Community Forums

rimfire7 · 03-10-2019, 03:19 PM

Hello. Fiancée and I just bought a 2008 GS. Bounty Hunter diesel toy hauler. We are currently OTR driving back to Michigan from Texas. Long haul! I like it so far and am excited to take it on the road and meet som of you! I have some questions:

It is really noisy. Any tips on noise cancellation or is that wishful thinking?

We used the ac the first night and furnace the second. I set the temp and both u it’s ran until the temp was reached and the heat or ac stopped and didn’t come back on unless it was turned or or triggered by manually changing the temp again. Is that a thermostat issue or something else?

I was thinking of taking it to our local General RV place for fluid changes and a thorough inspection. What should I have them look for?

It needs a lot of upgrades. What are some I should do soon? Smok detector?

The doors are looking rough. Outside door has a tear/crack from hitting an open hatch but it’s not all the way through. Screen door is toast. Should I replace both with something newer. Do they make nicer doors for this rig? Also want keyless entry. Can I get that for the current door?

We are planning on using it over Easter. Do we need to put the batteries on a trickle charger? When should a trickle charger be used for all those batteries? Is there a battery system upgrade?

What about improving the suspension? I can’t tell if it’s good or not but sometimes I get a little car sick in it. That’s not good.

Are RV sale places the only place to take Rvs in for service and repairs?

Any threads on updating the a/v system. This thing doesn’t have Bluetooth!!

I’m excited to customize my rig. It needs so much I don’t know where to begin! Thanks for your feedback.

Beth

Daycruiser · 03-10-2019, 03:25 PM

Hire an RV Level II inspector and have it gone over and let him/her make a list of issues they find with it. Prioritize the repairs/upgrades from there, you may be surprised at what they find. They don't have a dog in that fight so I would take what they find seriously.

hohenwald48 · 03-10-2019, 05:11 PM

There's a GS (I assume that means Gulf Stream) section on this forum. Here it is
Gulf Stream Owner's Forum - iRV2 Forums

Quincy · 03-10-2019, 06:21 PM

I am not familiar with your unit but it would help if you posted the basics ie , length and what motor.It seems that year should have smoke detectors and since they will ignite like they are a good safety measure,

The mods are endless and limited only to your budget and capabilities.

I am surprised you did not get more responses to your post

With a better idea of what you want from the coach and where you think the mods should take place, more people might respond.

Welcome to RV'ing

Oh, by the way, RV sales places are probably the worst place to go for repairs.

Nasdaqsam · 03-10-2019, 06:47 PM

Beth, First congrats on the purchase. To answer a couple of your questions.

When you say noisy do you mean squeaks and rattles? That is pretty common you just have to start chasing them down and eliminating them. Dishes, cups, silverwear etc all rattle until you place something between them to stop it. Loose hardware latches etc.

You do not have to go to an RV place for general mechanic work most good truck centers can do the same work. If it is an RV related issue then and RV place might be better. I personally have a buddy that owns an excavation company with several full time mechanics that when slow is looking to keep his guys busy so gives me a break on costs. Works for him and me.

As to the customizing. Start with getting the rig ship shape mechanically and making sure all the systems are working. If any need upgrading do that first. Upgrades like A/V are great but not much good if the rig doesn't run.

For the charging of the batteries, the coach should have an on board charger when you plug in the main power the battery charge will kick in and charge them you do not need to do it manually as long as everything is working as it should. There are two sets of batteries (Chassis, are for starting the engine head lights basically all things to run the coach when on the road. House batteries are everything else. Frig when in 12volt/propane, interior lighting etc) both will charge off the coach when running or onboard charger when plugged in. Have the garage check to see if it has 6volt house batteries that require monthly maintenance. If they are not sealed batteries you need to check the levels monthly and top them off often. Many new RV's are not aware of this and end up having to get new ones a few months into owning the new RV.

Enjoy!

jacwjames · 03-11-2019, 09:14 AM

The title of your post peaked my interest so I looked up the Gulf Stream Bounty Hunter. Interesting concept and would appeal to a number of different end users.

Since you have a front engine diesel I can imagine it would be loud (and probably hot) when driving. Do a search for sound deadening and you should get some hits. I have seen where people use special material on the dog house (engine cover) to reduce noise.

The sway of the motorhome while driving is probably due to weight distribution, from the pictures the coach appears to be top heavy. Not sure what chassis they used for the diesel option, it indicates a Ford chassis for the Ford V10. I didn't see anything in the specs indicating air bags, so if you don't have you might consider putting some on.

As to up grades, I would suggest getting the rig in top operating order and use it and develop a prioritized list of upgrades you want to tackle.

Good Luck

timjet · 03-12-2019, 08:01 AM

I think Daycruiser gave some good advise.

fcbbob15 · 03-12-2019, 08:20 AM

From my experience work on repair and upgrade issues one at a time. I have found that you need to take your time. I have found out that a repair or mod could have been done better, cheaper and easier if had asked questions here. Think of future needs and how you will using the RV. Start with mechanicals so you have a good base line for future maintenance. Keep us up to date on how it's going.

rimfire7 · 03-12-2019, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daycruiser

Hire an RV Level II inspector and have it gone over and let him/her make a list of issues they find with it. Prioritize the repairs/upgrades from there, you may be surprised at what they find. They don't have a dog in that fight so I would take what they find seriously.

