So Tim and I have been in the Philadelphia KOA for just over two weeks since the incident occurred with the faulty leaf spring/mounting bracket Tim experienced getting here in his post back on March 25th.

Its high time in the tech world for both of us- Fourth quarter for tech companies often end in June and we’re sought after resources for both our companies, resulting in us both being VERY busy. I’ve been so busy with Microsoft, two books and some new Microsoft marketing ventures, that I can barely keep up my technical blog, let along blog here, too. Yes, I’ve failed you… 🙂

The truth is and what I’ll tell anyone that I have a chance to chat with- I love our mobile life, but the lacking quality that goes into RV trailers is not one of the positives. It seems everyone I talk to, every forum and blog site I read, they all chalk lacking quality and workmanship up as an expectation with recreational vehicles.

From my research, outside of a very few mainstream manufacturers, all manufacturers attain their parts for constructions from the same group of suppliers. Only those deep in the industry know the ins and outs of those products and each have their quirks. If we focus on our problem in particular, it is the trailer that our fifth wheel was constructed on. There are two main manufacturers and although Dexter is the desired supplier, and if you order your RV new, you will never know what you get until its actually delivered from the factory.

If you consider all the moving and non-moving parts in a given recreational vehicle, this kind of scenario of good quality/bad quality is akin to a gamble that no one will ever win.

At this time, we’ve worked with four different welders towards a repair. Two of them have worked to avoid getting involved considering this is the *foundation* of the entire structure. Everything and I do mean EVERYTHING relies on the ability to move the RV safely down the road.

The third welder came back with an over-confident “I can do it for $400.” We saw the red flags on that one and chose not to pursue this welder- his over-confidence will be his demise…and ours. This is our life on wheels here- no thank you.

The latest was a very reputable and recommended RV repair and upgrader in a near by town. We sent over all the photos of the damage and description of what had occurred. He looked over the details/pictures and he was very honest with Tim- The original trailer suspension work had been done by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. They’d used inefficient parts, the heat was too high and they’d melted through vs soldering the pieces correctly for the suspension. His question was, if this was how this piece was done and this was only one, once we got under there, what else would be discovered. He was also the one who told us about preferring the quality on Dexter for trailers vs. what we had for ours.

Tim and I, as usual, are quite a good team with these types of situations. Tim is all about the now and getting things done and I’m all about the future and research. As he contacts and communicates, I’m thinking long term and researched the laws, accountability and am getting him what he needs as we go forward. Its another reason we work so well together as partners- everything is covered.

Next steps are an evolving process- Highland Ridge RV, the manufacturer, has been involved from the beginning of this situation. We have all our correspondences documented and have been working with them as this has progressed. We want to see it resolved and we’ve clearly stated what we would like to see done ASAP.

I have upcoming responsibilities and flights in cities outside of Philadelphia. This wasn’t something we foresaw. We’ll try to continue to post here to keep everyone abreast of the situation, but of course, Tim and I will be posting on Twitter as we dbaget annoyed or frustrated… 🙂