Keystone Aquires Crossroads / Redwood

[NewRW Owner]

Originally Posted by Buddy Wallace

I'm glad we bought 2013 Redwood 36FB right after Cameo was bought out, still had quality, we went to the 2017 Tampa show and was surprised with how much changed for the worse. Wasn't impressed
with Redwood, DRV or New Horizon. I'm not selling what I have now until I feel a new coach is equal or better than mine now,

Unfortunately I think you're right. And this won't go well for the RV industry if they don't get back to manufacturing a quality product. And standing behind it with their warranty. Many have remarked that all new RVs have issues. They're right. We've had them too but never were they serious enough that they've been uninhabitable. And we've travelled across the U.S. with each one, including our 2004 slide in camper that we still own. We do still own a home, thankfully. I'd hate to think of how we'd be doing if we were full timers.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by NewRW Owner

Unfortunately I think you're right. And this won't go well for the RV industry if they don't get back to manufacturing a quality product. And standing behind it with their warranty.

.....when was that exactly?

[sncindee]

Originally Posted by Char & Steve

What color or pattern are you looking for? We removed our table and 2 chairs along with the 2 folding chairs. Just sitting in storage and would make you a super deal but somehow would need to get them. I am headed to the Rally in July.

Steve

We are looking for urban clay 2016,I am new where is rally?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Char & Steve]

Unfortunately they are not Urban Clay. If open to other options I can send a picture of what I have. Email me at potters66@yahoo.com

Redwood Rally is in Shipshewana IN. in July. Last year close to 100 rigs pulled in. Info should be here somewhere or look over on the ROG site.
Lots of vender including Redwood and lots of fun.

Steve

[markw]

On our first trip out, I weighed the trailer. 13, 36re, ceramic counters. Loaded for 2 weeks including full 100 gallons of water. I wanted to know the full weight.

3400 on the pin, 12,100 on the axles. 15,500 total.

Mark.

[afmillerdpd]

Originally Posted by Jeff&Brenda

For those who may or may not know. Keystone RV has acquired Crossroads / Redwood RV. Crossroads being the parent company for Redwood. This information was passed to me last week when I called Redwood Customer Service and was answered with KEYSTONE RV! Thought maybe I had the wrong number. But NO, the customer service person explained to me what had happened. NOW, THOR Enterprises still owns all these companies.

Redwood has discontinued making the Sequoia model also, (lower end Redwood) Now Redwood only makes the Redwood Model.

Beginning with the 2018 model year. Redwood will be reducing the manufacturer warranty to one year (instead of the current 2 year).

This is not good for the Redwood Line or for sales, as most new RV buyers and current ones looking to upgrade will be looking for a good warranty. (2 years). One year hardly gets the RV broke in, before problems start to happen.

I see problems for REDWOOD down the line. When companies in the RV industry do this, it won't be long before they go out of business. THOR is one of those megalopolis companies that will shut down an operation over night if it begins to lose to much money. And with the reduction in the warranty, my guess is they are starting to bleed too much money in repair claims.

So, If you are concerned about your Redwood, you might want to consider taking out an Extended Service Plan, (we just did with Good Sams) Protect the investment you have!

You all take care.

Just bought 2018 3401RL with 2 year factory warranty....

[camper94]

I hope you have better luck with your REDWOOD than I did. Most of the major problems I had were fixed by my original dealer, even though that dealer was pretty much clueless on how to repair RV's.

2 Times now I have had to take our REDWOOD to Indiana for repairs. Once to the Factory Service Center (which is totally different than the actual factory) and just recently in October I had to take the RV to Lippert Service Center in Goshen, IN for slide repairs. This was an out of pocket repair, since it is now out of Warranty and REDWOOD has washed their hands of our RV.

Be prepared for poor customer service with REDWOOD. Their main concern is making money and NOT customer service.

As a bit of advice, look over your RV completely. You will find seams coming apart where they didn't staple things correctly. Slide Problems galore. Also, if you have an Ice maker in your Fridge, have your dealer remove the original water line to the Ice maker and replace with a reinforced water line, you can purchase from LOWES or Home Depot. The cheap CHINESE Crap water line they use, WILL Spring a leak sooner or later and cause all kind of water damage.

GOOD LUCK!

[Dave&Ginny]

I don't think Redwood is any worse than most of the RV brands. They all have issues partly because of the manufacturing process and the manufacture's concern with keeping weight within the abilities of the trucks. There is a difference in quality of different RVs but that extra quality is never enough and it does cost money. ALL RVs take constant up-keep.

This might have already been posted somewhere:

Instead of the extended warranties you might want to consider being self insured. An extended warranty cost money and then the company offering the warranty makes money by denying your claim. Once that money is spent on the warranty, it's gone like rent. You might want to consider instead, to put back into an account $200-$300 a month. Once you achieve the amount that you think would cover a big problem, stop saving and let the money ride. In diesel motor homes, I figure around $15,000-$20,000.

The money is always at your disposal to use for repairs and you don't have to worry about being denied by someone on the phone. And you can get the repairs done anywhere you want. I still maintain towing insurance.

