2016 Forest River Solera

Defect. Forest River, Inc. (Forest River) is recalling certain model year 2015-2017 Forester motorhomes manufactured June 10, 2014, to May 25, 2016, Sunseeker motorhomes manufactured April 4, 2014, to May 25, 2016, 2015-2016 Solera motorhomes manufactured February 28, 2014, to September 17, 2015, and 2016 Isata motorhomes manufactured October 30, 2015, to May 26, 2016. Water may leak into the electrical module that controls the vehicle taillights, brake lights, turn signal lights, clearance lights and marker lights, making the lights inoperative. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 108, "Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment."

Risk. If the rear brake lights fail to illuminate, following motorists may not realize that the vehicle in front of them is stopping. Inoperative taillights, clearance lights and marker lights will make the vehicle less visible to others. Either condition can increase the risk of a crash.

Remedy. Forest River will notify owners, and dealers will repair the vehicles, free of charge. An interim notice was sent to owners on August 16, 2016. The recall began on December 8, 2016. Forester, Solera, and Sunseeker owners may contact Forest River customer service at 1-574-206-7600. Isata customers should call 1-574-262-3474. Forest River's number for this recall is 51-06012016-0206.

Two Incidents: 1) June 4th: Going down a ~8% grade at approximately 25-30 MPH, towing an aluminum boat with working electric trailer brakes (~3000 lbs on trailer). The road was paved, dry and in good condition, no gravel. I was coasting in 2nd gear (manually selected) and vehicle was maintaining speed with no additional brake applications. I was not accelerating or decelerating. On it's own, the vehicle then downshifted into 1st gear taking the engine above redline, at the same time, the rear axle began hopping (actually skidding / chirping tires quickly), the engine began stalling / starting (Bucking), then the vehicle applied the throttle (again - no input from me) accelerating downhill. I pressed the brake pedal, but the pedal went to the floor and you could feel the ABS system was active, trying to prevent a ficticious skid. I shifted the transmission to neutral, and manually applied the parking brake to control the vehicle. Then the service engine soon, traction control, ESP and ABS lights illuminated on the dash. The vehicle then drove ok with lights illuminated. 2) After 2 days of driving in the campground, the lights (all of them) turned off. 3) On June 6th, pulling out of a gas station onto a road, the vehicle began bucking at approximately 15 mph, it then accelerated to ~45mph completely on its own. Once again - it completely ignored my brake command. We caught this incident partly on a cell phone video as it lasted for a 30 second or so. In both cases, cruise contr