Winnie View with Mercedes Diesel

[BobH in AZ]

I have not seen any discussion of the View on this forum yet.... and was wondering what the experience has been so far? We pick ours up at Forest City on Thursday... any breakin required for the diesel? any idiosyncracies I should know about? How is the quality holding up so far? We are getting a 23B which is new for this year so we are kind of on the "bleeding" edge... a couple things I found I dont particularly like... no tilt steering, the awning (I am having added) is a "box" awning (not sure what that is) because they have not found a structural location strong enough to mount the standard type? Also, looking into the service doors, it appears that the Black and Grey dumps are in two different locations (adjacent doors on the side) requiring dumping one, then unhook and hook up to the other... ? Not a big deal and probably to optimize the space... the 23B has tremendous space possiblities for a small unit which is why we like it.. one sleeps on the lower bunk, stash computer equip etc. on the upper bunk, one sleeps on couch or above cab bed.. My wife wants the bunk... I will take the cab bed so I can watch TV...

Anyway..... any comments on the diesel? where do you go to get these serviced (my first diesel) and what should I worry about?

bob H
2007 Winnie View 23B on thursday

[BobH in AZ]

I have not seen any discussion of the View on this forum yet.... and was wondering what the experience has been so far? We pick ours up at Forest City on Thursday... any breakin required for the diesel? any idiosyncracies I should know about? How is the quality holding up so far? We are getting a 23B which is new for this year so we are kind of on the "bleeding" edge... a couple things I found I dont particularly like... no tilt steering, the awning (I am having added) is a "box" awning (not sure what that is) because they have not found a structural location strong enough to mount the standard type? Also, looking into the service doors, it appears that the Black and Grey dumps are in two different locations (adjacent doors on the side) requiring dumping one, then unhook and hook up to the other... ? Not a big deal and probably to optimize the space... the 23B has tremendous space possiblities for a small unit which is why we like it.. one sleeps on the lower bunk, stash computer equip etc. on the upper bunk, one sleeps on couch or above cab bed.. My wife wants the bunk... I will take the cab bed so I can watch TV...

Anyway..... any comments on the diesel? where do you go to get these serviced (my first diesel) and what should I worry about?

bob H
2007 Winnie View 23B on thursday

[DonavonP]

Bob, that rig sounds great. With my diesel pickup truck, I always have a pair of gloves to wear when filling up. I keep the gloves in the rear if they smell of diesel too much.

Good luck and please post your results when you get back to AZ.

[John_Canfield]

Hey Bob - welcome aboard! We looked over a View quite a bit while we were in Forest City this May. Jane and I were very impressed with the package as are apparently lots of other people. I believe it has been a hot seller for Winnie.

Mercedes builds some of the best diesels in the world and the smaller diesels are extremely popular in Europe. We recently sold our MB E320 wagon a few months ago and it was the best handling car we have ever owned (besides my Corvette which Jane made me sell a few years ago .)

If you have never owned a diesel vehicle before you will find that every gas station you see will NOT necessarily have diesel. You will soon learn to stare at the station's marquee looking for the diesel price along with the gasoline prices. Generally we have found on the Interstates, the exit services signs will usually state "Diesel" if a gas station carries diesel.

Read your 10 pounds of manuals carefully to understand maintenance requirements. Ask your dealer lots of questions. Any Jiffy Lube could probably do an oil change for you - I have no idea who the "factory" servicing business would be. For us it is Freightliner or we can go to Cummins for the engine/gen set. I'll bet all will be revealed on delivery.

Be SURE and have a steak at The Branding Iron in Thompson while you are in Forest City.

[smlranger]

Congrats on your new rig. The engine is a Mercedes diesel which has a long and reliable history, so it should be sweet. Suspect you can get service at most any place that routinely services the Dodge Sprinter trucks...or any reliable light and medium duty truck service center.

[rebelsbeach]

Bob, I've welcomed you elsewhere in the forums but wanted to remind you to hit the Lodge for breakfast or lunch and say hi to Jill for all of us that've been there!!

The Lodge is across the street from the Winnebago campus, it's quite a nice little place.

[Gsetter]

You should check out the yahoo View Navion site:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/View-Navion/

There you can find out all the good info. The biggest thing I can share is to ALWAYS let the diesel run and cool down the turbo before shutting down the engine.

There is also a View/Navion Tech site that you can find from this yahoo site. Lots of great info.

I am trying to decide between a Navion 23H and a used diesel pusher...hope to go to Lichtsinn on sat and test drive a both and see how it goes.

Sandy motorhome wannbe doing research

[Larryb]

I had a popup camper with a box awning. The support legs only extended vertically from the roller tube to the ground. The legs were folded up and rolled up with the awning. It was a completely manual process, no spring assist.