Windriver by outdoor RV honest review

After 10 long years of trying to fix so many problems in our Windriver rv and especially the slide and find out what was wrong with it .. we decided to put a detailed review of our wind river outdoors RV.

Honest Review of Outdoor RV wind river trailer 2011 - review very detailed

This is quite a long detailed review mostly because we don’t want anyone to go through what we did with our WindRiver trailer by Outdoor RV

After years of having a used RV we decided to buy a new, so we wouldn’t have any problems, my husband is disabled so he couldn’t fix things like he used to.

We wanted approx 30 foot trailer with a small slide that would withstand a lot of travelling because we travel all over the United States and Canada.

After looking at many the Windriver was a good fit for us we liked the look of it .. it seemed to be built very well, we watched the utube video of it and the company, we thought we were pretty informed.. so we decided to pay a bit more for what we thought was an upper brand RV so it would be quality .. 5000 to 8000 more

We chose the Rear Living and a super slide, we were very excited about it, it had a 2 year warranty, we thought we were set to travel all over the United States and Canada as we had just retired.

My husband had to leave his employment early in life because of a neck disability with constant pain and couldn’t work.

It had a rear living room with two chairs in the back allowed us a great view with the big window in the back which we loved.

I’ll list the pros and cons visually and functionally as I go … so while the kitchen very nice it is quite tiny and not a lot cupboard space at all, mostly because of the large windows we realized afterwards..

The kitchen is very modern and nice. Beautiful fridge and microwave.. good stove and design is beautiful .

However there is virtually no counter space, this is something I would definitely look for in a new RV - counter space.. we probably have 8 inches between the sink and stove and maybe a foot on the other side of the sink. Barely enough to make a sandwich. This is not the best when you’re trying to prepare a dinner I found out, there is no room.

We had wanted a smaller slide because I just didn’t feel we needed that much room but we ended up with a super slide that goes out about 4 feet it holds the dining room and a sofa both of which fold out into a bed.

It has a very tiny bathroom also something I’d look in future as well in a new Rv, it had a glass enclosure for the shower, but it was so small we had to remove it and put in a shower curtain, because you could barely turn around.

We loved the bedroom it has a double bed and a curtain that pulls across for privacy. There is a unique feature in the RV that has a TV which can flip around from the living room to the bedroom, the only problem is there is a shelf on both sides and you can’t put anything on them if you decide you’re going to flip the TV around because it would knock it off so the feature isn’t quite as good as we thought. Big huge shelf in the bedroom side but unusable.

So we we just bought another TV and mounted on the back for the bedroom. No flipping..

Also a very negative Feature according to my husband is that it has a sewer outlet for the black water and gray water so each time my husband goes to dump we have to do it with two separate hoses, that is something we would definitely not want in a new RV it’s quite the hassle. We tried to have it modified so that both of go together but they said they could not do that..

Now getting to our experience after we bought it- The first day we got it we drove home and when we opened the main door to my surprise the handle and lock came off in my hand.

We thought oh no big deal just a little glitch.. but then the next day when I opened up the cupboard it literally fell off in my hand too. The screws were so short they couldn’t hold it.

As time went on all the cupboards had to be resscrewed because of the short screws used, they all started to fall off.

We fixed these things, but were a little concerned, unfortunately that was the just the beginning and the least of what went wrong with new RV .

When we bought the RV we’d never owned a slide on our trailer so we were concerned that the slide may not work … when the salesman was showing it to us I watched it come all the way in and if it didn’t you really couldn’t squeeze through to even go to the bathroom. You have to climb over the kitchen table and somehow squeeze through about a 8 inch opening, for me this was a huge issue.. I wanted to be able to go in make and sandwich walk-through and use the bathroom without having to use both doors.

We really asked the salesman questions about it but he reassured us telling us “Oh don’t worry they rarely ever break”..

