Georgetown 2008 350TS Updates

[Fourn3833]

Well since we bought our motorhome there have been some updates and changes:

a) Went thru all the exterior storage cabinets and found where FR did not install screws to hold the cabinet to the side. Installed new screws
b) Had to reseal all the exterior cabinets and areas where FR misssed
d) Replaced all the screws that hold the slide awnings to the slides with stainless. Looks good and the others had rust on them. Used caulking in the holes for a good seal.
e) Installed window awnings on the bedroom, coach/dining and an extended one for the bunk windows. Again used stainless screws and a good caulking.
f) Repainted all the steel under the unit with a Rust-Oleum (Rust Reformer) product that kills the rust. It really works as I have used it on previous units. The factorys never do a good job on on it.
g) Installed a rock guard for towing with the stainless trim.
h) Replaced many of the exposed screws on the door holder etc with stainless and caulking in the holes.
i) Ordered a new 16' flag pole and Flag Buddy, be here today, installed this afternoon whenit gets here.
j) The tail lights have 2 sets of screws, one that holds the body to the motorhome and the other holds the lense to the body. This style light holds water in the lense to light body holes and the screws rust out. I had to remove the body from the coach and work on them to remove the screws. I replaced all the screws with stainless and once again good caulking in the holes to the coach when I reinstalled them.
k) Installed vent covers on the 2 roof vents
l) I am almost done waxing it, 3/4 the way there. I always use NuFinish on my motorhomes as well as any of my fiberglas boats I've had. I'd rather the liquid as the paste does not seem to do as good of a job. I use a small 7" (because my son has my 9" and is out of town) oscillating buffer to remove the wax and touch up with a towel.
m) Drlled holes in the bottoms of the exterior door frames so they can drain, 1/8". These will hold water and eventually damage.
n) Removed the old screws inthe ladder brackets, and yes installed new stainless and caulked them well.
o) Removed the screws from the transistion strips at the flooor to steps and the door to steps, and yes installed stainless.

Upcoming:
a) Re-support the storage cabinet and hydraulic pump inside it. The cabinet sags some from the weight of the pump etc and yes FR did not install all the screws to hold the cabinet to the body. They also used sheetmetal screws to hold the pump base to the plastic cabinet. Plastic really has no strength such as this is installed. I will install 1/2 marine plywood under the pump set to the the size of the cabinet base and install 1/8" aluminum under the cabinet for stainless machine bolts to be able to be bolted thru.
b) Replace the rear TV with a 32" LCD. This means pulling the exterior trim, remove the old, developing a frame inside the old TV area with a piece of 1/2' plywood spanning betwen the frame, finding a piece of paneling (hopefully getting one from FR) that matches to fill the old hole in the trim, re-install the trim with the jacks and power cut into the new plywood/paneling, install the new TV bracket (Camping World has one that the TV slides down on and keep it real tight.
c) Some day build a spare tire carrier under the unit behind the gas tank. I will use a pully system with a cable to a boat hand winch bolted to the chassis.. There will be a piece of steel to swing under the wheel/tire after it is lifted and a wing nut (? maybe) and threaded rod to hold the tire in place for travel.

Then from here we'll see

[cfsoistman]

Not sure if you knew there was a recall on the Georgetowns. Basically it's the angled aluminum trim under the sofa/dinette slide-out didn't have enough fasteners holding it in place. I took mine back and they installed a few more tek-screws. It took them a couple minutes. Had I known this was all they were doing I would have done it myself.
Isn't it amazing how many things you can find that should have been done by the manufacturer but was missed. I've found enough screws under drawers and the bed headboard area to start a hardware store. My favorite is the wood putty they used. I have the cherry cabinets, they used a putty that was close to pink in color. Min-wax makes a cherry blend stick that matches perfectly. I spent my first weekend digging all the pink stuff out and filled the holes with the Min-wax cherry stick.
The cabinets and paneling come from Patrick Industries that FR uses. They can help you with the pieces for the bedroom TV.

http://www.patrickind.com/index.htm

[Fourn3833]

I'll have to find out about the recall, thanks for the heads up and thanks for the info on the paneling

[F and E Damp]

Sorry this is on the long side.

I'm just going through a cabinet rebuild on my 325. We didn't know when we bought it that the slide topper on the living room/dinette slide had rotted out. As soon as we found out we made plans to have it replaced, but meantime we got quite a lot of water into the cabinets that are up against the slide-out ceiling.

When we opened up for the start of the season, there was a very moldy smell from the cabinets and some of the contents were moldy. Initially, we tried mold killer washes, bleach, etc., but the smell was still present. Eventually I decided to remove all the cabinets in that area and anything underneath that was mold-infected.

It's stripped out now and I'll be starting to make new cabinets next week.

After reading the OP's story, I thought I'd add what I found.

The biggest surprise was how the cabinets were attached. In the ceiling, there are three longitudinal structural pieces of 1" square steel tube, running the full length of the slide-out. One is at the inner edge of the ceiling and there are two side by side about 2/3 of the way to the outside wall. The space between is filled by rigid styrofoam blocks glued to the metal panel that is the outer skin of the slide ceiling. It's closed out on the interior surface by a 1/8" lauan plywood skin glued to the styrofoam and stapled to the steel tube along the inner edge. FR must have some powerful staple guns! The tube is dented where the stapes were.

Despite having these steel beams, they weren't used to attach the cabinets. Instead, the entire cabinet assembly, over 11 feet long, was held up by maybe 24 wood screws into the lauan, All but four of them were in wood that had rotted and didn't unscrew. The cabinets were actually restrained by the hold between the screws and the styrofoam! I coud pull them out with Vise-Grips. We were very lucky that the cabinets didn't fall on us while sitting at the dinette or on the road.

I was also surprised to find that the assembly of these cabinets suggests they were constucted inside the MH, not built as sub-assemblies and then installed as complete boxes. The extensive use of staples rather than screws is also disturbing. Staples and nails rely on friction to keep them in place, which seems a rather odd choice in a vehicle which has to withstand heavy vibration and motion.

My new cabinets will be built outside and will be attached to the steel tubes by sheet-metal screws, with shakeproof washers. That akin that was glued over the styrofoam will not be replaced. The top of the cabinet boxes will be the substitute and will be 1/4" oak-faced plywood. The only pieces being reused are the oak facias salvaged from the old cabinets.

With luck, we won't have any more issues, but I'm now a bit concerned about a similar cabinet over the bed. There's no evidence of water ingress, but I'm betting the same installation technique was used.


Frank

[Fourn3833]

This is all great info to share with each other. I am going to look at the seams of my slide outs. There is a product used for sealing gutters that is almost inpossible to remove or destruct, also self leveling. I will most likely use that on the seams. I also will be replacing and resealing any exposed steel screws with stainless on the slides. I would rather be pro-active than have to be reactive on issues.

[louis cherry]

This doesn't supprise me at all .These are just some of the problems I have had sence 2004 with mine. The factory just tries to patch the problems. The frount cabnets fell off on the right side of mine after they added a brace to the frount cap and used the old cabnets. Oh ya the brace broke and cracked the cap right top,so what did they do them to keep the windshield in? They glued the gasket more to the left side of the cap and then glued the windshield in the gasket.This looks like a votech school worked on it and they it is exceptable,(they are the pros).Nothing suppries me at what they bounch want try to pass off at your expence. Get out of the shop,I don't want to see it in here.Screw the little man.