How are the Vectra's?

[Kro1957]

Any owner of Vectra's? Looking at a 05 40AD

Thanks
James

[Grenadiers]

We bought an '04 last November, haven't spent much time in it. We sold our main SB recently, now we're on our 2nd day of a 2-month vacation. Ending at our other place in northern AZ. We bought the coach due to wife loving the floorplan, interior details. I was leaning towards a Dutch Star.

We've had numerous problems with the brake and air suspension system. Two repairs, one freebie by dealer, and then a 3200 dollar one by Freightliner fixed it. The basement air works great, don't have the de-laminating rear paper mache' housing to deal with. The low-mileage 8.3L Cummins is powerful, coach is easy to drive, had to fix numerous water leaks along the roof line. Ended up using Eternabond tape and that 'sealed the deal'. Have a slight windshield leak I haven't addressed. In windy conditions, the driver-side slide would move out on top, due to differences in air pressure. Bought those expandable jacks for that.

The two 6-volt Trojan house batteries were percolating yesterday morning. Woke up to bad eggs smell, and the LP gas sensor went off. Got my attention. The batteries were 2003 models, so I replaced the two with four new units as we want to save money and boondock more. The batteries came with instructions on how to set them up. You'll need more cables to tie them together, spendy for all.

Here's why we bought it:

[cbeierl]

We've been very happy with our 2005 36RD!

[lajuene]

Originally Posted by Kro1957

Any owner of Vectra's? Looking at a 05 40AD

Thanks
James

We have a 2004 40AD and LOVE IT!
As with most motorhomes, keep your wallet handy. Haven't had a lot of problems but when you do it's pricey. That's true for any rig though. We are planning on keeping ours as long as possible. We are full timers.

[Catcoach]

Have a 2005 Vectra, and friends of ours have a 2004. While I had a major engine failure at 58,000 miles last year over all the coach has been a great coach. The basement air has one weak spot, that being a saddle bearing that will fail if not lubricated. Best solution is the replace when A/C is not needed. Else where on this forum or on line there are excellent directions on how to do so.
Some folks, including us have intermittent slide issues. Personally I think the weight of the kitchen slide is just to great for the system. Usually a helpful push on the outside overcome the issue of the slide not closing. Again lots of discussion on this forum about the issue.
Both my friend and I had to have our alternators replaced at about 55,000 miles.
As someone else said, just have your wallet and credit cards handy.

[RSteele]

I just bought an 07 40 TD 6 months ago. Been getting all the systems up to par. As far as basement A/C thus is the second Winne DP with basement ac I have owned. First thing I do is replace the bushings on the squirrel cage fans to sealed bearings. The bushings have oil caps on them that people don't oil. Don't blame them it's a real pian to get the ac open to do it. For $40 buy the bearings from grainger and put them in. If it's not squeaking it will be shortly. There are how to posts on here about it. Make sure the caulking on the edge of the roof is good. It's a job to get the old stuff out. I use 3m 4000 uv, best stuff I've found and has uv inhibitors. Mine had keyless entry that worked sometimes. The Oem was out of business, I bought a replacement from lichsinn motors. Came with new key fobs too. Winnebago makes a wiring harness adapter for it but they are pretty proud of a six pin adapter for $200. Love the floor plan and it's a great coach.

[Bigpeetee]

We've owned our '04 40AD for 12 months and love it.

It's a big vehicle for the UK, but with a little planning, we manage to full time throughout the summer.

Had very few issues with it, mostly down to neglect from the previous owners.

Replaced the old TV's, the one in the lounge was moved to the top of the cupboard and the doors refitted on the lower area. I used two drawer slides and built a large fronted drawer into the old cupboard to mount the 48" LED TV, this now provides a great space to store all the vehicle & appliance manuals out of sight. You need them, but they can get in the way!!

Good luck