Results of our PDI road test for the new Horizon

[John_Canfield]

This is a copy of the post I just made on RV.NET - I want to 'cast the net' far and wide! Please give me your thoughts!
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WOW - here we are near Lazydays at a Holiday Inn Express near the fairgrounds. As previously arranged, this afternoon was our test drive, tomorrow morning is our PDI of the coach.

The coach (Horizon 40AD) was waiting for us in the delivery spot and OH MY GOSH was she pretty! The feeling that DW and I had when first setting eyes on it is really indescribable. We don't have any children but if we did, this must be somewhat akin to watching your child being born (well, maybe this is a little melodramatic, but you get the idea.)

Okay - here is what happened...

First trick was getting the mirrors adjusted. The delivery driver must not have bothered to do much here because the bottom convex mirrors were at the extreme of their travel and I still did not have a good view. We just twisted the entire mirror assembly and got it nicely centered where we have a good range of adjustment.

Now we are driving on the Interstate. The wind is blowing hard - those giant auto-dealer flags are standing straight out. The coach tracks straight and true with minimal steering wheel input. Amazing!

I noticed that when I was making high speed turns or lane changes, there seemed to be a little vibration in the wheel like a tire wasn't balanced. When driving straight though, all was vibration-free. ANY IDEAS HERE?

Our check engine light came on twice and then went out. They need to pull the code and see what's going on with this (all gauges were normal - I looked when the check engine light was on.) We have the ISL engine with the Allison 3000 tranny.

I also noticed that the steering wheel seemed to be biased slightly to the right. It was a little hard to tell due to the wind, but I'm pretty sure it is a little misaligned. I think we will get the coach realigned after we load it with our stuff.

Our test drive lasted about 40-45 minutes. Other than noted above, all seemed to be okay.

Next we did the air brake test. First thing was to test the emergency brake. Emergency brake pulled out, engine to 1200 RPM, and I expected no movement. WHOOPS - the coach moves! Oh dear! According to the air brake test I found on the Internet, there should be NO COACH MOVEMENT. What do you all think about this test and our results???

The other parts of the air brake test (testing the alarms on low air, etc.,) were okay thankfully.

Tomorrow morning we begin the rest of the inspection. Stay tuned for part two of our new adventure!

Please share your comments about our findings!

--John - almost a coach owner

[John_Canfield]

This is a copy of the post I just made on RV.NET - I want to 'cast the net' far and wide! Please give me your thoughts!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

WOW - here we are near Lazydays at a Holiday Inn Express near the fairgrounds. As previously arranged, this afternoon was our test drive, tomorrow morning is our PDI of the coach.

The coach (Horizon 40AD) was waiting for us in the delivery spot and OH MY GOSH was she pretty! The feeling that DW and I had when first setting eyes on it is really indescribable. We don't have any children but if we did, this must be somewhat akin to watching your child being born (well, maybe this is a little melodramatic, but you get the idea.)

Okay - here is what happened...

First trick was getting the mirrors adjusted. The delivery driver must not have bothered to do much here because the bottom convex mirrors were at the extreme of their travel and I still did not have a good view. We just twisted the entire mirror assembly and got it nicely centered where we have a good range of adjustment.

Now we are driving on the Interstate. The wind is blowing hard - those giant auto-dealer flags are standing straight out. The coach tracks straight and true with minimal steering wheel input. Amazing!

I noticed that when I was making high speed turns or lane changes, there seemed to be a little vibration in the wheel like a tire wasn't balanced. When driving straight though, all was vibration-free. ANY IDEAS HERE?

Our check engine light came on twice and then went out. They need to pull the code and see what's going on with this (all gauges were normal - I looked when the check engine light was on.) We have the ISL engine with the Allison 3000 tranny.

I also noticed that the steering wheel seemed to be biased slightly to the right. It was a little hard to tell due to the wind, but I'm pretty sure it is a little misaligned. I think we will get the coach realigned after we load it with our stuff.

Our test drive lasted about 40-45 minutes. Other than noted above, all seemed to be okay.

Next we did the air brake test. First thing was to test the emergency brake. Emergency brake pulled out, engine to 1200 RPM, and I expected no movement. WHOOPS - the coach moves! Oh dear! According to the air brake test I found on the Internet, there should be NO COACH MOVEMENT. What do you all think about this test and our results???

The other parts of the air brake test (testing the alarms on low air, etc.,) were okay thankfully.

Tomorrow morning we begin the rest of the inspection. Stay tuned for part two of our new adventure!

Please share your comments about our findings!

--John - almost a coach owner

[tomsm]

Congratulations John!!!

We also had an intermittent check light on our test drive. Took them 2 days to get it corrected. First it went to Freightliner("not our problem"), then to CAT. Think they finally replaced a faulty sensor.

Really makes you wonder what the delivery driver is doing all the way from IA to here. Guess it's a case of "not my job". Sure would make a better delivery to the customer, if they would report these things.

Can't help on the other items except to say that I don't have any vibration, but we have a different front suspension.

Good luck - hope they get that light corrected quickly...

["007"]

Congratulations John How is your PDI going you have us on pins an needles,an in suspense. Are you a motor homer yet or going back to sea. ---"007"

[ichn2go]

007, was wondering the same thing. Hope all is going well for him..Good Miles

[Woody]

Hey John, glad to hear you did not find any major problems with yours either. I thought I would send you a list of the items we found with ours.
1. The left front Basement door kept opening up while driving down the road. Thanks to good old duck tape we continued our trip to Savannah.
2. The right channel speakers would not work when using the AUX mode for the Sirius radio. They work fine on all other modes, e.g. radio, cd.
3. The chair rail behind the couch needs a few more staples.
4. The infamous key pad would not work.
5. The rear engine compartment door needs adjusting. Does not open cleanly.
6. I did not receive and manuals on how to operate the In-Motion Satellite dish. So I'm not sure if it work correctly or not. Will definitely check to see if its mounted correctly (Thanks).
7. A rattle behind passenger seat on rough road. Did not do this on initial test drive. It seems to have started after opening/closing the slide several times. A different coach that we were originally looking at had the same rattle on smooth pavement.
The coach is in the shop for these repairs.
I truely enjoyed driving the new coach for our initial 4.5 hour trip. It drove like a dream compared to our previous 2000 Horizon.
Good luck on your repairs and safe travels down the road.