JMO

[RCAircraft]

That's good advice. A small savings to back up unexpected expenses makes one sleep a little better.

[woodman1]

We purchased a new RW in fall of last year before it was acquired from Keystone. We inherited several build problems, some of which I fixed myself and others that required an RV technician. If you recall, THOR is a giant in the RV industry and owns Keystone and Crossroads, thus RW, plus many, many others. The original co-founders of THOR were Peter Orthwein and Wade Thompson. They were investors hedging their bets that when baby boomers were going to retire, they would purchase an RV. They were spot on. Thompson passed away and Robert Martin, former CEO of Keystone, stepped in and is now CEO of THOR. To most, it was a natural progression, since Keystone was one of the largest companies which THOR controlled. So now that Keystone has acquired RW, there are those which feel RW will become an inferior product. As noted, the RV industry is overall challenged with quality control. I think the RV build is more likened to the housing industry, both of which are experiencing a huge demand and suffering from quality control. Like homes, they are scratch built and use many pre-made components, employing many workers who are non-skilled. Labor shortages in Elkhart county, were near 20K, according to a published newspaper report in fall of 2017. This is all frustrating to the consumer and dealerships having to repair preventable problems. Subjecting RV's to road hazards, potholes, and bridge approachments, makes them even more vulnerable. One of the first things we did is to change the rims and tires to Goodyear G114's and last spring had MorRyde install their IS and disc brakes. I have the Trail-Aire flex hitch and religiously grease the 9 zerk fittings. I could not be happier with the whole system. Bottom line, I really like my RW, despite the initial flaws and all, it is still one of the classiest and well built 5th wheels in the market. The original discussion was that Keystone now manages RW. Acquisitions are now part of the landscape in the business industry, and it is bottom line driven. Like everything else in life, investigate and educate yourself before making any decisions. I don't think that just because Keystone acquired RW, that this should necessarily translate to more inferiority. It may make them more efficient and undoubtedly, also make them a better stock investment, after all, now that many of us are retired, I like to see my stock portfolio improve. lol

That said, we just traveled another 3000 miles over the last 3 weeks with our '17 RW in tow and considering all the road hazards and weather changes we experienced, it fared extremely well. It's a keeper!

[RCAircraft]

Originally Posted by woodman1

We purchased a new RW in fall of last year before it was acquired from Keystone. We inherited several build problems, some of which I fixed myself and others that required an RV technician. If you recall, THOR is a giant in the RV industry and owns Keystone and Crossroads, thus RW, plus many, many others. The original co-founders of THOR were Peter Orthwein and Wade Thompson. They were investors hedging their bets that when baby boomers were going to retire, they would purchase an RV. They were spot on. Thompson passed away and Robert Martin, former CEO of Keystone, stepped in and is now CEO of THOR. To most, it was a natural progression, since Keystone was one of the largest companies which THOR controlled. So now that Keystone has acquired RW, there are those which feel RW will become an inferior product. As noted, the RV industry is overall challenged with quality control. I think the RV build is more likened to the housing industry, both of which are experiencing a huge demand and suffering from quality control. Like homes, they are scratch built and use many pre-made components, employing many workers who are non-skilled. Labor shortages in Elkhart county, were near 20K, according to a published newspaper report in fall of 2017. This is all frustrating to the consumer and dealerships having to repair preventable problems. Subjecting RV's to road hazards, potholes, and bridge approachments, makes them even more vulnerable. One of the first things we did is to change the rims and tires to Goodyear G114's and last spring had MorRyde install their IS and disc brakes. I have the Trail-Aire flex hitch and religiously grease the 9 zerk fittings. I could not be happier with the whole system. Bottom line, I really like my RW, despite the initial flaws and all, it is still one of the classiest and well built 5th wheels in the market. The original discussion was that Keystone now manages RW. Acquisitions are now part of the landscape in the business industry, and it is bottom line driven. Like everything else in life, investigate and educate yourself before making any decisions. I don't think that just because Keystone acquired RW, that this should necessarily translate to more inferiority. It may make them more efficient and undoubtedly, also make them a better stock investment, after all, now that many of us are retired, I like to see my stock portfolio improve. lol

That said, we just traveled another 3000 miles over the last 3 weeks with our '17 RW in tow and considering all the road hazards and weather changes we experienced, it fared extremely well. It's a keeper!

Well stated. Thanks.

[2017Redwood]

Can you tell me exactly where the rain was coming in on the bedroom slide? cause we have aquired a leak on the right side of the bed slide out too, and i'm hoping that i found the issue.

[woodman1]

The water leak was on the seam where the 5 inch flange comes in contact with the outside wall on each slide out. The flange is screwed in place and then sealed with a silicone caulk. There was a very small void where the caulk wasn't adequately applied and that's where all the moisture was seeping in. When we got a driving rain, we noticed it more. The service tech said that RW was notorious in not properly sealing these at the factory, but I don't know if I buy that it's just RW. We initially inspected all the gaskets and found them to be functional, so it was puzzling. Easy fix you can do yourself, in fact, I now diligently look at any seam and then add silicone wherever I see even a potential void.