NHTSA Complaint Data
RV complaints by manufacturer
See how many safety complaints owners have filed with the federal government about each RV maker since 2016, and how many reported a fire, a crash or an injury. Each maker’s recall count sits alongside for comparison.
Owner complaints on file · 2016–2026
4,994
Against 57 RV makers. 259 report a fire. Newest received: September 16, 2026.
The ranking
In plain terms: Owners have sent NHTSA more complaints about Forest River, Inc. than about any other RV maker since 2016 — 1,390 of them. The list does not simply follow the recall ranking: Grand Design RV, LLC is 2nd here but 8th for recalls. A complaint is one owner’s unverified report, and a company with more RVs on the road will draw more of them. So this shows who owners complained about. It cannot show whose RVs fail more often.
Tap a column heading to re-rank the list, or a maker to see its recalls and complaints.
Ranked by how many owner complaints NHTSA has received about each maker's RVs. One complaint is one owner's report, however many parts it names.
Informational only, not professional advice. A complaint count is not a safety rating, and complaints are owners’ reports that NHTSA has not verified.
Methodology
Source. NHTSA’s consumer complaints flat files, the public download of every safety complaint NHTSA has received since 1995. We read 1,104,082 rows and keep complaints NHTSA received from January 1, 2016 onward — the same window as the recall ranking, measured by the date NHTSA received the complaint, not the RV’s model year.
Which makers. The complaints file has no “RV” field either, so scope comes from the recall ranking: a complaint counts when its manufacturer name matches one of the 87 RV makers identified there. 30 of those makers have no complaint on file in the window and are listed with a zero.
One complaint, counted once. NHTSA’s file repeats a complaint once for every component the owner named, so counting rows would overstate every maker. Rows are folded by NHTSA’s complaint number (ODI number) into 4,994 complaints.
Non-RV products. A few makers also build other vehicles under the same name — Forest River’s buses and cargo trailers, for instance. For those makers only, a complaint is dropped when its make and model name a non-RV product and nothing in the record says RV. That removed 10 complaints.
Fire, crash and injury. These are fields on NHTSA’s complaint form, answered by the owner: was there a fire, was there a crash, how many people were injured or killed. They are not our classification and not NHTSA’s finding. The injury column counts complaints reporting at least one injury or death, not people. Deaths are too few to rank: 3 complaints in the window report one, 4 deaths in all.
What this ranking cannot tell you
- Not adjusted for RVs on the road. No public source reports how many RVs each maker has sold, so complaints per RV cannot be calculated. Raw counts favor small builders.
- Unverified, and self-selected. Anyone can file a complaint and NHTSA publishes it without confirming it. Only owners who know NHTSA takes reports file one, so the counts reflect who knew to report as much as what went wrong.
- Filed against the RV, whatever failed. An owner names their RV’s make and model on the form. A complaint about a motorhome’s chassis or a trailer’s refrigerator can therefore land on the RV maker here, while the matching recall would be filed by the chassis or appliance maker and not appear in the recall ranking at all.
- Makers with no recalls are missing. Because scope comes from the recall ranking, a maker with complaints but no RV recall since 2016 is not listed.
- A snapshot, not a live feed. Data pulled September 19, 2026. NHTSA updates the file daily.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which RV manufacturer has the most complaints?
Forest River, Inc.: NHTSA received 1,390 owner complaints about its RVs between 2016 and September 16, 2026. Grand Design RV, LLC is second with 564 and Jayco, Inc. third with 514. These are raw counts and are not adjusted for how many RVs each company has on the road.
Are NHTSA complaints verified?
No. A complaint is one owner's report, published by NHTSA with personal details removed. Whether there was a fire, a crash or an injury is the owner's own answer on the complaint form. A complaint is not proof of a defect. NHTSA uses complaints to decide which problems to investigate, and an investigation is what can lead to a recall.
Why does a maker rank differently for complaints than for recalls?
They measure different things. A recall is filed by the manufacturer once a defect is confirmed; a complaint is filed by an owner who thinks something is unsafe. Grand Design RV, LLC, for example, ranks 2nd for complaints but 8th for recalls. Complaints can run ahead of recalls when owners are reporting a problem that has not been recalled, and they also rise when a problem gets attention among owners.
How do I file a safety complaint about my RV?
File it with NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem, or call the Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236. Have the VIN ready. It is free, and your complaint is added to the same public database this ranking is built from.
Related tools
Every RV maker ranked by the safety recalls it has filed with NHTSA since 2016 — by count, RVs affected, and fire, crash and injury risk.
Open tool →RV Complaints by ModelThe RV models owners have complained about most to NHTSA since 2016, with fire, crash and injury reports and the part owners name most for each.
Open tool →RV Recall LookupLook up the NHTSA recalls and owner complaints on file for a specific RV make, model and year — live from the federal database.
Open tool →