We are taking it to our local Freightliner place and have them do a once over on it. Its really close and they said they can do an inspection.

rimfire7 · 03-12-2019, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quincy

I am not familiar with your unit but it would help if you posted the basics ie , length and what motor.It seems that year should have smoke detectors and since they will ignite like they are a good safety measure,

The mods are endless and limited only to your budget and capabilities.

I am surprised you did not get more responses to your post

With a better idea of what you want from the coach and where you think the mods should take place, more people might respond.

Welcome to RV'ing

Oh, by the way, RV sales places are probably the worst place to go for repairs.

I want to do everything to it at this point. lol. it needs a make over and updating. Which the make over will happen bit by bit over time. right now we have 2 tires to fix, we broke an ac cover, and we have no idea how to work the stereo, its too old!!

rimfire7 · 03-12-2019, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nasdaqsam

Beth, First congrats on the purchase. To answer a couple of your questions.

When you say noisy do you mean squeaks and rattles? That is pretty common you just have to start chasing them down and eliminating them. Dishes, cups, silverwear etc all rattle until you place something between them to stop it. Loose hardware latches etc.

You do not have to go to an RV place for general mechanic work most good truck centers can do the same work. If it is an RV related issue then and RV place might be better. I personally have a buddy that owns an excavation company with several full time mechanics that when slow is looking to keep his guys busy so gives me a break on costs. Works for him and me.

As to the customizing. Start with getting the rig ship shape mechanically and making sure all the systems are working. If any need upgrading do that first. Upgrades like A/V are great but not much good if the rig doesn't run.

For the charging of the batteries, the coach should have an on board charger when you plug in the main power the battery charge will kick in and charge them you do not need to do it manually as long as everything is working as it should. There are two sets of batteries (Chassis, are for starting the engine head lights basically all things to run the coach when on the road. House batteries are everything else. Frig when in 12volt/propane, interior lighting etc) both will charge off the coach when running or onboard charger when plugged in. Have the garage check to see if it has 6volt house batteries that require monthly maintenance. If they are not sealed batteries you need to check the levels monthly and top them off often. Many new RV's are not aware of this and end up having to get new ones a few months into owning the new RV.

Enjoy!

Thanks! We are going to take it to the local Freightliner to get checked out and fluids changed. After we fix the tire that blew out right before we got home! There were a ton of squeaks and creaks. The first one was the door latch. I fiddled with it and it went away only to come back when the temps got cold outside. I think we should get a new door. Its damaged on the outside and the screen door is toast. Thanks for the info, so much to learn.

rimfire7 · 03-12-2019, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacwjames

The title of your post peaked my interest so I looked up the Gulf Stream Bounty Hunter. Interesting concept and would appeal to a number of different end users.

Since you have a front engine diesel I can imagine it would be loud (and probably hot) when driving. Do a search for sound deadening and you should get some hits. I have seen where people use special material on the dog house (engine cover) to reduce noise.

The sway of the motorhome while driving is probably due to weight distribution, from the pictures the coach appears to be top heavy. Not sure what chassis they used for the diesel option, it indicates a Ford chassis for the Ford V10. I didn't see anything in the specs indicating air bags, so if you don't have you might consider putting some on.

As to up grades, I would suggest getting the rig in top operating order and use it and develop a prioritized list of upgrades you want to tackle.

Good Luck

Thanks! Its a good set up for us as we have 2 motorcycles and one day might live in it full time. It was completely empty when we drove back from Texas to Michigan so it was a bumpy, noisy ride! I will look into the noise deadening, I can't handle that kind of noise for days again. It was intense. My ears were buzzing after the trip. The engine is a Cummins diesel engine.

rimfire7 · 03-12-2019, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fcbbob15

From my experience work on repair and upgrade issues one at a time. I have found that you need to take your time. I have found out that a repair or mod could have been done better, cheaper and easier if had asked questions here. Think of future needs and how you will using the RV. Start with mechanicals so you have a good base line for future maintenance. Keep us up to date on how it's going.

Thanks! We will focus on the mechanicals first. Changing the fluids and getting tires fixed. It's going to Freigtliner this week and they will give us a run down of what is wrong. The slide out has an old leak and the wood in some key places rotted out but it still functions. We will need to fix that asap. The seals on the slide out don't look so sealy, I think we should do some thing about that this year too. Will need info on that.

HaRVey 74.5 · 03-12-2019, 11:53 AM

As for the front diesel engine noise, I recommend the regular use of DieselKleen additive for quieting the injector noise due to the poor lubricity of Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel. Whenever I forgot to use it on my '06 Ram I would wonder if something was wrong with my engine because it was so much noisier, until I remembered that I hadn't used the additive... I know it may not address all of your noise issues, but every little bit helps.