throgmartin

Ralph:

I am guessing this slide is the galley slide and is a raised floor slide. On your coach you will have 2 different slide types, a flush floor and a raised floor. It could be many things - broken roller, side of slide has detached from  sidewall, rotted or collapsed slide floor , broken slide assembly. If it is a flush floor then the 2 culprits we see most often is a rotted slide corner or the slide mechanism underneath is loos or broken. It is real hard to diagnose without seeing it.

If it is a raised floor and has a broken roller or a roller that is out of adjustment then that presents more issues as these rollers are placed in different locations. It could be a standard roller or an inverted roller. it could be floor mounted or inverted and mounted to a steel frame and accessed only from under the sofa, kitchen cabinets, etc. Some can be repaired with the slide left in place and others have to have the slide removed from the coach. Some are adjusted from the side of the slide and others adjusted from the wheel well or basement.

Dustin, my tech is one of the best slide guys in the country. His specialty is slide repair and he does a lot of them every month as we have customers come in from all over the country to have him work on them. We are not very far from you ( 60 miles ) so if you want to bring it up we can take a look at it.

Call Amy, my director at - 352-942-2653 and tell her we spoke here.  She should be able to get you in right away. To prevent further damage I suggest putting the slide in and not operating it till it is looked at. We just repaired a slide whose owner kept using his slide when he had known issues and caused several hundred dollars in further damage to the assembly.

I wish I could help you more but there are so many things that could be the problem it is hard to determine without seeing it. I do not want to provide the wrong information or send you on a wild goose chase. I hope you understand.

Yikes........ That was an expensive dealer bashing event.

I always figured that dealers were going to start fighting back. Thankfully over the last 14 years we have had only 2 customers come at us on the internet. While I never considered suing them I was able to mediate a solution and make them a satisfied customer. We can always count on a couple customers every year that put us through the ringer. They are the type of people who would bitch if you served them cold ice cream. For anyone who has ever owned or managed a business you have more then likely run into " problem customers ".

There are many large dealers who will walk away from a problem customer and let them have their bashing party on social media. They are selling so many RV's one headache wont matter so they turn their backs to the bashing and keep moving. With smaller companies you have to defend your reputation and go after some of the problem customers.  You work tirelessly to build a good reputation and bend over backwards to serve your customers. But when a customer comes through who is completely abrasive, unable to accept responsibility for their own mistakes during the order process ( wrong measurements, wrong color, etc. )  then goes on social media and rips you apart, you have to grab the bull by the horns and defend yourself.

I fired 2 customers last year for using abusive language with my female director. The language they used would make a preacher blush and the screaming and yelling at the other end of the phone is something I will not tolerate. I surely will not tolerate cursing and swearing at one of my employees, especially if my employee is a female. While we love to provide exceptional service to everyone I will NOT stand for my staff being abused.

 I am guessing in this case this couple really let things spin out of control and went overboard.  Either way, $ 192,000 has to hurt a private persons wallet and was an expensive lesson - watch how you bash a company on social media.  Here is the story:

https://rv-pro.com/news/bretz-rv-wins-lawsuit-defamation?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200616 RVP ENEWS (1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=23405300&spUserID=NjE3MjYxMTUxOTYzS0&spJobID=1760877170&spReportId=MTc2MDg3NzE3MAS2

I have never liked Winnebago or its corporate philosophy and operations. This statement reflects the ongoing theme with Winnie Corp.

If you go back and read some of the press releases when they bought Country Coach and look at their statements and then consider what they did with that brand you will see whats in store for Newmar.  I still believe they bought the brand only to absorb it into the Winnie line and in time will kill the Newmar names. It is the same thing Rev did when they bought the Monaco, Beaver and HR brands. We all know how that went.

We service and support Winnie owners and actually have one in our shop right now for repairs. But I will never support the Corporation.

They are a bunch of ruthless jerks to deal with. We signed up for their big International rally 2 years ago but then learned that all of our sales through our booth had to go through their on site rally store ( where they zapped all vendors for a 10 % cut ).  This included even our own manufactured products. I feel bad for the Newmar owners as the handwriting is on the wall. Look at what they did to Country Coach and then watch what Winnie does to the Newmar brand in the ensuing years.

