Berkshire 36QS owner manuals

[GERSHAR]

I just recently acquired my rig with 3500 miles, a MB diesel, and NO owner manuals. In looking through the multitude of sites, I drawn little info. Forest River was able to supply the build sheet with some of the Mfg and serial numbers. Some of the Mfg have offered some online, which is fine. There are so many impotants bits of info that that original owner manual offer that would help in maintaining this great rig.
Having rvd for 48 years, I’ve had a wide variety of units. The DPs are my favorite.
Any insight how to get digital or hard copies would be greatly appreciated.

Doc

[wmtire]

The site team has moved the above post to it's own thread where hopefully it can get the answers it needs.

[Oscarvan]

Forest River does not have, or provide manuals with their units. It is a massive failure. They have admitted to me they "fall a little short" there but aren't doing much about it.

There is ONE book, generic to a fault, and it doesn't tell you much you need to know, so don't pay money for it.

Follow the link to my blog below and you'll find a lot of info on my 38A which is very similar to your 34Qs.

Hope that helps.

[gordonsick]

Noting the paucity of documentation for the whole RV, I've also started building my own manual. Here is what I have so far.

–Gordon

[GERSHAR]

Originally Posted by gordonsick

Noting the paucity of documentation for the whole RV, I've also started building my own manual. Here is what I have so far.

–Gordon

Gordon,
Thank you so much for sharing your collection for the Berkshire . It’s getting cold here in Ohio and this is just the thing for my evening readings. Will follow your tags.
Doc

[GoneSouth10]

Gordon - this is awesome! It now resides in my laptop Berkey folder with the eponymous title of "The Sick Manual (2015 Berkshire 34QS)"!
I look forward to reading through it and, if I can contribute any insight (painfully acquired, no doubt, as all worthwhile "insight" seems to be), I will be happy to share . . .
Thanks again!

[gordonsick]

I've made some updates to my 2015 Berk 34QS manual.

I've added information on driving, brakes and tank flushing, amongst others.

–Gordon

[GERSHAR]

Gordon, thank you for your hard work and updates on 5he Berkshire manuals!
I read them to be a better Berkshire owner. I love driving this rig.
I have had an unusual and unfortunate experience with my Berkshire. I opened the generator compartment on ran it for a spell. I closed the compartment and in a few seconds smoke poured out the lower driver side. I frantically ran for the tube key and fire extinguisher. It probably took me 15 seconds. Opened the siloed access and pulled cord for gen compartments. Nearly passed out from the smoke. Successfully put out flames. Turned off rear coach switch. Then I started it to take to Mainline Truck and RV in Bedford Ohio 30 miles away. I started it up the rig, no problem. I depressed the brake pedal and it went to the floor. Parking brake was fine. Foolishly, I drove it, white knuckled to the shop. Rear switch n batterybin, front airline, wires, connectors, and numerous other components were replaced. Nick, the tech there, was very thorough and understanding throughout this ordeal. He was most helpful and recommend him.
I’ve been checking out the rig to make sure others hidden issues won’t arise.
(Hope to go to Alaska for trip #3, next June).
Well, Nick said the cable on the generator to the coach had dropped and was pinched in the track - thus the resulting fire.
I am thankful no one got injured (me) and it didn’t burn to the ground.
I will check cable and hangar regularly.
Thanks again,
Doc

[gordonsick]

Doc,
That's a pretty scary situation. It's hard to prepare in advance to cover that kind of situation! It does remind me of a couple of things with my coach, however.

First, I put a fire extinguisher in the propane bay, since that door doesn't lock. I don't plan to put out propane fires, but it saves me from having to find a key to get a fire extinguisher. Of course, in your situation, you still needed a key to get the generator to slide out.

Second, I've had a couple of odd issues with my generator that have some similarity to yours. The first problem was that the generator was installed without a stop on the slide. The only stop was the cable harness stopping the generator from sliding out. The dealer fixed that, but it may have stressed my cables. The second problem was very recent: the generator wouldn't start and delivered a code 19, which indicates a problem with the control circuitry. I took it to an Onan shop in Tucson and the mechanic quickly found a loose wire that caused the problem. It may have been sloppily installed at the factory, or it could have been pulled askew when the cable harness was being used to stop the generator from sliding out.

–Gordon

[raidernation]

Gordon,

With your permission, I would like to modify your manual for my 18 XL40C. There are some differences, but many similarities. Anything in your coach that is the same as mine, I'll keep it, as well as the outline and template, and anything that is different, I'll change it to reflect my coach..

I'll make the manual available (assuming I actually finish it).

It can be the Canadians contribution to the berkshire fam.

[btritschler1437]

Thank you Gordon for you time & effort put into writing the documentation regarding the 34QS. I believe this is my 2nd or 3rd printing, you started these in 2015. Along those lines may I ask you to show what version is the copy i.e. Ver 18.3 so we can be sure we have the latest printing. Thanks.

Also as a member of the Berkshire club have you considered attending the Berkshire rally April 28 to May 5 in Bay Hide Away RV Park, in Bay St. Louis, MS? Karen Stephenson is the rally master. It would be great to meet you and share your information with fellow owners. Last year we had about 35 at Pine Mountain, GA.

[gordonsick]

BTRitschler,
Thanks for the encouragement. I put the date of the document in its file name. If you put multiple versions of the document in the same folder, and sort by name, the dates will put them in correct order. (I use ISO dates, so they sort properly.)

Thanks, also, for the heads up on the Berkshire rally in late April to early May. I might be able to go. One important thing that I want to do in May is to be in Point Pelee, Ontario for the big bird migration. I've still got to work out their typical flight times, but it is probably at about the same time.

Raidernation,
It's an interesting thought to allow a modified version of the manual to be developed by others. It does have some fundamental complications, however, because it would be a "forked" version of the manual. If I make changes to my material, readers would want the modified version to also be changed. Managing forks like this is difficult. My son has a full-time job as a documentation engineer for a large telescope, and maintaining the documentation when there are many authors is very complex. He writes and maintains a lot of software to do it. Other organizations have the same problem.

Myself, I've written two editions of the Canadian version of a US textbook. I came across the same fork issue when I did my second edition, which had to handle advanced editions from the US. That was a big job for me.

So, I think it is best for me to keep my version to myself and not let it become forked. If people want to write their own material, my version will be freely available to others and you can make references in your material to what changes from my machine to yours by referencing the section headings in my manual.

–Gordon

[gordonsick]

I attach another version of my manual. Note the dates in the title of each version.

This version updates my discussion of tire inflation to be consistent with a recent post I made in this forum. It also provides thumbnails in your PDF reader software that lets you scroll through a preview of each page, rather than using the table of contents.

Happy New Year,
Gordon