This is a follow-up to my posts (38, 49, 122, and 135) on this thread, concerning the filliform corrosion on the rear beltline of my 2007 Safari, still under warranty. This corrosion is on the beltline edge of the rear end cap. See the picture in this post: http://www.airforums.com/forums/344413-post15.html
Plans are set, supplies are on the way and the treatment is about to begin. BTW: I’ve been working with two great guys at Airstream, Randy in Technical Support and Chris in Customer Service.
Airstream is sending me some ACF50, which I should receive early next week. The instructions are to scrape away any raised areas with nothing more than a credit card like plastic scraper, then apply the ACF50 with a Q-tip to the affected areas. “This should darken it, and seal it up to prevent further corrosion.” I’ll post some before and after pictures here when I get this done.
On October 1st we have an appointment at the factory service center in Jackson Center. We had been planning a three-week excursion around New England to see the fall color, so this is a re-route. We’ll now see the Airstream factory, then loop up through western Michigan for the color tour before heading back to Florida. More on these plans in another thread later.
At the factory, Airstream is going to install the Classic beltline trim to cover over the damaged areas. From what we have heard from 2air and others, this should look very nice. We’re planning on taking advantage of being at the mother ship and have them address the other minor warranty issues discussed on this thread http://www.airforums.com/forums/f396/new-trailer-problems-fixes-29179.html, give the trailer a check-up to include any annual maintenance items like wheel bearing servicing, and have a second Fantastic Fan installed in the bedroom area.
So far, I’m very happy with the way this is turning out for us, and we’re looking forward to the trip and factory visit.
Randy
__________________ Randy and Pat Godfrey
1st VP Florida Unit WBCCI# 7591 - AIR# 17017
2007 Safari SE 23' - Daisy
2006 Lincoln Mark LT - Hoke
I have found the wheel well mouldings have clear coat on them. I took laquer thinner, wiped them repeadedly to remove the clear coat. Then, I used Nu-Metal polish and polished them up like chhhhhhhrome. They look awesome, only need a maintenance polish and no more clear coat problems.
I dont have any pics, however I will definately take some. The quality of the aluminium as well as the extrusion adds to the look on these. Polished up, you'd swear that they were chromed.
I have about 1 hour in stripping both of them, and no more than 2-2.5 to polish both.
If my Alcoas and molding are both clean, you need sunglasses!!
Just as an update, I have had zero communication from Airstream Customer Support or Dave Schumann. I was out for about 10 days, and the path of this thread has gotten even more interesting.
Not covered under warranty?!
A few more units added to the list?!
A developed procedure to resolve the corrosion issue that may or may not have gone bust?
A battle to replace parts, but Lew gets a treasure chest sent his way? I for one may also have been one of the lucky ones where the factory, when at Jackson Center, replaced all 4 of my rims, and both cast alum tail lights.
I'm fairly concerned about what I've been reading here that has been posted over the last few weeks. I may try to contact Dave again and get some answers straight out of the horses mouth.
BTW, these past 10 days, I was out in the Safari and alas, the corrosion on my unit has gotten at least 2 to 3x worse than was in the orig pics taken about 5-6 months ago and mostly at the locations where Airstream placed rivets into the skin. Tell me how that warranty work could be denied if I were still under warranty?!
At the rate my shell coating is decaying (at the rivets alone, not even getting into my second set of rims and second set of cast alum tail lights that also have the same thing happening again), and really that's what it looks like, I would estimate (and I'm not an expert), that in about 2-4 years time, my unit will be so bad in so many different areas of the outer skin with of this problem, that my unit's resale value will have been effected and it will really look like a POS.
I know and have met Jim P. Very nice guy and very level headed. I know that if Jim said what he said, it must now be company policy, but I am not sure he makes the calls on what is warranty and what is not, even if the coach is still under the factory warranty, but I won't speculate much beyond that. I found Jim in my interactions to be helpful and great to work with.
However, outside of Jim and a few other nice folks at Airstream, I have found that Airstream in general has TOTALLY dropped the ball on this single issue and to that end, it becomes totally pathetic given the high cost of these units that are touted as being built by artisans. Artisans my..... well, you know what I mean, one simply has to read the QC threads.
I have encountered dozens of folks at RV shows and on the road, and as they gleam and are interested in my Airstream, I am very quick to point out how my outer skins alone are corroding, and they cool very quickly to the idea of buying a new one after that. Eventually, and it may take some time, this issue will come back to haunt them.
Keep 'em coming folks....
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Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq and millions of others are by far the most popular with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form. -NY Times 11/91
Ok, off topic. This thread has had about 25,500 hits in 27 months. Thats 944 folks that have seen, maybe read or participated in this thread.
