Sorry in advance for the LOOONG post.... Lot's of silly detail below
Quote:
Originally Posted by wayner61  Hi All -
We picked up our new 27FB last Friday. Took it out this weekend for a shake-down trip to ensure that everything was working as expected and to prepare a list for any issues with the overall build so the dealer can take care of them. The unit was manufactured in October of '07 and likely had been on the dealer lot since then.
Issues identified / repaired during the walk-through -
One burned out light bulb in the reading lamp above the dining table.
Issues identified / repaired during our first weekend trip -
1. Missing one of the support arms under the bed. Attachment hardware is there so I think the dealer may have "borrowed" it for a repair on another unit and forgot to replace it. I will have them order me one or "borrow" one from another stock unit.
2. Top hinge on one of the Kitchen sink cabinet doors had one loose screw. Three turns with a screwdriver and it was secure.
3. Missing one of the grommets on the stove top.
4. Found a "blob" of caulking that leaked out from the bottom window frame onto the glass in the kitchen area. Trimmed with a razor blade.
5. One rivet on the ceiling of the bedroom interior skin really looks out of place. It is in one of the pieces coming up from the side that is overlapped by the main ceiling piece where the fan is installed. About a quarter of a rivet head is peeking out under the overlap. My guess is that it should have been installed under the overlap so it isn't visible. It looks like it would be a real bear to repair or re-do, so I think I will live with it. Evidence that humans installed that panel, not a robot.
6. Rumbles and unwanted noise in the stereo system that is well documented in a couple of threads. I will pursue those solutions to that issue.
All other exterior and interior trim, rivets, etc... seem to be fine with the single exception noted above. All other systems seemed to work fine. With the nice TX summer weather, I didn't really test the furnace, but it did come on and blow warm air. No other issues noted. Overall - I am very pleased. With the exception of the stereo noise and the caulking, none of the issues seems to be "factory" related, but who knows? I probably could have caught them during the walk-through, but I was focused more on the "bigger" things. In looking through the thread, it appears I got one built on a "good" week. I will keep digging around and will post anything else that pops up over the next month or so. |
Well -- It took a while, but I thought I would provide an update on our unit now that we have had it for a little while.
Right after I posted this, I spoke with the selling dealer about getting the support arm replaced as well as getting a grommet for the range top grate. They assured me they would get the parts ordered and call me when I could pick them up. Several weeks later, I called and found that they no longer had a dealer relationship with airstream
The fact that this dealer was local and close to me was the single deciding factor in purchasing from them. Overall, I had better pricing from Colonial in NJ and had talked to Gene at Airstream of Arkansas. Silly, silly me. I thought I should support the local guys. They must have known they were getting out of the business when they sold me the unit. They just decided not to share that bit of info with me. They even went so far as to tell me how long they had been selling A/S, how much they were into the product, Top 10 dealer (blatent lie) and so on...
Since neither of these things were "show stoppers", I decided to just keep using the trailer for a while to see if anything that needed to be repaired would pop up. Once I got a few things going that needed to be taken care of, I would take it someplace where they would actually do the warranty work.
I went ahead and fixed the stereo rumbling and wiring myself. I documented what I did in the thread "using the TV as a center chanel speaker".
After using the trailer pretty heavily (at least for us weekend warrior types) all summer, fall and what passed for winter here in TX, I had a couple of other things that needed fixing that weren't on my original list.
* Air conditioning compressor would "hang" on occasion, still running after the fan shut off. Not frequently, but once in a while is once in while too much. Resolved temporarily by always running the fan in manual mode instead of auto when using the heat pump or AC
* Trim piece on pull-out portion of the sofa kept getting loose. Every screw ended up being stripped. Unable to repair it myself, so we just quit using the pull-out piece.
* The edge trim on the pantry wall slipped leaving a raw edge near the ceiling in the kitchen.
* The latch on the propane cover was rusted pretty badly. Oiling it didn't help the functioning. Sticks and is hard to open at times.
* Outlet in the bathroom started slipping and going "crooked" Screws couldn't be tightened.
