RV shopping? Check out dealer reputations before you walk on the lot

A report published on rvdailyreport.com says that McMahon's RV has closed their Mesa, Arizona location. All inventory at the dealership is gone, and service and sales operations closed. The report says, "Spokesperson George Carson confirmed that the Mesa location had been closed, but he declined to give any specifics regarding the move."

We wondered about the sudden closure of this California-based firm's Arizona location. A McMahon's lot is open and running in Quartzsite, Ariz., and three more are open in California. But a look at the Better Business Bureau records for the Mesa location are revealing, and might give a hint as to the closure.

According to the BBB serving Central, Northern and Western Arizona, McMahon's of Mesa has lost it's BBB accreditation, and on a score-card of A+ to F garners a grade of D- BBB letter grade. Whys is McMahon's grade in the scuppers? It probably has something to do with the 32 customer complaints filed with the BBB. Several noted providing trade-ins to the company, with McMahon's agreeing to pay off the customer's note. Later, the customers are startled when they find the note wasn't paid off, and that they are months behind in payments, creating problems with credit histories. Only after complaints are filed with the BBB, does McMahon actually pay off the note.

Others complain they purchased an RV, but spend months waiting for the title and registration. We personally know a couple who purchased a used fifth-wheel from McMahons, and after months of complaining, finally got a title – only to find the serial number of the RV didn't match the one on the title.

Other complaints centered around financing gone awry. For example, one customer handed the company a $5,000 deposit on a new RV, with an agreement that the financing would be to agreed percentages and loan length terms. The company cashed the deposit check, and three weeks later told the customer they couldn't get the desired financing. Nearly two months after handing over their deposit money, the customer resorted to filing a complaint with the BBB – they still hadn't gotten their deposit money back.

All this points to the old maxim, BUYER BEWARE. Sad to say, not all RV dealers are candidates for an A+ rating with the BBB. Checking a dealership's BBB rating before walking onto the lot may spare you a lot of heart-ache, and even your good credit. We took a quick peek at BBB ratings for the other McMahon's locations. We found no ratings, only this statement: "This business has no rating at this time because BBB file information is being reviewed and/or updated." Draw your own conclusions.

If a BBB rating isn't available, there are other places to look for feedback.  By simply "googling" the name of a prospective RV dealer, you may find a "google review." In McMahon's case, the Westminster, California dealership has one very good review – and eight very negative ones. Overall, the company received one star out of a possible five, based on these reviews. 

RVs are costly, and money (for most of us) is dear. Be careful when you go shopping.

Six tips about how to buy an RV

RV Travel editor Chuck Woodbury offers six quick tips about how to buy an RV. Woodbury is the host of the Better Business Bureau's DVD "Buying a Recreational Vehicle."

RV builder claims automation virtually eliminates window leaks

If you've been an RVer for much time, you know that leaks are the bane of your rig. Roof leaks are one thing, but one that seems to haunt all of us are leaks that spring from windows. Water can slide its way past seals and infiltrate the sidewalls of our rigs and the prognosis from there is usually ugly.

What's the problem with window seals? It often comes down to the human equation. When a window is installed on a production line, two types of sealant are used. First the window edges are dressed all around with what RVers commonly call "putty tape," a sticky flat tape that sandwiches between the window flange and the RV's sidewall. Since most RV windows have not square corners, but rather, "radius curves" it's really difficult to put the tape on evenly when making a corner. Gaps can occur.

To help backstop the integrity (or lack of it) of the tape, after installing the window, the manufacturer will typically add a bead of some sort of sealant all around the window on the outside edge. This too, is done "by hand," and with that old imperfect human hand doing the job, the sealant may not always go on in a uniform way.

Fast forward to the real world of bumps, jarring, and extremes of temperature on the road. The inner seal twixt window and sidewall, and that "band aid" approach with the outer seal. A little flexing here, a bit of expansion there, a nice rainstorm, and sure enough, water infiltration – an RV's worst enemy – has come.

So we read with interest a news release from Open Range RV, a fifth wheel and travel trailer manufacturer out of Indiana, says it has the answer to leaky window seals: Remove the human hand and automate it. Using a "semi-robotic" seal system built by Dicor Corporation, instead of putty tape, a mechanized system applies a hot melt sealant with a robotic arm. Once the window is in place, the need for that secondary, outside "cap seal" is eliminated.

Open Range officials maintain that their new sealing system, "showed consistent, near perfect test results over the course of hundreds of windows a day." It adds they'll be using the same system to put sealant around entry doors and hatches.

If the system works out, you can be sure other RV builders will be looking to Dicor to acquire and use the same system. For the rest of us end uses, however, we'll still have to rely on those human hands, either our own, or those of the local RV shop, when it comes to renewing seals.