To me, even if 100 folks looked at this thread every month pre or post purchase, that's 100 folks that had a moment of pause to stop and think about the issues discussed. That is a significant enough number in my book, if it were me running things to take a serious look at how these things are being built. If you add all the QC tracking threads, those per month views get seriously high...lots of foot traffic, lots of info, not a lot of substance toward solutions= not a pretty picture in my book...but hey, that's just my .02 and opinion as the creator of this thread and the last 6 model year QC threads. Having owned a 2003 and the current 2004 (both dismal in overall quality), what do I know anyway.
PS- I also found it interesting that Airstream Life also has some of this info in their blog section, which I'm sure also generated some additional foot traffic toward this topic.
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Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq and millions of others are by far the most popular with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form. -NY Times 11/91
PSS- Not that this is related to the QC or corrosion issues in any way, nor is it the sole burden of Airstream Inc, but more of the economy in general.
Here is where Thor, the parent company of Airstream, Inc is situated today:
They may be debt free, but their stock value is currently less than half of what it was about 8 months ago (and this is the RVing season), yet Thor is in far better shape than most any of the other big RV builders. I also recall reading on this forum that Thor's warranty expenses were just way crazy.
At any rate, QC issues and corrosion on the flagship product isn't going to go well either in the long run. Folks here are right, these issues are going to come back and bite 'em in the behind if they are not properly addressed.
Airstream could have the perfect utopia if they didn't count the beans so tightly. Loyal customers willing to pay the prices due to the high quality of the builds and the high end service and warranty after the sale. Go figure, a very premium hand built product that is not rushed, but carefully and slowly built, tested and sent out the door well built with as near to zero defects as possible (compared to the very poor builds of today with many defects). Folks would be singing the praises of Airstream ownership it would make SOB owners sick. At one point Airstream had a lifetime warranty to the orig owner. Could you imagine a lifetime warranty today, with today's quality going out the door? They ain't no fools in Jackson Center. You get longer warranties out of computers than you do a purchase of tens of thousands of dollars.
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Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq and millions of others are by far the most popular with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form. -NY Times 11/91
Here is where Thor, the parent company of Airstream, Inc is situated today:
They may be debt free, but their stock value is currently less than half of what it was about 8 months ago (and this is the RVing season), yet Thor is in far better shape than most any of the other big RV builders.
I spent a little bit of time looking at Thor—two Wall St. analysts rate the stock "buy" and six rate it "hold". The consensus is "weak hold" since it's common to discount the analyst's ratings because of their history of pumping up stocks. A cursory look at the Thor's financials indicates to me that despite the slump in sales, the company is in good shape. If you want to bet that people will start buying a lot of RV's again at some point, this stock seems like a possible value buy because the stock prices is down far more than the market. In the present stock doldrums, whole sectors have cratered dragging down the stock prices of the best companies in a sector as well as the bad ones.
Getting back to corrosion, this means the company's financial position is pretty good and they feel no pressure to honor warranties. That seems to be unwise—they are looking at the short term as many companies do.
So far as asdesq's post, we have weak regulations on safety and quality in the US and we pay the price for it as individuals. On another thread it was shown the Canadian axle supports more weight. It can be ordered here, but the dealers don't even know about it. I think a lot of people would buy the European version for quality and other reasons if they could.
I would gladly pay 1500 bucks or whatever they wanted for a fully galvanized frame and composite floor deck. Quality and extended life is what I think they should be marketing.
I think with the new Safari Sport lineup they would rather move volume than high dollar lower volume rigs.
Fairly happy with my 05 that I have had almost 2 years, aside from some corrosion. I am planning on doing a two year report with my unit.
PS- I also found it interesting that Airstream Life also has some of this info in their blog section, which I'm sure also generated some additional foot traffic toward this topic.
Each of us writes about what interests us. Our content is our responsibility, and is not necessarily the opinion of Airstream Life Magazine.
I wrote about one of my current concerns and how I am dealing with it.
BTW, about 4 weeks ago I applied Boeshield T-9, (”Rust & Corrosion Protection, Waterproof Lubrication”, as stated on the label), and preliminary results show that the corrosion turned from whitish to grayish and has not grown larger. I will continue to monitor this and post new pictures of the treated corrosion areas later this summer when results will hopefully be more conclusive.
I'd love to think there is some truth to Silvertwinkie's post about this issue affecting sales due to the power of knowledge by would-be consumers.
From a UK perspective:
We only have one official dealer/importer in the whole country, and they're a great bunch of people. When I visited them, I saw a map of the UK on the wall with a pin showing the location for each 'new' EU AS owner in the country. I didn't count the pins, but reckon it was a healthy 30 or so.
