2022 WINNEBAGO FORZA — Problems, Recalls & Safety Data

This is my 3rd complaint. Nothing has been done by the manufacturer at this point. While on a trip from St Charles MO to Golden CO in early Sept 23, several retaining screws began falling from the visor area. This assembly is large and heavy and includes a bunk bed over the driver and front passenger seats. A good handful of screws fell to the dash below during this trip. Our fear is this assembly fill come lose and cause the driver to lose control. This issue has caused us to cancel another trip and park it until issues are resolved. Please help. This vehicle is very dangerous.

This complaint is about broken welds on the Superstructure (The framing that runs the length of the Motor Home (RV). It is attached to the chassis frame rails and supports the entire Motor Home including any cargo and equipment like the Fresh Water tanks (100 gallons) Black and Grey waste tanks. It is the backbone of the construction process and supports several thousand pounds and is under incredible stress especially when this 40 foot Motor Home with a dry weight of in in motion. This vehicle has a GVWR of 29,410 lbs. I took the vehicle down to McClain's RV center located in Corinth, TX (DFW Metroplex) to repair 2 slide-outs that were not functioning correctly on August 7th, 2023. I arrived that evening and set the vehicle up on one of the dealerships RV pads that has both water and electric hook-ups. Before going to sleep, I attempted to put some water into the onboard 100 gallon water tank as I normally do not travel with much due to decreased MPG and weight of water. I was unable to get any water into the tank, so I just switched the valve to open and just had the water running straight from the City hook up into the coach via a "City water" hook-up and went to bed. Next morning, I attempted to fill the onboard tank again with what appeared to be no results. I then took a shower. The service manager & I went to lunch before checking my unit in. We were notified during lunch that my vehicle was overflowing onto the ground. We returned and the water had dissolved from the concrete. Further inspection by myself and the Shop Manager reveled that the fresh water tank had collapsed the floor and superstructure steel flat and angle iron bars and was nearly on the ground. If this had happened in motion, someone could have been killed. The broken welds had complete surface rust indicating the welds had been broke and other welds broke in route causing the Superstructure failure. I suspect other welds are bad and fear for our safety and the safety of the public!!!!

I kept having issues with the drivers seat belt not retracting properly (since purchased new) after use creating a tremendous amount of slack in the belt the next time it was used. I actually had to drive it several times with an extremely slack belt basically just hanging on my lap. Since this is a tri-point seat belt, in the event of a crash the entire belt would fail to keep the seat occupant safely belted to the seat including the chest strap AND lap belt. On further inspection by myself, I was able to determine the cause and keep it from happening again or at least correct the issue each time prior to driving the vehicle. I have recently seen this on 2 other Winnebago Forza's. 1 with the same floor plan (38W) and the other with a different plan. I have not mentioned this safety defect to either the manufacturer or any of their dealerships for fear they would simply fix mine and not look into all the other motorhomes they have made they may have the same issue. What is happening is that the seat belt was clearly installed prior to the interior finishing. When they installed the wood veneer that surrounds the place where the belt is attached to the sidewall (not floor). They didn't trim a large enough opening in the wood causing this pivot point on the belt to stick. When the driver pulls on the belt to attempt to free it, the belt twist and becomes bound up leading to slack in the belt. It's an easy fix to trim away some of the wood freeing this pivot up to operate normally.