Complaint 2000718

Complaint Summary

STRUCTURE

Owner Narrative

-Baggage compartment doors, when latched securely and locked with key, would open during travel down the highway at random. Luckily no cargo was lost (I take turns very slowly and noticed flapping baggage doors in my side view mirrors pretty quickly). This has happened on multiple occasions, and continued to happen after multiple dealership service visits that supposedly rectified the issue. This issue first appeared within 100 miles of purchasing this travel trailer brand new. -Yes, Adventure RV of Cheyenne, WY (now Blue Compass) verified the issue and eventually replaced under warranty the baggage door latches, and then after issue persisted and I complained, replaced the baggage doors entirely. -The issue persisted, contacted Grand Design corporate to open a complaint ticket. I requested permission to have trailer inspected and issue resolved at Windish RV in Longmont, CO as the Cheyenne dealership was incompetent and dishonest. Windish RV was fantastic, but Grand Design refused to authorize anything else for the baggage doors issue. Windish RV suggested I should upgrade the latches/locks to a high quality replacement, as the factory latches are mostly plastic junk, all the locks are keyed the same, and issues with them are almost guaranteed. On my own dime I replaced all of the baggage door latches with RV Lock (Utah, USA small business) replacement handles and locks (nearly $500 plus labor). This resolved the issue (around 5k mi since install). This was very expensive and time consuming but the safety and peace of mind is priceless. If items from the open baggage compartments fell out onto the roadway it could have caused massive property damage, injuries, and loss of life to my occupants and anybody else on the same road at the same time as me. -I can provide the warranty repair attempts documentation at a later date, as that paperwork is currently inside the trailer at a repair facility for other issues currently.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.