Maiden Voyage, 2006 Georgetown Fountain

[Stupac7]

OK, So the adventure begins. Fueled up and did some final checks and thought all was good. Was a little late and left Ladysmith WI at about 8:30 p.m. All was well on our way to Dubuque IA. Not much traffic and driving the new to us driving was good. Then we hit a pretty big thunder storm. Not a lot of heavy winds, but hard rain. All was good. Love the fog lights. Then the roof AC for the living/kitchen area would not work when we arrived in Dubuque Good thing the bedroom AC worked.

Spent Fri, Sat, Sun at son's house in Dubuque. Fueled up in Dubuque. Got about 8 mpg. I thought that was OK. Not sure what I should be getting.

Took off about 9 a.m. We were going to take mostly state roads and interstate. Well, to cut to the chase. Got stranded: an open end wrench showed up, then the engine light, lucky for us and exit was right there. Coasted to a stop just off of the exit. Called roadside assistance, they would tow us to a certified repair center. Well, they couldn't find one. Useless, ugh.

So, I started calling friends and shops in the area. A friend with a tow rope and truck was coming. So, I kept calling locals. I called Flying J, nope diesel only, Midstate trucking, nope diesel only, Eau Claire Ford, nope only autos, and small trucks, even called a big Ford place that sells larger gas trucks, nope no RV's. But I called over 10 shops and not one place would look at my rig. Then a light went on. I called a local towing company. They suggested a local shop, and it was less than a mile down the road. He, would look at it. Success, finally. It would start but only idle and not enough rpm's to make it move down the road. He finds the plug for his code reader, and finds that it isn't the transmission, well that was good. Finally finds the problem, throttle switch and drive motor. OK, would cost about $225. Plus labor. Then he calls local parts suppliers, and of course none of them have the part. So, being July 3, he has to order it and it will take a couple of days. Friend gets me, wife and other son home about 9 p.m. a 5 hour trip turned into 12 hours, my new to us RV stuck at a shop in Black River Falls. Wife is ready to sell, and give up on the RV life.

Finally after all this story, is this normal? I lost one of my AC units, and stranded on the side of the road with an engine repair bill.

Any suggestions on Mileage, AC, and engine repairs appreciated.

[CaptnJohn]

It will get better. Too hard to find anyone to work on the Class A DP, oil change 95 miles away. For many reasons I was happy to be rid of it and in a 5er.

[Wattsworld]

Originally Posted by Stupac7

OK, So the adventure begins. Fueled up and did some final checks and thought all was good. Was a little late and left Ladysmith WI at about 8:30 p.m. All was well on our way to Dubuque IA. Not much traffic and driving the new to us driving was good. Then we hit a pretty big thunder storm. Not a lot of heavy winds, but hard rain. All was good. Love the fog lights. Then the roof AC for the living/kitchen area would not work when we arrived in Dubuque Good thing the bedroom AC worked.

Spent Fri, Sat, Sun at son's house in Dubuque. Fueled up in Dubuque. Got about 8 mpg. I thought that was OK. Not sure what I should be getting.

Took off about 9 a.m. We were going to take mostly state roads and interstate. Well, to cut to the chase. Got stranded: an open end wrench showed up, then the engine light, lucky for us and exit was right there. Coasted to a stop just off of the exit. Called roadside assistance, they would tow us to a certified repair center. Well, they couldn't find one. Useless, ugh.

So, I started calling friends and shops in the area. A friend with a tow rope and truck was coming. So, I kept calling locals. I called Flying J, nope diesel only, Midstate trucking, nope diesel only, Eau Claire Ford, nope only autos, and small trucks, even called a big Ford place that sells larger gas trucks, nope no RV's. But I called over 10 shops and not one place would look at my rig. Then a light went on. I called a local towing company. They suggested a local shop, and it was less than a mile down the road. He, would look at it. Success, finally. It would start but only idle and not enough rpm's to make it move down the road. He finds the plug for his code reader, and finds that it isn't the transmission, well that was good. Finally finds the problem, throttle switch and drive motor. OK, would cost about $225. Plus labor. Then he calls local parts suppliers, and of course none of them have the part. So, being July 3, he has to order it and it will take a couple of days. Friend gets me, wife and other son home about 9 p.m. a 5 hour trip turned into 12 hours, my new to us RV stuck at a shop in Black River Falls. Wife is ready to sell, and give up on the RV life.

Finally after all this story, is this normal? I lost one of my AC units, and stranded on the side of the road with an engine repair bill.

Any suggestions on Mileage, AC, and engine repairs appreciated.

