Forest River Hit with Class Action Over Alleged RV Wiring System Problems

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A proposed class action alleges 2002 through 2022 model year Forest River 5th wheel recreational vehicles (RVs) are equipped with unsafe wiring systems. 

The 50-page lawsuit claims that Berkshire Hathaway-owned Forest River manufactures the RVs at issue without safely insulating and protecting wires between the towing vehicle’s seven-way junction box and an RV’s battery, which increases the risk of a short and creates a hazardous condition. 

According to the case, Forest River manufactures the subject RVs without installing a fuse or circuit breaker to protect the wiring system. If a short occurs in the wiring between a seven-way junction box and an RV’s battery, the unprotected wire will overheat, creating a fire risk, the lawsuit stresses. 

“Forest River knows that the electrical circuit between towing vehicles’ 7-way junction boxes and Subject RVs [sic] batteries must be protected by a fuse or circuit breaker to protect the RVs from the risk of fire in the event of a short,” the complaint out of Montana states. “Forest River has manufactured and continues to manufacture Subject RVs without such overcurrent protection.”

According to the suit, if a fire starts in a Forest River 5th wheel RV, the whole vehicle can be engulfed in flames in “10 minutes or less.” 

The lawsuit says that the Forest River RV wiring systems do not comply with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes and standards, in particular NFPA 1192, the fire and life safety standard for RVs. Moreover, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has fined Forest River in the past for “wiring safety issues” that presented a fire risk, the case states. 

For one violation—in which Forest River admitted that it had failed to file certain quarterly recall response rate reports in a timely manner and that some reports may have been incomplete, and that the notices sent to dealers lacked certain required information—the defendant faced a $35 million civil penalty, the case relays. 

The plaintiff, a Montana resident, claims in the suit that his 2019 Forest River “Puma” 5th wheel RV caught fire around May 2020 as he and his family were leaving a campground. The lawsuit alleges that the wire responsible for charging the RV’s 12-volt batteries had shorted and burned, as allegedly depicted in this photo included in the complaint:

“This wire was not adequately insulted or protected in places, and its conductors were not provided with overcurrent protection or protected by a breaker,” the suit alleges.

The case looks to represent all consumers in the United States who bought for personal, family or household use a Forest River 5th wheel RV equipped with an allegedly unsafe wiring system. 

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