disaster wiring done on my brand new 2022 International

[Lauralynn]

I am a first time AS owner, I sold my house and purchased a 2022 27' International from the factory. My dogs Floyd and Pepper and I were so excited to start our adventure of touring the west coast.

From the start my rig had issues with furnace, wiring to the taillights, and issues with hot water heater being broken.

I planned to boon dock as much as possible. I had my dealership install 4 new lithium batteries- they made some significant errors.
Wiring used was 6ga, lithium batteries requires 4/0 wiring.
They connected ONE of the four batteries. I started my trip from Seattle to San Diego thinking with my 3, 100 solar panels and upgraded battery situation I should be able to go at least one night without being hooked up to shore power.
In addition to only wiring one of the batteries my inverter was connected to one of the three not connected.
The tongue jack was wired to another one of the four batteries not connected.
The system was not wired correctly, negative amperage shown on battery shunt.

I made it to San Diego with a completely dead trailer- despite being hooked up to my 2021 Ford F350 Super Duty.

The place who found all the errors was great- they told me a complete battery system rewire was needed to prevent wire melt.
I am curious about what other AS owners would feel satisfied with as an outcome?
The dealer I purchased from originally wanted me to return up the coast to have their shop fix the entire wiring harness.
Ultimately the 8 hours of labor and charges for correct wire gauges was paid by original sales shop.
I spent at least 10 nights without access to my trailer (home) before the San Diego shop was able to fit the mess.

I reached out to the AS Factory, they said "We cant touch this with a ten foot pole. This is an upgrade we would never suggest. Two of the lithium Battle Born batteries should be enough for boon docking". I was told to seek any compensation from the dealership that sold me the trailer, which was also where the battery modification was done.

My question is, do I have any further recourse with the dealership in Seattle?

I don't feel confident in the shop who installed the batteries, when I left after they finished the job I was told everything was working as designed. Obviously they did not test the new battery set up.

I understand everyone makes mistakes, but this job left me with zero faith. I could use any thoughts regarding my situation now.

Thanks!
Laura

[Lily&Me]

If you only lost 10 nights of use and the original dealer paid for the work to be done properly, I would consider yourself very fortunate and let it go at that.

Owners have been on here whose new rig spent months getting repairs done.

Let it go, and enjoy your new life.

Maggie

[LAWBC]

LauraLynn Sorry to hear about your Solar panel/ Battery upgrade problems encountered with your dealership.

First I would accept the dealership's offer to correct their work and request that they give you accommodation on their dime to pay expenses while work is being done. (if needed).
If you have 2 batteries that you cannot use they need to buy them back from you.

Try to get a moderator on Air Forums to transfer your thread to : Electrical - Systems, Generators, Batteries & Solar, as you would get more exposure and help from the forum

[bweybright]

If it is the dealer I am thinking it might be I find it interesting that they would want you to back to Seattle as they have a branch near Sacramento, Portland Oregon area, in addition to the Seattle location.


Concerning to me hearing of your situation as I need axles next year and am in a conundrum as to where I will go..... It will be interesting to learn the final outcome of your unfortunate situation.


Bob

[ArcherTC]

My advice would be simple:


1. Never let the original dealership touch the trailer again.
2. Totally agree with Maggie -- if the problems are resolved and the original dealership picked up the bulk of the cost, let it go and move on .

[Lauralynn]

Thank you Maggie for reaffirming what I knew to be true. I am sooooooo grateful to be living this life- I appreciate you taking the time to remind me. I will let it go and move onward.

[Lauralynn]

Thank you so much for replying to my post. I am going to take both your and Maggies advice and move on- and NEVER let them touch my rig again. Hope you have a great day!

[Lauralynn]

Hi Bob thanks for taking time to read and reply to my post. It is the dealership associated with the Portland and Sacramento. The regional CEO worked with me and said he would fast track me to have my rig fixed- he assured me the techs in the shop would receive training on how to properly connect four in-line batteries and get updated training for computer programing regarding the controller and inverter. Honestly, I just don't believe him. This has been an excellent life lesson in "Buyer Beware". It has also provided my friends and family Netflix worthy comedy material for a stand up show if they ever wanted to.

[Lauralynn]

Hi Laurence, I appreciate the tip. I will try to get the moderater to help me get to the best area of this page
I dont have two extra batteries, I ordered the lithium upgrade from the factory. I paid to have two additional lithium batteries added to my set up for a total of 4.
I just feel fortunate to have stumbled upon the RV Solutions team in San Diego who really really helped me out.
I think they saw a middle aged woman living in her AS with two dogs in HOT weather and then went the extra mile in getting new wiring system installed.
This was my first post and I am so thrilled that people responded.... thanks and have a great day

[01bambi16]

Lauralynn hope things are better and looking up from here sounds like you have a dream set up are you single? lol its almost comical how many times i have heard complaints about new airstream units being sent out with problems that a fourth grader could fix or at least damn sure notice. But with half the people out there saying oh no big deal let's move on it's not hard to see how they get away with this **** year after year.

