Winnebago Journey Lemon? - Page 4

vicsryd · 07-11-2005, 08:42 PM

Tim,

Sadly your list and mine overlap quite a bit (see the beginning of this thread) although we found most of our problems in the first few weeks.

I'd like to hear more about the "roof wrinkles" you had on your Journey so I can look out for it on my own. On a fiberglass roof that sounds like some kind of moisture, delamination problem.

We had looked at Dutch Star along with FW Revolution, Cross County and some others but we did not find one my wife liked. After two months of looking this Journey was the first class A she really liked (from a woman's point of view). Not too flashy, not too big and one of the few with a dinette. And it met my mechanical/engineering requirements.

New theory I'd like to examine (maybe post a poll) is to see what the rate of defects is versus coach build dates. Our coach build date is 9/19/04 (still kind of early in the 05 model year) with over 20 defects, 5 of them major, repaired by a dealer under warranty and another dozen that I've fixed on my own.

In May I examined a 05 Journey that was built in March 05 and looked for "my problems". I could not find any of the "visible" problems (couldn't really check electrical though). Same dealer, same PDI so I assumed all else was equal.

This makes me wonder if Winnebago coaches built in the first half a model year have a higher rate of problems than those built in the second half. Possibly lower/slower production rates and more senior workers after the Christmas break?

timz61 · 07-12-2005, 09:32 AM

Joel:
The roof wrinkles were on the driver side, above the driver window. It started out as a small indentation in the fibreglas but progressed into a series of ripples. My neighbor lost a roof on a year old Winne Adventurer in a 45 MPH wind in California and had much difficulty with Winnebago getting the roof replaced. Winnebago has gone cheap on their roof system using a very thin membrane type covering rather than a true thicker fibreglass. Also the system used to secure the roof is not the best either. Take a real good look at the seams where the roof and sidewall come together and you will probably want to seal all of it with the permabond tape. That was next on my agenda until I saw the DS.

vicsryd · 07-12-2005, 10:48 AM

Tim,

I've been reading the threads on the seam issues had was already pondering the EB or permabond tape solution and wondering how it's going to look with my full body paint. However, in all those threads no one mentioned a roof wrinkle.

vicsryd · 08-09-2005, 08:01 PM

Wanted to place a final note on this thread.

We just finished a two weeks, 3 stop, 1600 mile trip. The coach worked like a charm. No new problems to report per se, just new realizations:

1. The thermostat is extrememly inaccurate (i.e. reads 72 at 65 degrees true and 80 when 85 degrees true. Going to research the forum for more info/solutions.

2. Because of the Winniebago "feature" where the basement cargo bays are attached to the slideouts there is no insulation under the floor when the slideouts are extended (very cold feet in the AM when it was 35 degrees outside). Foam board and Loctite Power Grip will help fix this.

3. The basement A/C exhaust creates quite a dust storm if the back of your coach is over dirt (i.e. typical of many back-in sites in state park, National Park or Forest Service campgrounds). Solution for now is to use a tarp and tent stakes to provide ground cover. Looking to add a HVAC ducting to steer exhaust air more horizontally.

JanBCarter · 08-10-2005, 01:20 PM

This forum has just confirmed for me our decision to seek a good used coach that the original owners had worked through the start-up problems with. We bought our coach with 21000 miles on the 3yr/50,000 mile Freightliner warranty and have had not problems with the Winnie portion at all (other than those which were "self-induced";&lt

Hang in there and look forward to the good times to come when these "insurmountable opportunities" are behind you.

imgoin4it2 · 08-10-2005, 06:43 PM

I have a 2002 Journey DL that has more problems than I am going to attempt to list here. In 24 months it was to the dealer 14 times, Started and completed every at the dealer. On top of all the many problems, the drivers side wall cracked. Winnebago came and picked up the MH, took it to factory and replaced the entire side. Did some repairs good , some terrible. Took two more trips to the dealer to put seals back on, bolts back on, belt line trim back on etc. Winnebago gave me an additional 12 month warranty. If dealer had not been great with their support not sure what I would have done. MH was in the shop 6 months out of 24, put on 8000 miles dedicated to warranty work. Finally now a good coach, but went through He** getting here.

