Our new 2016 Coachmen Pursuit 31BD - Page 4

ResQfrog · 01-05-2016, 07:33 PM

Found one Crack on ours a few weeks ago. Sealed it for now. Will have them check it out in a few weeks when I drop it off for the bedroom slide repairs. Nate and Bob have been great so far.

Duckogram · 01-05-2016, 11:15 PM

That looks bad. My skylight appears to be slightly different. Good luck with the repair.

AbdRahim · 01-19-2016, 01:12 AM

Pashooter, you do good work. When can I bring my coach over for some of those nice mods? 😀 Kidding, of course, but it looks like a dealer would have to struggle to do better it than you, if that is possible. Congratulation. Enjoy.

pashooter · 01-19-2016, 08:04 AM

Thanks AbdRahim... home improvement projects have always been a hobby of mine, and I get a lot of satisfaction from a job done right (or at least to my liking!). So now that focus is directed toward my new "home on wheels." Too cold out for more projects until the Spring thaw, so this weekend I ran it back to the dealer for some needed warranty work. He's equipped to work on it inside while I am not!

pashooter · 04-19-2016, 07:59 AM

Well... finally got my rig back from the dealer where it sat from January until this past weekend to get the cracked skylight replaced. Had a few other minor things taken care of while it was there - all of which were done to my complete satisfaction. What took so long? Well... on the way up to the dealer in January my backup & sideview cameras quit... so I added those to the list. Got a call 6 weeks ago it was all ready to pick up and when I went to get it (1 1/2 hour drive each way) - the cameras still didn't work. !@#$%^&*

Long story (somewhat) short(er) - it was an intermittent problem and when they pulled my MH into the shop for the other work the cameras were fine. Only when I came to pick it up did they quit working - again. Turned out to be the multiplexer unit (a separate part from the display head itself) and once they replaced that the problem cleared up. The young lady in the service department really went the extra mile to get the rig back to me before my first outing this coming weekend... to include having the needed part overnighted to the dealer and having it installed Saturday morning.

So - speaking of my first outing... this weekend's job was sanitizing the water system in advance of our first foray. The idea of standing on a ladder outside the rig with a hose and a funnel to get bleach solution into the fresh water tank sounded like a bit of a PITA, so I devised a better way. The water tank sits on the floor under the bed in my 31BD. The red (why? it's not hot water... must've been what was handy that day on the factory floor) pipe is the feed from the fresh water fill on the outside wall. I inserted a 'T' into the line with a plug on top. Lift up the bed, remove the plug, and just pour my gallon jug of water with 1 cup of bleach added directly into the tank. Replace plug and fill the tank the rest of the way with the hose using the standard connection. Presto - sanitized! :-)

AbdRahim · 04-19-2016, 05:55 PM

I sanitized my tank yesterday. Forgot and put the filter in before sanitizing, so filter has some chlorine in it. When ?I realized I quickly, pulled the filter out rinsed with lots of water, then ran more water through it after the bleach was out of the system. Tasted water from fresh water tank after the procedure. Yum. Better than home, and no chlorine taste. Pheww!!!

B D HOWie · 04-19-2016, 09:26 PM

pashooter
You might consider connecting fill hose to regular outside MH connection, pour bleach in the fill hose, connect to water supply bib, and turn on water. No jug or inside water to spill and no lifting the bed access.
I just use a measuring cup to pour bleach in the hose.
Paul

pashooter · 04-26-2016, 03:24 AM

Just got back from our maiden voyage - a four day, three night long weekend at a local campground. Met up with some old friends, a pile of their "camping buddies" and had a great time. Had just two minor issues - which I call a win. First was a problem with the Atwood LP-only water heater, detailed here:

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ed-106716.html

The other problem showed up while I was taking my shower on the last morning of the trip. The gray water gauge was reading 2/3 full so I figured I had enough remaining capacity to take a shower before dumping all tanks and hitting the road. Shortly after starting my shower the shower pan started filling up with water. I quickly rinsed off and shut down... and the gauge was still reading 2/3!

Pulled the handle on the dump valve and the shower drained fine. So... I suspect a broken wire or loose connection somewhere between the tank electrode and the gauge electronics. I can see the electrodes on the tank and everything looks fine on that end. Something to troubleshoot... but the good news is no water ended up where it shouldn't have.

Couple of other small things:

1) Had a couple of chilly nights and ran the furnace. I pretty much expected this, but with the furnace in the rear under the bedroom there's a lot of airflow into the bedroom and not so much towards the front of the coach, making for a pretty big temperature difference... bedroom gets hot, living area stays pretty cool. I'm going to replace the vents under the bed with ones with dampers so I can choke off the airflow back there, hopefully pushing more heated air up front. I also have a small quartz heater (which I forgot to bring) to place up front which should help.

2) Water flow at the kitchen faucet is really anemic. I haven't pulled the aerator to check it for debris yet - not sure how to do that since it's a gooseneck faucet with the pull out sprayer in the head, and it doesn't have a conventional screw-on aerator. But I'm sure there's a way to access it so will look at that. This is one of those "bugs" that may actually be a "feature" since the DW has a hard time grasping the concept of water conservation and has a habit of filling gray tanks quickly... this sort of forces her to reduce water consumption at the kitchen sink! :-)

So... I put all this stuff in the "normal shakedown issues" category and all-in-all am quite pleased with our new coach. Still figuring out how to "live" in it and moving things around inside as we get used to that, but so far so good.