[Escape_Plan]

Wow!! An OP that responded to EVERY. SINGLE. RESPONSE. That is an unheard of precedent around here with soooo many OPs posting a question then never returning.

Good luck with your repairs Lauralynn, and welcome aboard!

[Mark of SJC]

This was a very interesting read. The part that had my draw dropping to the floor was this:

[QUOTE= The regional CEO ...assured me the techs in the shop would receive training on how to properly connect four in-line batteries and get updated training for computer programing regarding the controller and inverter. .[/QUOTE]

What? You mean his standard practice is NOT to have them trained and turn them loose on systems the know nothing about? This gives ALL dealerships a (deservedly BAD name!)

Unfortunately, as Regan famously said "Trust....but verify" Unfortunately each of us has to be "super consumers" to come into these things with as much knowledge as possible. But I'd send that original dealership a bill for every aspect of what their major error cost. More importantly, I'd post a public review about your experience to help the next "lady and two dogs" that entrusts them...maybe before that regional CEO gets around to training his staff! (Why should YOU keep THIER terrible performance a secret?)

And as previously noted - Hats off to the OP for actually answering back!!!

[Ultraclassic]

Originally Posted by Mark of SJC

This was a very interesting read. The part that had my draw dropping to the floor was this:



What? You mean his standard practice is NOT to have them trained and turn them loose on systems the know nothing about? This gives ALL dealerships a (deservedly BAD name!)

Unfortunately, as Regan famously said "Trust....but verify" Unfortunately each of us has to be "super consumers" to come into these things with as much knowledge as possible. But I'd send that original dealership a bill for every aspect of what their major error cost. More importantly, I'd post a public review about your experience to help the next "lady and two dogs" that entrusts them...maybe before that regional CEO gets around to training his staff! (Why should YOU keep THIER terrible performance a secret?)

And as previously noted - Hats off to the OP for actually answering back!!!

But didn't the OP have the issue resolved at a independent shop, and the selling dealer helped with the bill? Why would you drag them through the mud, because they made a mistake?

[nvestysly]

Hi Lauralynn,

Congratulations on the new trailer and a new life. Air Forums will provide support, encouragement, knowledge and a sense of community for your RV travels. Sounds like you're moving onward/upward and that's a good thing.

Some of your original issues sounded like they were not a result of the inferior workmanship during the battery upgrade. Hope those other issues have been remedied as well.

Regarding two or four Lithium batteries... Unless somebody knows of a particular reason why four is a bad idea, I'd suggest you stick with all four. While two may be adequate, you already have the four installed (and rewired) so it seems like that gives you plenty of margin for those cloudy days or days when you are in the shade. I realize Lithium batteries are not inexpensive but you're already sunk the cost and were apparently accepting of that initial expense so go ahead and keep all four is my suggestion.

On a related note, there are ways to improve the charging from your tow vehicle to the trailer. There are several threads on the topic. My solution to improved charging can be found HERE.

[Gene]

I understand the desire to move on and maybe you’ll never be near that dealer in the future, but, where did you spend the ten days while waiting for your trailer? Was it free? You could try small claims court in the county where the dealer is located and the work was done. Other dealers owned by the same company may be separately incorporated, so your claim has to be against the one that did the work. The contract with them may say “no consequential damages” so it would be harder to collect that way, but it does no harm to ask for your costs of lodging and restaurants that you would not have gone to if you were cooking in your trailer.

This was not a simple mistake. If the dealer holds itself out to perform a service and accepts the agreement, they are claiming they know what they do. This job done very, very wrong.

I note this dealer seems to have other problems according to recent threads in the Forum. There are some Airstream dealers long time Forum members hear about frequently as bad ones. We had a really bad one and ended up going to the factory to get things done after the dealer damaged (a hole) the rear lower panel and a side panel (dent). Never went back there, but in the 15 years since that happened, this dealer has expanded. A bad reputation sometimes does not get around.

There are books on how to identify RV problems and fix them. Every RV owner should have that information at hand to either fix it yourself or make sure you are not cheated by a bad RV shop. Any trailer has problems and Airstream has had many of them. I carry enough tools to take apart a locomotive, but you don’t need that many, but there are lots of things you can do yourself (hopefully).

And thanks for keeping us up to date. Many people post questions and never have the courtesy to tell us what happened.

