Short height versus tall rv

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by Taylorgso

Understand your disappointment. But never fear, BClemens is here. Apparently an updated version of the M will be available later this fall (of course, time estimates are always too optimistic), so hopefully you'll have one available for camping next year. So..... don't leave the forum just yet!

Not too optimistic. We're building...I just can't reveal until after our dealer show which is mid Sept.

(My high school english teacher called that "foreshadowing" and building suspense.)

[DebbieMH]

Originally Posted by Charliej

Butch50, sorry to hear you gave up. I followed up on that one you told me about offline in Oklahoma. I joined the BFC (blind faith club) again and bought it sight unseen. Heading there this weekend to pick it up. I didn't want to wait until the factory figured out what they are going to do and then get around to making it. Also I have an extra vertebrate in my back so I sit rather tall. In many cases I don't fit in the slide out dinettes without hitting my head, so I didn't want to get into a situation where they are taking out 5" of anything. Hopefully by tomorrow we will be new owners and on our first road trip!

Charlie J.

Hope it all goes well for you Charlie .... keep us posted!

[Happy Kamper]

My husband (CharlieJ) and I flew to Oklahoma this morning, and we are currently driving back to California in our brand new 2013 Solera 24M. It's very nice!! We've only gone about 100 miles so far but it seems to handle very well. We've both had the chance to drive it on the freeway and into a shopping center parking lot. To me it feels like driving a regular car. My husband obviously feels very comfortable driving because the GPS keeps telling him he's exceeding the speed limit - it's such a nag (just glad it's a man's voice ha ha). We packed our bedding and brought it on the plane, so in 100 more miles or so we'll stop for the night. Haven't decided whether to try the Murphy bed or the bed above the cab for this first night.

[Sandiegodoug]

Congrats
Have a safe trip back to San Diego

[Taylorgso]

Originally Posted by Happy Kamper

My husband (CharlieJ) and I flew to Oklahoma this morning, and we are currently driving back to California in our brand new 2013 Solera 24M. It's very nice!! We've only gone about 100 miles so far but it seems to handle very well. We've both had the chance to drive it on the freeway and into a shopping center parking lot. To me it feels like driving a regular car. My husband obviously feels very comfortable driving because the GPS keeps telling him he's exceeding the speed limit - it's such a nag (just glad it's a man's voice ha ha). We packed our bedding and brought it on the plane, so in 100 more miles or so we'll stop for the night. Haven't decided whether to try the Murphy bed or the bed above the cab for this first night.

Try the Murphy bed before you get too far away from your dealer. Congrats on the new Solera.

[DebbieMH]

Originally Posted by Happy Kamper

My husband (CharlieJ) and I flew to Oklahoma this morning, and we are currently driving back to California in our brand new 2013 Solera 24M. It's very nice!! We've only gone about 100 miles so far but it seems to handle very well. We've both had the chance to drive it on the freeway and into a shopping center parking lot. To me it feels like driving a regular car. My husband obviously feels very comfortable driving because the GPS keeps telling him he's exceeding the speed limit - it's such a nag (just glad it's a man's voice ha ha). We packed our bedding and brought it on the plane, so in 100 more miles or so we'll stop for the night. Haven't decided whether to try the Murphy bed or the bed above the cab for this first night.

Congratulations! Be sure to visit the mod thread - it's a good way to part with more $$$. :-). Hope the trip home turns out great for y'all.

[mckirby50]

Originally Posted by Happy Kamper

My husband (CharlieJ) and I flew to Oklahoma this morning, and we are currently driving back to California in our brand new 2013 Solera 24M. It's very nice!! We've only gone about 100 miles so far but it seems to handle very well. We've both had the chance to drive it on the freeway and into a shopping center parking lot. To me it feels like driving a regular car. My husband obviously feels very comfortable driving because the GPS keeps telling him he's exceeding the speed limit - it's such a nag (just glad it's a man's voice ha ha). We packed our bedding and brought it on the plane, so in 100 more miles or so we'll stop for the night. Haven't decided whether to try the Murphy bed or the bed above the cab for this first night.

Did you make it to Amarillo? Stop at the Big Texan and try the 72oz steak!! Then you'll appreciate the comfortable ride of the Solera!

That's something, we flew to Orlando from OKC to pickup our Solera S , you fly to OKC from Cal for yours!
Maybe we just wanted road trips back home!!

[butch50]

Originally Posted by Happy Kamper

My husband (CharlieJ) and I flew to Oklahoma this morning, and we are currently driving back to California in our brand new 2013 Solera 24M. It's very nice!! We've only gone about 100 miles so far but it seems to handle very well. We've both had the chance to drive it on the freeway and into a shopping center parking lot. To me it feels like driving a regular car. My husband obviously feels very comfortable driving because the GPS keeps telling him he's exceeding the speed limit - it's such a nag (just glad it's a man's voice ha ha). We packed our bedding and brought it on the plane, so in 100 more miles or so we'll stop for the night. Haven't decided whether to try the Murphy bed or the bed above the cab for this first night.

Congrats on your new M. If nothing has changed the bed worked just fine when I looked at it. Who was your salesman? When we visited we were talking to Freddy, who was a character but seemed to be pretty nice.

[Taylorgso]

Originally Posted by DebbieMH

Congratulations! Be sure to visit the mod thread - it's a good way to part with more $$$. :-). Hope the trip home turns out great for y'all.

