Funfinder, negligent manufacturing defects

[Agnitio]

Originally Posted by twinster2

With regard to the OP's issue with fans missing, it is possible to use a couple of 12 volt dc computer fans that cost about $5 each and mount in a way to blow air over the heat exchange coils. They are extremely quite and do a great job of improving the efficiency of the refrigerator. Just takes a little ingenuity to get it to work better than it currently does.

I have played around with adding just fans, I added 1, then a 2nd and a 3rd, and it only helps some. We like to camp in areas w/o hookups and the fans put unwanted drain on my batteries. I have 2, 6v Trojans which on cool days (where the fans don't run much) we can go for 5 days on battery power. On hot days we are looking at 3-1/2 days.

There is still a safty concern that I have yet to mention. Not only is heat being trapped in the cavity above the fridge, but the combustion exhaust will also get trapped up there and not vent to the exterior. Combine that thought with considering the pitch of the slideout roof and it is probable that the exhaust fumes could flow back into the interior of the trailer.

[gmw photographics]

If you have added as many as three fans, and the fridge unit is still not cooling correctly, my guess would be you have some other issue with the unit that is resulting in incorrect cooling. But that's just a guess obviously, since I'm just sitting here looking at forum posts. You are there looking right at it, so have a different perspective of it.

In your original post you state that the fridge issue makes you question the rest of the trailer as well. Could be this is not the RV for you ? Sometimes I suppose it's just not worth keeping a given product if we have an overall distrust of it. Life is short, why spend time with something that is causing concern, when we can cut it loose and find another product that will meet our needs while at the same time inspiring confidence.

You're not the first person that has found Funfinder to not be "the one " for them.
Perhaps a trailer with a fridge not in the slide would work better for you, since they typically have a roof vent and don't need a fan ?

Best of luck to you, if you change out to another brand, stop in and see us occasionally. We always like to see how folks are getting on with their RV'ing adventures, even if they are no long FF owners.

RV'ing is supposed to be fun. Best to do what it takes to keep it that way. A cold fridge goes a long way to keeping it fun.

[Agnitio]

Originally Posted by gmw photographics

If you have added as many as three fans, and the fridge unit is still not cooling correctly, my guess would be you have some other issue with the unit that is resulting in incorrect cooling. But that's just a guess obviously, since I'm just sitting here looking at forum posts. You are there looking right at it, so have a different perspective of it.

In your original post you state that the fridge issue makes you question the rest of the trailer as well. Could be this is not the RV for you ? Sometimes I suppose it's just not worth keeping a given product if we have an overall distrust of it. Life is short, why spend time with something that is causing concern, when we can cut it loose and find another product that will meet our needs while at the same time inspiring confidence.

You're not the first person that has found Funfinder to not be "the one " for them.
Perhaps a trailer with a fridge not in the slide would work better for you, since they typically have a roof vent and don't need a fan ?

Best of luck to you, if you change out to another brand, stop in and see us occasionally. We always like to see how folks are getting on with their RV'ing adventures, even if they are no long FF owners.

RV'ing is supposed to be fun. Best to do what it takes to keep it that way. A cold fridge goes a long way to keeping it fun.

We really like the layout of the trailer, I have just lost confidence in the manufacture. As I read other forums, it seams almost all manufactures have issues from shortcuts. I'm staritng to get the feeling that low quality standards are systemic in the industry. I'm actually surprised at the level of apathy from owners and how easy everyone just accepts low quality as a norm. Products will not improve until the consumers develope some outrage and hold these manufactures to a higher standard.

[Michigantraveler]

I agree. There is no lemon law to fall back on like with automobiles. You are really at the mercy of the dealer and his schedule. People who spend good money on a product deserve good service after they hand over their money. Some owners have only small issues but it seems that many more have real issues. When we picked up our used trailer at the dealer the technician pointed to large expensive brand new trailers that had been sold but still remained there getting things fixed that had been screwed up by the manufacturers. We had no issues with our 1987 32 foot Prairie Schooner from the time we bought it in 1990 until we sold it one year and 25,000 miles later. They just don't make them (or anything it seems) like they used to.

[Eagle]

As you all know, we have become a "throw away" society. More and more people just accept that what they buy will not last very long ~ or so it seems.

It costs more to repair most any electronic item than to 'toss it' and buy a new one.

Think about all the 'throw away' items you use every day: paper plates/cups; grocery bags; paper towels; foam paint brushes; sealed/non-repairable equipment components; diapers; and on and on. The manufacturers/marketers have taken advantage of that aspect and the public, generally, has accepted it.

Then again, even finding someone that KNOWS how to make repairs is questionable too or IF repair parts are even available!

Being a "jack of all trades" is a great advantage. Also, it's possible to find 'nearly' everything you need to know about repairing/obtaining parts on the internet - if you search long enough.

Just a thought.