So we left home for across the U.S it was the first trip, and when we went to have our first shower, but there was no hot water, so my husband went out to see what was wrong with it? We thought maybe we were out of propane or something? The shower was cold, but then we noticed the heaters only blew a small amount out of the heater vents.. so little the trailer wouldn’t heat up..

Now we are about a 1000 miles away from home and our first stop for some fun at cabelos, we tried to open the slide and it wouldn’t go out.

We really thought this must just be another glitch, there’s no way only using the slide for about five days it wouldn’t work?

We were very alarmed by this and worried that there are so many things going wrong, and especially something as large as a slide.. my husband tried to fix the hot water heater but we never did get it to work properly we had cold showers and little heat ..

We decided it was time to call the company at this point not a repairman, because we were quite concerned .

We did and they were very good, we were relieved, they said they’d take care of it. We could take it into any repair shop in the United States and they would fix all the problems for us.

But we still had to figure out how to open the slide that night so after a little research in our manuals it told us it can open manually underneath, there is a place to open it, however we had to buy a drill and the insulation and under portion of the trailer had to be cut open in order to access the area …. it took a lot of time and struggle, not the way you would ever wanna do it routinely..but it worked that night anyway .

As we went along the slide worked on and off, we didn’t quite know what was going to happen next.

We were in our way to Texas to take it to a repair shop to look at the slide along the way

we realized that there was some sort of smell on the inside coming from the toilet, and it suddenly dumps our septic contents all over the road.. then when my husband went to inspect the area to see what was going on he had to cut the underside again to get to it, and much to his shock the “septic” contents got all over him, his face clothes ….This was such a upset to us both of us that we called the company asking if we could do anything take it back trade it in .. this was getting to be the worst experience we’ve ever had and it was totally ruining our trip.

They said don’t worry we’ll take care of you, but the company would not do that they would not give us any of our money back and they would only allow us to trade it in at quite a loss. We paid 34,000 and they were going to make us lose 10,000, And there’s no way we were gonna lose any money on a rv we had just bought.

So when the people in Texas looked at the septic system tank they couldn’t believe it wasn’t connected properly! So we had to have it fixed immediately here as it was going to keep leaking septic everywhere we went.. but that wasn’t all they found that the water holding tank was so improperly installed as well, it was about to fall down, and was also leaking so they had to reinstall that and secure it with metal brackets it should’ve already had to hold it in properly.

As well the gray water tank was improply installed and they had to fix it as well as it was also leaking .

We had them look at the heating issue and they told us that no one had hooked up the heater hoses to the vents they were laying right next to the vents , Which was the reason we were getting very little heat coming out of them… also this trailer was supposed to be a subzero type trailer so that if he went in the cold weather your tanks wouldn’t freeze.. so all this time the heat was going outside and not only wear the tanks deprived of it and so were we but we were paying for propane and all the heat was just going under the trailer.

This was getting to be so upsetting it was just one thing after the other, this was like a nightmare almost nothing was done right on this trailer ..

We learned that the fans were in backwards in the bathroom so they didn’t blow right, the sink in the kitchen constantly leaked so we had to keep a bowl under it and check it all the time because you don’t want water sitting in a bowl as you’re travelling.

The hot water heater didn’t work, the heat vents weren’t hooked up, the cupboard doors and locks were falling off their hinges. Both tanks weren’t secured up correctly and we’re leaking, and the slide still wasn’t working…every button we pressed we were holding our breath waiting for something else to happen…

So we stayed in Texas to have all this fixed if they could… and we went on our way.. on the way home we realized outdoor RV was on the way home so we decided we were going to stop in and speak to someone about all this. .

We were happy to say this was probably one of the best general managers we’ve ever met.. not only did he seem to care but we left and went home and after we got there he called and discussed a plan with us where they would take the entire RV back to the factory, they “fixed” everything and they tweaked a few things for us including giving us a skylight, and they even put electric jacks on it for us..

they also put an awning over the slide but the slide was leaking so we had to have that done.. And a couple other things they did for us which was really kind.