Beware of this DebbieMH... who I am sure is out to bankrupt us all!!

[Happy Kamper]

Originally Posted by butch50

Congrats on your new M. If nothing has changed the bed worked just fine when I looked at it. Who was your salesman? When we visited we were talking to Freddy, who was a character but seemed to be pretty nice.

Bed worked fine. We used it last night and it was comfortable and spacious, and, at 80" long, actually long enough for Charlie. As you know from his posts, bed length is never a problem for me personally. Our salesman was Ken. He was great. Even picked us up at the airport. We were a bit disappointed it didn't have the fantastic fan (as we thought that it did), so he's sending us a check for $400 so we can have one installed when we get to California. By the way, thanks so much for the tip on where to find an M. I'm surprised you didn't buy it. It seems perfect for us. Spacious shower too, which we tried out last night (again, plenty high enough for Charlie!)

[Happy Kamper]

Originally Posted by mckirby50

Did you make it to Amarillo? Stop at the Big Texan and try the 72oz steak!! Then you'll appreciate the comfortable ride of the Solera!

That's something, we flew to Orlando from OKC to pickup our Solera S , you fly to OKC from Cal for yours!
Maybe we just wanted road trips back home!!

That's funny!! Weren't you able to find an S in OKC? There were absolutely no M's anywhere in California. (But we're always up for a road trip!)

[Happy Kamper]

Originally Posted by Taylorgso

Try the Murphy bed before you get too far away from your dealer. Congrats on the new Solera.

Thanks for the tip. I've heard people are having problems with the bed mechanism. It seemed to work fine at the dealer, last night, and this morning. Lucky for me my husband is an engineer and can fix (or retrofit) anything (knock on wood.)

[Happy Kamper]

Originally Posted by DebbieMH

Congratulations! Be sure to visit the mod thread - it's a good way to part with more $$$. :-). Hope the trip home turns out great for y'all.

Sounds like fun!! I think I have time right now since Charlie is driving. Although when he notices what I'm up to he'll probably want me to take over the driving for awhile! lol

[butch50]

Originally Posted by Happy Kamper

Bed worked fine. We used it last night and it was comfortable and spacious, and, at 80" long, actually long enough for Charlie. As you know from his posts, bed length is never a problem for me personally. Our salesman was Ken. He was great. Even picked us up at the airport. We were a bit disappointed it didn't have the fantastic fan (as we thought that it did), so he's sending us a check for $400 so we can have one installed when we get to California. By the way, thanks so much for the tip on where to find an M. I'm surprised you didn't buy it. It seems perfect for us. Spacious shower too, which we tried out last night (again, plenty high enough for Charlie!)

I would have except I have to sell my present rig to do it. They can not deal in vehicles so they just get a bid from a local Ford dealer and it would be at wholesale. I have an almost new Ford F350 King Ranch with an almost new Northern Lite camper that I would have to sell before I would want to buy another rig. I have had 2 RVs at a time before. 2 5th wheels at one time a big one and a small one. I have also had a 5th wheel and a truck camper at the same time. Don't need to do all of that again.

Good luck on your new rig and I hope you 2 enjoy many miles and have lots of fun in it.

[Happy Kamper]

Made it home to Southern California around 7:00 p.m. two days after leaving Oklahoma. We've now put almost 1500 miles on the 2013 Solera M we bought on Friday. In addition to a fan in the living area, pretty sure we'd also like bigfoot stabalizing jacks and an anti-sway bar. We're both pleased with the way the unit handles and it's get-up-and-go acceleration. Mileage is under 12, but we both drive fast so if we can fix our lead feet, perhaps that will improve. The only problem we have is that the slide seems to stick in the out position and takes a couple of tries to bring it in. Murphy bed is working fine. Next weekend we might take it to the beach. We really like it and intend to use it as much as we can (given the fact that we both work full time.)

[DebbieMH]

Glad you are home safe and sound. Enjoy when you can!

[hkreck]

On the slide issue, I find if I hold the button for a couple of seconds and release it then push it again repeating this until the slide comes up over the dip it seems to work better. Other wise the slide does seem to stick and could over work the motor. I've had my stop and you have to push the button again after a second or two wait to get it going again. You have to consider that the slide is pretty good size and heavy.

[hkreck]

HappyKamper

You might want to look into Stabi-Lite electric class C system (Sprinter Chassis) for stabilizing instead of the big foot jacks. I saw them on another thread a couple of days ago. The system impressed me. If I were to do it over again I'd be looking harder at these. Not that the big foot is a bad system but they do hang down pretty low on the rear of the vehicle.

[Taylorgso]

Originally Posted by hkreck

On the slide issue, I find if I hold the button for a couple of seconds and release it then push it again repeating this until the slide comes up over the dip it seems to work better. Other wise the slide does seem to stick and could over work the motor. I've had my stop and you have to push the button again after a second or two wait to get it going again. You have to consider that the slide is pretty good size and heavy.

On another note, I always operate both the slide and the murphy bed when the unit is plugged into AC power (or with generator running). Those motors do draw a lot of current, which seems to make the motors want to "pause and refresh!" That will draw down the voltage, and lead to failure of the motors - they need the full 12.5 volts

[hkreck]

X2 on what Ed is saying.