Just Bought our New Ventana, and the Disappointment has Started

[quadder]

Hi all;
We pulled the trigger last week on a 2014 Ventana 4037. It is scheduled for turnover to us next weekend. We spent a couple of hours in her yesterday, to start seeing where we would fit our pots and pans, appliances etc. What a great time!! We think we will learn to love her.
But.......................
We found the overhead lights are halogen, not LED like the 2015's. No problem. I changed out all the lights on our 06 Cross Country. So I looked in the Ventana Owners Guide to look up the light numbers so that I could order replacement LEDs. No joy. That manual isn't useless, but it's not far from it.
So I brought that huge bag of O&M information home with us to go through, and see if there was any information in it for the lights. No joy there either.
But I found the satchel so unwieldy, that I have set out to make a PDF of every item in the satchel, and make our own PDF Operating and Maintenance Manual.
If somebody knows the bulb type for the overhead lights and sconces, I would like to get it. I wanted to have the bulbs on hand and changed, before those halogens turn the bulb covers yellow from the heat.
The next disappointment concerned the TV's. We have converted over 700 DVD movies into MP4 files that we carry with us on a portable hard drive. On our old bus, I just plugged it into the USB slot on the side of the TV, and away we went. These TV's are not close to state of the art. They can play MPEG1 and 2 files - that's it. So new TV's are on the horizon. OH, the DVD players aren't Blu-Ray either. More expense. <<sigh>>
Finally, I started looking at this little gizmo for the inverter. It's a Magnum ME-RE, and from what I can see, it can't do any where near the activities that my old one (much larger in size) could do. It looks like it can't support AGS either, so that's another changeout in our future. <<sigh>>.
I'm hoping, that when we finally get to move the bus off the dealers lot, that we will be delighted with the unit, as so many others are.

[Mr_D]

That's why we don't look or buy anything below a Dutch Star DP. Yes, it's more expensive than a Ventana for reasons like you state. But then our '02 DSDP isn't up to the latest either. We don't have halogen lights nor even HDMI to the TV's. I have put new TV's and blu-ray players. Our inverter is still the same 2000 watt MSW inverter it came with and I've tried to install an auto start gen control but have never gotten it to work although it will shut the gen off it won't start it.

[Tony Lee]

I'll get in first and say I feel your pain.

[datrbone8]

may these be the biggest of your worries... Seriously, congratulations and best of luck with the new coach

[Stealth01]

I'm really sorry for your problems... BUT, why were any of these issues/problems surprises to you... didn't you do your research and walk the coach before purchasing??

[HHIDan]

Originally Posted by datrbone8

may these be the biggest of your worries... Seriously, congratulations and best of luck with the new coach

X2 !!!
I have owned 7 different RV's and never seen a manual that had the part numbers for light bulbs.
Easy enough to find a gizmo that will convert/play your movies on the existing TV's.
A BluRay is about $60...

You will find many pluses to offset these minor inconveniences, I'm sure. BTW my next door neighbor and friend just took delivery of a new Ventana also. He is very happy so far.

[quadder]

Originally Posted by Stealth01

I'm really sorry for your problems... BUT, why were any of these issues/problems surprises to you... didn't you do your research and walk the coach before purchasing??

Well I sure thought I did.
You kind of get overwhelmed with the totality of the whole thing. It never occurred to me to check the TV's for example, to see just what they could play. MP4 is rather a new standard, and my son said that was the one to use. It was pure luck that they played with no problem on our Samsung TV in the old moho. But I had only installed that TV in the last year.
I guess I'm not really complaining - although it looks like I am. Just like my other moho, whatever I didn't like, I changed. This will be the same.
Starting with the light bulbs.
Thank you for your response.
I've been lurking on irv2 since I bought my first moho, and the knowledge and humour of the respondents has been amazing.
This was my first post. Didn't know what was going to happen.

[JohnT]

Rob & Dee


And Welcome to the Newmar family.

Yes the manual is pretty generic with this throughout the whole book, "please specific equipment manufacturers manual". Then you look for that manual and hope it there. There are a couple of owners that have mapped out the lights throughout their coach and may chime in shortly. My mapping is not finished and in the coach which is a few miles away.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

BTW, without pics, it didn't happen.

[KenNJ]

X2 we are more than pleased with our Ventana as well.




Sent from my iPad using iRV2 - RV Forum

[Dutch Star Don]

Well here is a start for you. My coach came with the LED option, but the wall sconces had 1076 two prong automobile turn signal bulbs. I just replaced them with these Ming's 1076/1142 Green Long Life 330 Lumens LED Bulb - Replacement Bulbs - Lighting - Electrical They were a perfect match for brightness and color (warmth).

I just need to find the bulbs for the makeup lights in the bathroom and I will be ALL LED. I even found a good bulb for the microwave light.

I will admit that I was disappointed that the DVD players were not BlueRay, but as I think about it, these coaches are often bought by older people who hardly watch TV (unlike me, old, but watch a lot of TV). I went to Costco and got the identical DVD player, but with BlueRay for $60.00. Plug and play.

[Mr_D]

I replaced the old CRT TV in front with a nice new Samsung. Went to add a sound bar and found the TV didn't have ANY connections for sound output! I tore the old cabinet out and rebuilt it to fit this particular TV and I really don't want to do that again just to be able to add a sound bar.! My fault as I didn't look the specs and package over before deciding we needed a sound bar. I think I'll just live with it till we order a new DSDP

[JohnRR]

I hope it gets better for you in the very near future.

[twinknkate]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Well here is a start for you. My coach came with the LED option, but the wall sconces had 1076 two prong automobile turn signal bulbs. I just replaced them with these Ming's 1076/1142 Green Long Life 330 Lumens LED Bulb - Replacement Bulbs - Lighting - Electrical They were a perfect match for brightness and color (warmth).

I just need to find the bulbs for the makeup lights in the bathroom and I will be ALL LED. I even found a good bulb for the microwave light.

I will admit that I was disappointed that the DVD players were not BlueRay, but as I think about it, these coaches are often bought by older people who hardly watch TV (unlike me, old, but watch a lot of TV). I went to Costco and got the identical DVD player, but with BlueRay for $60.00. Plug and play.

Don--thanks for the link to the Ming's bulb. DH has been looking for a replacement for our sconce lights and hasn't had much luck. These look perfect. What type of microwave do you have? We have the GE Advantium and would love to find an LED replacement for that as well. And when you find the elusive vanity bulb, we'd love that link too! That would make us all LED!!

[hawgguy]

I had a 2011 Ventana - the Halogen-->LED changeover was a cinch. I just stocked up on the LED's and, one by one as the halogens failed, replaced them with LED. No big deal. The Magnum controller on my unit did have AGS and it worked well. I first learned about it when it self started at 4am one morning while camping - imagine my surprise. As other's have said, the DVD-->BR changeover is relatively painless. These are definitely first-world problems.