[Travels with Yoly]

As gmw photographics so eloquently stated, "You're not the first person that has found Funfinder to not be "the one " for them. " I fall into that category as some of you may remember us. Our brand new 2015 214WSD FF was used twice. The interior of the cabin flooded 5 times on those two trips. All the issues originated in different areas ... roof leaks, window leaks, water pump leaks, water heater leaks etc. As I investigated the source of the leaks in order to fix them I found myself removing panels and seeing some of the assembly details for the first time. These experiences destroyed my faith in Cruiser RV. Instead of neatly routed and secured wiring looms, I found large balls of wiring "birds nests" hanging in the air with dozens of twist on connectors. I found all the plumbing tee connectors with tubes entering them at every imaginable angle (nothing cut or mounted square). Vibration will naturally cause these angled joints to loosen over time and leak constantly. We loved the unit and the floor plan otherwise. We also had indifferent and very poor service from our selling dealer and some issues were never resolved. We had been traveling over 10,000 miles a year since retiring and planned on continuing so we decided to do what gmw described and simply cut our losses and moved on.

For the record, the FF was our third travel trailer and I can't say that it was the worst. For those of you having issues with your fridge and issues with the venting and installation, let me show you the refrigerator from hell from the previous unit we owned.

This is exactly the way it looked when I took off the upper side exhaust vent (no roof outlet).



As you can see there was no effort to baffle or direct any air flow for cooling the evaporator. The small piece of reflective material was hanging just as it appears. The large cavity above the fridge not only kept the fridge from working properly, but heated up the underside of the kitchen counter above it so much, that you could fry and egg on it. As usual, the selling dealer was of no help what so ever and I wound up building the baffle walls and insulating the entire rear of the unit myself. I also had to install a fan in the lower section



Next week we will be picking up our 7th camper in 3 years and hopefully it will be our last. Number 4 was incredibly well built and trouble free which is why we still have it. All of our escapades can be found on our YouTube channel if anyone is interested. Some of you may remember us

Neil & Yoly
https://www.youtube.com/user/TravelswithYoly

[michellep]

Originally Posted by Travels with Yoly

...Next week we will be picking up our 7th camper in 3 years and hopefully it will be our last...

.
LOLOL - 7 campers in 3 years???
Tenacious little devil, aren't you?

What happened to camping out of the back end of your vehicle? (can't recall the vehicle)?
I thought you guys were happy with that set-up?

.

[Kansas newbie]

Yes, I thought you were, too! Did that "old-age" monster get you?

[gmw photographics]

Hey Neil ! So what camper are you buying next ?

[Travels with Yoly]

We had decided that since the conventional RV industry wasn't reliable enough for confident traveling that we would scale back our travels and not do the typical coast to coast trips every year that we had been doing. We decided that we'd stick closer to home, take shorter trips (distance & time) and see some of the State Parks in our state & surrounding states. We discovered the Runaway Range Runner which is thinking outside the box .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXlexz5ehTQ

And as Michelle remembers, we slept comfortably in the covered rear of our Ram 1500. You can see many videos on the channel of us camping in that set up (See Georgia State Parks Playlist). Then one day we were camped and had a run in with a sudden thunderstorm with high winds. (Limiting our trip to 3 or 4 days maximum allowed us to plan our trips in good weather windows). I found it impossible to cook outside under the pop-up canopy on our little propane stove and so we decided that we needed some sort of shelter for cooking and eating (even on short trips). About this time, we also realized that there was one more item stashed away at the bottom of our bucket list ... touring Western Canada.

So we decided that travel trailers were too high maintenance and cumbersome so we thought we'd try a cab-over, slide-in truck camper. Unfortunately, our payload capacity on the Ram 1500 limited us to a very few choices so we bought one that barely stayed below our GVWR. We kinda liked it but felt uncomfortable driving with it so on a hunch I took it to a Certified CAT Scale and discovered it to be about 800 lbs heavier than the advertised weight. We were about 400 lbs above the GVWR as well as the rear axle load rating. Thankfully, the dealer was cool and gave us our money back (and the Range Runner that we had traded in). We bought a much smaller (and lighter) truck camper without the cab-over bed. We figured that we could cook and eat in the little Rayzr and use the Range Runner as our living/bedroom and the 10x10 pop-up as an outside sitting area.



But as we thought back, we really liked the first slide-in camper (see channel for video), which met all our needs and allowed us to travel with nothing in tow (just too heavy). As we got to thinking, we decided to bite the proverbial bullet and we just bought a new 2016 Ram 2500HD 3/4 ton truck. Now our slide-in camper selection opened up to very many choices as we weren't so limited on weight. We have to drive 360 miles to NC next Tuesday to pick up our new truck camper Wednesday morning.

You guys will have to check the channel in a couple weeks to see the 7th and last camper we will be having. Already planning next summers trip to "the Great White North"

[Eagle]

Hi, Nice to hear from you again.

