Annemarie
Croswell,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, August 06, 2013
Wow, we have had the same problem almost....We bought a 2007 Cherokee Lite Fifth Wheel from Marlette RV in Marlette, MI in August 2007. A few years later the TV stopped working and we thought maybe lightening had hit it. Searched and found nothing. Then two years ago our bedroom window leaked onto our bed during a storm at a campground. My husband caulked all around the window and we never had any problem again.
He always caulked the camper at the end of every season and always checked to make sure there were no leaks so we did the regular maintenance. Then last year the lights in our bedroom stopped working and the wall outlet wasn't working either. My husband thought maybe it was a fuse but that didn't fix it. So we camped a few more times and he got some time and decided to check it out at the end of last summer's camping season.
Lo and behold he took the plate off the wall and the wires were all rotten. He also could smell mold and the insullation was also rotted and moldy. He looked everywhere for a leak and said it was leaking at the corner into the inside wall of the camper. He thought it was all fixed and we closed it up for the year and planned to replace the paneling when we got it ready for the 2013 season. Well when we opened it this spring, there was more mold on the inside of the back wall.
So my husband investigate more and found that there is mold all inside the wall behind our closet and dresser too. He called the RV Dealer in Marlette and he told him that there was nothing he could do for us because Forest River won't do anything after the year warranty is up. Well now we find out that this problem is nothing new. The RV Dealer said that they know that many of the campers they sold and some on the lot now are infiltrated with mold before they even get sold.
So our $30,000 purchase (which was a huge amount for us as parents of 4 children) is now worthless and we still owe another 9 years on it. My husband got talking to another guy at his workplace (Automotive Dealer) and he said his friend had a 2003 Forest River and he went to sell it and the guy who was going to buy it said he smelled mold and that he thought it must be leaking somewhere.
The owner took it to the RV dealer and they checked it out and it is moldy all inside, everywhere. It never leaked that they saw while camping so it leaked inside the walls just like ours. He said his insurance company might cover the cost since Forest River won't help at all. They said it would be a total loss because there is no way they can get all that mold out.
Now I don't know what to do. I don't think that our insurance company will cover this (although I will check) and even if they do, I don't want this camper anymore. I always had trouble breathing when we camped for any length of time and now I know why. I thought it was the air at the campgrounds and now I realize it was the walls of my camper! This replacement should be done by Forest River not by insurance company.
Forest River is the one who built the piss poor quality product so they need to fix it. There is no way I am going to get stuck with this payment for 9 more years without a camper to camp in. I wouldn't even be able to give it away! What a disappointment this is to us and my husband works so hard and now we are left with a useless trailer. I just don't know what to do