We can’t say enough about the company in the beginning, that is the good part to the story.

we got the trailer back a few months later and we were so grateful it was all fixed hoping like crazy it was anyway.

Sadly however we soon found out it was still not fixed first a new fan was put in the bathroom because it never worked properly, anyway suddenly now there were now a lot of holes in our roof? .. small holes .. the company soon deduced it must’ve been something in someone’s shoe and as they were walking along it cut little holes in our roof.. so we had to have a new roof installed.

Then when we got it back from having the roof fixed we we’re not prepared to turn on the air conditioner and tons of little tiny pieces of insulation came pouring out.. making us vacuum it up for weeks… I think of that point we just about cried. We almost felt sorry for them because they had so much to fix on this Rv ..

We had to install screens over top of the roof air conditioner/ fan vents so that we would never have to see the pieces of insulation flying out of us again…

They had already done a lot to fix everything but they never did install a new hot water tank or fix the slide they said both of them seemed in perfect working order.. so not true.

We asked for a got a 3rd year on the warranty because of all this, however I really wish we didn’t have to use it, but in that last year things were still going wrong.. what were we to do?

So trip after trip of nothing but problems and fixes and RV dealerships were at 2.5 years now and below it ran out we had to have hot water. There was something wrong with the hot water tank and for some reason they just didn’t wanna replace it, everytime the guy would say it was working just fine, hot water was coming out, well hot water came out sporadically and then it turned warm then cold in under a minute , sometimes never it was just straight cold.. but year after year of this we were done travelling in a new RV without hot water, we decided we were going to have to talk to them about a new hot water tank.. and also the shower floor was starting to break on us.. we found out later there were no proper supports underneath it.. we were done playing around with everything there wasn’t a trip that wasn’t marred by all this trouble.

Did we want to call again? absolutely not, the last thing we would wanna do is go back to a company who covered everything and say another thing we just wanted to go on our way and have good trips… but we had to call them yet again, it was within the three-year warranty they promised us but this is where we had a problem..

The manager got very upset with us and said he could no longer fix things for us even though we were still under the promised warranty he gave us.

We felt bad even calling but it wasn’t our fault. We still had problems to avoid this we figure a new one should’ve been installed a long time ago and three years without a hot shower is long enough.. and the slide never did work but there was nothing more they said they could do, after some

Insistence on our part they did install a new hot water tank, and they fixed the shower floor, but made it clear they were done with us.. they said there was nothing they could do for us anymore.

So as time and our trips went slowly the slide got worse and worse.. it wouldn’t come in and out correctly, now it dragged across the carpet and made two deep lines into the carpet by this time.

It had now gotten to the point where my husband had to go outside while I held the button inside and he had to push the slide in physically. This was super hard on him because he has a disability.

This was almost becoming a legal issue we really considered a lawyer to get our money back move on and get another trailer, because it was the worst experience with ever had with a new product.

We were still hoping to get the slide fixed so we had no choice we had to pay for anything that went wrong ourselves now, so we took it to somebody and he put some sort of plastic pieces under the slide itself so that it wouldn’t drag which cost us over $2000.00 .. we also put in a new motor hoping that would work.

The RV tech also thought maybe the slide had a electrical issue which it did it kept shorting out for some reason.. he found every time it would come in it would pinch a wire, so he fixed that, and we thought maybe we’ve got it fixed now?

But after now 9 years still the slide would stop working,

I have to be honest I was really heartbroken for my husband he had worked so hard all his life and finally retired on a disability and he could no longer fix things and he was just constantly repairing something on this trailer.. and now all these years he’s physically pushing the slide in, I was pushing the button inside and my husband was pushing it in with all his strength outside… so yet another RV tech suggested he put in another motor to power it in and out… so thinking maybe this was the problem it needed more power we bought another one he decided to put an extra motor in it because he could no longer physically push it in, we could barely use it…

But this is where we find our answer! lo and behold as he’s putting a new motor in our slide he finds something vital to the operation of the slide..

