Non Responsive - instrument cluster

[campercatz]

The following is a letter I sent to The Florida distric Manager and to my dismay he never even had the courtesy to respond. I am not a happy camper when it comes to people who don't at least reply either way.I guess "Workhorse" is just another company that doesn't care about their customers after the sale.
Mr. Bill O’Neill
I called customer service and they advised me to write to you because you are the district Manager in Florida.
My instrument cluster is getting to a point that it is harder and harder to read the mileage, what gear I am in and so forth. I was talking to some other Winnebago owners and they told me that it would be a Workhorse issue and not Winnebago. I contacted a workhorse repair shop and they informed me my warranty ran out last year and it would cost around $600 to repair. I am requesting a “Goodwill Repair” on the unit.
I am on a fixed income and cannot afford that much to be able to tell me how far I drove, due to the following reasons (medical bills). I would not ask for a “Goodwill Repair” if it was not for the facts that the problem only became noticeable on this trip to Florida this year. Two years ago my wife was diagnosed with cancer and we were not able to use the coach all year, she needed Chemo treatments every week for the whole year. She still gets treatments every three weeks, but at least that lets us do some traveling.
Then last year I had to have open heart surgery and did not get much use out of it again. We only have about 22304 miles on the unit. We are planning to go back to Pa. for the week of Christmas then will return to Florida until about May. I believe the issue would have become noticeable while in Warranty if not for the health issues, because we would have been using the coach more. Our retirement has not been very pleasurable up to this point. I would really appreciate it if you could do something to help. I have been told, by other Winnebago owners, there has been a lot of these issues with this item.
Thanks for any help you can give me and please reply. You can call on my cell anytime

Phone number available on request please PM campercatz or DriVer
Lester Mumma

(On Edit: Folks please don't publish your phone number in the public forum. You may get calls that you don't want ..)

[campercatz]

The following is a letter I sent to The Florida distric Manager and to my dismay he never even had the courtesy to respond. I am not a happy camper when it comes to people who don't at least reply either way.I guess "Workhorse" is just another company that doesn't care about their customers after the sale.
Mr. Bill O’Neill
I called customer service and they advised me to write to you because you are the district Manager in Florida.
My instrument cluster is getting to a point that it is harder and harder to read the mileage, what gear I am in and so forth. I was talking to some other Winnebago owners and they told me that it would be a Workhorse issue and not Winnebago. I contacted a workhorse repair shop and they informed me my warranty ran out last year and it would cost around $600 to repair. I am requesting a “Goodwill Repair” on the unit.
I am on a fixed income and cannot afford that much to be able to tell me how far I drove, due to the following reasons (medical bills). I would not ask for a “Goodwill Repair” if it was not for the facts that the problem only became noticeable on this trip to Florida this year. Two years ago my wife was diagnosed with cancer and we were not able to use the coach all year, she needed Chemo treatments every week for the whole year. She still gets treatments every three weeks, but at least that lets us do some traveling.
Then last year I had to have open heart surgery and did not get much use out of it again. We only have about 22304 miles on the unit. We are planning to go back to Pa. for the week of Christmas then will return to Florida until about May. I believe the issue would have become noticeable while in Warranty if not for the health issues, because we would have been using the coach more. Our retirement has not been very pleasurable up to this point. I would really appreciate it if you could do something to help. I have been told, by other Winnebago owners, there has been a lot of these issues with this item.
Thanks for any help you can give me and please reply. You can call on my cell anytime

Phone number available on request please PM campercatz or DriVer
Lester Mumma

(On Edit: Folks please don't publish your phone number in the public forum. You may get calls that you don't want ..)

[oemtech]

I would suggest that you call the cluster manufacturer, Acita. The phone number for Actia is 866-662-9945. They may be able to help or at least get you a replacement cluster for at least %50 less than the dealer quoted you.

[Mahlon]

I don't think you'll get very far with the direct-to-Workhorse approach. Ask the dealer who examined this in the first place to make your case to Mr O'Neill.

[max49]

That's pretty sad. No other vehicle has IP problems but WH is in bed with actia and continues to use their sorry product. I'm sure just like the brake problem, they have never heard of a problem with the IP either.
It would be nice if "Mr. Bill O’Neill" could at least take 10 seconds to tell campercatz, "your out of waqrranty, too bad, this is how we and actia keep cash flow coming. Every other IP builder never hears from their customers after they buy it."

