Community Forums

Cedar41 · 08-17-2005, 09:19 AM

We are at the end of our 1-year warranty today. This is a recap of our first year of owning an RV. (2004 38 Ft FD)
.
Shake down trip resulted in having to have a new Alternator and Inverter.
The Dash A/C would not cool. Took lots of phone calls and help from the RV Net Forum to find out that we were not crazy and it was suppose to blow more than 85 degrees.
Three parts of the A/C were wrong. The baffle door was welded on the wrong side and would not close. The Coolant line was backwards and it was overcharge with Refrigerant.

Our 1st two-week trip resulted in the divers side-wheel well cover blowing off on I-20 at 60 miles an hour. It was destroyed and WRV made every attempt to get it fixed on the road but ended up having to wait until we returned. It was poorly attached on the front edge so they sent a new bracket for it and the passenger side and then had to do the Body shop for paint etc.

Our 3rd trip went pretty well. Found minor electric connection issues, tank monitor would not work, minor adjustments in appliances and the weather-strip around basements doors were all coming loose.
The weather strip around the living room slide was torn in two, so that had to totally be replaced..

Our 4th trip started wonderful then the HWH pump went out and we were stranded with the slides out. (Friday afternoon). Monday WRV arranged for HWH to overnight a new pump, which we were able to install easily.

We used our Motor home as extra sleeping for the summer company. Noticed the carpet started to rub and ball up then the carpet started to pucker when we retracted the slide. Investigating this found the support for the slide was broken. It is a piece for it to "ride" on to get over the edge of the coach. Now the Coach is back where we bought it. They totally had to remove the Living Room slide and in the process tore the Weather Strip again. It is repaired and we will pick it up on Friday.

Had to have the Transmission Pulled. It was leaking.

Found loose and gaping AC duct work. Fixed that.

Finally figured out the banging sound under the Co Pilot floor. Fixed that.

Found Loose covers on the Slide Rails for the Living room slide. Re glued them

Back A/C leaking on the bed. Still looking for that as it does not always do it.

We are headed for the Northeast for a two month trip after Labor Day.
Hope to meet some of you on the road.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that all is well now.

Cedar41 · 08-17-2005, 09:19 AM

We are at the end of our 1-year warranty today. This is a recap of our first year of owning an RV. (2004 38 Ft FD)
.
Shake down trip resulted in having to have a new Alternator and Inverter.
The Dash A/C would not cool. Took lots of phone calls and help from the RV Net Forum to find out that we were not crazy and it was suppose to blow more than 85 degrees.
Three parts of the A/C were wrong. The baffle door was welded on the wrong side and would not close. The Coolant line was backwards and it was overcharge with Refrigerant.

Our 1st two-week trip resulted in the divers side-wheel well cover blowing off on I-20 at 60 miles an hour. It was destroyed and WRV made every attempt to get it fixed on the road but ended up having to wait until we returned. It was poorly attached on the front edge so they sent a new bracket for it and the passenger side and then had to do the Body shop for paint etc.

Our 3rd trip went pretty well. Found minor electric connection issues, tank monitor would not work, minor adjustments in appliances and the weather-strip around basements doors were all coming loose.
The weather strip around the living room slide was torn in two, so that had to totally be replaced..

Our 4th trip started wonderful then the HWH pump went out and we were stranded with the slides out. (Friday afternoon). Monday WRV arranged for HWH to overnight a new pump, which we were able to install easily.

We used our Motor home as extra sleeping for the summer company. Noticed the carpet started to rub and ball up then the carpet started to pucker when we retracted the slide. Investigating this found the support for the slide was broken. It is a piece for it to "ride" on to get over the edge of the coach. Now the Coach is back where we bought it. They totally had to remove the Living Room slide and in the process tore the Weather Strip again. It is repaired and we will pick it up on Friday.

Had to have the Transmission Pulled. It was leaking.

Found loose and gaping AC duct work. Fixed that.

Finally figured out the banging sound under the Co Pilot floor. Fixed that.

Found Loose covers on the Slide Rails for the Living room slide. Re glued them

Back A/C leaking on the bed. Still looking for that as it does not always do it.

We are headed for the Northeast for a two month trip after Labor Day.
Hope to meet some of you on the road.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that all is well now.

swansnest · 08-17-2005, 03:28 PM

Your experiences sound very similar to ours with the '03 40' MD - only ours has continued into the 2nd year with no warranty! Both of our front side panels have broken loose. The first one on the way back to Hilton Head in pouring rain ... fortunately we were in the company of another Alpiner who stopped with us in a Wallmart parking lot and loaned us a drill to put 2 holes in the bottom to bungy cord it on (Thanks ,Jerry!) We actually have both sides "bungied" and epoxied.

We actually had to take our rig to HWH for them to fix the hydaulics that constantly leaked, and they told us that the rig had been built with hydraulics that had been recalled the year before our coach was built! We could write a book!

Don't think that your problems will stop at the 1 year anniversary! Sorry! Just be prepared!

Ted III · 08-17-2005, 04:02 PM

Cedar 41, amongst all of your one year problems the smallest one seems to be the rear A/C leaking (I doubt at this point any of your problems seem to be small). If you are possibly talking about dripping on the bed, we have that situation and have determined that it only occurs when it is extremely hot & humid and that the unit is just sweating excessively.We have adjusted ourselves to making certain we leave a towel or two on the bed just in case. I don't know if that helps or not.
Ted

Ted III · 08-17-2005, 04:04 PM

Cedar 41, out of curiousity what was the banging under the Co-pilots seat, just so I can be prepared.
Ted, 2005 34' Alpine

SteveS · 08-17-2005, 07:16 PM

Cedar41 and Ted,

Hope this doesn't sound too trivial but have you checked the drain line for the rear A/C? When water is pulled out of the air by the cooking process, it collects in a tray with a drain line that goes to the rear of the coach and drains to the ground. If the line is plugged up or the tray drain holes are plugged or missaligned (completely or partially), water will drop down internally through the vent cover or seep around the cover.

chris cross · 08-18-2005, 03:10 PM

Cedar41:
I also have the banging under the co-pilot seat. We have checked everything we can. What was your fix?
Thanks

dkgreene · 08-19-2005, 12:46 PM

Cedar 41,

Your air conditioner dripping on the bed may be an issue that you have the temp set near to the outside dew point. This causes the unit to freeze up and then it starts melting. We had this happen very frequently last summer when we were in the hot and very humid Texas weather.

We have not had it this summer in Palm Desert until the other day when the humidity was really high! We still have not found a fix for it other then keep the temp higher then the dew point.

bigfish · 08-19-2005, 08:03 PM

Don't know much about A/C in coaches but I would think the units would have a catch pan underneath the evaporator to collect the condensation that accumulates on the evaporator. There should be drain on the pan connected to some plastic tubing that is routed to rear of coach that allows condensate to drip on the ground. As this is an intermitent problem connected to high humidity, I would suspect the pan is overflowing because the drain is partially plugged, probably because the plastic tubing is pinched somewhere in it's routing to rear of coach.
BT