24" 2010 Major LEaks

[Pat Sullivan]

Picked up this Elkmont about 6 months ago. We are not happy.

Now we're dealing with two leaks. Spoke to Ed at TrailManor said probably just need a little silicone. Huge puddle on the floor in front of door and extended to closet and floor in front of closet. We are hesitant to take it to the dealer. Not confident in them. We will have another RV mechanic who we trust try and figure this out. We live in Portland Oregon so obviously we have lots of rain.

Multiple issues needed fixing after we initially picked it up and Dealer pretty much was "put out" by the list, eg, sink drain full of caulk, etc.

First travel trailer. Thought we were buying a high quality rig. Very upset and will pursue this until fixed and at this point may unload afterwards. A total drag with all the other posts I've seen!

Pat Sullivan
24 Elkmont Bunkhouse 2010
Portland, OR

[brulaz]

Pat,

You are not alone.

Do a little search in this section and you will find that several of us who purchased early versions of the Elkmont have had similar problems.

Ours was returned to the factory where they completely re-caulked the roof area near the door and replaced/re-caulked the bath fan. They used a newer 3M polyurethane caulk (not-silicone) that seems to adhere to the shiny plastic bits much better. In my case there was an actual depression in the roof which they covered and caulked with a layer of plastic.

So far these repairs have worked well, and Ed was very helpful.

I do get the impression that Trailmanor is improving the Elkmont as they go along, but it was a new model, introduced at the beginning of the recession, and the company was going through some management changes, so the 2009 and early 2010 models do have more than their fair share of problems.

If you can find a good repair place, Trailmanor should help you out with the repairs.

[Shandysplace]

We took delivery of our new Elkmont 26 in late October after being assured by the dealer that the leak issues had been dealt with using the new 3M 360 caulk.

Our dealer is nearly 500 miles away in So. CA. We stayed at a local campground for 3 days prior to returning home to get acquainted w/new model (traded in 2008 3326). It hadn't rained while we were there, although there were no leaks evident when trailer was washed prior to delivery.

On returning home it rained steadily for several days. We discovered a small leak in a bedroom wardrobe and the fan in the bathroom ceiling.

What saved the day for us was finding a local RV parts and service only (don't sell RVs) place that had many years of experience of servicing only RVs. Working w/Ed Lytle at TrailManor all these issues and others were successfully addressed under warranty.

We hope you'll work w/Ed to successfully address your issues and finally be able to enjoy your Elkmont.

[Beak12]

We had leaks also in our 24' Elkmont. Above the door, but not until we had 5" of rain in Chicago. We called TM and told them of our destination (Western NY) and they said take it to Menter RV in Ohio. Which we did. Have had not problems as yet. But then we don't get 5" of rain here in CA. :rolleyes:

[Pat Sullivan]

OK, so Robert from Rose City RV (independent repair) in Portland Oregon worked with Ed from TrailManor. We were told that there were multiple areas where the sealant used at the seams was loose and popped out. TrailManor is picking up the tab for the repair.

We also got an email from Cleo (who introduced himself as a new owner of TrailManor) who seemed very interested in facilitating correction on this and other issues we've had. If we were close to the factory we'd have brought it directly to them.

We'll keep the faith that this rig is fixed. We appreciate the courteous and customer service attitude both Ed and Cleo related in working with us and Robert from Rose City RV.

[brulaz]

It's good to hear that Trailmanor is fixing these problems.

So far our factory roof repairs have held up well through several heavy thunder showers. I hope yours do as well.

It is a relief not to have to worry about it.

[Bigbit]

I'm almost hesitant to post this for the fear of bringing bad luck upon myself, but I went to check on my Elkmont yesterday, and despite several large / heavy / long rainfalls here in SoCal, there are still no signs of leakage in my trailer.

Knock wood!

[Wavery]

I'm almost hesitant to post this for the fear of bringing bad luck upon myself, but I went to check on my Elkmont yesterday, and despite several large / heavy / long rainfalls here in SoCal, there are still no signs of leakage in my trailer.

Knock wood!

It's nice of you to post that. That's the problem with boards like this. Very few people will chime in and say, "I don't have that problem". In reality, if everyone that didn't have a problem posted that, it would be hard to find the ones that do and what the solution was.

