The shakedown, part du !

[Rick 2005 Dolphin 5376]

Having been away from RV'ing for the last 12 years made me forget about how well our rigs are built . Since Julia and I are living full time in the "new" coach, it leaves little time to take her in for warranty work. That being said, I've fixed many things that I would not of expected to be needing to fixed. On my short list was a mis-aligned lounge slide. After some fooling around with the mechanicals, I have got the slide to open properly and now it has a tight seal all around. How it got past quality control is beyond me. It took me a few hours to fix but most of that was figuring out how the whole thing worked.
Water leak at the city hook up. I'm guessing no one ever hooked it up long enough to see that it leaked but again, I took the initiative to remove the panel in the water compartment to find 2 loose connections, water leak GONE. I have not sealed it all up again as I'm waiting for the plywood shelf where the water pump lives to dry out.
Odor from the Black tank. This was an on going problem that seemed to have no solution, well, not until yesterday. Seemed that every time we ran the heater we'd get black tank odor in the coach. Yesterday I had enough and started to take a serious look around. My first look at the roof vent told the whole (no pun) story. The vent pipe is 1 3/4 dia, the hole for the pipe is 2 1/4 and is not sealed around the pipe. When turning the heater on you get negitive pressure in the interior and it would suck odor from the vent pipe on the roof through the extra large opening around the pipe. MMMmmmm, there's some quality eh? I sealed the hole and added a turbo vent on the pipe. Problem gone.
Am I ranting or just in amazement on how crappy quality in an upper end gas RV is? There is no excuse for these types of quality issues.
A message to new RV owners: From those I have spoke with, this is apparantly normal. Live with it and move on. Don't let it un-do the joy of RV'ing. I'm happy to share my "fixes" should anyone have a need.
Lastly, I have found a double sticky tape that has all but eliminated 80% of rattles in the rig. Made by 3M, called VHB. You can buy it on eBay. It's not cheap but it will hold anything you want together and do it very well. I have used it extensively around cabinets, shelves, electronic equipment and various other anti-rattle missions.
Thanks for the band width.

[Rick 2005 Dolphin 5376]

Having been away from RV'ing for the last 12 years made me forget about how well our rigs are built . Since Julia and I are living full time in the "new" coach, it leaves little time to take her in for warranty work. That being said, I've fixed many things that I would not of expected to be needing to fixed. On my short list was a mis-aligned lounge slide. After some fooling around with the mechanicals, I have got the slide to open properly and now it has a tight seal all around. How it got past quality control is beyond me. It took me a few hours to fix but most of that was figuring out how the whole thing worked.
Water leak at the city hook up. I'm guessing no one ever hooked it up long enough to see that it leaked but again, I took the initiative to remove the panel in the water compartment to find 2 loose connections, water leak GONE. I have not sealed it all up again as I'm waiting for the plywood shelf where the water pump lives to dry out.
Odor from the Black tank. This was an on going problem that seemed to have no solution, well, not until yesterday. Seemed that every time we ran the heater we'd get black tank odor in the coach. Yesterday I had enough and started to take a serious look around. My first look at the roof vent told the whole (no pun) story. The vent pipe is 1 3/4 dia, the hole for the pipe is 2 1/4 and is not sealed around the pipe. When turning the heater on you get negitive pressure in the interior and it would suck odor from the vent pipe on the roof through the extra large opening around the pipe. MMMmmmm, there's some quality eh? I sealed the hole and added a turbo vent on the pipe. Problem gone.
Am I ranting or just in amazement on how crappy quality in an upper end gas RV is? There is no excuse for these types of quality issues.
A message to new RV owners: From those I have spoke with, this is apparantly normal. Live with it and move on. Don't let it un-do the joy of RV'ing. I'm happy to share my "fixes" should anyone have a need.
Lastly, I have found a double sticky tape that has all but eliminated 80% of rattles in the rig. Made by 3M, called VHB. You can buy it on eBay. It's not cheap but it will hold anything you want together and do it very well. I have used it extensively around cabinets, shelves, electronic equipment and various other anti-rattle missions.
Thanks for the band width.

["007"]

Thanks for sharing Rick have been there myself and as to new RVers its going to be tough for some of them to cope with what to some of us are minor problems. But thats what irv2 is all about people who know sharing their fixs with others. Is it something that should be ,NO, but its there never the less. For newbies there is "FIND" above that will get you alot of answers for some of your questions, if its not there than just ask.

[Keith K]

Rick,
I agree, it's a shame that easily fixed problems are overlooked. My windshield washer didn't work - looked close and found it the tube wasn't connected. When I complained to the dealer that the horn was wimply, I was told "that's the way they come" - looked and found that one horn wasn't connected....and so on. As a fellow fulltimer, the saving grace is that we can generally track down and fix the problem ourselves. I pity the poor folks who can't and who have to turn their rigs into a dealer for more crappy fix actions. I guess the only answer is to buy a Prevost or Marathon coach.

[adj]

I think the mission of the guys on the assembly floor is to pump the rigs out and let warrenty take care of discrepancies. i.e., no QA.

[Rick 2005 Dolphin 5376]

In sort of sick kind of way, I'm glad I get to know my coach better than most ever do. By fixing these little nagging issues it allows me to understand how the whole thing is put together. Should the day could when real trouble happens and I'm to far away to get help, I think I'll be better equiped to handle the problem. Over all the Dolphin is most likely no better or worse than any other new coach of the sales floor. The factory is it's worse enemy and with a little QA along the assy line, they could build a lot of happy customers in a big way. Still have a list of 6 other things I'll be addressing in the coming weeks. I started out on the need to fix now stuff and am working on the minor issues now.