He realized there was two areas at the side of the slide at the end that the metal was torn up? It was gouged… It seemed weird so my husband phoned an RV tech and I asked him.. he said there should be rollers on the slide where they roll in and out.. well there were no rollers in our slide, only two holes and the metal is all torn up around them..

Well the only way we could get all the stats and details about the slide mechanism that is supposed to go in there was my phoning outdoor RV again so I messaged them and explained what was going on and then my husband called the same manager was still working there, Of course he was accommodating he gave us the information.

So we got the phone number of the rep from the manufacturer who makes the slide mechanism, he actually used to build these, so if anyone would know it would be him.. the guy said there would definitely had to have been rollers installed in both sides! there is no way it would have worked properly all these years without it! .. my husband sent him a picture of the area on the slide where it seem to be missing and the man confirmed it he said they’re both missing they they would’ve definitely had to of been installed from the company and were never installed..

work and move the slide.

He said It’s no wonder you had all these problems! .. and there is metal gouged out..it was dragging along the metal the entire 10 years we’ve had it .. it was eventually wearing and that is why it was getting worse. You could actually hear it screeching..

To think that all those years we went thru all that because of two rollers that were never installed, at the factory that were so necessary in order to bring the slide in and out properly. That was why no one could fix it.. they never really looked at it properly and they never really listened to us and our concerns because if they had they may have deduced that something was really really wrong or was missing ?

So 10 years later here we are talking to the company again pretty much only to get the parts that should’ve been there 10 years ago but they said they didn’t have them anymore.

But pushing the slide in and out physically was getting almost impossible, if we were to keep this trailer or even sell it something had to be done.. we often thought if you were a lone camper you’d never be able to get your slide in and out alone, have to have a buddy out there or someone around to push the slide and as you push the button inside.

So this is where we finally got really upset and angry we feel after all we’ve been thru even though it was 10 years later now that we know the reason for the slide not working all those years and the person who used to build them confirmed it you would think the company would’ve at least considered compensating us for something to do with this?

But even with his disability on his neck my husband had to fix it himself…

We truly feel that we could’ve done something about this legally there’s no doubt about it especially after the guy said that the rollers were not installed. But what do you sue for pain and suffering? ruined trips for 10 years? aggravation? We aren’t that kind of people we just sucked it up..

However we couldn’t afford to take it in and put any more money into it we’d already put thousands in.

But they said no we were on our own with this.. the manager Rick Ewing said he wouldn’t or couldn’t help us anymore..

We know it’s been 10 yrs does anybody think we even wanna deal with this more? No we don’t … but considering this was never installed correctly and the decade of awful trouble we’ve had now confirmed by this man, we think it’s warranted as this was a truly special case in this instance and we thought maybe they would’ve offered us something? Maybe compensation a little bit for all our trouble.

It was not the part that was expensive it was or would’ve been the labour have we had to pay for it.. but because we were on disability and we paid so much already fixing the trailer after warranty, we had to get these rollers made by a machinist, thank goodness the man who worked for the company who made them had the specs, thank God for him.. but my husband had to fix it all by himself.

I think the worst of all is my husband had to bring the slide out, remove the support arms out, disconnect parts of it and tilt it precariously on Jack’s for weeks while he figured out a way to put these rollers in.. he had no clue but he had to figure it out on his own. We Detailed the whole thing with photos. And video.

Only after my husband putting in a new motor that’s the only way he found out these rollers were missing all along.

I really wanted to update this long story after my husband put the missing rollers in.. we still have the RV we still use it but it’s been a long arduous painful experience however every trip in the last 10 years was filled with doubt, uncertainty and worry.. we finally decided it was time to write a honest review to let everybody know…now the slide it’s never worked better! it comes in and out flawlessly that is what have been wrong all along.. however I still hold my breath every time I push that button..

Thank you, Dave and Sydney Murray

Thank you, David and Sydney Murray

Review of Outdoor RV wind river trailer 2011 - honest review very detailed