I'm actually impressed at how few real problems have come up on this board about the Elkmont. That means that either they are having a high success rate or are selling very few trailers. You can be sure that most people that have had serious issues have found their way here and that's been relatively few.

[Ken Brooks]

My wife and I bought our 2000 2720 new and have obviously been happy camping for going on 11yrs. Being from and engineering background, I have the following issues with TM concerning the Elkmont. We have been considering moving into an Elkmont 22 but we are scared!

1. It seems that they decided to change the caulk that served them so well for so many years. Why?
2. Why did they select a caulk that obviously was not intended for the application?
3. Did they start using this inferior caulk on the expandable line of trailers?
4. Do they have structural problems in the door area of the Elkmonts?
5. Why doesn't TM recall their known units that have problems?
6. Why doesn't TM reassure buyers of corrected problems on units built after a certain date or serial number and state what corrective measures have been taken?
7. Management reorganization is no exuse for shoddy work.

[Shandysplace]

We copied your post verbatim and sent it to Ed Lytle at TM. We'll post his response on this thread as soon as we receive it.

Our Elkmont 26 had 2 minor leaks--at the roof light and the bathroom fan. We had these repaired under warranty. Since taking delivery it has rained some every week and recently it rained steadily for over 7 consecutive days. No leaks; knock on wood.

[brulaz]

Ken, these are questions that can only be answered by Trailmanor.

However I have been told that they have now switched to a better polyurethane-hybrid caulk (3M). The caulk they used in repairing my Elkmont was certainly superior.

As for expandable/folding line ... I have no idea why they did not have similar problems to the Elkmont when the old silicone caulk was being used. Perhaps, as you sugggest, there was more of a structural problem in the door area, unique to the Elkmont, that was compounded by the poor caulk.

I like to think that many of these problems are now behind them. Only time will tell.

[Shandysplace]

Ed has asked that you e-mail him directly at TrailManor [email protected] for the answers to your questions.

[Ken Brooks]

Trailblazers,
I'm guessing if Ed responded to Shadysplace's e-mail, he asked him NOT to post his response or he didn't have answers. If I wanted some private explanation to my concerns, I would have contacted Ed myself. My understanding is that this forum be used in part to shed light on (expose) concerns we have about our beloved trailers. Most responsible companies send out recall letters to ALL customers that have purchased inferior products to make things right, even if every customer of that product experienced a problem or not. From the posts I've seen, it doesn't seem like TM has done this, though I may be wrong. When my wife and I were shopping Elkmonts at Mentor RV last summer, they had a unit on the lot that had roof leaks they were fixing right outside on the lot. This is BAD public relations. Brulaz said ONLY time will tell if all the issues with Elkmonts and possibly the folding trailer line, are behind them, but TM could also tell owners up front . I know I sound critical, but my former opinion of TM has always been that they were on the next level when it came to quality, as their pricing would imply. Now I'm skeptical. If I can't be assured that the trailer I want to buy that has had major issues, and exactly how those issues were remedied, I'm gun shy. I don't want to buy a trailer that HAS to be repaired.

[Beak12]

Trailblazers,
I'm guessing if Ed responded to Shadysplace's e-mail, he asked him NOT to post his response or he didn't have answers. If I wanted some private explanation to my concerns, I would have contacted Ed myself. My understanding is that this forum be used in part to shed light on (expose) concerns we have about our beloved trailers. Most responsible companies send out recall letters to ALL customers that have purchased inferior products to make things right, even if every customer of that product experienced a problem or not. From the posts I've seen, it doesn't seem like TM has done this, though I may be wrong. When my wife and I were shopping Elkmonts at Mentor RV last summer, they had a unit on the lot that had roof leaks they were fixing right outside on the lot. This is BAD public relations. Brulaz said ONLY time will tell if all the issues with Elkmonts and possibly the folding trailer line, are behind them, but TM could also tell owners up front . I know I sound critical, but my former opinion of TM has always been that they were on the next level when it came to quality, as their pricing would imply. Now I'm skeptical. If I can't be assured that the trailer I want to buy that has had major issues, and exactly how those issues were remedied, I'm gun shy. I don't want to buy a trailer that HAS to be repaired.

It might have been my Elkmont-we were at the Chautauqua Institution in western NY and left if there (Mentor RV) for leak work. This was in Aug.

