new solera owner

[mckirby50]

finally bought the Solera, will pick it up the 18th in Orlando. Will drive it back to Oklahoma city (1250 miles)
Any suggestions to look for in the "Walk Thru" or any questions you wished you would have asked. This is our fist motorhome, have been tenting it for the last 30years. We also plan to tow a jeep wrangler, any thought on this also.

Looking forward to many pleasant vacations and weekends.

[Slow_movin]

Congratulaions on your Solera. Got mine last year in Oct. Assuming you are buying it new from a dealer (you mention walk thru) I am assuming it was driven from Indiana to Florida. My point being that Sprinter recommends driving at various speeds for approximately a thousand miles to "break in" the engine. So, if it was driven to Elkhart to Orlando it would have almost that necessary mileage. I am saying this because you intend to pull a vehicle with the mh and I don't know if that would harm the engine during "break in". You might not even intend on pulling the Jeep back from Orlando..just throwing my 2 cents for what they're worth...

IMHO a good walk thru would require taking notes. There's a lot to see and forget. Make sure you get the dealer to show you where the hot water tank by pass valves are located. Also you might ask what the panel is on the left side of the entrance door near the bottom of the cabinet. It is fused and I don't have a clue. Also the main switch panel underneath the oven.
You can get lots of info from this forum if you have questions after receipt of the Solera...

[billerbeck]

One issue that we had (and didn't find at delivery) was that the lock sets on the various outside access doors were not the same. As a result we have a key that works for the left side doors but not the right side and rear doors. We'll have to resolve this when we take it back for service.

I also agree with the other poster's comment about taking notes. If you are new to RVing (as we are), it's kind of information overload during the delivery.

Good luck. We're having a ball with our Solera.

[ever4ward]

My wife and I divided up the information gathering duties at delivery. She focused on the interior systems and I focused on the exterior systems. Then when we got home we compared notes and made a list of questions that didn't get answered. Then we went camping and figured out the answer to those questions! Bottom line is you cannot learn everything about your RV in a 2 hour delivery. My advice: Focus on the life and safety issues then have fun learning the cool convenience features during your first camping trip (which might just be your driveway).

[Slow_movin]

I had the same problem. I called FR and was transferred to my area PR person, told him the situation and he sent me a pair of keys. Call the number listed for FR and see if you can get that resolved. I bought my MH in Ohio and live in Georgia. I called the dealer and they didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about, so you may incur the same situation.

Different subject: I am trying to find a means of stabalizing the MH while camped but so far not very successful I have used a pair of jacks and placed them under each side of the trailer hitch and that didn't help much if at all. If you look underneath the Solera you don't see many, if any, places to put a jack...too much "fragile" stuff. I called FR PR again to see if they possibly have a diagram of where to put jacks and was referred to a private company to purchase the jacks...but got no info as to where to place them.
Anybody having jacks that work on a Solera, please post to this forum.....

[mckirby50]

Thanks for the responses, we're looking forward to the lifestyle, we're not retired by any means, but love camping and just the outdoors in general.We have 2 grandsons (1 & 4years old) can't wait to get them out!!!

We were wondering about stabilizing the camper also, my wife noticed when we were just window shopping that the Solera wobbled quite a bit when entering, but then again we were in Oklahoma and the wind was blowing 50 mph. We'll be learning and testing everthing immediately on the return trip to Oklahoma
thanks again

[reinerka]

One thought on towing the Jeep Wranger. Our Solera is listed to tow a maximum of 3500lbs and from the information I have the Wranger exceeds that limit......

Check the GVWR of your Jeep Wrangler and the official listed maximum trailer weight on your new Solera.

Reiner

[goodhoney]

We bought our Solera about 3 weeks ago..We love it..We have a Saturn but we cannot pull it because it weights 3800lbs..Be careful of weight of your vehicle..Does anyone know where you can get the oil changed instead of going to Mercedes dealer and how much does it cost???

[Tremain]

Any Dodge Sprinter dealer can work on it. Buy the oil, filter and diesel filter outside to save some money. Be sure and use an ME 229.5 synthectic oil to maintain your warranty. I use Mobil One. My dealer had the wrong oil in my coach when I left the dealership. Takes 13 quarts with filter change and will burn one quart every 600 to 1000miles, carry extra on board.

[papap]

I change my own oil in my truck. Hoping to do the same on camper. I'll let you know how much trouble it is after I put another 1000 miles on it.