Need Advise PLEASE!

[Need Help Now!]

In April 2010 we purchased a new Keystone Springdale 266 RLS Trailer. 4 months later the slide-out roof leaked where the rubber roof meets the outer metal flashing. It appeared that the rubber roof was slightly pulled away from the flashing. We were told when we bought the trailer that we needed to inspect the roof every 6 months for potential leaking issues. I thought what we were experiencing was normal so I bought a tube of self-leveling caulking from our dealer and fixed the leak. The same situation occurred in 2011 and again in 2012, same area of the roof. In 2012 when I was preparing to fix the leak for the third time I noticed that the flap seal had pulled off of the metal lip above the slide-out. When I tried to slide the flap seal back onto the metal lip, I noticed that the gap between the top of the slide-out and the trailer opening was only about 5/8 inch. This made it very difficult to reinstall the loose flap seal. After getting the loose flap seal back in place I moved the slide-out about half-way in. When I looked at the slide-out roof I noticed that some of the rubber roof was rolling up. It was evident that the friction between the flap seal and the rubber was causing this condition and also it was self-evident that this was causing the leak. I contacted both Keystone Customer Service and our local dealer, including photographs. The dealer needed to see the trailer so we took it back and demonstrated the problem. The dealer was not very confident that Keystone would help us because we were out of the warranty period. However, Keystone did instruct the dealer to enlarge the opening in the side of the trailer and allowed them 8 hours to do the job. The dealer proceeded to remove about 1 inch from the wood header above the slide-out. The header was not reinforced, reassembled and returned to us (there is a whole very unpleasant side to this that I will not share now). Shortly after the trailer was returned I noticed that there was a sag in the roof line above the slide-out. Using a taught string line I demonstrated that there was about 3/4 inch of sag. We contacted the dealer and Keystone again. After numerous emails we were told this was not a problem. This happened last August. It is now apparent that there is even more sag now. We talked to 4 or 5 other dealers to get service advice - they all say the header should have been reinforced. We did talk to a dealer (not the one we bought the trailer from) about trading for a different trailer. This dealer said he would deduct the estimated repair amount from the value of our trailer.

NOW FOR THE ADVICE I NEED

I don't think I should even ask for a second repair at Keystone's expense. I have no confidence that a second fix will be a permanent solution. I think I should ask the dealer to buy the trailer back at the depreciated value. I am willing to go to court to prove my case if necessary.

ANY FEED BACK WILL BE APPRECIATED!

[SAD]

The first question in my mind is this -> Absent the apparent flaw, do you still enjoy your trailer? It's relatively new otherwise...

The answer to that question and some pics posted in this thread might assist others in helping you make your decision.

[rode2nowhere]

I would contact keystone myself and see what they would do first,,not the dealer.

[x96mnn]

When you were looking to trade the camper in how much was the dealer knocking off your value of your camper for a repair?

Was the roof something you had to point out to them or did they notice it themselves?

Hard item to give advice on but I would look at loss/gain and I'm thinking time and money invested in a fight may not be worth it.

[therink]

You definately do not have time on your side with this one. If I were in your shoes, i would put a "to the point and factual" letter together. The letter should start upon when you found the first problem with the roof and go from there. In lude dates, names, copies of repair receipts from the dealer that Keystone authorized to attemp the repair, etc. I would then describe the problems with the roof dipping and wouldnt hurt to have a third party write up a repair estimate (likely at your expense). I would also include good photos of the roof line using a string as a reference point to show the dip.
Maybe Keystone will offer something toward getting this corrected.
Good luck and post pictures here if you can.
Steve

[Bob Landry]

I think we need a sticky that lists dealers and shops that do shoddy work and rip off their customers.

[SAD]

Originally Posted by Bob Landry

I think we need a sticky that lists dealers and shops that do shoddy work and rip off their customers.

A shorter list would be those that do good work LOL

[antiqfreq]

We sorta do have that category already - it is the one under this one -

Support/Kudos to dealers .........

Jo