Here is their latest press release:  https://rv-pro.com/news/winnebago-closing-oregon-service-center?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200615 RVP ENEWS (1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=23400150&spUserID=NjE3MjYxMTUxOTYzS0&spJobID=1760816642&spReportId=MTc2MDgxNjY0MgS2

Yes John it does.

My son and an old trucker taught me years ago how to climb a grade.  Preparation  is the key. At the bottom of a grade and just before heading up I start downshifting.

They told me to downshift and get the RPM's around 2,000 and keep downshifting to keep it there. Not only does this reduce stress on the engine but also keeps the temp's down.

I recently read where a coach owners ISX 650 blew up. It was once again a dropped valve. I passed the story on to my son who is a certified Cummins tech asking what the issue is with these ISX engines. To help some of you I thought I would pass this on to you here. He taught me years ago to keep my RPM's at around 2000 whenever climbing grades. Now I see why. This is what he said:

" The ISXs had a lot of problems and they went on for years. This particular failure is a combination of weak valves combined with pushing too much HP/torque for an RV application. I know they came out with a new design for valves, heads and I’m pretty sure they have a newer “carbon scraper” / APR - Anti Polish Rings to help keep the liners in tact. They also revised the calibration to derate, I believe down to 600HP - it’s not a 650HP engine.

This may sound crazy but - Check your over the door awning. If it is an automatic awning it may have not be completely closed and a small, piece of the cap on the leading

edge is sticking out. If it is a manual awning the sound can come from the arms as well as the aluminum wrap at the top. Check the position of that wrap to make sure it didn't slide forward or backward ( They are prone to moving ) . I had a high pitched screaming noise once and I thought it was coming from the door. Turns out it was the front arm on my door awning. I deployed the door awning and then put it back in and the sound went away.

If it is not the door awning then check that front tire very carefully.  Inspect the inside of the tire for a bulge. Years ago I had a 67 Thunderbird that developed a high pitched noise on my way to Detroit. I didn't hear it on a secondary road but I heard it when I got out on I-96. While I was trying to figure out what the noise was * BOOM * my right front tire blew. If the awning, tire, etc. all check out OK then I would go over everything including the body on that corner of the coach as well as the roof on that corner. It could be a  speed/aerodynamic induced sound created by something that has moved on the body.  I have seen some weird sounds created by a TV antenae not all the way down, a popped beltline, a loose fender, etc.

6 hours ago, jimclark44 said:

Dennis,

Good suggestion, however this just happens when we get a rain. We are in the Tampa, FL area and have not had much rain until lately. I have taped a piece of white plastic over the area so I can see when it occurs. Suppose to get several inches of rain in the next few days so I will see.

Jim Clark

Jim:

I am guessing a belt line opened up. If you cannot find the leak then I can have my tech check it for you. We are located 50 miles north of Tampa in Brooksville.

I can remember coming back from a trip and stopping at a Pilot in Memphis for fuel. The trucker islands were jam packed and Ingrid was driving. Always thinking of others, she let a trucker in ahead of us so we had an even longer wait. I was not happy but she said " he ism working, we are not in a hurry so chill out ". Every fuel island was filled with trucks 2 deep waiting. After 10 minutes we were next in line and when I looked up I seen hoods going up on all the semis. I got out and walked up to the truck ahead of us that Ingrid let in to ask why all the hoods were up. Soon the pumps all went dead and a manager came running out in a panic.

Turns out Memphis had a big rain storm and the Pilot's fuel filter system got overwhelmed and started pumping water laden fuel. It was so laden with water it shut the engines down on all the semis. Everyone of them were dead in the water. Of course Ingrid reminded me of how lucky we were because of her nice gesture. We had a helluva time getting out as there were so many trucks in there waiting in line. Can you imagine the chaos that followed ? Over a dozen semis had to have their tanks pumped out and fuel filters changed. There were semis who had just filled sitting out in the lots stalled. No idea what Pilot did with their storage tanks but the drivers were all screaming at the manager " Pilot will pay for all this including new filters and fuel ".

