Tom Raper Rv’s

THE WORST! Had my Rv for a month and a half to fix a water leak. Communication is non existent! I was there the day they told me it would be ready from 3 hrs away and I have been waiting an additional 3 hrs. Only Communication that was prompt was to tell us to go check out their creepy waiting room with largemouth bass and big horned sheep on the wall with the ambiance of young and the restless playing in the background. I was quoted $ 1000 and to discover not only was my wait increased by one month, my price was increased by 250%. Not much else to say… avoid this place at all cost unless largemouth bass and big horned sheep with Y&R is your thing.

I just wanted to share how disappointing our experience buying a camper has been. My wife and I are new to trailers, so we wanted to start small. We found the Palomino 2100ltd (VIN 4x4cpc317en045455), and made a web request for information from Tom Raper in Indiana. We had quick responses on the first few emails, up until I started asking specific questions about pricing.
Emails from both my wife and I went unanswered when we asked what our out the door price would be. We decided to come in anyway, and requested a different sales rep. Our visit went well enough, we were shown a couple of options for a first trailer. We decided to stick with the Palomino, and requested A/​C be installed, and we put 10% down. We said we would be back in two weeks to pick up the trailer.
The Wednesday before we headed out, I emailed our sales rep asking the height of the trailer and if I would need reverse lights hooked up, as I wanted the van ready before we arrived. His response was that «we would get all that taken care of Saturday.» It took a call to a sales manager to get those two questions answered.
When we came in on Saturday (⁴⁄₂₆) to pick the trailer up, we were going through the walkthrough of the camper. During the walkthrough, both cranks were missing, the snap straps to hold the stove in place were missing, and the door wouldn’t close correctly. We were asked to go over to finance and go ahead and sign while they got the issues resolved.
We took the trailer home, and have it parked in our driveway. On Sunday (⁴⁄₂₇), we received rain. We opened the trailer up on Monday to show our kids, and we found that there is a leak somewhere. There is about a foot section of the plywood at the front of the roof that is swollen and discolored from water, the weatherstripping was wet, and there was water on the floor. We looked around for the leak, and couldn’t find it, but we did also find a splintered bolt hole, and a cabinet wall that was cracked.
I contacted service, and now have to bring the trailer back out from Indianapolis on Friday (⁵⁄₂) to have it looked at.
We came back Friday, and apparently the caulk seal on the front of the camper wasn’t done properly at the factory. There was an open gap in the caulk between the metal trim and the roof. This gap allowed water to continually run into the camper.
Pat, of the service department, took quite a few pictures, and has had the warranty rep contact Forest River about replacing the roof, as the wood along the front edge is now completely warped and discolored. He had someone peel the old caulk up and run a new bead so that we could go ahead and use the camper while we wait for the roof to come in.
My wife attempted to contact customer service at Palomino on Monday (⁵⁄₅), relaying our concerns, and asking about the possibility of having our camper replaced. She was brusquely told, «We’re not in the business of replacing anything, just fixing problems.»
My honest concern at this point is water damage that may not be readily visible. The cabinet on the front passenger side was full of water. The only reason it didn’t go further was because the bags for the bars and crank managed to absorb most of it. I’m worried that even though the floor may «look» fine now, it could have issues later. As it stands now, you can feel the floor has a raised/​uneven feel in a corner of the cabinet. Additionally, since it is an enclosed and dark area, I am extremely worried about the possibility of mold in the camper. Multiple requests by my wife and I about the flooring seem tohave been ignored.
Here we are, over two weeks later, and we haven’t heard anything back from Tom Raper if Forest River has approved our warranty claim for the roof, yet alone our concerns about the flooring.