The Used Car Index

2009 Forest River Cardinal problems

NHTSA lists 5 complaints for the 2009 Forest River Cardinal, 1 of them mention a crash and 0 mention a fire. 1 complaints mention an injury, with 2 injuries and 0 deaths reported.

Data build 2026-10-08.

NHTSA lists this vehicle as FOREST RIVER CARDINAL.

At a glance

Complaints
5
With crash
1
With fire
0
With injury (complaints)
1
Injuries
2
Deaths
0
Recalls
1
Do not drive recalls
0
Park outside recalls
0
Recall potential units (maximum)
176
Investigations
0
Open investigations
0
Manufacturer communications
0

Complaints per 100k sold unavailable. No sales source is available for this record.

Where the complaints are

Top systems
SystemComplaintsShare of this vehicle's complaints
TIRES360.0%
EQUIPMENT120.0%
SUSPENSION120.0%
Top subsystems
SystemSubsystemComplaints

One complaint can name several systems, so shares can add to more than 100 percent.

Model-generated complaint tags: This model year has not been tagged.

Recalls

See new recalls and investigations this week.

1 recalls.

09V148000

Date: 2009-05-01. Systems: EQUIPMENT.

Defect: FOREST RIVER IS RECALLING 176 MY 2009 CARDINAL FIFTH WHEEL TRAILERS. THESE TRAILERS FAIL TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARD NO. 120, "TIRE SELECTION AND RIMS FOR MOTOR VEHICLES OTHER THAN PASSENGER CARS." DUE TO FAULTY SCALES IN THE PRODUCTION FACILITY, THE LABEL FOR THE CARGO CARRYING CAPACITY VALUES IS INCORRECT.

Consequence: FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROPER VEHICLE LOADING SPECIFICATIONS OR MISPRINT LABEL COULD INCREASE THE RISK OF A CRASH.

Remedy: FOREST RIVER WILL BE MAILING CORRECTED LABELS TO RETAIL PURCHASERS, AND/OR TO DEALERS. THE SAFETY RECALL BEGAN ON APRIL 15, 2009. OWNERS MAY CONTACT FOREST RIVER AT 1-574-206-7600.

Do not drive: No. Park outside: No.

Investigations

0 investigations; 0 open.

Manufacturer communications

0 manufacturer communications.

Communications by system
SystemCount

Notes on this record

  • Complaints from the API and bulk file are merged and deduplicated by ODI number; the API alone misses records.
  • System and subsystem counts are numbers of distinct complaints, recalls or communications that name them. One record can name several systems, so shares across systems can add to more than 100 percent; a single share never exceeds 100 percent.
  • Recalls are counted once per campaign, investigations once per action and manufacturer communications once per NHTSA id, even when NHTSA lists several model names for the same record.
  • A sales denominator is a calendar-year proxy, not the population of vehicles still in use. Rates are copied from verified pipeline output.

Other names NHTSA uses

None listed.

Matched NHTSA models

Matched labels and complaints
NHTSA model labelComplaints
CARDINAL5

Same model, other years

All model years | All Forest River models

Other Forest River models, 2009

Sources

Get this record as JSON

The free rate-limited demo needs no key.

curl "https://api.theusedcarindex.com/v1/demo/vehicle_risk?make=Forest+River&model=Cardinal&year=2009"

Paid endpoint: https://api.theusedcarindex.com/v1/vehicle_risk. MCP endpoint: https://api.theusedcarindex.com/mcp.