Since that experience I use biobar on alternate fill ups. I agree with Bill Groves. This soy based diesel is absolute junk fuel. I once had my coach fully serviced by my son and on the very first fill up my damn fuel filters got trashed by crud. Ever since then my coach never leaves the drive without a set of spare fuel filters in the basement. So I not only advise people to use additives and biobar but also always carry a set of fuel filters in the basement of your coach. You are one fill up away from trashed fuel filters.

Scotty:

You are correct. I have been a strong proponent of additives since getting information from my son, a certified Cummins tech. He has a lot of connections at Cummin's skunk works  ( engineering lab ). Cummins started seeing issues with pre-2007 engines due to the introduction of ULSD. The sulfur in diesel fuel is also a lubricant for the fuel system and when they took out a lot of the sulfur with the ULSD they also removed a lot of the lubricity of the fuel. The problems they started seeing were seal issues and injector issues.

What was crazy was Cummins engineers knew there were issues but Corporate kept telling their customers you do not need additives.  They did this for several years. Then from a push from their engineering staff ( and due to warranty claims ) they came out and said yes, you need an additive. In other words they were very late to the party. My sons contacts told him about the engines needing additives and he had me start using it right after ( which was years ago ).   Cummins now recommends Diesel Kleen but here is the kicker. It is a poor performing additive. There was a large independent study done of all additives on the market and Diesel Kleen never made it into the top 10. They found that adding cheap Walmart 2 cycle oil was better then Diesel Kleen ( I do not suggest screwing with 2 cycle oils BTW ). Even the Cummins engineers agreed behind closed doors Opti Lube was the best additive.

So why does Cummin's recommend Diesel Kleen ? Because of financial arrangements made with Power Services. I use nothing but Opti Lube as it is the # 1 performing additive on the market. If I am going to go to the trouble and expense of buying a fuel additive I want one that is the best. I am not concerned about saving a few dollars I could save by buying cheap additive.

In regards to using Biobar JF, I religiously use it.  That is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy for avoiding algae blooms in your fuel. I have seen members here and have had customers suffer huge costs from algae in the fuel. Algae blooms can occur when a coach sits for a while and it can also be introduced into your tank at a recent fill up.  Everyone knows you are only one fuel stop away from getting bad fuel. If you get a serious algae bloom you are looking at thousands of dollars to clear it up.

I highly suggest using Biobar on every other fill up or if you are parking your coach for a few weeks. I also advocate using Opti Lube on every tank fill up. It will help during start up's, provide a little extra power by raising the cetane rating of the crap ULSD fuel and most importantly provide much needed lubricity to the fuel system. If you have a pre-2007 emissions engine it is very much needed. If you have a newer engine it wont hurt the emissions system.

I might add that if you care to do some digging you will find Diesel Kleen is way down on the list of additives. You will also find that diesel engines made before 2007 were never designed for ULSD fuel. They were manufactured for the higher sulfur fuel we used to have. As a disclaimer I have no financial interest in Opti Lube. 🙂

Hope this info helps.   

8 hours ago, engine103 said:

Tragic news indeed. Chris, would you mind if I re post in part this information to the iRV2 site. If not I understand.

Jim:

That is fine. I was going to do that myself but have not had the time so please do go ahead and post it there.

I just got a message from a friend of mine telling me about an owner who was crushed to death under his Dynasty.

I do not know the full particulars of the accident so I am not going to arm chair quarterback or try and surmise what happened.

I did not know the owners but my friend owned the 2015 Dynasty previously and I inspected it at the gathering in 2019 and was helping them chase a leak.

Mark traded it in on a Prevost recently and the new owner picked it up. While staying at a campground they developed an electrical issue

so the guy climbed underneath. The auto leveling dumped its air and the coach crushed him to death.

The point of this post is to remind people that on coaches with auto leveling you have no business being under your coach unless you know

the safety procedures for dealing with the auto leveling system. The big coaches with auto leveling like the Dynastys, Exec's and Sigs have very little ground clearance

underneath to begin with and if that air dumps you WILL get crushed. Stay the hell out from under your coaches unless you know what you are doing and have taken neccessary

safety precautions.

The wife and family of this gentleman will remain in my prayers. 

I think Flexsteel was looking for an exit strategy from the RV sector and Covid provided them with it.  I guess my question is parts availability going forward.