Sorry you have had some bad things happen on your trip. If this is the only things that have happened, then it still might not be too bad. The throttle switch and drive motor could have gone out no matter how many miles or age of the motorhome. Chalk that up to maintenance. If other things start going wrong then I might say lemon. How many miles does the MH have on it? Did you get any service records on it when you bought it? First thing I am glad you were able to find a safe place to get off the highway.
Next thing is the air conditioner. Does it have power? Had you checked this out this year or was it working before the trip? I had mud dauber's build a nest on the squirrel cage {blower} and that was keeping it from turning so the air conditioner wouldn't work. First find out if it has power. Check circuit breakers.
Another thing, were you trying to run off the generator or did you have 50 amp service where you were plugged in. On a 30 amp service you might only get one air conditioner to run. I am not sure how that works on your MH. My old MH would either run the front or back but not both plugged in to 30 amp service. The generator would run both.
Hopefully it will be something minor. There are people on here that are pretty good giving advice in helping with problems. When you get the MH back go over all the symptoms for the air conditioner and if you can't find the problem post the symptoms on here so others can help you.
As far as the mileage I don't think 8 MPG is bad. Depending on how fast
you travel I would think give or take 1 MPG from the 8 would be acceptable. I haven't checked mine but guessing at the 8 figure would be close.
Good luck in getting everything straightened out. Take a few trips close to home to get all the bugs worked out and enjoy your RV before hitting the road for any long trips. Follow up on your post and keep us informed how things go.

[Stupac7]

To answer some questions. We were told that service was done every winter. I was thinking that was good since it had only 16,000 miles on it and we would be the 4th owners. It was stored inside heated garages.

The AC. I found breakers, were good. The fan motor runs fine. I tried running the one unit off of house power, then off of the generator. Didn't seam to make any difference. When we were in the RV with the previous owners looking the unit over they had the AC on from house power and it was freezing our heads. I know you can never tell when something is going to go bad, just kind of a number of things going wrong right after we purchased.

Thanks for your comments.

[Wattsworld]

Stupac7, Did you get any manuals for the motorhome that might have information about the Air Conditioner? I don't have my books handy, but I'll be bringing my MH home this weekend for some maintenance and I could check then. I have the 2004 Georgetown 370. It only has 6500 miles on it but I bought it under salvage because someone broke into it and did a small amount of damage to it. It is now fixed and ready to roll if and when we have time to take it out.
Don't give up yet, somethings you can never be prepared for. My maidenVoyage was a 300 mile trip when I brought it home. Other then checking the lights and making sure I had brakes I got in it and drove it home in 20 deg temperature raining mixed with snow almost half of the way. I didn't even put gas in it until I was almost home. I was lucky.
Another motorhome we had we were headed to Florida in it when in southern Georgia the fan blade came off and went into the radiator. Ended up costing us $1800. to get the MH repaired, cost of a rental car and cost to change our reservations from camping in Disney World to staying in one of their trailers in Their campground. We still had a great vacation. Some things you just can't be prepared for. I will say that MH had a lot of miles on it.
Take some short trips in it to see how it does. Give it a chance.
I'll check my manual about the refrigerator to see if I can find any thing else that might help you. Good luck. When are you supposed to pick up your MH after it is repaired?

[Stupac7]

Originally Posted by Wattsworld

Stupac7, Did you get any manuals for the motorhome that might have information about the Air Conditioner? I don't have my books handy, but I'll be bringing my MH home this weekend for some maintenance and I could check then. I have the 2004 Georgetown 370. It only has 6500 miles on it but I bought it under salvage because someone broke into it and did a small amount of damage to it. It is now fixed and ready to roll if and when we have time to take it out.
Don't give up yet, somethings you can never be prepared for. My maidenVoyage was a 300 mile trip when I brought it home. Other then checking the lights and making sure I had brakes I got in it and drove it home in 20 deg temperature raining mixed with snow almost half of the way. I didn't even put gas in it until I was almost home. I was lucky.
Another motorhome we had we were headed to Florida in it when in southern Georgia the fan blade came off and went into the radiator. Ended up costing us $1800. to get the MH repaired, cost of a rental car and cost to change our reservations from camping in Disney World to staying in one of their trailers in Their campground. We still had a great vacation. Some things you just can't be prepared for. I will say that MH had a lot of miles on it.
Take some short trips in it to see how it does. Give it a chance.
I'll check my manual about the refrigerator to see if I can find any thing else that might help you. Good luck. When are you supposed to pick up your MH after it is repaired?

I searched for AC manuals and only found warranty stuff. Parts were suppose to arrive today for the throttle thing but not sure when it will be fixed. Shouldn't be to long I wouldn't think.

[Stupac7]

Well, if anyone is still following this thread, thanks.

