I shared my story up to January 7th, 2016 when I decided to finally publish all this to share with prospective buyers or anyone else with a Roadtrek that was wondering why they might be having heating issues as well – I know you’re out there, I talk to you on Facebook. Today is almost another month later and I still have no RV.
Just after my last entry, my dealer, Roadtrek, and Alde were working to figure out what was going on with the heating system in the coach and why the performance was so lackluster. Roadtrek informed my dealer who forwarded an email to me that they were continuing testing at the factory in Canada with a similar system to determine what was going on.
We are continuing testing so we can get a series of results. Last night the van was tested and did heat to about 60º, but the team here wants to continue testing to get a more accurate look at the situation. We will be running the Alde system over the weekend with meters measuring temperature, etc.
If Roadtrek was investigating at the factory, it gave me hope that they were agreeing with me that the heating performance was not correct. The lowest temperature the night they were referencing was 21º, so their van only managed to heat about 39º – I certainly wouldn’t say that 60º is warm and wouldn’t want to be boondocking on a cold Canadian night if that was all I could expect from the system.
At this point, I asked my dealer to investigate alternative brands. Three months in with no end in sight and I was ready to move on to another manufacturer. On January 12th, my dealer told me to call Roadtrek – they might have a solution for me.
The next day I spoke with the Roadtrek representative. She apologized for the trouble, and told me the heat was a problem that they were discovering and working to engineer a solution. One of the issues she mentioned was the fact that a portion of the heating loop in the coach ran under the vehicle and was exposed to the outside. She said they were actively working on a redesigned system.
The offer was to unwind the deal – give me back my Ranger and undo the sale of the CS Adventurous. The second option was to replace the vehicle with a newly built and tested identical model (which at this point would mean a full model year newer because we are already in 2016). Taking back the Ranger seemed less attractive now that time had passed and value had been lost, and I don’t know if anything would be done to make up for finance charges, insurance payments made, travel, etc. And despite all the trouble, I really did want a CS Adventurous. Even though I haven’t been able to test one, the things they SAY they can do sound great. So I agreed to a replacement vehicle and was told one was already beginning production with the right options. And so I waited.
And so I continue to wait. And my RV sits at the dealership where it has remained since the beginning of December, 2015 (I have to put the year now when I mention dates, because I don’t know how many Decembers it might be before I see a working RV). But my finance company and insurance carrier still get their payments every month even though the driveway is empty.