My wife and I travel for work as i am a construction manager for a very large multinational industrial construction and engineering firm. We decided to purchase an RV, welooked vigorously for two years and decided we would buy a fifth wheel. We first purchased a 3/4 ton diesel truck knowing we needed the towing capacity it offered. We then purchased a 2016 Prime Time Sanibel 3701 Residential model fifth wheel. We took delivery of the unit at Dixie RV in hammond Louisiana. Amazingly it had no visible issues and everything worked. Dixie was mor than accomidating as they had an overnight campground onsite to PDI the trailers with the new owners and spend the night to assure everything worked. We loved our new home. It was great. Little did we know, it wouldnt last. We towed the unit and lived out of it in Louisiana, California, Arizona, and florida. Things were going great, then one day i noticed a suspicious bubble in the fiberglass outside the unit. Concerned with possible delamination we took the unit to a local dealer. They gave us a quick estimate and assured us the repairs were easily remedied. The next week i was reasigned to our office in Georgia. We packed up the unit, pulled in the slides and got ready to hitch up. This is where i became alarmed. As i jacked the front of the unit up to allow proper jacking height, and water began to pour out of the front cap and under belly. After further inspection i noticed the entire basement compartment had been inondated with water. We searched for an hour and could not find where it was coming in from!!
Since we couldnt find an issue we shruged it off and went on to Georgia. Once set up in Georgia, the rin began. Two days later we discovered that our roof was leaking through the walls and our slide room floors had rotten almost away! The basement compartment was full of water, our bed fell through the floor, and our pantry at the rear of the unit had to actually be jacke up to close due to the floor rot! We packed up and haule the unit to a local dealer for inspection. There we learned that all slides were delaminating, and the roof had been installed incorrectly during manufacture. The dealer gave our claim to forest river, then it took 4 months for them to agree to pick the unit up and take it back to the factory. Here is where things really got strange. We had no idea the unit was oicked up, then i recieved a call at 7am from the haul driver notifying me the unit caught on fire in route to the factory. He also let us know without my permission he had made a claim on my insurance.
We discovered the next day when pictures were sent, the unit was a total loss! Everything we left in the unit was also a total loss. I battled with isurance for the next month untill finally they agreed to give us 50,000 dollars for the unit(8,000 dollars less than i owed), and 10,000 dollars in contents. This happened in March, and we still have not fully recovered. Our Loss was so financially draining between hotel rooms, moving to another job with noRV, and deposits to rent a home that it nearly destroyed my marriage. We have contacted forest river asking for help and were rudely denied.