warranty on this coach, and this is clearly a structural issue (from the photos). I can't find anything right now to disprove that, so I'm holding out hope that he is right. He asked me to bring the trailer in. When I told him about our trip this week, he said it would be okay to bring it to him next week. Appointment set for next Wednesday, June 2nd.

Excelent news

As they say, "not so fast, my friend." I can't find anything in writing about the structural warranty being 2 years... I hope and pray that the service manager did not mis-speak.

Keystone has had a lot of problems with their front caps leaking and delaminating. They would not admit it, but just cruise the RV sites forums and you will find plenty.

Just one of those things that happens when your country allows mediocre to be the norm. We even have a name for the guy that does this stuff. "Gilligan"

Dubble

If they don't want to warranty it, ask em if Newmar is that much of a better manucaturer to be able to offer a 5 year structural warranty on their RVs

Well that's not a good thing for you and your family. I hope it all works out for you.

Well, when we returned from our trip to the coast on Wednesday, I carried the camper to the dealership. They were to start the warranty claim process on Thursday morning. I feel pretty good, because the dealer is helping in this process. They have talked to one of the service guys at Keystone, and he is willing to "entertain" a warranty claim.

I am still a bit perturbed with Keystone, however. Last Monday, May 24th, I made an inquiry on their web site to customer service. I sent them a link to my blog and the photos, and they have not even seen fit to respond to my inquiry. Perhaps they could have said, "Please return the camper to your servicing dealer and have them file a claim..." Perhaps they could have said ANYTHING at all!

We'll see what happens from here.

Well, there is some good news, I guess. There is no water damage. The bad news is that there is a manufacturer's defect in my Keystone Cougar!!! Apparently, the filon on the outside of the coaches is very thin, and is bonded to luaun plywood, also very thin. What I perceived to be water damage (and the dealer did the exact thing) is actually an air void. Where there should be the construction of the nose piece "supporting" that sidewall, the nose piece is about 1" too narrow!

The dealer is being great, I cannot say enough about Mark Ciroli, the service manager at Travel Country RV Center in Lake Park. He has filed a warranty/manufacturer's defect claim with Keystone, and (if approved) plans to shim the nose piece outward towards the passenger side to fill the air pocket. He is only asking Keystone for 7 hours labor to perform this task. Of course, given their (so far) lack of service, he is not sure if they will approve it or not. The repair will be less than $1,000... they're getting off cheap if you ask me!

Good news, Keystone has approved the repair of the manufacturer's defect. I cannot say enough about the service manager, Mark Ciroli, at Travel Country RV Center in Lake Park, Georgia. He has been great, and his help is much appreciated.

That is GREAT news