[Mr. Adventure]

Trailblazers,
I'm guessing if Ed responded to Shadysplace's e-mail, he asked him NOT to post his response or he didn't have answers. If I wanted some private explanation to my concerns, I would have contacted Ed myself. My understanding is that this forum be used in part to shed light on (expose) concerns we have about our beloved trailers. Most responsible companies send out recall letters to ALL customers that have purchased inferior products to make things right, even if every customer of that product experienced a problem or not. From the posts I've seen, it doesn't seem like TM has done this, though I may be wrong. When my wife and I were shopping Elkmonts at Mentor RV last summer, they had a unit on the lot that had roof leaks they were fixing right outside on the lot. This is BAD public relations. Brulaz said ONLY time will tell if all the issues with Elkmonts and possibly the folding trailer line, are behind them, but TM could also tell owners up front . I know I sound critical, but my former opinion of TM has always been that they were on the next level when it came to quality, as their pricing would imply. Now I'm skeptical. If I can't be assured that the trailer I want to buy that has had major issues, and exactly how those issues were remedied, I'm gun shy. I don't want to buy a trailer that HAS to be repaired.

TrailManor is not a huge operation and does a much smaller volume than many imagine. If a car manufacturer had a problem with 10% of their production some month, they'd have computer systems that could track a defect all the way to the end customer so that they could issue a recall or at least put out a service bulletin. But in my own experience car manufacturers rarely notify customers about issues unless they have federal regulators looking over their shoulders.

In a good year, 10% of 1 month's production at TM would be lot more like 10 units than 10,000 units. They might or might not be able to tell which units might be affected and if they did, they might or might not be able to find you to fix them. I suggest that we should just be glad that TrailManor employs a guy like Ed and gives him the resources to work the problems for us.

My Winnebago Adventurer needed a full year working with a dealer to get a good sized list of important things right (for one example, they delivered it with a "check engine" light that would never go out, because the RV dealer didn't employ truck mechanics, so it became my job to go find the Ford dealer). If you're gun shy about buying an RV that needs to be repaired, I consider it unlikely that you can do much better than TrailManor as a manufacturer.

Also, who can blame Ed, (or General Motors, for that matter) for wanting to concentrate their customer service resources on the people with problems and not getting into defensive arguments on message boards with people who aren't directly involved?

[moaboy]

A note on TM quality-while I can't speak to the leaks in the roofs in the Elkmonts-no doubt a real issue from what I can tell from this site; I have had virtually no problems at all with my 2009.5 model 2720 that I bought new in late 2008. I've used it a number of times and the only issue was a faulty electric element in my hot water heater that was fixed under warranty. Knock on wood....
I understand that consistency is the goal in the manufacture of any product and one does not want to be apart of the manufacture's "learning curve" in getting there, but all in all, my expereince is that TM makes above average quality trailers.
Good luck.

[scrubjaysnest]

A note on TM quality-............snip..............
I understand that consistency is the goal in the manufacture of any product and one does not want to be apart of the manufacture's "learning curve" in getting there, but all in all, my expereince is that TM makes above average quality trailers.
Good luck.
Tend to agree with this except I would say average for TM rather than above average but this can hard to determine sometimes as many things can be sub contracted out which can be a vendor rather then a TM problem. Roof leaks, wiring problems, or other assembly things that are done directly at the factory IMO are what make the TM average. We have owned Two TT's, 3 pup's and 1 motor home before the TM. The TM falls right in line with everything but the motor home which had no factory construction issues 21 years.

[cochise]

Tend to agree with this except I would say average for TM rather than above average but this can hard to determine sometimes as many things can be sub contracted out which can be a vendor rather then a TM problem. Roof leaks, wiring problems, or other assembly things that are done directly at the factory IMO are what make the TM average. We have owned Two TT's, 3 pup's and 1 motor home before the TM. The TM falls right in line with everything but the motor home which had no factory construction issues 21 years.

Although it is basically true what you state with regards to some items having been "farmed out", there is NO excuse for poor quality. Yes it may be that a vendor doesn't do the job right BUT I did not buy from the vendor, I bought from TM. So ultimately they are responsible for the product delivered. Not the vendor. TM should have tested the vendors product prior to using it in THEIR [TM's] product to ensure good quality. And with regards to roof leaks that is a design problem. And so is the wiring. One of these days I will relate the story of my Elkmont in deeper detail.

