[Warning: Long post ahead. Thank you in advance for your replies, thoughts, and assistance. I'm sure there are things you would have done differently or may have been obvious "tells" to you. Right now I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my coach, when things happened and how best to approach the situation. Please hold off on any "you should have" type of comments. That's not what I need now. Thank you.]
I have been fulltiming for ~6 years, always in Class Cs. A few weeks ago I purchased a used 2001 Allegro 31DA which appeared to be in excellent condition. The owners didn't speak English well and my questions were answered through their son. Everything seemed great. The coach was regularly used but only had 34,000 miles on it. It was immaculately clean and the owner was a super DIYer who did his own maintenance and seemed to know his stuff. Generator and engine oil were lovely golden and the 1k+ hrs 7kw Onan Marquis Gold generator started right up and put out rock solid juice at idle and under heavy load. After looking the coach over myself and noticing the need for new tires, a couple of small cracks in the rear roof cap, and a lot of old Dicor (the owner readily said that he hadn't caulked the roof in over a year - I visually and physically checked every part of the interior ceiling and walls and found no soft spots or discoloration) things looked good. I returned a week or so later, hiring a "professional" (found on Craigslist, googled his name and found a couple of good reviews and no bad reviews) to look things over. The only issues beyond the roof needing resealing/Eternabonding - which I had no problem doing - seemed aesthetic/minor and I went ahead with the purchase. [There's plenty more information, happy to answer as needed.]
Prepare yourself...
The rig handles well. I also think that it was in some kind of major accident which was (a) undisclosed to me, and (b) repaired. I also suspect that it has frame damage and am not sure what it is or whether it happened since my purchase. On a level surface various interior surfaces of the coach are not level with each other. It seems as though it has in some way detached from the chassis by the rear axle, bowing upwards widthwise. (Level surface I used to be sure = a CAT scale. Related, I weigh in fully loaded under GVWR and neatly close-to-but-well-under both GAWRs.) Since living in the coach I have found that the fridge is new (a Dometic manufactured in 2008) the slideouts need alignment and are possibly getting worse, the tiles are shifting in various ways, certain walls are bowed or being compressed, the furnace (tested and was working at my initial inspection) squeals on and off and then has a burning odor, the main slide is not square, I think slideout shear pins are missing, and the list goes on. I also found documentation that the previous owners forgot to remove... showing about $11,000 in insurance work from 2013. A gentle friendly inquiry told me that "a tree limb fell on it while parked in their driveway" but I don't think it all adds up. No wonder things looked so good, though, shiny decals on both sides of the coach were part of the repairs :-). I am now in northwestern New Mexico now and will be heading through Albuquerque toward central Texas. I will be taking the coach to a shop in Albuqueque on Monday for evaluation, but want to see if I can figure out the root cause(s) of what's wrong prior.
Complicating the "when did things happen" question is the fact that right after buying the coach and just a few miles on my way to purchase new tires I stopped at a Home Depot parking lot to look things over (didn't suspect anything was wrong, just checking out my new house), checked tire pressure all around and discovered a 2" long and ~1/4" deep sidewall crack in the passenger rear outer tire (2010 load range F), and a leaking core in the driver's side front tire (2015, load range G). The guy roadside assistance sent did what I now think is a crappy job in changing the outer dually for my spare (not having a sufficient lift he had me use my rear jacks to raise the wheels, needed my help to break the nut on the spare, didn't have a 1 1/4" socket, etc), and I gingerly drove the remaining few miles to the tire shop. Five new tires were ordered for delivery and installation the next morning and the leaking core was repaired immediately. (Both front tires were 2015s, G rated, all the rest were 2010s - something I now recognize as weird.) That night I noticed that the front HWH leveling jacks operated at an odd angle and their support bracketing was bent. When the new tires were put on the coach was not level, sloping downward toward the driver's side front. It seemed like everything inside shifted slightly in that direction. I was concerned and pointed this out to the tech at the well-reputed tire shop. He agreed that it was weird but couldn't do much about it other than finish the job as quickly as he could while being thorough. I was mildly annoyed to find that the driver front tire core was still leaking, and the (confused as to why it was still leaking but not knowing what a different tech had done the day prior) tire tech took the wheel and tire off and replaced the entire valve stem. It still leaks when I check the pressure, stoppable with prodding... perhaps the rim can't handle the high pressure of the correctly sized but load-range G tire? Other stuff: I drive defensively, courteously, and safely. My first days [ever] of driving a Class A went well but involved some solid trials-by-fire, such as 40mph crosswinds (I pulled over for the night) and some very rough mountain roads. The rig handled like a champ, expectedly chugging its way up steep grades in low gear, doing a solid job of slowing itself with smart gearing on downgrades, etc. I used an IR thermometer to take tire/engine/brake temperatures at night on arrival in Payson (~40 degrees outside). Nothing was over 200 degrees and no temperature was out of line with the other/opposing tire or brake temperatures. Good stuff. More driving through crazy headwinds (I pulled over once to let 40mph winds subside, then continued to an RV park where I currently am and gusts have reached 50mph).
