Inner Seal Problems AGN

Lawyer time chuck, you can not continue to rebuild that Durango.

Yep I agree,  I believe it's past time,    have an appointment next week !!!!

Chuck

Chuck, I have followed your post since you 1st posted about the slide floors.

Here is my own story. It;s a long one and I apologize in advance, but I ramble when I'm pissed.
2019 Durango gold 356RLT purchased from Tacoma RV in February of 2019.

I purchased this unit from Tacoma RV while at the RV show that year. (I think it was at the Tacoma dome that year)
We took pictures of the unit from every angle while at the RV show.
Picked up the rig about a week later and when I got it home, I noticed a gouge in the painted nose about 2.5" long and through the paint. I then looked at the picture that Tacoma RV took of myself and my wife in front of the rig on their lot, and in the picture, I could see the gouge so I know it was there before I took possession of it. Called Tacoma RV, showed them pictures and they had me bring the rv back to them. They had the RV there for several weeks and I called them for a status update, and they told me that the gouge on the nose was complete, but they are still dealing with the crack in the passenger slide sidewall. I say what?? When did that happen? They said that it appears that the manufacturer put too long of screws in when they installed the slide window. I had pictures of the area and couldn't see any issue at that area, but they went ahead and "fixed" it. So, I had 2 fiberglass repairs accomplished on new RV that I hadn't even used yet.
When I finally did drive the RV home, on an external inspection, I found the LH RV tail light lens broken. This is the lens just forward of the rear ladder, and it was in the perfect spot for someones foot to hit while on the ladder if they weren't careful. After much back and forth with Tacoma RV, they agreed to buy and ship me a new lens. At least a couple months later, I finally received the new lens and wouldn't you know it, it was the RH tail light lens, not the LH one I needed. I gave up on this, and just super glued the LH lens cracked pieced back together, and it has held up since.

On our very 1st trip that spring, I couldn't get the propane appliances to work at all. I'm not a newbie when it comes to these, and tried everything I could think of to get the propane flowing, even talking to the service center at Tacoma RV, and nothing worked. Note, that it did work on our PDI, so not sure what happened. I ended up ordering and replacing the propane regulator while on vacation, and it worked fine. Not blaming Tacoma RV for this, but still was aggravating with a brand new RV.

I brought the RV back to Tacoma RV the following late winter to keep the "forever warranty" in place.(Wishing that I would never have done this!).
Tacoma RV stated that the wheel bearings should be replaced, and I questioned that after only towing for less that 1500 in the 1st year of ownership. I did finally agree to it though as I wanted to make sure that they were in good shape and greased as well. They replaced the wheel bearings and sent me on my way. I almost crashed the unit on the way home. I had literally no trailer brakes, and had to make a full stop on I-5 heading north due to traffic. I almost turned around and went back, but continued home. Once home, I adjusted all the brakes as they had been most likely backed off to get the hubs off for greasing. I called Tacoma RV service center to complain and they replied that this RV has auto adjusting brakes and that a manual adjustment should never be accomplished. They said that it was my fault for not driving around the back streets 1st, pumping the brakes to get them to adjust prior to getting on the freeway. Terrible customer service IMO.

Later on that spring, I noticed that one of the floor vents was getting very little heat out of it. I accessed the aft wall of the pass through to get to the furnace, and I found that the Inboard end cover of the furnace wasn't even installed. It was just laying next to the furnace. I re-installed that, and then noticed that one of the smaller vent hoses coming off of the furnace wasn't even connected to the distribution manifold. It was laying in the bottom of the pass through.Since I was still under warranty and really wasn't using the furnace much at all, I figured that I would let the dealer fix it when I went back the following year.

In February 2021, I again took the RV to Tacoma RV for it's forever warranty inspection and I also pointed out the furnace vent that wasn't hooked up. The service guy took one look at the furnace vent laying there and immediately said that it was supposed to be that way, as it was designed to heat the pass through area. I called BS on him at that point and showed him the vent in the upper manifold along the ceiling of the pass through designed for pass through heat.He then climbed into the pass through to try and hook up the duct that was just laying there. He reached up and attached it to the distribution box, and said there, it's good. I said no screws to hold it, and he said no. When I got the rig back home it had fallen off again, so I screwed it into place and applied some HVAC tape over it, Just what they should have done.

