550 / 560 Skylight/sun Roof Question

Did a search but came up empty. I see the skylight option is no longer offered but wonder why. Leaks?

 

Richard,

Found this post from Betsy in July of 2014:


Just a clarification on the sunroof and warranty concerns. The issues with the sunroof are from a combination of things.

1) When the sunroofs came from the manufacturer, they occasionally had defects that required additional labor on our part to correct them before installation. Sometimes, however, we missed the defects until a customer had a sunroof leak and brought it to our attention.

2) There have been some sunroofs that were not installed properly, due to employee error. As these have been discovered, we have retrained employees on proper installation techniques.

3) There have been some sunroofs that had leak issues due to customers not following the proper operating and maintenance procedures as outlined in the Owner's Manual (p. 23).

When issues have arisen, we have worked with the customer to have the issues resolved in their locale, whether it was a repair or replacement of the sunroof. Sometimes, we repaired the sunroof here, when the customer brought their teardrop to us.

In most cases, leaks did not occur until the trailer was three or more years old. However, we still covered the repair as a warranty expense (The warranty states a 2 year coverage for this type of problem.). If the issue was due to the sunroof manufacturer's defect, we still assumed responsibility for it. The sunroof manufacturer would not cover the material costs as it was already outside of their warranty period. As a result, we covered the cost of materials and labor for the repairs.

Although we covered the cost of repairs, it did not change the fact the problems had occurred. Customers were inconvenienced and experienced wet bedding, as well as the frustration that came as a result of these issues and getting them resolved. In addition, it was also not cost effective for us to continue the sunroof as an option, as we spent more in warranty repairs than we received in sales on the option.

Even though we have improved inspection of materials and installation on our end, we will not know if this has been enough until several years have elapsed. This, along with the inconvenience and stress to the affected customers, and the cost of warranty repairs, resulted in our decision to discontinue the sunroof as an option.

As a side note, most of our customers who have sunroofs, have not experienced these issues.

 

Having at one time owned a contemporary house with 3 skylights, 2 that open and 1 fixed, I’d never think that was a desirable option again. All 3 leaked at one point in their life and needed expensive repair or replacement. And this on a pitched roof. Unless extra interior light was needed I think they only a good idea in theory. In real life they were an expensive problem. In the TD it seems just to small to warrant it.