Problems with Roof

[mbinohio]

the dealer I bought from was Jim's Trailer Sales in Grafton, Ohio, his main line has always been Jayco, of course he has had alot of other brands over the years, he got into the crossroads brand in 2004, that is the year I bought my first cruiser, he left crossroads in 2009, he has picked up the carriage line, I think thet sell whatever makes them the most profit, as soon as another manufacture comes in and offers a bigger profit margin they switch, I really don't believe thay they could care less about the brand, I am sure a few years from now they will switch to another brand, as far as bing a "5 star dealer", that in itself is nothing more than an advertising gimic, the dealer I bought from has the worlds worst service and they have awards all over the shop, I sure wouldn't make a buying decisin on a few cheap plaques hanging on the wall, the last unit I bought was an 06, never been back sice the day I got it, cheaper to make one trip to the factory thar 4 or 5 to the dealer and get the usual half a.. job......I am still willing to bet if you sought legal advise on this roof inspection crap it would never hold up in court, and I will also bet a few letters from a lawyer will get some results, the less crossroads spends in warranty work the more they have come to the bootm line, crossroads is in business to build ascheap as they can and make the biggest profit, it's the american way.....I think your 2 choices on this roof is to pay to fix it, or pay a lawyer..........

[Brad]

Originally Posted by mwebber78

There are two problems with your statement. One is that the local Cruiser dealers in this area have dropped/swapped lines a handful of times over the years, I can't remember who is even my nearest Crossroads dealership anymore and I think the nearest is two states away now. Second, when my Chevy has a service need I perform the oil/filter/lube and the rotations are done at a quickie stop place. I keep the reciepts. When I inspect my roof of the camper who says I'm not knowledgable about the product or what to look for? After all, Chevy trusts me to change my air filter, lube the chasis and chenage my oil. Perhaps I should create an invoice, staple a reciept for Dicor to it and record My time and send that to them annually. My Jayco specified a twice a year roof inspection but DID NOT specify a dealer had to do it. In fact, in my two years with my jayco I don't recall them ever hassling me about my warranty issues when it was obvious they did it.



Just a note, your comments about volume sales dealerships is, IMHO, baseless. My "local" dealer is a Carriage multi-year award winning dealership family owned and is low volume. They never knewof the Crossroads requirement to perform an annual certified roof inspection for the Crossroads products. In fact, they dropped the Kingston/Cruiser line and moved on last year leaving me dealership-less when it pertains to Crossroads products. The next nearest dealer also dropped Cruiser (a trend?).



While I love my Cruiser I feel transition molding coming through a roof is a no-brainer for warranty. If you discovered it early whats the difference in repair between early and later? You still have to pull up the roof mebrane, re-attach the molding and re-do the roof.... Water damage with no annual roof inspection, ok deny the claim if you like.

I certainly understand the grief, but regretfully, the dealership is flooded with regular paperwork from CrossRoads and there is little to no excuse for not informing you of proper maintenance and warranty procedures. Chapter one, page one informs the owner of the requirement for maintenance. This is not a requirement that you pay for a dealer to do the work, but if an issue occurs we (the dealer) are responsible for informing the condition and root cause of the issue. If your dealership breaches a franchise with a brand and chooses another manufacturer, you ultimately become responsible for seeking your replacement service center. CrossRoads is the most lenient brand I've ever worked with when it comes to finding service centers that they will authorize for warranty service.

Hypothetically, if you maintain all sealants and regularly wash the coach, etc, we can tell. If an issue occurs that could be rooted from a typical failure or damage from a lack of maintenance, but its blatantly obvious that you have taken care of the vehicle, then CrossRoads reserves little right to decline payment for the repair if it is by default a defect in the vehicle. If the trailer is filthy, rarely used, not maintained, and there is no proof of "care" then they have some right to decline warranty service payment providing the defect occurring is likely caused due to this. If all you do is call in with a complaint and there is no "trusted third party" to verify the issue, there will always be some hesitation in just authorizing the repair.

What has/can occur with your current need for service is a lack of maintenance and water seepage beneath the rubber roof membrane which can cause premature rusting of the fasteners that hold the transition. This allows them to break free and release the roof transition. This would not be a warranty repair.

I'm not trying to overly defend CrossRoads, but you have to understand the nature of a service manager's position. They obtain requests for warranty repair nearly every minute of every day. They have to rightfully spend their company's money and not pay for non-warranty items. If everything that was submitted for service was paid for - obvious non-warranty issues, non-maintained fifth wheels/trailers, sheisty or deviant owners/dealers, etc. - then the underlying cost of the trailers would cause either further inflation in the prices or insolvency in the brand. As an example, I had a customer bring their trailer in last month with a leak at the A/C. The trailer was within the warranty period by a few weeks. We reviewed the coach and realized that they damaged the air conditioner. The shroud was a replacement and apparently they impacted the a/c enough that it actually tore 3 of 4 bolts against the trusses. It was loose in the 14" x 14" opening. This customer swore nothing happened and argued for 3 days about warranty service. They picked up their trailer unserviced and scheduled into another service department. They remedied the same thing.

Understand that we see this weekly, CrossRoads sees this much more frequently.

As to the timing of the repair... if it stay like that for a while, the transition will cut the membrane. If the EPDM is damaged, the repair goes from 6 hours to 20 and the cost escalates dramatically. Prevention of further repairs is always a consideration for minimizing costs, heartache, temperaments, and time.

I'm not trying to stir the pot, just offer another vantage point.