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by max49:
That's pretty sad. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Max, The previous 2 responses in this thread were very informative and shared resolutions for campercatz's issue. I know Bill O'Neil and if he received Mr. Mumma's letter I'm sure he would respond however whether or not he has received the letter has not been determined. Bill might be sick or for any number of reasons he may not be able to respond.

Regional Service Mangers are in place to respond and to and work with dealer's inquiries, service and support issues and rarely if ever deal directly with owner's.

I just wish that you could find it within you to offer remedy rather than poking someone in the eye which actually doesn't help anyone in this case least of all campercatz.

Contacting Actia directly was a very good suggestion and it's a remedy I would pursue.

[RJK]

Lester,
I have just gone through the cluster LCD problem. I will try to reach you by phone an explain what I did. I worked through Actia as suggested.I was able to remove and return it for repair. If WH won't help you I hope we can. It may save you a few dollars.

[max49]

I was just venting about a problem we have all had, gonna have , or do have with a non sustainable IP cluster.
We know Actia may help, on a case by case basis, if we jump thru the hoops and talk to the right people.
Why don't they just tell the svc cntrs to replace them when they come instead of trying to make it harder for the people who have supported their company?
It's bad enough that we are the only one that get unreadable odometers.
Hard to even dump it if you can't read the mileage.

[Joe Gilbert]

My experence was just the opposite. My instrument cluster was replaced in Dec. at Long Trail, RV in Fort Myers, FL. I also had to work with Bill O'Neill and though it took a couple of trys he did return my call.

I started discussions with Eric McCann who is the Workhorse Regional Service Manager. Eric was extreemly good to work with and always responded immediately. Eric's e-mail is eric.mccann@navistar.com.

My instrument cluster was covered under warranty, even though my W22 is a 2005, and the cluster had been changed once before. Try Eric. I'm sure he will at least get back to you.

Good luck,

[John-D]

Since the millage is "remembered" by something other than the display I'm wondering if a Scan-Guage II can read it. (I truly do not know)

When it happened to me I was, coincidentally, on my way to the coach manufacturer's warranty factory due to other issues. (Damon, they were very nice, I had a scheduled event less than an hour away from the factory at non-freeway speeds, so they scheduled the repair for the day after the event) Told them about it when I pulled in, worked fine when I pulled out (new dash) The fixed a couple other issues too.

Great folks there.. alas.. They did not make your coach

If you can't get satisfaction from the local regional service folks.. Talk to Alan at Workhorse, He's their boss

[Mahlon]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by max49:
&lt;snip&gt;
Why don't they just tell the svc cntrs to replace them when they come instead of trying to make it harder for the people who have supported their company? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Because, if the cluster needs to be swapped, the WH service centers don't have the equipment to read/re-program the instrument clusters with the software & read/write such params as mileage. So such service events require the cluster to go back to Actia to be replaced & reprogrammed.

[obbm]

There is a company that makes circuit boards for numerous RV appliances. They are called Dinosaur Electronics, here:

http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/

Since it seems that the Actia IP is going to
be a problem to W/H chassis owners until the end of time, maybe if enough RVers contacted Dinosaur, they wold take hold of this problem and make a good replacement for the IP. I am going to E-mail them right now and make that suggestion.

We own a 2006 Damon and had a replacement IP under warranty within the first year. So far the replacement IP is working. One major holdup is that Actia and the W/H dealers have to comply with the odometer tampering laws which are in effect at Federal and/or state levels.

While I haven't researched it, the mileage figures are probably contained in a chip which is (or is similar to) a flash EPROM (Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory) chip. The program in this chip may be accessible to a knowledgeable person, in which case the mileage figures could be easily reset.

[obbm]

Here is what I sent to Dinosaur Electronics:

There is a serious ongoing failure problem with the Actia instrument panels supplied with many Workhorse Chassis in Class A motorhomes. Please see Non Responsive - instrument cluster as one of numerous forum threads addressing this problem. Since Dinosaur Electronics is a well respected manufacturer of circuit boards, I urge your company to explore the possibility of building a better replacement board for this I/P.

Thank you,
Bill Narby

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mahlon:
So such service events require the cluster to go back to Actia to be replaced & reprogrammed. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Mahlon, Very true.... Actia is the only party that can spin up the mileage on the IP. Odometer mileage is very seriously protected by law.