* The microwave control panel quit working. Could not set the clock or do timed cooking. The microwave still worked, but functionality was restricted.
*The accordion door in the hall between the kitchen and bath has a warped leading edge causing it to stick out slightly at the bottom.
* A seven hour trip with 5 hours of driving in the rain revealed at least a couple of leaks. The front compartment door behind the propane tanks was leaking a little. Not enough to get the floor "wet", but some moisture was getting past the seals. A more serious issue was somewhere in the area of the fridge. There was a puddle on the floor and water in the little storage cubby beneath the fridge. No water on any of the upolstry, carpet or bedding. Nothing in the roadside closet got wet.
All in all, not a ton of issues, but a few things I really wanted to get taken care of. In addition, much to the detriment of my bank account, I have spent a bunch of time looking through this message board and found several upgrades that I wanted to have performed. After reading through many reviews of dealer and service experiences as well as pinging a few folks privately for honest feedback, I decided to take my trailer to Roger Williams Airstream in Weatherford, TX.
I called there and spoke to the new service manager, Robert Haberzettle. I told him what I wanted to get done and we scheduled an appointment time for me to drop off the trailer. He asked me for some photos of issues that I was concerned about as well as a list of the upgrades I wanted. We agreed on the pricing for the upgrades and I promised to drop off the trailer on the Monday after our spring break trip to the coast.
The drop off was very smooth. We went over the stuff I wanted done agian. He confirmed my contact info again and promissed to stay in touch. In short - A very professional outfit. A real pleasure to do business with.
We talked a couple of times throughout the next couple of weeks while work was being done and parts were being shipped in. Airstream declined to warrant the door problem. Robert explained what they had told him. While I disagreed with the decision, I can't really fault them too much. I posted the question about the door on this board and found several others who had the same issue and it wasn't bothering them. Maybe I am just being too picky.
As they were getting closer to wrapping everything up, Robert called to schedule the pickup. I went over there after work last Friday to pick up the trailer.
Denver - the technician - had done a very thorough job and had fixed everything to my satisfaction.
They installed the bed prop and missing stove grommet and replaced the microwave.
Larger screws, and more of them, were installed in the trim piece on the sofa pull-out.
Trim on wall for pantry was pulled back into place and secured.
New road side and rear awnings were installed. I absolutely LOVE them!
New stainless steel furnace door, water heater door and stove vent were installed.
New style airbox for the AC unit installed. I REALLY like this. This unit fits the ceiling much better, has side venting as well as fore and aft. Overall, much more contemporary looking.
New curved edge steps installed. Proabably the silliest thing I had done, but I liked the way the curve echoes the lines of the trailer. These are the steps they are using on the flying cloud line.
New propane cover latch and striker installed. The hardware looks like stainless steel instead of the chrome on the old one. Not sure at this point.
New bathroom plug installed with some additonal support behind it to keep it from moving around.
AC problem turned out to be a faulty wire coming from the thermostat. The rest of the AC diagnostics turned out fine.
The seal on the front compartment was re-worked and the latches adjusted to fix that leak.
I had them perform Seal Tech leak testing (not covered by waranty) to see if they could find any leaks. During that testing, they found the source of the leak around the fridge. Water was coming in around a stripped out screw in the deflector shield on the roof-top fridge vent. They also found a small leak around one of the vent stacks for the bathroom. Denver also said he added a little Acryl-R (sp??) to one of the seams near the roof. He also adjusted most of the window latches to get a better seal. During recent rains, I have not found any evedence of any leaking at all.
Overall, I could not be happier with the outcome. The guys at Roger Williams did a great job, were thorough and professional in all communications with me and met all of their commitments as well as my (rather high) expectations.
I remain very happy overall with the trailer and still have a very positive feeling about the overall build quality. Most of the problems have been very minor and easy to correct. I'm not happy at all with the selling dealer, but since they now seem to be exclusively selling Yamaha motorcycles, no potential Airstreamers will have to put up with them.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions at all.
Wayne
Quick Links
Linear Mode
