07 Journey on Order

[Pusherman]

I am new to this forum, but not as a reader or as a coach owner. I have owned a 2000 Journey for over 5 years, and finally took the plunge and ordered an '07. Dealer tells me it should be delivered any day now.

I ordered the same floorplan (34H) as our current coach as we love the maneuverability of the shorter coaches, as we do a lot of camping in the state parks.

07 Journey 34H
Full Body Paint- Red Maple
CAT C-7 / Allison 6 Speed
Misc. Accessories

We have loved our 2000 but I wanted to upgrade to the larger engine and transmission, and get one before the new "Green Diesels" begin shipping. I will be happy to have others learn the maintenance nuances of those engines - not to mention the additional $5-6K in price.

Will let everyone know when it arrives and how the delivery process goes. I am somewhat reluctant as I have spent years debugging my 2000 coach.

I opted to sell my coach outright instead of trading - at a $15K savings.

Will let you all know how it goes.

[Pusherman]

I am new to this forum, but not as a reader or as a coach owner. I have owned a 2000 Journey for over 5 years, and finally took the plunge and ordered an '07. Dealer tells me it should be delivered any day now.

I ordered the same floorplan (34H) as our current coach as we love the maneuverability of the shorter coaches, as we do a lot of camping in the state parks.

07 Journey 34H
Full Body Paint- Red Maple
CAT C-7 / Allison 6 Speed
Misc. Accessories

We have loved our 2000 but I wanted to upgrade to the larger engine and transmission, and get one before the new "Green Diesels" begin shipping. I will be happy to have others learn the maintenance nuances of those engines - not to mention the additional $5-6K in price.

Will let everyone know when it arrives and how the delivery process goes. I am somewhat reluctant as I have spent years debugging my 2000 coach.

I opted to sell my coach outright instead of trading - at a $15K savings.

Will let you all know how it goes.

["007"]

Welcome to irv2 and congrats on the purchase of a new Journey. Hope you have less problems than the 2000 many happy miles ahead.
Enjoy the forums and post often.

[Joe-K]

Welcome aboard Pusherman and congratulations on the new Journey. It's no surprise to me that you held on to your old one for so long. We still like ours and like you said, once they are debugged and tweaked to be just the way we like, it's hard to get rid of them.

[smlranger]

Pusherman:

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Journey. The rig we have is our first DP and the more we use it, the more we like it. The more I tweak it, the better I get to know it, and the more likely I am to just keep it. The Journeys are just a lot of coach for the money.

[Gary CA]

Pusherman: Congratulations on your purchase. We have the 34H and really like the floorplan. My next venture is to change out my head-knocker tube TV in the bedroom for the flat LCD you have. Pound for pound with the 350 HP CAT the coach runs strong and handles nice in tight access areas.

[Pusherman]

Thanks to all for the 'welcome's'.

We love our 2000 coach with its many upgrades over time: Central vac, surround sound, new carpet and flexsteel captain's chairs, etc. We also love the 34H layout, and ordered the same floorplan.

We also love the upgrades made over the years to the Jourey, such as the auto well cover, dual fuel fill, commode closet, etc.

The 275 hp was adequate but just a little under powered, so this was the primary reason for opting for the 350hp CAT C7 and 6speed Allison.

The flat panel TV in the bedroom is a plus as well.

We had the factory add the oven, as this was not an option in 2007. The Customer Relations group where they do custom handicap coaches did this work -- for a fee.

Still anxiously awaiting delivery -- like an expectant parent.

[jtharley]

Welcome, lots of good info here and VERY helpful folks. Quite a statement for winnie that after 6 years of motoring you chose another Journey!

We love ours too.....

