2008 Cougar 5th Wheel... possible lemon??

[Double J]

Greetings all, I bought a 2008 cougar 293SAB in 09', thought it was the best thing ever until about a year or so later when I started noticing little things wrong. For example some of the screws for the hinges came loose and stripped out, the front bedroom doesn't seem to get any warm air through the vents but the rear bedrooms are smoking hot. I was just wondering if I got a lemon or maybe the 293SAB is just a lower end model. Oh and I've had to replace one bathroom facet, outside shower valve and now the inside shower is leaking. My 5th wheel doesn't see a whole lot of miles so I wouldn't call it wear and tear.

Any thoughts anyone??

[bsmith0404]

I wouldn't say it's a lemon, I'd say you are dealing with typical items with an RV. The screws on cabinets doors are typical. The wood/material used is soft, not like the oak cabinets in your home. Glue some toothpicks into the screw holes and reinstall, should hold just fine as long as you don't over torque.
The faucets wear out and start to leak, most likely from lack of use than over use. The rubber o rings and seals get dried out especially if you have hard water. You may want to try adding some vasoline/o-ring grease to them when winterizing.
The furnace, probably a vent that disconnected. Unfortunately there is only one way to know for sure, get into the belly and check your duct work. It is a fairly common (I don't like using that word) problem that a lot of people face from time to time.

Good luck

[Pmedic4]

When you mention screws in the cabinets coming loose, that is probably the most common issue we've had also. As bsmith said, they use a light softwood material covered with a vinyl veneer for the frames, and this coupled with the tight cabinets latches for holding the doors tightly during travel movement, make you pull a little harder on the doors, loosening the hinge - and latch screws. Mostly the doors are a hardwood, such as Oak, so the screws don't usually loosen on those, it does happen. Can't really change it, you just fix them.

Otherwise, I would say many of the components, such as facets, switches, etc. are 'fair' quality. So, 5-6 years is not surprising. When you consider you might put a $200-400 Grohe or Moen sink facet in your house,you expect it to last 20+ years. When you put a $18.95 sink facet in your RV or home, well, I hope your expectation is not quite as long.

BTW, when you replace that facet, you can go to your local big-box lumber yard and get new facets. They don't need to be from a RV dealer. I've seen some say that they are the proper flow requirements for the demand water systems, but my experience is they seem to work better.

[rhagfo]

Well you got answers about screws and the faucets, as for the heat most RV have open floor vents, so depending where your furnace is more heat nearest to it.
Replace the registers with ones with the dampers in them, close the areas that get too much heat.

[Double J]

Thank you for your feed back, I will try the tooth pick idea on the ones I cant drill through and install nuts on screws. I ended up replacing the floor vents closest to the furnace but they tend to get very hot. Probably will have to get under it all and make sure its all connected correctly. Thanks again for all your input.

[fred1609]

Thinking about your heating problems I wonder if a section of pipe has separated. Time to get under your rig and take down the coroplast and check out the pipes.