2/3 What I DON'T Like About My Motorhome

Not much to post about today, so I will post about some things I have been meaning to write about.  A while back I posted what I liked about my motorhome.  In spite of my being happy with this RV and a lot of things about it, there is some stuff that certainly could have been done better by the manufacturer.

·      The biggest thing I dislike about my motorhome is common with most of the lower-cost and medium-cost motorhomes and trailers—the cheap inside finishes.  The wall covering is a sort of industrial vinyl wallpaper, and that does not bother me so much because it is at least practical and easily washable.  The thing I really, really hate is that while the cabinet doors are real wood, the cabinets themselves are thin particle board covered with a sort of really cheap paper-based wallpaper that is a picture of wood.  It does not wash well at all, and on a few of my more heavily used cabinets, it is coming unglued around the edges.  You also can’t easily patch it or stain it if it is scratched or marred. 

·      The next most-disliked thing is the incredibly cheap carpeting they put in the bedroom, around the bottom of the slide platform the couch and kitchen cabinets rest on, and in the cab area.  It matted down almost immediately.  I don’t know what it is made of, but it looks like the kind of carpeting you get when you sign up to have three rooms carpeting for $500!  Carpeting on slides, which the bedroom is on, is extremely common, and salesmen will tell you it has to be carpeting because of the slides.  Surely, they could at least have put a longer-wearing nylon or something more practical that does not mat.

·         Next is the fuzzy ceiling.  Now why you would carpet a ceiling is beyond me, but basically that is what they have done in my motorhome.  I think it collects dust, so once every six months, I end up vacuuming it with my canister vacuum cleaner.  Absurd.

·         Another thing I dislike, but one I can live with, is the fact that almost everything in my RV, and nearly all other RVs, is some version of brown.  Cabinets are cherry, walls are mottled beige vinyl wallpaper, carpeting is beige, flooring is vinyl pretending to be tile in various shades of gold and brown, couch is gold vinyl, back dinette is a patterned sort of fabric-looking stuff in various shades of gold, window shades are beige, and kitchen counter is a darker brown.   I have tossed in some throw rugs in blue to break up the brown monotony, at least.

·         Overall, I like my “basement” storage areas, but they put the water pump inside one of the pass-thrus instead of in a closer and larger bin area.  That means you have to almost crawl into the storage bin to get to it.  You also have to be skinny and young to do this.  Maybe someday, I will try to get someone to re-plumb this so I can reach it myself.  This is important because I have gone through four water pumps in four years, and could replace it myself if it were more reachable.  Cost for a pump is about $80, but labor is well over $200. 

·         And finally, unless I think of something else, I really would someday like to have a motorhome where I could fasten the sewer dump hose without sticking my head into the compartment!  Having it just a few inches closer to the door would be nice, as I really do not like sticking my head in a sewer compartment, no matter how clean I try to keep the compartment.

Another time I will post about how they manufacture these things and what causes them to make them the way they make them.  I visited several factories when I was shopping for a motorhome, and it was a revelation.