[afrank1971]

Pusherman,
We ordered our Journey on September 13th and just took delivery last Thursday, November 2nd. So far, so good. Looks like we ordered the same rig, same color, same engine, etc... I'm still trying to figure out where the pre-wired wires or for the trailer brake controller, and how to get the dash apart to install my XM Radio in the dash radio Auxiliary port. But so far the thing is perfect with no problems. Our first trip is this weekend so we'll see if it's still perfect after that. Anyway, hope you will be as happy with yours as we are with ours. Happy DP'ing...
Alan

["007"]

Alan Frank welcome to irv2
Congrats on your new Journey
Many happy and safe miles ahead.
Enjoy the forums and post often
If you want to be a member of Winne forum let us know.

[afrank1971]

Yeah, sign me up. I didn't realize there was an official membership status to the Winnie forum. Thanks!

[Pusherman]

Alan,

We ordered ours on August 28th, and took delivery of the new coach last Saturday, November 4th. About 8+ weeks of waiting. But it was worth it. The anticipation was excrutiating!

Haven't driven it any further than from the dealer to my barn yet, as I have identified 2 problems which may be either Winnebago's or Freightliner's. It's going to the dealer (per their request) first. They are:

- The air system leaks down to '0' pressure in less than 12 hours. Freightliner says this is not right. My old coach kept air for weeks.

- The engine brake does not operate; nor does the indicator light when switched on. Electrical?

We plan on driving down to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, barring no salt on the roads. So I hope that my dealer can figure out what's going on. Their service is quite good.

Otherwise we love it!

I sold my 2000 Journey outright, for a $15K gain over what the dealer would provide on trade. Only negative was losing the sales tax credit on the trade, but I still came out $10K ahead. I actually closed on the old coach the same day I picked up the new one. I was quite busy unloading the old coach at the last minute, as we used it the weekend prior. Otherwise everything worked out perfect.

We're still quite excited about the new one.

[afrank1971]

Bummer to hear about the couple problems you've found. Ours I have so far been unable to detect any problems, other than the little wood buttons that they use to cover screw holes, they are falling out all over the place. Most of them I have found and can replace, but will need to contact Winnebago for extras as some have wandered off to unkown places. We are headed out for our first trip tomorrow morning, out to Death Valley from the LA area. We'll see if my "no problems" status remains unchanged. Good luck on your trip, and it's good to have contact with someone that has the exact coach.
Thanks,
Alan

[afrank1971]

Don,

Well our first trip out was overall a success, however, my "no problems" status is of course no longer "no problems".

First, my exhaust brake is also in-operative. Trouble is, I didn't realize this until heading down a 9% 10 mile grade through Towne Pass on the west side of Death Valley pulling a Chevy Blazer. Needless to say we made a couple brake cool down stops along the way down and it was pretty exciting!

I also had trouble one day in camp where the motorhome would not start. Tightened all the batteries and that seemed to do the trick. However, just a couple days ago it wouldn't start again. Jiggling a tiny wire on the starter did the trick (I believe it is the ignition relay wire).

The coach is at LA Freightliner right now, they have confirmed the starter wires were loose and tightened everything up, so starting should no longer be a problem. They have not gotten back to me on the exhaust brake. Do you know yet what was/is wrong with yours? Mine seems like it simply isn't connected.

The other excitment I had was trying to install a brake controller. The pre-wired wire drop was no where near where Winnebago said it should be. Ended up finding it under the dash shroud, behind the instrument panel. I have a previous post with pictures if that's something you need to do, perhaps it will help.

And last, which you, as a more experienced motorhome owner, should already know, don't put heavier items in the upper cabinets. The last turn on our way home we went through a cross gutter that rocked the motorhome side to side and threw the liquor bottle out of the upper cabinet above the sink. Broke one of the sink covers, but other than that, luckily caused no damage.

All in all, I'd still say it is an overall good experience. Our next trip is the second weekend of December and I'm hoping to have all these bugs worked out by then. We'll see.

PS: Winnebago customer service has been superb (despite their diagram of the wire drop location being inaccurate). They have been very responsive to all of my email questions, and have sent me replacement wood buttons for the cabinetry as I requested and have even sent me a replacement sink cover despite that not being (by any stretch of the imagination) a warranty issue.