owners manuals

[buck454]

Recently purchased a 2006 Gulfstream Friendship G7. I was told it had a manual and it did to some extent, actually a large file of manuals for appliances, Cummins engine, chassis, etc, but to my surprise no, what I would call and have seen in past, users manual for the couch itsself. Anyyone know of a place to search for such?

[RV Wizard]

Maybe one of our members that have a G7 will share the manual. It has just generic information. The manual does little to tell you where anything may be located; it is not floor plan specific.

[HarleyWJones]

I'll be happy to share what info I have from Gulfstream, but it isn't much. As previously stated, the manual is so generic as to be nearly useless. Unfortunately, Gulfstream is usually very little help in technical matters. Sometimes if you e-mail a direct question about a single topic you may get a response. They also refuse to supply electrical diagrams, saying they are "proprietary".

The most helpful contact at Gulfstream for me has been:

Jim Creech
Northeast Regional Service Manager
jcreech at gulfstreamcoach.com (edited by me for spam reasons)
Phone: 800-482-6456 ext 3350
Fax: 574-773-1129

I have found that a question posed to the IRV2 membership provides the most detailed and accurate help money can buy. There's also a Gulfstream Owner's
Group at Gulf Stream Owners.

As you can see from my sig, I have a G7 also. It is titled as a 2006, but it was manufactured in June 2004. It is a model 8387, 3 slide (2 for king br, 1 for lr/dinette). It looks very different from your picture. Its not the atrium model either. I haven't seen another one quite like it, not even on the Gulfstream archived literature brochures site at Gulfstream Luxury Class A Literature Archive.

Feel free to ask any questions you can think of. Where ours are similar I'll be glad to help, and if not, I'm sure the group can.

I'm attaching the manual I have.

[sparky52]

Goodstream owners manual, now that is a joke. Mine not woth the paper it's printed one. This is one real POS company.

[buck454]

Harley,

Thanks very much for pdf and your input. Like your 8387, our 8411 is a bit unique. It is mostly a creamy white color (like a baked on enamel paint) throughout in trim and cabinets where it seems that most MHs are the tan to dark wood finishes. This gives the coach a very showy and bright look, especially with the atrium slide. Ours was also like yours being made in '04 & '05 yet being called a 2006. It was a showroom model at a RV dealer in Lubbock Texas, delievered around late '06 or eary '07 and not purchased until 1/08 by the previous owner to us. I agree with that owner that coach would have probably sold sooner if outside where possibly more customers would have looked it over, since some, like me, do not spend to much time on showroom floors to avoid salesmen. Regardless, a beautiful coach. and yes Sparky, I am aware of GS's reputation. They no longer make but maybe five MHs per year and will stop that in a couple of years. The Newmar dealer where we purchased was previously an award winning GS dealer so I feel I can get most things fixed if needed, plus they furnished a Xtra Ride three year service policy in the deal to cover appliances, engine, transmission, etc. I may get bit down the line, but so far we are pleased. Previous owner has been helpful and was quite pleased once he got initial problems fixed (by factory). He certainly was not one to argue their bad PR, however with a "little force" he got things done.

Thanks again for manual Harvey. Hope you are enjoying your G7. 350 or 400?

[HarleyWJones]

We share the same interior it seems. I think they called it white lacquered, or in some literature they call it a laminate finish. The actual color is on the creamy side. You're right, it does have a bright clean look - even on ours without the atrium. I think the interior look is what sold my wife on it. I hardly notice it now, but it surely did stand out the first time we saw it. It has light colored Corian countertops, sand/buff ceramic floor tile, and light grey/greenish carpet. Our last coach was an American Dream with stained wood, mirrors, and hidden rope lights around the ceilings and floors. Sounds a bit tacky when I write about it, but in it's own way it was nice too.


Our is a Caterpillar 350, so we differ quite a bit there. Earlier I said our was built in 06/04 but that wasn't quite right. The Freightliner chassis was built then, but the Gulfstream build was in late 2004.


I don't know how many motorhomes per year they were building in 2004, but they either didn't keep track of them or they just don't care about sharing what they did. I went through a series of 5 e-mails with them when I first bought the coach, just asking for help in finding a way to access the black and grey holding tank sensors. I wanted to replace them with better quality probes if I could. The underside of the motorhome is flat and completely sealed and foamed. It has an elaborate water manifold system behind a compartment door about midway back on the curb side, and the wet bay directly across on the driver's side. After removing as much of the panel around the manifolds as I could, I could only see the water pump and a few inches of each of the 3 tanks stacked one on top of the other, but no probes. In the wet bay removing the trim panels only revealed interior sheet metal which I could see no way to remove. The tank area, manifolds, and wet bay are all heated by the Hydrohot, so they are sealed off from the interior compartments. There's no access I can find from the other compartments. Only after this detailed search did I write Gulfstream asking for help. Their first 4 replies were no help, with suggestions such as "follow the wiring to the probes" or "look in the compartments". I supplied model number, serial number, and detailed photos with my requests. This is the last reply I received:


"Normally the fresh tank is not easy to get to but the black and grey should be in the compartment where you can see the tanks. If you would like to send pictures of the areas maybe we can help by looking at them, but it does sound like you will have to disassemble in order to get to them. I am sorry I cannot help any further due to the many models we produce, I don't understand you cannot see the tanks fully. It does sound as if you just need to start taking it apart in order to gain access."


Go figure. Their reply had the intended result... I quit asking. I still haven't dug in sufficiently to find the probes, and they still don't work. I'm not sure that replacing them would be a good idea anyway since it seems the vast majority of RVers have trouble with them. I really wanted to try either an exterior "proximity" type or the Miracle probes. I've tried all the usual remedies, flushing techniques, etc. There's only so much Dawn, fabric softener, Rid X, and bags of ice I'm willing to try. Maybe some other time.

I agree with Sparky52. I didn't waste paper printing the "manual". I keep it on the laptop alongside other fantasy novels. I mainly posted it to share my grief.

[buck454]

H,
Sounds like much the identical coach other than for our atrium slide. I, too, have the manifold water system and Hydro Hot taking up basement compartments. I now see the lack of storage space, but sufficient as we will not be fulltime RVers, more just seeing the country and making my shooting matches.

So far, the only tank I have seen visible is the fresh water tank. I like being able to see the tank to know when it is full and also the ability to take the caps off for gravity fill from aux tanks. (I have a large aux water tank I can get water in then empty into RV when dry camping for any length of time as can often be the case at some matches I attend.)

You mention the gauges, you mean in the instance you dump your black water but it remains saying you have 3/4 tank? My first dump is like that. I dumped at home RV drain knowing it was flowing , then used the flush (did not seem like much forcefrom it, possibly more of a spray inside??) and the gauge still reads 3/4 full. Not good, but as long as I know it was emptying guess not all bad. (I have had paper to dry before having to get "roto-rooter" type cleaning.)

I'll be like you and move jon with it. It was the MH my wife just loved so it is the one we got. At least my dealer was a GS dealer for many years. GS supposily still makes about five MHs a year , I'm not sure they ever made a whole lot more than that in many years past. As with our rigs, chassis seems to have a date, Cummins installation a date, then coach assembly.....and in my case the coach was on showroom a year before previous owner bought it (1/2008--delivered to Lubbock dealer in late 2006 or early 2007). Got to give it to GS though, they built a beautiful coach with many standards that would be cost options on with other manufacturers.

Have fun.

Bill