dcellisesq · 08-11-2005, 08:05 AM

Winnebago is taking a bit of a bashing here and perhaps it is justified. However, my experience is contrary to many. In July 2004, we purchased our first motorhome from a dealer (bank repo) - a 2003 Adventurer 33V. It had 4000 miles on it and, for some peculiar reason, most systems seemed to have never been used.

In 12 months we have travelled 11,000 miles and have never had one, not one, problem with the coach. Everything has worked perfectly from day one. The only problem involved the headlight lenses which were becoming badly clouded. One call to Winnebago and they sent two new headlight assemblies, no charge (out of warranty).

This coach has been a joy and I would buy another Winnebago in a heartbeat!

The Shadow · 08-12-2005, 06:15 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by dcellisesq:
Winnebago is taking a bit of a bashing here and perhaps it is justified. However, my experience is contrary to many. In July 2004, we purchased our first motorhome from a dealer (bank repo) - a 2003 Adventurer 33V. It had 4000 miles on it and, for some peculiar reason, most systems seemed to have never been used.

In 12 months we have travelled 11,000 miles and have never had one, not one, problem with the coach. Everything has worked perfectly from day one. The only problem involved the headlight lenses which were becoming badly clouded. One call to Winnebago and they sent two new headlight assemblies, no charge (out of warranty).

This coach has been a joy and I would buy another Winnebago in a heartbeat! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmm. Guess you have now provided a live example of the meaning of the word "lucky."

rg · 08-12-2005, 10:00 AM

I agree "Winnebago is taking a bit of a bashing here" I have an 04 with 30,000 and it has been great. I would not by another brand. I have friends with 04 and 05 Discovery's that would give them away if they could.

Barney B. · 08-12-2005, 01:17 PM

Parts are a problem. I'm still waiting for 3 small parts ordered in early June. They're not stoping me from using the rig, just taking some of the fun out of it.

vicsryd · 08-13-2005, 06:03 AM

The unofficial and unscientific polls I tool last month showed an interesting trend. About 1 out of 6 Winnie/Itasca coaches has a lot of defects (> 20). The majority have less than 10 defects. There was a small bias towards more defects for coaches built in the beginning of the model year but, to be sure, there were coaches built in April with > 20 defects too.

Another thing I've decided is the forums contain a lot of information based on negative experiences. But there are relatively very few postings about the positive experiences (Silence is Golden Syndrome?). I for one would like to hear more from those who had positive experiences like the couple that have been posted in this thread recently.

As for my Journey, I'm going to chalk this whole thing up to experience and the fact I was unfortunate enough to get one of the 1 in 6 with more problems. At least I'll know what to look for next time to try and avoid repeating the experience.

The Shadow · 08-14-2005, 06:56 AM

Jon, I'm not sure that the forums are as void of positive experiences as you suggest. It is just that the negative reports are much longer since they list so man items. It doesn't take much space to say "no problems."

The problem we have as purchasers is that a 1/6th chance of buying a lemon is just too high. Would you even consider buying a car that had that probablility? I wouldn't. So I ask myself why I would buy a motorhome with that risk?

We "think" ours may be debugged now but here we are thinking of trading (with three of us we really do need two slides up front and our 39W only has one narrow slide). We've decided we will give Winnie another go - if and only if we can get a fair price. When we purchased our Journey the dealer jacked the price $10k at last minute saying he couldn't do the original deal as the trade price allowed was originally on a Vectra 34 that he had obtained at a good price at the Louisville show and thus he needed more for our Journey. Ha, I was contacted by two people who tried to buy our trade and it turned out several people were bidding on it. The dealer made out VERY well on our deal.