When I pressed the UK rep about the corrosion issue, I was given various reassurances ('That's why we have a 1964 model on display outside' etc etc) but was interestingly also told that I was the FIRST european customer to challenge them about this, and about the warranty.
This might be to do with the fact that I think I'm the first 'average Joe' in the UK to buy one who earns an everyday wage, so this to me is a major-major-major purchase. It seems that up til now it's the City Boys with their five-figure bonuses and other people who have never RV'd in their life that are buying them here, so they are STILL selling well but purely based on marketing and image.
As I stated before, normal 'White Box' RVs in the UK have a 5 or 6 year warranty on the body. ALL RVs also have galvanised chassis. Our ASs have galvanised chassis, so why can't yours? And if we can have the galvanised chassis that Europe demands, can't we all have the 5 year body warranty? It doesn't sound unreasonable to me. I have one on my truck.
On the other hand, there are a LOT of negative people within the UK's RV industry and press simply waiting for European AS to fail, so they can sneer and say 'We told you it would never work'.
More than ever do AS need to make sure they get it right over here.
When Triumph motorcycles restarted in 1992, they knew that if just one of their engines blew up in the first couple of years of production, the company would fail. So they did it right. Now look at how successful they are. It ain't rocket engineering, is it?
Well, since my last post I have been called a busybody, angry, bitter and I am sure more offline.
Still ,the thread is full of people trying to figure it out other than A/S, and it is just impressive to see such loyalty and pride. Its enough to make a grown man cry. The problem is A/S knows this,the culture of the company is one of we have no competition and and the customer drinks the kool aid and follows with blind loyalty. They know you all are worried about warranties, and parts and god forbid the secret gets out to the rest of the industry. Why, that pride of going down the road and passing a sob is just not the same. NOW THEY know we got ripped off as well. We all know it, but keep it in the family.WELL, So does A/S. Now I may be a busybody, but I am not an enabler. Our family has a dysfunctional member with bad habits. Intervention is the cure folks, not head in the sand denial.
I ended my last post with it is tough love. Since then I have called or written over 10 financial institutions to stop lending or at least be warned about new A/S products. I find the younger loan officers are willing to investigate as risk is a real issue for them these days. I have posted on 3 other rv forums and now trying to get to european versions as well. It seems A/S is following the cigarette companies of kill the domestics and move abroad.
It looks likes me and big can of wd 40 have a date with some rivets. Pitiful.
If you search the archives you will find my story of corrosion within a year of purchasing my then-new 2003 Safari. The factory replaced a number of items, including wheels and some skins. Trim items don't bother me, it's the skin that I am concerned about. Now I have significant filiform skin corrosion below my tail lights (either I didn't notice it before I had the work done by Airstream, or it is "new", I don't know which). So far the problem is cosmetic, and the trailer will probably functionally last a lifetime (stored indoors). But it is very bothersome to spend so much on a product and have it look so ugly!
I have a question... does anyone have a trailer that is 2-6 years old that does NOT have filiform corrosion of the skin itself? See my photo below for a filiform skin corrosion example...
I have a question... does anyone have a trailer that is 2-6 years old that does NOT have filiform corrosion of the skin itself? See my photo below for a filiform skin corrosion example...[/quote]
Hi, I bought my trailer [actually picked it up Sept. 7th 2004] two and one half years ago. I have had some corrosion on the tail light plastic bezels and a rusty license light cover, but not aluminum problems. I'm probably ten miles from the beach/ocean and my trailer has spent it's entire life parked outside, next to my house, on my driveway. I only do a real wash job just before a trip; So I have hosed it down several times [in cool shaded weather] and only gave it about five real wash jobs. I have never yet waxed my trailer. Also my trailer came with the Classic belt moulding and rubber framed windows, if that could make any difference. I wrote this because you asked; And maybe something that I did or didn't do made the difference. For now my trailer is fine. [fingers crossed] One last note: I don't leave my trailer plugged in to shore power while in storage [parked] and I use a portable battery charger without disconnecting my batteries about once a month.
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Hi, I bought my trailer [actually picked it up Sept. 7th 2004] two and one half years ago. I have had some corrosion on the tail light plastic bezels and a rusty license light cover, but not aluminum problems. I'm probably ten miles from the beach/ocean and my trailer has spent it's entire life parked outside, next to my house, on my driveway. I only do a real wash job just before a trip; So I have hosed it down several times [in cool shaded weather] and only gave it about five real wash jobs. I have never yet waxed my trailer. Also my trailer came with the Classic belt moulding and rubber framed windows, if that could make any difference.
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