I purchased the 2016 Forest River Sandpiper 393RL in May of 2016. It is known as a destination rv because people who buy them generally take them from the lot to a recreation lot and park them for long term. It is my home away from home. I live in it from June to September every year. It has everything I need (except a dishwasher). Large 25cf refridgerator with bottom freezer (electric only), 40+" bigscreen, electric fireplace, surround sound, 2 recliners, queen size hide-a-bed for guests. Dinette table with 4 chairs. Island kitchen. Loads of storage space. Soft close drawers. It is totally comfortable with just under 400 sq ft. A good size bathroom with 42" shower. A large bedroom. Room for washer and dryer. Have had no problems with anything in or on it in 6 years. Black tank gets dumped every 3 weeks. Hooked to city water and hook up for septic. Never used my extended warrantee pkg. It's been the perfect summer home for me and would work year round if needed. Cant rate driving/towing or Factory/ dealer support because I haven't had a need to use them. At the end if summer, empty tanks and pull in the 3 slides. Its waiting and ready for another season. Show less

Well, it has been 22 months since the purchase of my 2021 Forest River Sandpiper 420FL. I wish I could say it has been fun and enjoyable, but that is simply not the case. From the time the driver towed my RV off the FunTown RV lot problems cropped up and are still occurring. It is frustrating because was a brand new, never-lived-in unit. So what could possibly go wrong in the first 12 months of ownership—well, more problems that I expected from a brand new unit. And that included houses and cars I have owned. I thought a large item purchase, especially a living facility, would be better constructed and warranted. Imagine my surprise when things showed up broken or non-functional immediately. I have spent a great deal of my own money repairing and replacing broken items in my RV because it became too hard to get warranty coverage to pay. Sometimes I simply could not wait to hear from the warranty department. In some cases, warranty paid but not the full cost of replacement. From my experience I have learned leaving numerous phone messages and calling numerous people to get help does not convey the message on your website of customer satisfaction and service as being your number one priority even though you say “At Forest River, Inc., quality and dependability are a necessity in everything we make.” Instead I believe you know that the destination trailers such as my Sandpiper 420 are an inferior product built without an understanding of the basic needs of the owner. And your lack of transparency in customer service and warranty reflect a lack of concern. Of course, even if you are truly concerned about quality issues in these RVs, the construction of the RV presents problems that you cannot fixed without redesigning the line of RV. It does not help my problems. As my second anniversary approaches I still have issues that have not been addressed or were passed off to the vendor from whom I never hear and find inappropriate. Forest River is my point of contact for every item in my RV. FunTown RV was simply a consignment station; and clearly stated they were not responsible for any repairs, as it should be unless they caused the damage. The vendors I have dealt with were very helpful but since I did not buy the items directly from them the warranty becomes an issue. I realize this may be standard procedure as it sometimes is in new houses but it doesn’t make it any easier to get things fixed. PROBLEMS I RESOLVED WITHOUT FOREST RIVER’S HELP. Reattached weatherstripping under the front patio door. As soon as the tower pulled out of the FunTown RV parking lot a strip of plastic below the front pati door started flapping in the wind. Halfway to our destination we pulled over and removed the stripping so I could reattach it later. After arriving and setting up my RV, I reattached the stripping that covered a row of screws. Three weeks later the stripping was hanging off again. So I used JB Weld to attach it and now it is still in place. Stop valve in hot water heater broke. Had to be replaced along with anode (crusted with calcium and did not heat water). Full amount I paid, $419.56, for fix, along with service call to fix bedroom ceiling switch, was not reimbursed, $383.00, by warranty department. Anode replaced at my expense. Ceiling molding fell off. Had to use several types of adhesive to keep the strip in place. Six months later the molding is falling again. Nails do not penetrate the hardboard siding, and the “wallpaper” is so slick that even tough adhesive doesn't last. PROBLEMS NOT FIXED Since there is no insulation on the main roof or the roof of the slide-outs the sound of simple rains sounds like hail. Heavy rainfall is so loud that I check for hail. Since the living room slide-outs house the sofa and chairs the noise can be quite uncomfortable. The kitchen slide-out housing the dining table and chairs is equally as loud during a normal rainstorm. The lack of insulation negatively affect the air quality and comfort year round. In the hotter months it is impossible to cool the RV. For example, it is 96 degrees outside, the thermostat in the kitchen is set at 72 but constantly reads 80 while the temperature in the living room is 82 degrees if I use an extra fan. I spend a lot of time adjusting the thermostat. The windows and window frames are so hot during the day that you can burn your hand and fingers trying to open or close the window. If I had small children I would consider this a safety hazard. The bedroom stays close to the setting because it is a small room. The living room and kitchen are cooled by the same size air conditioner as the bedroom but the area is almost three times the size of the bedroom. My electric bill is $150/month just to cool the living room to 82 degrees. The Sandpiper should have three AC units. Show less