I have spent hours under my rig, reading manuals and troubleshooting guides, working on slide alignment, and also realizing that things are, well, messed up to the point where it doesn't make sense for me to work on things more until a thorough structural inspection can be performed. Oh, did I mention that filling the fuel tank was not initially a big deal but now is. It takes significant jockeying of angles to get the pump to not cut itself off. Inspection revealed an unsupported and sagging fuel-fill line, which I don't think existed prior. The angle of my spare tire is curved back away from the coach, something which was certainly not the case when I bought it. The generator always starts on first try but seems to need to cool off if shut down and restarted. (Also, I can't find any error code display. The on-generator switch is opaque black and the dash-start switch doesn't display error codes despite it once surging and shutting down). Leaf springs are not aligned forward(!), no U-clip holding the pack together on the front of either leaf pack - yes on rear. Wallpaper is scrunched up in various areas and wall seams - which I now think appear to have been freshly sealed - are shifting slightly. I don't think that the coach and chassis frame rails are perfectly aligned, and a bubble level against parts of the frame rails reveals them to not be level. Many tape-measure measurements don't add up, but some do - like ride height being even on both sides of the rear axle. Front-end stuff seems weirder, but as I said, I'm at the point where I believe it smartest to drop my tape measure, compressor, protractor, levels, manuals, epoxy, Eternabond, Dicor, tools, etc. and let a chassis/frame specialist - and your expertise - take over. This doesn't seem like something I should try to teach myself and fix, as it will probably worsen before said fixing can happen. Given the weirdness, I've held off on installing the solar array from my previous rig. (Oh, right, hydraulic fluid leaks from one of the lines to the front jacks, and on the 200-series HWH system, when moving the rear lever to the "operate" position I now encounter significant new resistance in simply moving that lever. The joystick-operated jacks still extend and retract and the level sensor - while a bit off and I don't want to mess with it because of everything else - works. During periods of high wind (like... now) I have retracted my two slides but kept the jacks down, all wheels on the ground, and a wheel chocked just in case. The jacks are doing a solid job of keeping the 17,400 pound rig stable, but there are rattles aplenty and wind enters in lots of places which should be totally sealed. Just today in exploring the area under the bed I found some lovely pieces of unused solid wood which are likely from repairs or even the original build. I also found - under the main slideout - what may be a crushed wood shim whose purpose was likely to keep the slide from scratching up the tiles. I thoroughly cleaned (and dried) the coach yesterday in preparation for Eternabonding all slideout and roof seams. Zero leaks, but the wind is keeping me from touching the project further. Tire and front in-coil airbag pressures have been holding up fine, though there may be a very slow leak in the drivers side airbag.
I literally have over 1,000 photos taken of and at various points and I'm sure that the above wall of text is already overwhelming. Photos are obviously key to figuring this out, though, so I'm going to post this text now and sort through photos to find those which seem key for addition later. I'll also happily locate and post photos from various periods and of various components on request, and take photos of any areas, welds, etc. which I don't already have if needed.
The weirdest thing (well, maybe not the weirdest) is that the coach still drives like a champ. Previous owners (of six years) had added what I'm pretty sure is a beefier front sway bar, new-looking Bilsteins all around, and a Safe-T-Plus (older-looking, and oddly combined with a(n OEM?) Bilstein steering damper). I know my way around RV coach systems reasonably well. Chassis and engines much less so. Still, the gas engine is beastly and has delivered a consistent 8mpg through mountains and headwinds.
I'm currently in the tribal land between Gallup and Albuquerque. My route to central Texas can vary if needed but I want to get this looked at ASAP so I was planning on Albuquerque on Monday morning, Statkus Engines Service Center. They seem to specialize in RVs, are a Workhorse service center, and are on Tiffin's list of service centers.
Do you think it would be wise to have CoachNet send a mobile mechanic out to look things over? I believe that they would send these guys, who have actual solid reviews and do big-deal service like mobile welding
Route 66 Auto RV & Truck Mobile Repair - - 505-839-2928. My biggest concern is the coach/chassis/frame and the further damage issues with it may cause, so while they may not do the house-ier things, they may home in on a chassis/frame issue which could be fixed or band-aided before driving another hour.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
*Related and possibly important: I paid for the RV and took the clean AZ title on one evening and gave the owners a night with it to remove their belongings (which apparently included the tire covers and what may be a transit bar, though I'm not sure). The "mechanic" (who seems to know less and less the more I know) drove it the few miles the next day to my RV park site, where I moved from my last RV to this one. I was following him in a rental car, but lost him early on at a traffic light. I drove it to get new tires [see above for that saga] a day or two later, though things seemed fine with the coach in the interim days. I have a couple of photos from the purchase night and the following day, including one of the [not]-mechanic driving the coach to my campsite.
*I have plenty of "Is this original?" and "What is this?" kind of questions. Thinking about this more than I already have (too much...) makes me wonder if any of them are relevant to the problems.
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