This entire Covid deal has caused some shake up's in different industrial sectors. Some industries are doing well while others are taking huge hits.  Dave Pratt and I had a phone conversation a week ago  and his company along with our 3 companies have not seen a down turn at all. A lot of people are stuck at home and not traveling so are doing maintenance on their coaches which is why we are so busy. Dave is seeing classic car guys doing the same thing, working in their garages during the down time.

Some company owners I have talked to have said they are struggling big time and one said he would probably go bankrupt. Alot of the companies hit hard are ones who didn't maintain a good cash flow strategy and went into this downturn with little cash reserves. Even with the stimulus many wont make it. I am blessed to have a wife who miss an amazing money manager and keeps our companies always ahead of the curve.

One of my closest friends is a heavy investor and while he owns numerous fast food franchise buildings he has only had one not make payments to him. He is making a killing in the stock market though. I am guessing he made $ 50 K off Chevron alone in the last couple weeks. I bought into Chevron a little late after he bugged me daily for 2 weeks to buy CVX. I am making a little money off it but his buy price was right at the bottom of the cycle.  Real Estate listings I seen are dropping and what is funny is we had 5 acres we own off the Blue Ridge Parkway in VA listed for 2 years with no bites. The Covid issue came onto the scene and it sold to a cash buyer.  I am not complaining but find it strange.

It is going to be interesting to see how our economy comes back. In regards to RV's, I believe the sales will not have a V factor but will rather take a long time to come back due to so many being unemployed.   Banks are also tightening their lending which will effect RV purchases. I can say this though that if someone told me 3 years ago that they predicted a country wide lock down from a pandemic I would have suggested they get on med's and get mental health treatment.  This entire thing has been utter chaos. 

Wow. I didn't see this coming. Flexsteel has manufactured seats for coaches for years. I am guessing this will leave a few coach manufacturers scrambling.

This is a sad departure as Flexsteel made good seating products.

https://rv-pro.com/news/flexsteel-exits-rv-industry?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200430 RVP ENEWS (1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=23204438&spUserID=MTgwMTk3MTY5MTU2S0&spJobID=1721513403&spReportId=MTcyMTUxMzQwMwS2

That is what mine did. Blew cold air then after while blew hot.

Patrick it is universal to the Dometic penguin units. I would change it out before I did anything else. Mine was blowing VERY hot air.

What you can do is start the AC, go up on the roof and tap on the solenoid. Have your wife check to see if it cycled and started blowing cold air.

They sometimes can be engaged by tapping on it. Typically when troubleshooting you start at the solenoid,  then go to the capacitor and then the circuit board. It is normally one of those 3 things. Most of the time it is that solenoid.

Patrick:

Without being able to diagnose it properly I am going to guess it is the reversing valve solenoid. Rarely do these units loose freon.

I just had this hap[pen to me and it was a reversing valve solenoid. You can buy one off Amazon and it can easily be installed by the owner.

Do a search on this forum and the description and part number will come up.

Be sure and check the slots that the shear pin goers into. If you are shearing a lot of pins that hole could be hogged out. If so then it will continually shear pins.

We find this problem all the time at the shop.

The most problematic awnings for slow operation is the Carefree Eclipse. It helps to lube all the pivot points with T-9 Boeshield. But chances are the problem will persist.

Problem areas are the wall plug/connector and switch but on Monaco coaches the other problem is small gauge wire used at the factory which wont carry the proper voltage to the motor. We have 2 member who ran new heavier wire internally in their coach which fixed the problem but it is a huge job and time consuming. Whenever troubleshooting a patio awning always test the motor first by jumpering it using a drill motor battery. 12 - 20 volts is fine.

On 2006/07 models there was a recall on the motors as the shaft with the flat spot would wear out. The free replacement motor program from Carefree has since run out. Pinning the shaft is a good work around.

I was saddened over this news. I knew Gary very well as we spent a lot of time together at FMCA rallys. He trained technicians, gave a lot of seminars, appeared in magazine articles, was a monthly columnist for the FMCA magazine and did some You Tube channel work as well as TV.  We consulted back and forth on tech issues and spent a lot of time talking and texting about instruments as we were both musicians.

