This post is about my experience taking my 2014 Winnebago View motor home to the factory in Forest City, IA to have some work done. My View was “born” in Forest City, where Winnebago manufactures most of its motor homes. The manufacturing facility is huge, encompassing over 60 acres. At the factory, the company has a medium size (about 25 service bays) Customer Service Center where owners can schedule to have service done and buy parts for any Winnebago motor home.

Winnebago doesn’t really promote or advertise this service center. But you can find it listed on their website if you do a little digging. And it’s the perfect place to address issues that are design related or when there’s major structural, electrical, or plumbing issues with items that were part of the build process.

My View Issues

Last Fall, I noticed that the floor in my RV had developed a couple of minor soft spots. It was not wide-spread – just a spot at the entry way above the steps and a spot in front of the sink. Initially, I wasn’t too concerned and just thought it was normal wear and tear. But, then the spot in front of the sink started to expand and it seemed like the floor was delaminating underneath the vinyl floor covering.

Many RV floors are made of plywood and a soft spot can be a sign of a wood decay / rot problem. I contacted the factory customer service to find out what the floor was made of. The floor in my View is a little over 1 inch thick. It’s a composite of layers starting on the top with a vinyl floor covering, 1/8 in luan plywood, 3/4 in polystyrene, another 1/8 in of luan plywood, and then a thin aluminum sheet covering the base. All these layers are glued together to form the floor. The overall floor sits on a what looks like an aluminum frame that is bolted to the MB frame.

Now, that’s a thin floor. And there’s some large spacing (over 23 inches) between some of the supports under the floor. I deduced that I had either – 1) a support problem with the floor causing it to flex or 2) the floor material was compressing and the layers were beginning to delaminate. I checked a couple of Winnebago View / Navion online support forums and found that a few other owners had experienced similar problems with their units. The remedy for many (which required support and parts from the factory), was to install more bracing under the floor.

In February, I contacted the factory and scheduled an appointment for September to address my floor issue. Yes, I booked my appointment 7 months in advance. I also had a couple of other minor issues (re-sealing of the radius edges of the roof end cap and a partially functioning brake light on the back of the coach) which I felt could be fixed with this visit.

When I called to schedule the appointment, they were very aware of the floor issue with the View units. They told me it was a four-day job to add the supports. They wanted me there on a Monday morning so they could work on the RV all week. My RV was out of warranty, but they offered to “work with me” on the repair cost.

Getting the Work Done

Right after I made my service appointment, Winnebago sent me a detailed email with the check-in procedures, a map of the town and the factory, and a permit for overnight parking. Forest City, IA is about 1,300 miles away from my home. I planned the appointment for the Fall so I could do a road trip as part of this service appointment. I spent 6 days meandering out to Iowa and planned two weeks to get home.

When I arrived on Sunday evening, I found all the parking spaces at the Service Center were full. But that was ok. Not being sure about the overnight arrangements while my RV was being fixed, I had a reserved a room at the Super 8 motel just down the street. I unloaded my food and clothes at the hotel, spent the night there, and drove over to the factory at 6:30 am.

The check in at 7:00 am was super fast and smooth. Within 15 minutes, a technician came out and we went over my service items. He was very familiar with the floor issue with my View. He confirmed my diagnosis that it was a support issue with the floor flexing and the flexing caused the delamination.

He had fixed several Views with this same problem. The remedy is to remove some of the RV undercarriage (wheels, muffler, several heat shields) and install more bracing under the floor (about every 10 inches). They then remove the slide, peel back the vinyl flooring and re-secure the luan to fix the delam. It’s a four-day job and they needed the coach in the bay for two days while they had the slide off and the rear wheels off. That was ok as I had the hotel room just down the street.

While I was waiting in the customer lounge, I met another owner with a Navion who was getting service work done. He owned a 2016 Navion 24J and had the same exact floor issue fixed at the factory last year.

The End Result

As estimated, it took four days to fix all my items. The floor took most of this time. Several supports were added underneath the floor and bolted to the original floor frame. The supports are U-shaped metal and are about 3 inches wide. They run length wise (parallel to the MB frame rails) and are spaced about 10 inches apart. Screws were put through the floor and screwed into the new supports to fix the delamination. The screw heads are sanded flush with the luan. Then the vinyl floor was re-glued.

I was disappointed when I learned this was a design issue. I’ve been pleased with the build quality of my Winnebago. But this is a big issue that most likely affects many Views and Navions. Fortunately, Winnebago stood by their product and recognized that this was their problem. My View was far out of warranty (four yrs old with 72,000 miles) and the work on the floor could easily have cost over $3,000 just for the labor. But, Winnebago did the work on my RV as goodwill and did not charge me for this fix. I was super pleased and impressed.

It was a long drive (over 1,300 miles) to get service, but I’m glad I took my RV back to the factory to address this problem. The Winnebago factory technicians only work on Winnebago motor homes and they know how they are built. They are experts on their RV’s. They also see recurring problems (like my floor issue) and have already designed fixes.

Within 15 seconds of stepping on my floor, the Factory Technician knew exactly what my problem was and knew how to fix it (He said he had already fixed 10 Views with the exact same problem). He did well at keeping me informed and up to date on the progress. He had all the parts on hand and did a great job fixing all the problems.

Logistics

This was my first visit to the Customer Service Center. Here’s some things I learned that might be helpful to people planning a service visit to the factory.

• Forest City is a small town with a population of around 4,000. It’s a little island of a community surrounded by miles and miles of corn farms. The factory is located only 1/2 mile from the town center. There are about 6 restaurant options, a coin laundry, and two grocery stores, four fuel stations, and one hotel all within 1 mile of the factory. Bill’s Family Foods (one of the grocery stores) has take out meal options. The town is a quiet place. There’s not much to do in town and there are few places to hang out while your RV is being serviced.
• Service work is done between 7:00 am and 3:00 pm. The Service Center has a large spacious customer area with tables, chairs, sofas vending machines, and TV’s. They also have super fast free wi-fi. They ask customers to return to the Service Center everyday by 3:00 pm so the technician can give you an update and status of the repairs,.
• Free overnight parking is provided for RV’s being serviced at the factory. There are about a dozen parking spaces (with power poles) at the Service Center and then hundreds of sites across the street at the Rally Center. The Rally Center sites have power and there are water spigots and dump facilities.

• You can stay overnight in your RV while it is being serviced provided it is driveable and they are not ripping things apart inside. You have to vacate you RV each day by 7:00 am then it is returned to the parking lot at 3:30 pm each day where you can re-occupy it. They recommend you not have any food in your frig while work is being done. This sort of means you’ll be eating out for all your meals while the work is being done.
• Some work, such as my floor work, may require them to keep the coach in the service bay for multiple days which means you cannot stay in it overnight. There is a Super 8 motel just 1/2 mile south of the service center. I booked a room there for 4 nights as I figured I may not be able to stay in it while they fixed the floor. This worked out great as it gave me a place to sleep, shower, and hang out during the day.
• I do not tow a car. While my RV was being serviced, my only transportation was a bike. This worked out ok for the first couple of days because I could bike into town to get food. But it rained hard for the last couple of days while I was there. There is one place in Forest City that rents cars. Dale’s Auto Body has only a couple of rentals. They will come pick you up at the factory to get the rental. The rental rate is very reasonable. I rented a car for two days, which was very helpful.

Overall, my factory service experience was very positive. Winnebago is one of the few manufacturers that has this service option. It’s an impressive operation with high quality technicians and shows their commitment to their products..