I upgraded from my Ram 1500 (due to rust only) to a Ram 2500 HD w/6.4 Liter Hemi and am super happy with the truck. I'm highly confident you will be pleased with yours too.

PS: Mine has the Rambox option that is a super addition for storage of those 'little items" that accumulate.

[gmw photographics]

Neil, I hear you on the idea of a truck camper. I have my eye on one of these as a possibility in the future.
I think it would be a fun addition to my Funfinder.

SWIFT POP-UP (SHORTER 5.0' BED) - Four Wheel Campers | Low Profile, Light Weight, Pop-up Truck Campers

[Travels with Yoly]

Originally Posted by gmw photographics

Neil, I hear you on the idea of a truck camper. I have my eye on one of these as a possibility in the future.
I think it would be a fun addition to my Funfinder.

SWIFT POP-UP (SHORTER 5.0' BED) - Four Wheel Campers | Low Profile, Light Weight, Pop-up Truck Campers

Four Wheels Campers was my first go to choice. The problem however had to do with the fact that they don't recommend A/C on the roof as it makes it hard for an individual to raise the roof manually by themselves and we have to have A/C here in the southeast. Secondly was the cost. The standard base camper is pretty expensive and yet it has almost no standard equipment. Everything is sold "ala Carte" and a camper outfitted to our needs would have been very cost prohibitive. The unit we are buying (still secret) is made along the lines of the Four Wheel brand and comes out of Yakima, WA. so none of that "mid-west culture of building crap". It also uses aluminum and composite materials for durability & weight reduction and comes with a 3 year structural warranty.

I was watching a YouTube video yesterday and discovered a benefit of having the truck camper over the travel trailer .... ferry crossings are half the cost since the fees are based on the total length of the tow vehicle and trailer

[Michigantraveler]

Oh, we just watched your video on this the other day. I guess they make different versions of your new truck camper. Everyone has different ideas about how they want to do it. And if this works for you, then great! If we wanted to spend a bit of money we would be owning an Oliver travel trailer from Canada. Not large and not cheap but quality in everything. Check them out on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/VWTL0btijEw

[Michigantraveler]

and comes out of Yakima, WA. so none of that "mid-west culture of building crap".

Interesting statement.

[Michigantraveler]

I just noticed your video on the truck camper says FOR SALE. Are you selling it?

[Travels with Yoly]

Originally Posted by Michigantraveler

Oh, we just watched your video on this the other day. I guess they make different versions of your new truck camper. Everyone has different ideas about how they want to do it. And if this works for you, then great! If we wanted to spend a bit of money we would be owning an Oliver travel trailer from Canada. Not large and not cheap but quality in everything. Check them out on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/VWTL0btijEw

I'm very familiar with Ollies .... they are really cool but a tad expensive. I'd love to have started out with one for sure instead of the route we took. They are made in Tennessee I believe. Our goal here is to travel without anything in tow.

It is for sale but we're trading it in to the dealer on the new camper. Are you interested ?

My comment on mid-west "culture" is a description of something I've read that identifies a fundamental problem in that 80% of all the RV production seems to be centered in one distinct area of the country. As such, it has created a somewhat "transitory work force" whereby workers are free to move about easily from one manufacturer to another. This lessens the need for the worker to be as accountable as he should be and also decreases brand loyalty and pride in building any specific brand. I know this is a broad sweeping generality but from our experiences, I can't help but feel there is some merit to this assesment.

[shadow]

I sold my 2012 FDS 2 years ago and bought a 2295 lance, difference in quality is really astounding. To the fridge cooling problem, I posted my fix a couple years back. I purchased 2 120cfm fans that only drew .2 amps, very quiet. Install a thermocouple on the fins up top. Added a cut vent at the top of the slide out, this helped a ton but on really hot days, 90F plus I found taking off the exterior panel help alot as well. total cost of mod was about $50 and took about 2 hours to complete

[Michigantraveler]

You are right. Oliver's are made in Tennessee. And yes pricey, like Airstream. Not sure why I was thinking Canada. Why are you trading again?

[Agnitio]

Originally Posted by shadow

I sold my 2012 FDS 2 years ago and bought a 2295 lance, difference in quality is really astounding. To the fridge cooling problem, I posted my fix a couple years back. I purchased 2 120cfm fans that only drew .2 amps, very quiet. Install a thermocouple on the fins up top. Added a cut vent at the top of the slide out, this helped a ton but on really hot days, 90F plus I found taking off the exterior panel help alot as well. total cost of mod was about $50 and took about 2 hours to complete

Yes, it is somewhat correctable, but that is not the point of the post. As long as consumers tolerate and accept poor assembly practasis as normal and embrace having to modify products to compensate, there is no motivation for the manufacture to change. Where is the consumer outrage? This is an example of the free market failing - or is the consumers passivity failing the market?