[artgpo]

Today I got out the Crossroads Cruiser warranty. On the last page there is a requirement for an annual roof inspection by a certified Crossroads dealer. There is also a place for said dealer to sign off once the inspection has been completed. I think there is a 60 day grace period so you could actually go 14 months between inspections.



I for one will be getting the inspection as it is far less costly than having to pay for a roof replacement.

[steverfd2]

I also got out my 2007 Owners guide. No where does it mention a dealer roof inspection. It mentions for the owner to inspect it, And I have been on the roof at least once a year.



If it was water damage, then I could understand the annual roof inspection issue. But its not.....Its the radius trim under the roof.



I have a call in to randy and hopefully this will resolve itself, He was out of the office today and he is suppose to call me back on friday.



Thanks for the replies everyone



Steve

[Dayle1]

Originally Posted by Brad

What has/can occur with your current need for service is a lack of maintenance and water seepage beneath the rubber roof membrane which can cause premature rusting of the fasteners that hold the transition. This allows them to break free and release the roof transition. This would not be a warranty repair.

Sounds good BUT water will seep or wick only thru wood, not aluminum or due to air pressure while towing. Also, the membrane is supposed to be glued to the plywood which would minimize seepage. And while I understand the value of an annual inspection, properly installed caulk should not fail and lead to rusted staples in the three years from June 2007 to now. So this is a highly unlikely cause of failure.



But the biggest issue with this thought is that unless the dealer or CR has actually inspected the roof and found real evidence of water seepage, then there is no valid reason for CR to refuse warranty coverage until after such an inspection has been done. Clearly CR has not done an inspection and nowhere in this thread is there evidence that the dealer found evidence of water leakage, let alone reported same to CR.



But I do believe that Randy will ultimately make the right decision on this.

[mwebber78]

Good job Larry, I agree with your comments. I wasn't going to post becuase I don't want this to turn into an arguement. However, I feel strongly that this is a case of poor quality at the build rather then water. The original poster stated the staples were backing out and rubbing through the membrane. Last time I checked wicking water doesn't seek the highroad and wick UP aluminum flashing and swell the staples.



Oh Well, hope Randy does the right thing here.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by mwebber78

Good job Larry, I agree with your comments. I wasn't going to post becuase I don't want this to turn into an arguement. However, I feel strongly that this is a case of poor quality at the build rather then water. The original poster stated the staples were backing out and rubbing through the membrane. Last time I checked wicking water doesn't seek the highroad and wick UP aluminum flashing and swell the staples.



Oh Well, hope Randy does the right thing here.

The water saturates the plywood decking and rusts the staples which allows the staples to detach from the decking and release the flashing.

There isn't a doubt in my mind that there may be a fully legitimate claim. My only points have been that there is reasoning behind some warranty claim approval apprehension and that there is a process in place to prevent some of these "less than heartfelt" sentiments.

[cwit]

They fixed my roof with this same problem. I had no leaks but all the staples unhooked.

[steverfd2]

Have tried fora week to talk with Randy without success. Spoke to Allan I think who told me that Randy would be the one I would have to speak with on this issue.<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />

Allan also went on to tell me that they did not consider that molding structural but cosmetic. I went on to talk with Allan about me doing the work and them providing the materials; once again Randy will have to approve that. Well I have not been able to talk with Randy yet. I asked does he have an Email address and they answered no. Who has the authority to authorize warranty work and not have an email address? Does Randy even exist or is he an imaginary person they use as ascapegoat



I have been pleased and happy to have owned a crossroad. However now that has changed. I feel as if they are like more of the other manufactures in the attitude of I built it, once its sold it’s not my problem anymore.



I’m going to try to find a couple of E-mails of corporate folks to voice my concerns over this......then I am done with it and will never own another crossroads product again and will never speak kindly of them again.



If you happen to have any email addresses or contact information please share with me.



I got to look to see now if any of my portfolio's or Retirement system own Thor Stock.

[mwebber78]

Here's a tip, call at 5:30A-6A. Randy is one man, you'll need to talk to him about your issues. He's a real person, rest assured as I have met him - real good guy. Alicia Dunafin use to be a warranty contact with Randy.



adunafin@crossroadsrv.com

[DUNWRKN]

My dealer is pretty lax about most things and when I told him that I wanted my first annual inspection done, he said to stop by and we would fill out the paperwork. I told him that I wanted it inspected and he said that if something was found that needed to be sealed or something I would have to pay the bill, but the inspection was at his cost. I told him that I expected to pay for any sealing around windows, vents or whatever and I wanted the inspection to be done. He sent a guy to my house to do the inspection. Every fall the guy comes to my house and inspects my fiver before I store it for the winter.

[steverfd2]

Well I know it has been a while since I got to stop back by to update everyone. I Finally got to speak with Randy and He took Care of everything.



I have to carry it to a dealer about 100 miles away, No problem at all. All total I left it there for 3 weeks and roof was repaired and Awning was replaced while it was there.



Crossroads paid for everything, except the Awning. Hall's Rv in Albertville was dealer to repair it and they did an excellent job.



Now I must say I got to spend a couple nights in it this summer.



My wife and I have decided to sell our unit due to having too many irons in the fire so to speak........So I have a 2007 pretty much loaded 32 BL in persian sand that I will be putting on the market very soon.



I just wanted to take time and post on a positive note to update everyone on my dilemma. But Crossroads stepped up and handled things as I expected.



Thanks for the help and the suggestions to call Randy.



STeve