Cracked ABS top on Coleman Westlake

[MikeZ]

Hello all,
Sorry to say that I am not a member of your club, but am a Socal Camper. I have a 02 Coleman Westlake, with a one-piece ABS Top. Last week, while camping at lake Jennings and for no reason at all, the center support appear to have shifted, and upon lowering the top, found hairline cracks in the top all the way across. Have any of you had the same problem? Although, it looks like Fleetwood will cover the parts and labor, they are trying to stick me with a $1300.00 shipping bill. It looks like I am in a battle with them to stand up and take care of their customer, and would like some ammo as I proceed. If I can find others that have had this unpleasant experience, I might be able work out some sort of deal with them. My first experience with Bill, the Cust rep at Fleetwood, was that they have little, if any propensity for goodwill consideration. We will see.

Thanks in advance to all who post,

Mike

[Tim5055]

Hello all,
Sorry to say that I am not a member of your club, but am a Socal Camper. I have a 02 Coleman Westlake, with a one-piece ABS Top. Last week, while camping at lake Jennings and for no reason at all, the center support appear to have shifted, and upon lowering the top, found hairline cracks in the top all the way across. Have any of you had the same problem? Although, it looks like Fleetwood will cover the parts and labor, they are trying to stick me with a $1300.00 shipping bill. It looks like I am in a battle with them to stand up and take care of their customer, and would like some ammo as I proceed. If I can find others that have had this unpleasant experience, I might be able work out some sort of deal with them. My first experience with Bill, the Cust rep at Fleetwood, was that they have little, if any propensity for goodwill consideration. We will see.

Thanks in advance to all who post,

Mike

Mike, I'm sorry to say that you are not the first to have problems with a FFT ABS roof, and at this point I can almost assure you that you are getting the best deal FFT is currently offering.

Check out the entire
Story of a roof HERE

I'm also sorry to say, the "trying to stick me" part is really just the written warranty on the pop up.  Shipping was only included for the first year.  After that parts and labor is on them, shipping is on the owner.

[tlhdoc]

I was one of the first customers that had to PAY for my free roof.  Until April 1, 2002 Fleetwood did not charge original owners for the shipping, but now they do. The written warranty says you have to pay for the shipping, and guess what,  they choose the shipping.  No picking the roof up, no choosing your own shipper.  Sorry to hear about your roof.  I know how you feel.:mad:

[brainpause]

After hearing roof stories over and over again, I'll have to agree with Tim, that you are probably getting the best deal possible. Better bite and run, if they are saying they will pay for the roof. They are truly just holding up the letter of the law (ie, the warranty).

Larry

[beacher]

Hello MikeZ,

Welcome!  Not so much a club.  More of a message/information board!

Being a fellow SoCal Fleetwood PU owner I'm curious about warranty roof replacement cost.

Not only are the old ABS roofs prone to fail, but the Alumitite roofs manufactured between 2003.5 and 2004, (what mine has), have been found to leak sometimes if not properly caulked during their manufacture.

You have a few choices, I'm curious if they all charge the exact same Shipping fee?

American Campers and Trailers in Santon and Baldwin Park
Marjon RV in Moreno Valley
Carl's Acres of Trailers in Ontario
Stier's in Bakersfield
Harbor Chrysler in Ventura
Freeway Trailer in Escondido
C&D Motorhomes in SanDiego

[Tim5055]

You have a few choices, I'm curious if they all charge the exact same Shipping fee?

American Campers and Trailers in Santon and Baldwin Park
Marjon RV in Moreno Valley
Carl's Acres of Trailers in Ontario
Stier's in Bakersfield
Harbor Chrysler in Ventura
Freeway Trailer in Escondido
C&D Motorhomes in SanDiego

The only "deals" I have heard about are from "good" dealers (i.e. those that look out for the customers best interst).  Sometimes a good dealer will work out shipping with FFT to occur on the same truck with a delivery shipment on new trailers.  Sometimes they can get the cost down that way.

[jbalash]

Hello Mike,

Welcome. Try a dealer in a large metro area close to you. You don't say where you are from. I live in Orlando and contacted my dealer a couple of months ago and got on an order with a few other people and paid $500.00 shipping, still alot but better than $1300.00. Also, since the've done alot of the roof replacements, they did an excellent job.  Hope this helps.

Jim

[Tim5055]

As i have said before, having a good dealer helps.  Here is an e-mail I received a couple of days ago, I'm sure after reading this thread:


Hi Tim,
Saw your post replying to someone asking about ABS roofs and just read all your info on your website.  I am so pleased that we were able to buy from Pecos. Here is why:  we somehow missed that there was a problem in used Coleman roofs. We'd been looking at them for a few years, so I don't know how we missed that subject. Anyway, we inspected the PUP we bought thoroughly - except for the roof.  We liked it, bought it, and scheduled pick up. The morning we were to pick it up, Pecos called us to let us know that they found 2 hairline cracks in the roof and that they had sealed them and ordered a new roof - AT NO CHARGE TO US.  Can you believe it?!!!  My husband's mouth was forming the words "deals off" right as the guy spit out the no cost part.  Anyway, you have seen so many negative stories about those roofs, that I thought I'd give you a nice story.  I have been incredibly pleased with our experience with Pecos.  Now, we haven't gotten the new roof installed yet, so we'll see how it goes, but I have no reason to think that there will be issues.