About a week after I dropped the RV off this time, I received a call from Tacoma RV stating that my roof needed a full re-seal and said that they had found the passenger side slide roof not crowned like it should be, and noted that slide wiper seal was not touching the top of the slide. I was going through some issues with an infection in my arm after surgery, so I okay'd the roof sealant. Note at this time, I had never had a problem with the slide at all, including no leaks. KZ agreed to pay for the slide roof " crowing repair". I also paid to have some side seals that were torn replaced at this time.

They had the RV for a couple months, and when I finally picked it up, it was only 5 days from a trip that we had planned. I made the mistake of driving it home without operating the slide. The day after I got it home, I went out and put the slides out to start loading for our trip. When I brought the slides in the 1st time, I saw the top of the passenger side slide hang up and heard items popping and hitting the floor. The slide completely ripped the fixed wall inner seal off of the trailer wall. Staples that held it in, were ripped out with the seal. Got on the phone to Tacoma RV, and they had me bring the rig back to them again the following Monday. This time they installed screws through the wall seal, and while it held the seal in place, the top of the slide continued to catch hard every time I retracted it. It did retract though, and we had trips planned, so I decided to use it as is and have them look at at the next time I had it in.

What Tacoma RV had done to my slide was remove all the internal fascia and actually install steel angles into the roof of the slide to crown it slightly for water run off. What I didn't know is that continuing to operate it this way, would cause the damage that it did.

Later, the same year, with RV parked in from of my house and all slides in, we had a big rain storm, and I went out to inspect the RV like I do often. I put the slide out and found a 2' x 5' puddle of water inside the rv on the floor, under the area where the slide would sit when retracted. I dried all the water, and ran space heaters to dry everything out. Over the fall, I continued to find that when the slide was retracted, I would get leaks from that slide. When, extended, No leaks. I called Tacoma RV about this, and tried to get in to have it looked at, but the best that they could do was getting it in this last January.They did inform me though that their labor warranty was only for 90 days, and any work to this slide would be at my expense. I had a few emails back and forth with KZ about this since they paid for this repair, but they informed me that they couldn't help if the dealers warranty had expired on their work.

Over a period of time last fall, I noticed some delamination in the RV wall above the RH slide that Tacoma RV had worked on. I believed that the slide catching hard on the wall during retraction had caused a structural failure in the wall. When I finally got into Tacoma RV in January, I went over this with their service department, and they claimed that the delamination had occurred because there were a few unsealed screw heads in my slide topper rail in that area. I explained to him that a couple unsealed screws installed horizontally, would not allow the amount of water in that I was seeing.
They did take a look at the reason for the slide catching on top upon retraction, and determined that with the slide crowning that they had done, the slide would no longer fit in the hole. No Kidding! They essentially fixed it by removing the steel angles that they had previously installed, and then they tilted the slide up to get the wiper seal to touch the top of the slide. Why didn't they do this in the 1st place? Even though they said that it would be fixed at my expense, they fixed it at their cost, basically admitting that they did a faulty repair.

I have had the rv completely covered to protect it as I am trying to figure out how to fix the delamination in the sidewall. Tacoma RV said that they would work up an estimate for me, which even after I called them again about it, they have never provided. I took my RV to a repair facility in Sedro Woolly Washington a couple weeks ago for an estimate and to see if he could determine what has caused the delamination. I had always thought that the force of the top of the slide catching on the top of the wall cutout, caused the structural damage, and then water wicked up into the wall because of the high winter humidity around here. The repair shop guy did some inspections, and he believes that because of the crowning of the slide, it would catch the inner seal upon retraction and flipping it up so it didn't seal properly. This is why the slide leaked while retracted.

I had exactly zero issues with this slide before Tacoma RV worked on it, and nothing but issues with it since.

The repair to my RV is going to require removing the passenger side slide, peeling the roof back from the damaged sidewall, cutout out the sidewall and splicing a new section in. Even after the repairs, it will be noticeable where the repair was accomplished. It will be in the shop for several months.


My insurance company is actually working with me so far, and as long as the water delamination was not cause by neglect, they may cover it.
They are waiting on the repair company to supply them with an estimate of cost, and reason for the damage happening.

Tacoma RV can be the nicest people when you are shopping for an RV, but once this fiasco is finally over, I will never go their again.
I advise anyone who asks to stay far away from them.
Apologize again for the wordy post.

Rick

Ugh, this is about enough to convince me to buy a Grand Design. Sorry to hear all of that.

join chuck and file class action against Tacoma RV, you could be the new owners.  Wish I had saved the letter they sent me about 2 years after my purchase saying they under charged me an wanted more money.  Never heard back when I told them to contact my attorney.