Parts for the throttle switch and motor were suppose to arrive at mechanic's shop on the 5th. I guess overnight here in Wisconsin is two nights. So they did arrive late in the morning of the 6th. Mechanic installs the parts in the afternoon. Still not working. The onboard computer is throwing a different code about programing. Mechanic calls Ford to see what is up. Sure enough the new part isn't talking to the computer so they need to reprogram or flash the computer. Common problem according to the Ford people. So my mechanic needs the software downloaded to his machine. He thinks he should be able to get it down on the 7th if the software shows up. Well, again it doesn't. We didn't know this until we were on the way, a 1 1/2 hour drive to his shop to hopefully pick up the RV. No deal. No software RV not moving. "Might" get it done on Saturday. So, we at the earliest may see this "simple" problem fixed by Monday July 10. Seven days after we dropped the RV off.

I am still trying my best to figure out was is wrong with one of my none functioning AC units. So, when I was at the shop, I climbed up on the roof and took the shroud off the AC unit. I didn't have anything to wash of clean it with, but it really did look pretty clean except for some very light dust. No bugs, bent fins or anything like that. Is it possible to see if the compressor is starting by listening to it when it is turned on?? I didn't think of that when I was on the roof.

Next question? I have a ducted system, with a non-digital thermostat on the wall. Do I HAVE to have a ducted type AC replacement?? Will a new AC unit work with the old thermostat? I have seen things that seam to say that everything has to match.

Another twist. The previous owner called an asked how we were loving the new RV. Well, we were nice and simply told them the story. The did seam to realistically feel bad for us. Not bad enough to offer to pay for any repairs I guess. We did pay up for this unit 43K when we should have paid maybe 37K, because we fell in love with it when trying it out. Everything WORKED! I know you are taking a risk when buying used. But, it had low miles and everything really looked in great shape. It had a lot of electronic up grades. New 32 inch Sharp TV's Blue ray DVD, in motion satellite, Blue Ox heavy duty tow bar, 4 outside cameras, new Kenwood GPS, hands free phone, Sat radio, more stuff I didn't know how to use. It has custom, interior, and exterior paint/decals nothing pealing, I really thought I did my homework. Ugh!

If you got this far on this post. Thanks for reading my rants, if you have any suggestions on the AC issues, that would be great. Have a great day.

[EricNJ]

No suggestions. Just sending well wishes for a quick and reasonable fix.

[gectisme]

Originally Posted by Stupac7

Well, if anyone is still following this thread, thanks. Another twist. The previous owner called an asked how we were loving the new RV. Well, we were nice and simply told them the story. The did seam to realistically feel bad for us. Not bad enough to offer to pay for any repairs I guess. We did pay up for this unit 43K when we should have paid maybe 37K, because we fell in love with it when trying it out. Everything WORKED! I know you are taking a risk when buying used. But, it had low miles and everything really looked in great shape. It had a lot of electronic up grades. New 32 inch Sharp TV's Blue ray DVD, in motion satellite, Blue Ox heavy duty tow bar, 4 outside cameras, new Kenwood GPS, hands free phone, Sat radio, more stuff I didn't know how to use. It has custom, interior, and exterior paint/decals nothing pealing, I really thought I did my homework. Ugh!

If you got this far on this post. Thanks for reading my rants, if you have any suggestions on the AC issues, that would be great. Have a great day.

I feel bad for you and hope all works out. No help on the AC but you are at the right place to find out. Might want to ask the AC question under the Forest River Tech Talk > General Tech and Repair > APPLIANCES AND ELECTRONICS sub-forum.

As you noted about buying used risk, it is buyer beware, so I have no issues with the previous owner not offering to pay for repairs. I think since he called he probably thought he gave you a good working unit and you would be telling him thanks and how great things are going...

Curious if you had a certified RV Tech/Inspector check it out before you bought? I am thinking of picking up MH in a year or 2 and have pretty much decided to go used so just trying to glean any information.
Good luck.

[Stupac7]

Hello gectisme

I am a retired school teacher and have an ex-student that became a RV/Tech inspector. Well, they now either live in TX or CO. A bit of a drive simply to help out an old teacher. I did look into the costs for an inspection, I found the lowest cost was about $450 for just the inspection. Then you needed to add in mileage. Not very many inspectors in the area here in northern Wisconsin. At the time I was thinking that would be too much to pay. Hind sight is always 20/20.

I did get suggestions from the inspector ex-student. They told me a whole bunch of stuff. Check that the slides run smoothly, that the generator will take a load and run everything in the unit all at the same time. That the generator had low hours on it. The LP worked to everything that used LP. The oven, range, furnace, refrigerator. Microwave works. Check all water lines that you didn't see any visible leaks, under pressure from the water pump, check roof for any interior staining suggesting a leak, leveling hydraulics worked and no visible leaking in that system. All the electronics worked, thermostats, all lighting worked. I crawled under over and around this unit and felt pretty good about paying a little up for it as I said in an earlier post. If you can find an inspector close enough, I would do it from my first experience.