New to me 2000 Journey 36'

[ScottsJourney]

Hello, at Thanksgiving I found a 2000 Journey 36' 275 hp Cummins at LazyDays in Tampa. After talking with the sales Rep and having her send me more picutures and giving me the previous owners name I was convinced that it was worth a trip to Tampa to see it. Well 2 weeks ago my Fiancee and I flew to Tampa to look at it. It was in great condition. I test drove it and it was great! We did a walk through and there were a few things that they needed to fix. One big fix was the tires. They said they were new in 2008. Well that wasn't right they were 2004. To make a long story short they replaced the tires I now have 2009 tires. Last Thursday I flew back down to Lazydays signed the papers and am now a first time owner of a MH. I had them Winterize it for me and on Sunday after the big Snow storm I left for State College, PA. I made it in 2 very long days. Well everything was good except that I had no heat!!! I did use the furnace on the 2nd day but it was very windy and I thought I smelled LP so I stopped and turned off the furnace. I talked to Lazydays and thought it might be the thermostat but they think it is a valve somewhere on the engine. Does anyone with this engine know of this? Lazydays is going to send me a valve. Any way I have the MH in my drive way and am happy to be home. I'm sure I'll have other questions in the future. Thanks for any help and Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!
Scott

[Shuffster]

Great coach. If you didn't have any "dash" heat, it may be that the valves were shut off near the engine. They are pretty easy to see, just take a flashlight and crawl under the engine area.
Many of these era coaches had bad heater cores that typically start leaking after 3 or 4 years. My previous coach (Journey 2001) had the problem. Might be the reason that the valves are switched off.

Enjoy your new coach.

[mhughes]

I bought the same year and model 2 1/2 years ago off eBay. Great coach. Although I had to fix a ton of problems including collapsed floor in front of the rear wheels, broken chassis bracket welds on the frame behind the rear wheels ( this is a documented problem with this year coach ) and corrosion/rust due to being from the north. Now that it is all done I love it.

[ernieh]

In addition to checking the water shutoff valves, you might want to make sure that the vacuum pump is working. You should be able to hear it if you put your ignition switch to the run position (don't start the engine) and cycle the heater/ac thru different modes. Also, if the vac lines are intact, you should hear the heater doors moving.

[pine tree]

SLP45,
We also just bought an old Journey. Ours is a 2001 36 GD. We have a 330 HP Cat with 41,000 miles on the rig. Traded in a 2006 Winnebago 31C Outlook on this new [old] rig. Wife and I have been RVing for about 10 years so we have seen quite a few motor homes and other RV's in our travels.

You have one big advantage over us in that we will not pick up our rig until Feb. 2010. Your post is very interesting to me as I am very concerned about possible problems with a rig this old. Your experience is very reassuring in that your pick up trip went quite well. Few and minor problems. All RV's have problems from time to time so what you experienced I would consider almost normal. As you get more aquainted with the rig you will be able to quickly fix these little things. Read the owners manuals, make lists and ask questions. This forum is great. It's just full of all kinds of information and advice from RV'ers with just a ton of experience and knowledge. These folks and almost all RV'ers are helpful to a fault. [not realy to a fault] They all mean well and I follow their advice. This is the best recommendation that I can give you. "Listen to these Winnebago Forum folks."

Concerning the age of our Journeys, I look at it this way. Every RV dealer has a big bump at the end of his drive way. When the buyer of a new RV leaves the dealership he drives over that bump and leaves behind about 25 to 50% of what he just paid. Maybe as much as $50-75,000.00 gone in a flash. I cannot see you and I spending anything even close to that repairing BOTH our old Journeys in the next 5 years. These Winnebagos are built like tanks and the Cat diesels tied to Allisen transmissions are reported good to go for hundreds of thousands of miles. Our rig came with a dealer provided 3,000 mile 3 month power train warranty. Not much, but better than a poke in the eye and a bump at the end of the driveway. None the less, we will say our prayers to our God who we know watches over all of us. I know He/She favors RV,ers.

Now with respect to reliability of RV's. Wife and I have been on two Winnebago caravans. One was 8,000 round trip to Alaska. [did not see Sarah] There were 22 Winnebago rigs on the trip. Most were almost new $250,000.00+, rigs a couple new class C's [us], about 3 gas class A,s and 6 old Journey's [2001-2004]. Both the caravan leader and the tailender were driving Journeys/Horizions. [Horizion is an Itaska branded Journey] Guess who had the most problems? Right the $250,000.00 rigs. Why, I don't know. Maybe they are more complex. I do know for sure however, I did not have a single problem and neither did the Journeys. That trip was hell for those rigs. You have to know that the problems were all of a minor nature. None being show stoppers. Things like jacks not coming up or slides not going in/out. Some funny electrical things. Stuff like that. The tail-ender fix them all All in all I am very sure you and I are going to be fine with our old Journeys. Take good care of the old girls and they will beahave and serve us well.

A last thing to do. Keep the rear facing Radiator CLEAN.

Good Luck,
Pine Tree

[leedowney]

Hello. My wife and I just bought the same coach. It's a2000 Journey 36G with 39k miles on it. We really like it so far. My 7 year old son loves sitting up front. We had a gas coach several years back but it's hard to beat a diesel pusher. We've average 11.2 mpg so far (not towing). This is our first pusher. We've put over 1,000 miles on it and we've only owned it 1 month. Went skiing to WV last weekend for New Years. Does great in the snow. I've had to fix some minor problems (light switches, cd player install) but nothing I didn't already know about. The previous owner was kind enough to have it fully serviced and new tires installed. He is also paying me to have the kitchen floors redone.Some water leaked out on the wood a few years back and sit all winter. Caused some buckling. For just over $400, I'm going to have new hardwoods put down next week. The only "major" problem with the coach I've experience is two corner cracks in the skylight over the shower. I would suggest you looking at yours for cracks. For the past year or so, water has ran in those cracks and down the inside sidewall behind the shower. Now I have a 2 foot wide delamination problem. I called Winnebago and discussed the problem. They have given me several ideas on how to fix this issue. They eased my mind on structural weakness. That's a relief. I have been sold on how good "Eternabond" works for roof seals. This week I've ordered a 4x50 ($68 shipped) and a 2x50 ($43 shipped) strip to do all my vents, seams and gutter lines. Seems to be an amazing product which many on this forum recommended.

The only real issue I had last weekend on our ski trip to WV was my water pump froze up. Temps were around 7 degrees. The underbelly where the gray and black water storage tanks are heated but for some unknown reason, Winnebago decided to put the water pump in the far rear drivers side compartment which is not heated. I had to buy a $20 small space heater with thermostat and put in this compartment to keep it from freezing. That fixed the problem. Not sure why they didn't heat this area as well. Oh well. Simple fix. If you plan on cold weather camping this winter, keep that in mind.

We have really enjoyed this coach so far. My guy friends and I have a beach trip to Myrtle planned end of this month. Looking forward to that. Enjoy your coach. You got a good one.