[MikeZ]

Thank you all for your posts. I have decided  to give it my best shot at my selling dealer for a couple of reasons: 1. They pressed hard to get me to buy a model with an ABS top with a big sales pitch about how durable they were, lifetime warranty, etc., etc. 2. Freeway Trailer is 3 miles from my house, otherwise it's 40 to the nearest dealer in San Diego. I am going to start the process that Fleetwood said would be necessary (pictures, documentation, serial #) this Saturday and then I think the action will begin. After reading the posts, and seeing the extensive history of this problem, I will probably not give in till they make me happy. It is not the $1300.00 as much as it is the principle of the whole matter. I feel that they are trying to subsidize their losses on these roofs by charging exorbitant shipping fees. If I am lucky, I will have a stand-up dealer that will help me out. If not, I will probably escalate this until I have no more options. I will keep you all who watch this thread informed as to the progress and outcome.

Regards,

Mike

[PLJ]

Good for you Mike. We have the ABS roof on a Coleman Cheyenne. So far the roof is fine but who knows, so I'll be watching this thread closely.

We have a three year old Yamaha clavinova keyboard. Recently one of the keys started to stick. We put in a service call and after the technician examined the product and verified that we were the original buyers of the product explained that a problem had been identified with the making of the keys. They had a propensity to crack at the back of the key. It didn't happen to all Clavinovas, but enough that Yamaha was aware of the issue. What did Yamaha do? They empowered the dealerships to fully replace the whole keybed assembly (88 keys, contacts etc) with no cost to me for labor, parts or shipping. The parts were not made by Yamaha, but they took ownership of the issue and resolved it without me the customer being impacted negatively. If only all companies worked this way.

[mike4947]

The shipping fee of apx $1300 to the west coast isn't anything special. Shipping ranged from $300 to the dealer just a few miles from The PA factory to $1100 to the west coast three years ago. So with inflation and the increased fuel costs the $1300 sounds about right for shipping to the west coast.The basic roof cost runs between $1300-$1600 and dealer installation runs apx $400. So for a new 12 footer on the west coast without any warranty figure about $3200-$3400.

[cwilson]

can you provice any additional information or new developments on this situation?

Hello all,
Sorry to say that I am not a member of your club, but am a Socal Camper. I have a 02 Coleman Westlake, with a one-piece ABS Top. Last week, while camping at lake Jennings and for no reason at all, the center support appear to have shifted, and upon lowering the top, found hairline cracks in the top all the way across. Have any of you had the same problem? Although, it looks like Fleetwood will cover the parts and labor, they are trying to stick me with a $1300.00 shipping bill. It looks like I am in a battle with them to stand up and take care of their customer, and would like some ammo as I proceed. If I can find others that have had this unpleasant experience, I might be able work out some sort of deal with them. My first experience with Bill, the Cust rep at Fleetwood, was that they have little, if any propensity for goodwill consideration. We will see.

Thanks in advance to all who post,

Mike

[jimlinalf]

can you provice any additional information or new developments on this situation?

When you say the cracks go all the way across when the center support shifted, can you explain more about this because I have a 2001 westlak with no problems so far, garage kept all the time.  Also, were the cracks so severe that they couldn't be covered with some sort of compatable material whether it be plastic or fiberglass.  Please excuse my ignorance of these materials but I'd rather have a nice patch job on an older popup than pay the 1300 dollars for shipping.  Thanks for any info.

Jim

[ccarr113]

So, is there really no rhyme or reason for these defects?  We have a 1998 fleetwood/coleman natchez 12 footer, and so far so good.  I do notice however what I guess some might call the "sag"  but maybe that's the way its supposed to be, it doesn't seem that bad so it is hard to say.  Reading these posts makes me sort of nervous.  Do these defects follow any VIN number pattern or any date of mfg pattern?  Being a 1998, would something already have happened to it?  Some said climate and storage was a factor.  We live in New England and the previous owner(who had it in New Hampshire) told us that the camper spent part of its life in Florida.  Any speculation would be welcome.

[Tim5055]

I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible

So, is there really no rhyme or reason for these defects? None that any of us who have followed this for years can determine.  FFT has not released any official information.

Do these defects follow any VIN number pattern None that any of us who have followed this for years can determine.


Do these defects follow any date of mfg pattern?  None that any of us who have followed this for years can determine.


Being a 1998, would something already have happened to it?  Probably, but who knows.  Being a 1998 FFT probably manufactured it themselves as the "outsourcing" in an attempt to stop the sag problems happened in 1999 as best as i can figure.  I really can't remember any FFT manufacturered roofs having any problems other than sag.  The cracking and delamination seemed to be on those roofs manufacturered by the outside vendor (who went belly up).


Some said climate and storage was a factor.  We live in New England and the previous owner(who had it in New Hampshire) told us that the camper spent part of its life in Florida.  Any speculation would be welcome.  Climate has been suggested as a reason, but there are lots of ABS roofs in Texas that are fine and my previous roof in Maryland sagged.  Mine was stored in a garage and was not really subjected to abnormal heat conditions.  The final cause (as well as anyone can like us can figure out) is that roofs manufactured under certain climatic conditions (temperature and humidity) did not allow the ABS plastic to cure properly. It was these roofs that eventually sagged. So, it appears it is not the climate the final ABS roof lives in, bu the climatic conditions on the day a specific roof was manufacturered in PA.

Clear as mud?? :confused:

The Story of a Roof