Let’s Talk RV Build Quality

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Today I’ll relate some of my thoughts with RV build quality based on my experience with the RVs I’ve owned. My first RV, a 2016 R-Pod 171, had a piece of wood used under the dinette that was basically a rejected piece of lumber. It was marred, split and rough. Think of a bad piece of wood that you would never use anywhere near a project you have. This should have been my first clue of the build quality for RVs in general. The real question I want to get into, however, is the “why” of this – why would someone use an inferior piece on wood in my trailer?

There is a simple reason to understand why RV build quality is in general fair at best. Did you know that many RVs are built on the basis of piecework labor (actually a combination of base salary and piecework)? This means that those constructing your RV likely are not salaried or even hourly workers but are paid by the number of “pieces” they make. Pieces can be defined in different ways, but generally it means that a worker gets paid more, the more of whatever items they create. To be fair, this practice varies by manufacturer and model and so we can’t say it is categorically true. Generally, however, it is a practice in the RV industry.

RV manufacturers have to make trade-offs on costs to keep prices competitive. So, let’s think about my 2016 R-Pod 171. It was relatively inexpensive to buy new at under $14k. This is for a complete rolling house with amenities. But wait John, $14k is a lot of money! It is when we’re talking about a trip to Disney, but for new travel trailers of 18+ feet with all amenities, even in 2016, it was relatively inexpensive.

So how in the world do you make a sub $14k rolling house with all amenities and make money doing so? Well, since your price can’t be any number you want, you have to cut costs in production and in warranty claims. A few of the main costs for an RV manufacturer would be raw materials, labor and warranty claims. So, if you can’t easily raise prices and want to own the market for small and well-equipped RVs, you have to cut costs somehow, likely on all three of the above areas.

As far as raw materials, we’re talking fiberglass, wood, plastics, glass, tires, glues and caulks, etc. The costs for these raw materials are sometimes out of the manufacture’s control. As we’ve seen lately, prices on all RVs go up when raw material prices go up. As a manufacturer, you can, however, control the amount or quality of the raw materials per unit by using inferior quality raw materials or use less of a raw material (think thinner supports in floors and walls). So, it isn’t too hard to see how a crappy piece of board was used in my first RV.

Next up, labor. This is where piecework comes in. Generally, piecework rewards experience, since those who get good at repetitive tasks generally get faster at the task. Piecework pay isn’t a bad thing necessarily, and by it some folks can make lots of money for their time as they get experienced. If I pay my workers hourly at $12/hr., but a worker is very skilled and could make the equivalent of $18/hr. with piecework (or work less each week to make the same money), why wouldn’t they want to?

So, no problem with piecework then, right? Not so quick here to draw that conclusion. The key is experience. Piecework rewards speed, but workers vary in construction experience. So, let’s say that the team building your RV is a mix of newbies, some folks with moderate experience and some with extensive experience. They are all paid by the piece or units produced. If we are in a boom time and have to hire and train people, likely quality will slip some as speed is most important to the company during a boom and is also the primary incentive to the most skilled workers.

If this is true then the worst time to have an RV built is during an economic boom, as production lines can’t hire people fast enough. 2017 was the highest year for RV sales ever, with over 500,000 units produced. I own a 2017 R-Pod 179. Do I have empirical evidence of this relationship between boom times and lower quality? For me, the answer is yes. Feel free to watch my video about my 20 issues in two years.

If this is correct, then some of the best quality units would be from the time immediately after the worst of the pandemic (May 2020 when production restarted) and into 2021 – when there have been serious parts shortages. Why? Because production has to slow down, even if demand is high. Guess who gets to keep working when production slows? You guessed it, likely your more experienced longer-term workers, now working more slowly. These are the folks you want working to build your RV.

This pretty much covers why quality on lower cost RV suffer so much. Costs are cut with cheaper (or lesser grade or quantity of) raw materials and inexperience labor. I didn’t go into a third main area of costs for the manufacturers, which is warranty claims. These three costs really triangulate. Meaning, if you go poor on quality, you increase warranty expenses and vice-versa. Manufacturers have to play the game of walking this tight rope and still make money. If you want to learn more about RV warranties, I have an entire video on the subject that gets into my dealing with warranty work.

Hopefully this lends some insight as to why some travel trailers have quality issues and what some factors may be that cause this.

All the best in your camping endeavors!

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