[zapper]

Learned something new. I already knew that all the So. Cal Airstream dealer repair shops were lousy, but sad to learn that dealers from Sacramento to Seattle were in the same boat. Must take all this into consideration as we plan to leave for Seattle in September. Things happen on the road hard to know where to go, as well as where not to go, if something fails.

[Lauralynn]

Hi Gene!
I can’t believe how poor of a job they did with the battery install.
I think this particular dealership was hot extra hard by the pandemic as many of the employees seem to have minimal experience with airstream products.
As for tools, what is a good rivet gun? I need to get one to install a solar shade on awning.
Thanks!
Laura

[JAdams]

Gene,
I wish you luck and hope your Airstream troubles are over. We've owned an Airstream Interstate for a few years and have had only disastrous results from two dealer shops in Colorado. We haven never received our unit with all the repairs competed and / or done properly. They usually have the unit for weeks and sometimes months even when an appointment is made well in advance. Airsteam has been sold off and is only a name that has become a poor quality product.
We recently tried a private repair shop that found so many wiring issues I wouldn't know where to start. Numerous things were drawing on the batteries with no means to disconnect. None of the wiring issues have ever been found or identified by an Airstream Dealer. We are now hopeful that our troubles are over but Airstreams are cobbled together so cheaply that we stress every time we take a trip over what will fail next.
I truly wish you a better experience but we have been experiencing exactly what you describe.

[Gene]

Lauralynn and JAdams—

I purchased a rivet gun on Amazon about 10 years ago. There are a variety of them available and they seem to cost $25-35. I bought a Stanley. Stanley makes cheaper tools for occasional use and that is fine for this purpose. You will also need pop rivets and have to be careful to get the right type. They are available at hardware stores. I suppose rivet guns are available at big box stores like Lowe's and HD.

If you have to drill out an old rivet that doesn't work anymore, it requires a special bit for that—not the size that usually come with drill bit packs. I had to learn the right size from someone, but it is a long time since I needed to know it. If you drill out an old rivet with too large a bit, even slightly larger, they don't hold well.

Over the years we owned the Airstream, I replaced about 10-15 rivets inside. Some of the factory installed ones did not hold anything as they had missed the frame completely at the factory. In some places I had to use the next size up rivet because the factory guy made the hole too big and a standard Airstream sized rivet didn't fit. For installing something new, you can also use stainless steel screws. The advantage is you don't have to buy a rivet gun, but you will probably need it later for something. Make sure you screw or rivet into frame members because the skin alone will not support much weight.

Our Airstream troubles have been over for 4 or 5 years since we decided it was time to sell it after 60,000+ miles and 10 years of travels with it. We struggled with occupying the kitchen at the same time to make meals, wash dishes, etc. The bed in a 25FB meant one of us had to crawl over the other to get in and out of bed. I did not object to my beautiful wife crawling over me, but it was inconvenient in the middle of the night. We enjoyed our travels immensely, but we needed a little more room and a better floor plan. Airstreams generally have a center hall which eats space. Our Nash has never leaked and has had far fewer problems than the Airstream. We don't travel nearly as much and since the Airstream towed much better, that is ok. The Nash slide and better use of space give us about 10% more floor space, but it makes a big difference. The kitchen it still too small, the counter space poor, but better than the Airstream—I sold the Airstream after years of use for 70% of what we paid for it and the Nash cost a little more than half of what we got for the Airstream.

I believe the same dealer owns both Airstream shops in the Denver area. I don't know who owns the dealer now. They have a long and not good reputation. Airstream does not police dealers very well and while there are some with good reputations, there are some, many more, with really bad ones. The wait times at many dealers—RV and cars and trucks—have increased a lot in the past few years. Part of it is that parts aren't available, some is delivery times are much longer and part is people don't want to work at low wages for bad managers. Low wages in other industries have also led to a revolt by many people—been to a restaurant lately? The country needs more workers and poorly paying jobs are not wanted. Service in Denver at that dealer in 2007 and 2008 was awful. For the rest of our warranty period we drove to the factory to get things fixed—1,400 miles each way. We incorporated the trip into our travels. We had the time to do that, so we were fortunate. Many people drive to the service center at the factory and get good service. It is as if there was no competent dealer network.

Make the best of your Airstream. We did. It had been to northern Alaska and Key West, Florida. I know how to fix things, so that meant it was rare we had to look for an RV shop in the middle of nowhere. Last I know it had been towed to Alabama where a contractor was going to live in it for a while. We had two people look at it the same day, but one put down the money first. It was very easy to sell. I am not suggesting you sell it, but make the best of it. After a couple of years the problems slowed down and other than drawers that wouldn't stay closed, things settled down. Once you get to all the leaks, they tend to stop. The much vaunted shower they give it at the factory does not work because leaks develop for a couple of years. Obviously, sealing things is not done well by the factory. But it will stop, someday.