He was a huge supporter of our companies and the products we carried.  This was a huge loss to the FMCA organization as well as RV'ers all across the country. I know my next FMCA rally will be less fun without Gary at our booth. I know the FMCA staff is devastated as well as Gary was a fixture at the big rally's.

May God hold his family close during this tragic time.

( Pictured below is Gary and his family ).

Dave:

The prescribed fix and the way we do it at our shop is to drill out the crack at each end to keep it from running. Apply a small bead of Proflex in the crack and then place a length of eternabond tape over the crack.  I do not advise having it re-glassed as it it will be a waste of money as these cracks can come back in the same place. We see these cracks continually on the front cap of fiberglass roofs on older coaches.

We had a Sig in the other day for a roof renovation the other day that had the worst crack I have ever seen on a roof. It was wide, with one edge raised and extended from the roof down the side of the radius.

13 hours ago, MSHappyCampers said:

Thanks for the tip!  Does this occur on units less than 5 years old?

Joe

 

Unfortunately, the newer Duo Therms are not holding up like the older models. Dustin has had to do several change outs of newer duo therms.

The Coleman's seem to be more robust and are holding up much better.

Just seems that as time moves forward, quality moves backwards.

Gary:

My go to guy on this forum is Bill Groves. He has forgot more about our electrical systems then most will ever learn. Bill is very gracious with his time

and always helps others. He acts as a consultant to my tech Dustin when we have a major electrical issue on a customers coach and he need's input or repair guidance.

Sitting out here in our drive is a Dynasty that had the Big Boy tested and inspected in Orlando. It tested fine. Dustin tested it using Bill's guidance and procedure and it tested bad.

I encourage you to reach out to Bill if you have any electrical issues.  Another guy who is awesome is Frank, our moderator here. He also has a big wheelhouse as well in the electrical arena.

You are always also welcome to contact my tech, Dustin, anytime you have questions. I did give him permission to assist Naval Aviators.  352-942-2653 🙂

Tom:

Unfortunately we drive a house down the road in earthquake conditions. They get bumped, banged and bounced down the road.  They also flex a great deal and all of this add's up to problems that can occur with not only wiring and connectors but also general parts and assemblies found on our coaches.

I cannot count the times Dustin and I has found loose connections or missing screws or bolts. We have had coaches come in where they complained of hard operating slides. Dustin crawls into the basement to inspect the assemblies and finds washer and bolts laying on top of things that have vibrated off. I heard a weird vibrating noise near the back of my coach and found it was the rear fender. One of the hold down screws went missing. I have repaired parts on coaches where screws and bolts went bye bye.

I have stated in seminars before that every coach owner should inspect ( on an annual basis ) all of their main electrical wiring and hold down screws. By this I mean checking the screws to be sure they are tight in the breaker box. Tightening the screws on the wires going into and out of the ATC. Cleaning and checking all battery cables both at the batteries, relays, inverter and starter to be sure they are good, clean and tight. These are all safety related items and do not think for a second they wont burn your coach to the ground. They will.

Dustin got into a breaker panel a couple weeks ago on a customers coach and felt that the outside panel was hot. He had a wire loose on a breaker where the screw was backing out. It seems that every month a customer pulls in with something not working or intermittently not working. Many times it is a loose plug, connector or wire. We spray the plug or connector with T-9 Boeshield ( which will dissolve rust and corrosion and leave behind a protective film ) and then reconnect them.

I have lost track of the number of loose connections I have seen or fixed which either prevented a component from working or created headaches for the owner. It makes me wonder just how many service center techs have just replaced something versus chasing down the bad connector.

In the event some of you who were attending the FMCA International in Tucson, it has been cancelled.

Thanks John. That was very helpful.

Thanks to everyone else as well. Look's like I have some Love's along the way to fuel up at. Thanks for that snap shot Mike.

Hate doing these trips alone, especially pulling this show trailer. Had a tire go down on me 2 weeks ago coming back from a rally. Not fun.

Ingrid is flying out and back so will help me at the rally. She refuses to allow me to get a young girlfriend to travel with me. ( No idea why ? ). 🙂 

See ya'll in Tucson if the Lord's willing and the creek don't rise. and Ingrid doesn't strangle me first.

Chris