All hail the mighty diesel!
All hail Palazzo
We picked up our 36.1 June 28...and love it! Went from Tulsa to Joplin MO the following day for "first night" out. Running down I44 I had to look at the tach. to see if the engine was running. My wife and I actually had a conversation at a normal voice!
There was a good side wind that would not have been fun in our old gasser (06 Georgetown 315DS) but the Palazzo just cruised along. We will NEVER go back to a gas rig!
About ten days later we went to Lawrence KS for a granddaughter's birthday and stayed a week. We have two daughters and their families in Lawrence and one daughter with family in KC so there were five grandkids and six adults in and out of it. We never thought we would use the drop down bed in the front...but three or four grandkids stayed several nights and it was great to have.
Two weeks after we got home we started on our trip out west to see close friends in Medford OR. He is a diabetic and has had a lot of health problems lately. Thought it would be a good test of the new Palazzo and see them before things got worse.
We covered a little over 4,400 miles and were out about a month. We enjoyed the ride a lot and also not trying to "make time" as we did not have a tight schedule. Other than the normal few odds and ends we had
TWO MAJOR ITEMS.
The first being the dash...it went out!
The first time was for a min. or two. And when it came back on the "average speed" showed 81mph.
The second time it was out most of the day. From about 30 miles north of Lodi CA to about 40 miles south of Redding CA. That time when it came back on the "average speed" showed 271mph!!! lol What a ride!
I have to stop here to tell you that we stayed an extra night in Las Vegas (the crap tables were good to me) to go to Vegas Freightliner first thing Monday morning...big mistake. When we told them about the short dash outage and that we were on vacation they were not only uncaring but one guy behind the desk was down right sarcastic. Spouting of that they MIGHT look at it in a couple of days. He also said we could not have a coach with that low mileage, and that the Freightliner chassis was made in Mexico and driven up. He also said it would cost over $5000 for our first service! BS! Being a "born and bread Okie" I "sometimes" get a little redneck. So I took the opportunity to leave while he was still in one piece and I was still not in handcuffs.
On the flipside my wife goggled Freightliner Service on her cell while going through Sacramento and called the Redding location. They were GREAT! told us how to get there and how long it should take. When we arrived they took excellent care of us by looking at it within 30 min. The manager wanted a tech on the morning crew to look at it (and they needed Freightliner to tell them why the VINs were different computer vs chassis) so they told us how to get to a very nice RV park about 2miles away and several good places to eat. They found a bad module of some kind in the dash and had one sent overnight. Next day they popped it in and we were on our way. Great service with nice people! Wish they were closer to Tulsa.
The second being the FULL WALL SLIDE.
We arrived in Medford OR late afternoon and there were not any 50amp spots open till the next day...so we got a 30amp for the night and headed off to see our friends. The next day they told us which 50amp spot we could have and we started to move. When we hit the switch for the full wall slide the bottom moved in and the top didn't. I tried to back it out and it never moved again...and with my luck it was Saturday. So Monday morning I was on the phone with Thor at 5 AM (OR time) and they told me how to disengage the slide motors and...push it in! With the help of a mobile RV service guy this monumental task was completed. A local Thor approved RV dealer was able to get us in a few days later. After a lot of looking and back and forth with Thor I was told the slide parts needed would take 3 weeks or more to get there as they had to come from slide mechanism manuf.
It was at this point we decided to cut off the second half of the trip and head for home. We stayed another week with our friends (half of our plans) then hit the road taking about a week on the road. We lived in the motorhome for
15 days with the full wall slide locked in the travel position! Not fun!!
We got home on a Saturday, got the food out and cleaned it up, and took it to the dealer Tuesday morning. The service manager said he had heard of two more like ours in the time we were headed home. He and Thor had a fix worked out and it is awaiting parts now.
Part of the problem (as I was told) is that the rod from the top gear by the slide motor to the bottom gear is aluminum and I guess they will put in a steel one. There are also a couple of small rollers that came apart.
We'll see how it all comes out, but so far everyone has been doing all they can to correct it. I may start a new thread about this slide problem as it may affect a lot of others...hope the moderators don't shut it down.
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