Kudos to Silver Shadow/Little Guy

[Rvankeur]

Background - we bought a 2011 Silver Shadow in October 2010. Love the unit - fits our needs perfectly. When we bought it, we bought one of the Paha Que covers as well since we don't have a place to store the TD in a garage or under a fixed shelter. We keep the cover on it all winter, and it's parked on a brick patio. We are fans of the cover and Paha Que as well - but this is a post about Pleasant Valley Trailers.

When we took the cover off this May to show off to my brother - he noticed some bubbling in the siding. We inspected it further, and noticed a couple of other places where it was bubbling - mostly along the bottom. We contacted our dealer and LIttle Guy via email, and got a reply from both. Little Guy contacted Pleasant Valley Trailers - the actual manufacturer of the LIttle Guy trailers, the Silver Shadow, and now T@b. Our unit was out of warranty, but Little Guy and Pleasant Valley wanted to do what they could to help us out. We were given the phone number for Joe at Pleasant Valley and we set up a trip out to Ohio to have the trailer taken care of and do a side trip to visit family.

We dropped our trailer off around 8am on Friday, and by 3pm we had her back, with new siding on her - a new composite siding, that will not have the issues that the old aluminum siding had. For the amount of labor and materials involved, I'd guess we covered the labor with what they charged us. We also had a tour of the factory and looked at how they made the Silver Shadow, the Little Guys, and on the other side of the room, the T@b. We were impressed with their attention to detail, and how they are constantly looking to improve their products.

This isn't our first experience with trailers with issues. We moved to TDs from a Fleetwood/Coleman popup that had some serious leaking issues with the roof. The roof was under warranty - but it took us almost 2 years to get a new one and get it installed. Lots of frustration there. Lots of time there. Here we are a couple of years later with another trailer with an issue - but the difference is that the people went out of their way to take care of us. It wasn't free - but it certainly was fair, and I'd do business with them again in a heartbeat. In fact, I suspect when they get that clamshell T@b out there, we might be picking one up in a couple of years.

The only issues I had during this whole interaction was that Pleasant Valley seems to have some problems with email and their spam-filter. If you email Pleasant Valley, and don't get a response - call them.

[iplay10us2]

Wait a minute. They charged you for something that is a "known to them" defect? This issue was supposedly solved when they switched from having Little Trailer Company who had major problems to having Pleasant Valley build them.

Yes, they are nice and easy to deal with, but this should have been replaced at no charge, warranty or not.

[Rvankeur]

Yes, it would have been nice if they fixed it for free - but realistically, the warranty was for a year - they were under no obligation whatsoever to help us out at all.

We've been down the "warranty" road before with an RV company. That time it didn't cost us anything but time, frustration, and the use of our trailer for almost 2 years - and we were one of the lucky ones - the RV company went out of business before all of the people waiting for their warranty roofs got them.

I still stand by my original post. Ed and I are happy with the outcome, and believe that all parties acted in good faith.
We were also impressed with their continuing to improve their products. The new SS's have stronger doors (although we've never had an issue with our doors - the new ones are definitely 'beefier'), and their new siding is composite, which ought to solve the issue that caused our initial problem.

[linuxmanxxx]

You said you had bubbling with aluminum siding? That is not supposed to happen at all and changing to composite won't fix what appears to be sealing and adhesion issues.

So little guy contracts out their campers and doesn't build them at all? I thought they just did certain lines but apparently its all of them. What is the point of being a national vendor and not even building your own product and apparently having serious quality control issues because they don't maintain their own factory?

Wow just because of one bad experience with your other camper doesn't excuse someone putting out defective products and then charging you for their mistakes.

Do you have any pictures to post of defects and then the new siding they installed?

There are other posts on here about rotting and other issues with LG campers and many of them about siding bubbling and it seems to be a bit too common.

[wincrasher]

I'd like to know more about this composite material.

My Silver Shadows appears to be made from some kind of aluminum product and its a 2012 model. Not sure if it's painted or has some kind of vinyl coating. It is shiny both top and side. All the seams have generous clear caulking - that is the only maintenance item I can determine other than lubing wheel bearings some day.

I don't store outside, so I can't imagine ever having any issues with it. These trailers are a bit pricey, but seem to be well built. Fit and finish is excellent.
I ordered mine directly from the factory, as my semi-local dealer wouldn't order one to my liking and I found them very courtous and accomodating.

I suppose that you are right, that once you are out of warranty it's tough luck. Some manufacturer's will address items after that cut-off, but it's purely a matter of their generocity. That's why it's important to report items right away and lock in a solution. I agree with the poster in that if they were happy with paying a bit and getting a complete and timely repair, then who are we to criticize?

[Mukilteo]

Check out my album for a Little Guy SS gone bad.

[bcsnave]

Interesting topics....

We are picking up our Yellow Shadow this weekend....as with everything manufactured there will be issues.

To me it is all about customer service and how the issues are addressed. LG recognized the issue and change to all fiberglass sides. And the warranty is 1 year and states that if something happens past that period of time...the customer may have to incurr "some" cost.

If the orginal poster is happy and satisfied with the resolve...then who are we to say anything.

We will post photographs of the new rig when we pick it up.

Bill

[Rvankeur]

We did see a yellow one there. Looked purty. Good luck with it.

[wincrasher]

Poked around a bit on my trailer. It seems to have the composite sidewalls - essentially they are fiberglass. The top is an aluminum material.