We are considering a 2005 Vectra but at this time the dealer is asking 93% of MSRP. I wouldn't pay this even if **** froze over (meaning the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup

) If we strike out trying to get a fair price (most in the US would laugh at us for being willing to pay 80% of list when the 06 models are out already) then we are likely done with Winnie. Since the same dealer is the HR dealer nothing will be different trying to buy an HR Endeavor so we will then move on to Newmar and Travel Supreme. We might look at Tiffin again but the dealer is in a very inconvenient location and when he bragged about how good factory service is, well that turned me off. On the other hand, our current dealer has an 8 week wait for a warranty service appointment.

As to knowing what to look for next time, I'd like to think I would too - but many of the problems we experienced were not things that one could see at the time of purchase (the floor tiles took a few weeks to start popping up, sliding doors didn't fall off until we used it, leg didn't fall off of the booth dinette table until we put it up and down a few times, etc.).

In the end it is a case of keeping your fingers crossed - something one shouldn't have to do when spending $200k. If you bought a Mercedes for $200k and ended up with a list as long as many of us have had the Chairman of the company would be forced to walk the plank (gee, come to think of it, the DC Chair was forced to walk the plank last week

).

simplyrob · 08-14-2005, 07:16 AM

I have been extremely fortunate with my RV. Since new, I've only had 3 minor warranty issues. I was thinking of trading up recently, however I'm afraid because this coach is functionally perfect. I keep telling myself, why give myself a headache when this current coach works so well?

vicsryd · 08-14-2005, 07:37 AM

Simplyrob,

If you really have a need vs desire to trade up my suggestion is to wait at least another year, maybe two to get max trade-in value on your current rig (minimum three years is the guideline). Then buy a used, debugged 3-4 year old coach that meets your requirements.

With my current mindset then when I go full time in 10 years I'll either a custom coach built or buy a used coach and update it. But of course a lot can happen in 10 years such as the Japanese buying Winnebago and turning it around or there won't be enough oil supply left to justify this lifestyle.

kenbt · 08-17-2005, 07:48 AM

In regards to the house battery problems..if you have the series 31 Work A Holic house batteries from Interstate as I had, they are basically on recall...if you call customer service at Interstate and tell them your problem they will have the dealer replace them with their series 29 batteries that have a better history and are readily available where the series 31 are not...As far as your rig pulling to the right and shimmy at 55 or 60...have your front end alligned and the front tire balanced again..I made the mistake of not doing that from the get go and have excessive tire wear for the mileage I have on them. The front end shop told me he has never seen a unit come from the factory that did not need to be corrected especially after you load it up

Jim Bob · 01-16-2006, 02:40 AM

I can still remember those days when we took delivery of our new coach. I guess it took a year to get all the bugs worked out and I learned a lot along the way about the coach and about myself. In the end all is well, I love my coach, I killed them with kindness at the service department and it seemed to make them work a little harder to make me happy. My coach is a 2000 Horizon and we are verry happy campers. Good luck, Jim Bob

Tweke · 01-17-2006, 07:55 AM

We took delivery of our '06 Journey 34H on Dec 31, 2005, after a pre-acceptance inspection that we did over the course of about 2 days. Though this was our first MH, I had really studied this forum and others to become familiar with the minimum points of interest on a pre-acceptance inspection.

We only managed to find very minor issues: refer latch, windshield wiper blade, satellite dish. All except the satellite dish (part had to be ordered) were fixed immediately.

After 3 weeks, we have found some other issues (slow airbag leak, small generator oil leak, icemaker inop, and small chip in windshield). So far this is in line with my expectations, and have had it out for a few days camping so far. Repairs are being scheduled for these issues - will post back how well they were resolved.

AT THIS POINT, we are very happy with our coach - but we also realize that it is very early in our "relationship".

I am always sorry to hear about all the problems others may be having, and I try to always follow them and note the resolutions... Just wanted to "post" our positive experience thus far.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to the forums - it will help to improve the industry as a whole.

Steve