I had always wanted a camper, and still love the opportunities that it has allowed me. Although, I seem to live out of it on extended work trips far more than I recreate with it. The total time that I've lived in it off and on would probably add up to about 8 months. But it has been one problem after another. To the point where I almost dread taking it out, because I will surely find another problem. A couple down the street from me has a 2018 Starcraft Launch series, and they've had almost no problems with theirs. Another guy on the street with a camper says that I should not have this many problems, and I should take it back and tell Camping World that it's a lemon. So... at what point is a lemon a lemon? I get that problems are going to occur, especially during the "break-in period". But it's been over 2 years since I bought it, and it feels like there's no end of trouble with this thing. I'd have to check my paperwork, but I don't think it's still under warranty. And one thing that I have learned for sure, Camping World is worthless to deal with on service stuff. I long ago gave up trying to work with them on minor repairs, it was too frustrating. Better to either fix it myself, or pay the money to take it to a small family-owned shop that has done good work for me. Am I having more problems that I should expect?
Below is a list of repairs that I've made:
-First day in the camper, the trap under the shower separated at the attachment collar. I've never seen such cheaply-made pipe. You couldn't even hand-tighten the collar without it popping free. The shower floor has so much flex in it, the collar would pop every time I stepped near the drain. I wound up epoxying the trap collar together, and drew a ring around the drain on the shower floor in which nobody is allowed to step. I also added braces under the shower floor.
- All the glass panes in the cabinet doors fell out. Every. Single. One. One by one. Thankfully they fall inward into the cabinets, and none broke. I have mounted wood strips on the back sides of the doors to hold them in place.
- An elbow fitting in a water line going to the shower broke, water all over the floor. Was able to access and replace the fitting through an existing panel.
- A screw head came up through the linoleum floor. RV shop said this is common, the bolts holding the floor to the frame back out. They fixed it by driving it back through the frame, and attached a nut to the end of the bolt on the underside of the frame member. But now I have a little hole in my linoleum. The warranty people wouldn't touch it, said floor damage is not covered (even when a bolt comes up out of the frame to mess it up). I have since found another one coming up under the flooring.
- Furnace required repair last winter. Sail switch issue.
- Mysterious electrical short this past spring. It was weird - dim lights above the sink, vent hood switch would turn sink lights on and off, etc. Fuse would constantly blow. I wiggled and volt-metered everything that I could think of, to no effect. Probably a short putting current into the frame, then into other devices through ground wires? Then the problem just as mysteriously went away completely. I'm sure I haven't seen the last of that.
- This fall, found water under the camper. Was coming out where the tank dump penetrates the underbelly. Cut some access holes in the underbelly (which by this point is already cut full of holes from repairs), found a leaking elbow where the drain line comes off the grey tank. I haven't fixed that yet, it wasn't dripping on anything important.
- Underbelly has torn at, or completely pulled through, all of the attachment screws forward of the axle. Considerable sag, I was worried about it pulling off in tow. I put fender washers under the screw heads, and added several conduit rods across the frame to hold the underbelly up.
- Furnace sail switch went out again. VERY difficult to find on in October! I limped it along for weeks, got very proficient at pulling the furnace out to fiddle with the sail switch. New switch came in a few days ago, has been running well enough now that I finally got the confidence to put the access panels back in place.
- Last heavy rain, had a pretty steady drip coming from the top of the large rear window. I can't tell if it's getting through the aluminum window frame, or the poly stuff between the glass and the frame. I put sealant along the top the aluminum, will wait to see what that does.
- Got back to my camper after a weekend at home, and saw water along the bottom of a cabinet. Started pulling access panels, traced it under the water heater, up the wall, and behind the fridge. The exterior fridge access panel had some black sealant that is supposed to seal up the area where the panel door frame goes into the camper wall. The sealant had been haphazardly applied, resulting in a few places where it didn't quite contact the panel frame, and a couple deep concave depressions in the sealant. Some rain got blown in there, collected in the depressions, and drained through where the sealant hadn't quite touched the door frame. It then ran down the inside of the wall, and across the floor under the water heater. It collected against the bottoms of the cabinet framing, which is particle board with vinyl wood-grain sticker. The particle board soaked up the water and it delaminated a little bit at the bottom. I added more sealant in the exterior hatch bottom, filling in the gaps that were missed in manufacturing, and filling in the holes that collect rainwater. I also added a piece of sheet metal to deflect water out the bottom of the panel door (not enough to prevent venting of the fridge compressor and other apparatus).