[scrubjaysnest]

....................snip................ Yes it may be that a vendor doesn't do the job right BUT I did not buy from the vendor, I bought from TM. So ultimately they are responsible for the product delivered. Not the vendor. TM should have tested the vendors product prior to using it in THEIR [TM's] product to ensure good quality..................snip.................

This may be true but then my TM owners manual contains different vendor supplied items that TM doesn't warranty; the vendor does. I don't know the truth of the matter but I recently read where a RV maker was sued out of business because a vendor changed their process in making a supplied item to meet EPA requirements. The vendor didn't notify the RV maker of the changes. Something like this would require testing of every batch received from the vendor by the RV maker. Testing of that nature would make an over priced item even higher. In the case of our TM the wiring is in TM's control at the factory. But the TV antenna installation was done by the dealer and is out of TM's control; and yes to prevent leak problems at the TV antenna I have three choices, go back to the dealer, 1100 miles, take it to the factory, about 600 miles, or fix it myself. None of these are good choices for something that should have been done right in the first place.

[cochise]

This may be true but then my TM owners manual contains different vendor supplied items that TM doesn't warranty; the vendor does. I don't know the truth of the matter but I recently read where a RV maker was sued out of business because a vendor changed their process in making a supplied item to meet EPA requirements. The vendor didn't notify the RV maker of the changes. Something like this would require testing of every batch received from the vendor by the RV maker. Testing of that nature would make an over priced item even higher. In the case of our TM the wiring is in TM's control at the factory. But the TV antenna installation was done by the dealer and is out of TM's control; and yes to prevent leak problems at the TV antenna I have three choices, go back to the dealer, 1100 miles, take it to the factory, about 600 miles, or fix it myself. None of these are good choices for something that should have been done right in the first place.

I agree with you pricipally......BUT go take a look at the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act(15 U.S.C. § 2301 et seq.)It's all spelled out there. Very simple and very straight forward. And it is not a new law, it goes back to 1975. Amazingly few people know about it.

[curlyontop]

Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act worked for us!!!

[lyndons]

We purchased a 2011 Elkmont Bunkhouse 24' in 2011 from a Dealer in Ohio and when it arrived we noticed stain markings and water inside as well as rusted hardware on a brand new never used RV. We contacted the dealer who assured us it was never used ( still had plastic on everything inside) and it had NEVER leaked.
We took it out for a maiden trip. No rain so no leaks that we could report. Then the camper was stored for the winter up her in Mass. We had it covered and protected and winterized. When we got it back in the spring we noticed more leaks roof, front by the queen bed and mold growth.
We started communication with the dealer in ohio who referred us to the manufacturer in TN. Ed Lytle had then started working with us on the leaking problem.
They took the Trailer back to the Factory in late 2012 and we did not get it back until 2013. They had to seal the entire camper and rebuild much of the inside. The camper FINALLY comes back to us with over $500 out of pocket expense as we had to pay for them to transport it back to use part way!
We go to use the camper and same thing! Leaking all over the place. Water damage continues to get worse. We continue the process and finally last Fall they have us bring in to a local dealer on cape cod who sealed it with some kind of 3M product. The camper continues to leak! Worse than before. Leaking so bad their is now think layers of mold on 70% of the surfaces, rotting wood pieces, mattresses no good and hundreds of dollars in damage to our personal items. We notified Trailmanor that the problem persists and now we have water FLOWING in around the door and all windows in addition to back bunk areas and front bed. We put in dehumidifiers, and have cleaned it over 5 times this summer alone with bleach and mold cleaners. We are now once again trying to get this resolved by Trailmanor. At this point the camper we are told is not safe to even drive! The floor is rotting and there are bolts from the chasis pushing through the inside flooring! The mold levels are so high and thick layers visable through out after anytime of rain storm that we are also told it is unsafe health wise to dwell in it. A total loss for us! WE are devastated. We again have contacted Trailmanor and now Ed says it is out of his hands!!! The owners need to deal with us. We are now seeking legal counsel about this. I am wondering if others out there are dealing with the same issues and have any advice for us.