WDW · 04-26-2016, 04:00 PM

I agree about the furnace. Have you tried running the fan on the AC to circulate the air to spread the heat out?

I have the build diagrams and it clearly shows a reduction in the vent pipes. I've measured it with my laser temp gun and we see a 25degree drop between the two vents in the main area.

Also our kitchen faucet flow is weak. I've yet to figure out why.

Life is always better under a Palm tree...

2016 Mirada 35BH "Trolley"
2016 Jeep Cherokee Latitude

Previous- Jayco Greyhawk 31FK

Western NY

ResQfrog · 04-26-2016, 08:51 PM

I agree with you about the furnace and poor heating to the front of the coach. Coachmen added a outlet to the wall near the floor register to blow more warm air forward.

On the kitchen sink faucet check out the line from the valve up to the hand wand. There is a check type valve and on ours it was bad. Removed it and flows more water. Maybe a slight drop in pressure.

pashooter · 04-27-2016, 03:16 AM

WDW: Good idea using the a/c fan to help circulate warm air from the bedroom to the front of the coach... I didn't try that but will. My rig has the 50A upgrade and dual a/c units, so running the one in the bedroom by itself should suck heated air from the bedroom ceiling and push it forward... in theory. :-)

ResQfrog: How did you go about getting Coachmen to add an additional heat register in the front of the coach? I assume it's in the wall between the dinette and the bathroom, above that existing floor register.

Honestly, the heat distribution issue is probably my biggest gripe to date... everything else I can live with or work around, but the DW abhors being cold and this will really put a crimp on Spring & Fall camping unless we can get it fixed... probably through a combination of mods.

ResQfrog · 04-27-2016, 07:02 AM

peashooter,
Had the unit in that first year with our list of items that the local dealer messed up. One of them was no heat in the front of the coach. They added the line and outlet to that front wall. We have also added a heat strip to the AC unit and use this as much or more than the furnace. We only have the one 15,000 unit. We also purchased a small electric heater that we can plug in near the front of the coach.

I might try to add a small booster fan to the front floor ducts this summer to help push some air to that front floor outlet. Small computer fans wired to the furnace blower motor.

pashooter · 04-27-2016, 07:35 AM

So it had to go back to the factory to get that heat mod installed? I wonder if I whined at Nate I could get a similar mod installed by my dealer (who seems fairly competent)...

I'll have to look and see if a heat strip is an option for the a/c unit(s) I have. Not sure how that would work, as it's the "forward" thermostat that controls the furnace and that's the a/c unit where I'd add electric heat. But it's a possibility.

A booster fan might help - it seems those front ducts (and especially the one furthest forward behind the driver's seat) are pretty small cross section. Not sure what they were thinking - they had to know little to no air would make it that far...

pashooter · 04-27-2016, 08:37 AM

Looks like they made a change to the ducting starting with the 2016 model year to address the air flow issue. Mine is a 2016, but doesn't have these mods:

1) They've gone to a single 4" duct feeding the two vents under the bed that splits to feed the front and back registers located there - mine has two 4" ducts, dumping twice the air into the bedroom where it's needed least.

2) They've added a dedicated 4" duct to a wall register by the dinette where they retrofitted one in your coach ResQfrog. It also looks like they eliminated the floor register in that spot so all the air entering the trunk line running through the floor is forced to the front of the coach.

This has to help... and indicates they knew they had a problem.

ResQfrog · 04-27-2016, 08:58 AM

The heat issue was just one of several things it was there for. The local dealer actually made some somewhat minor things worse during his attemped repairs. Nate, Bob and the crew at the service facility have been great. Just have a few things to take care of now that were not in the first year. Have lists of things I want to do, just need the time to due it.

First thing is to get Ford and Goodyear to take care of a vibration that I have chased sense the unit was new. Have it to were it is only bad at speeds over 50-60 mph now. Still have a few months left on the 3 year 36,000 warranty and luckily I deal with a good Ford dealer. At least if they want to keep a multi vehicle family happy.

Bdogdt47 · 04-28-2016, 10:58 AM

I have the same heat imbalance in my 2016 Mirada LS. Let us know where and how to get the dampers. I will add two, one for the bedroom and one for the rear bathroom. Camping world ?

pashooter · 04-28-2016, 11:24 AM

I haven't measured mine yet, but I was thinking along the lines of these:

Venting Products / Rotaires - Heat Outlet Vents - DW Inc.

Haven't seen them at Camping World (which doesn't mean they don't have them).

Bdogdt47 · 04-28-2016, 06:56 PM

Found both style of heat ducts (round for rear bathroom, rectangular for bedroom) at Camping World today.

WDW · 04-28-2016, 08:17 PM

So are these vent dampers? Do you think that will force more volume forward?

Taking in the sights wherever my Trolley takes me.

2016 Coachmen Mirada 35 BH
Western NY

Bdogdt47 · 04-28-2016, 09:36 PM

I am thinking that by closing my rear br damper and the damper next to the bed, that should create more air flow up front. I talked to the factory rep today and he said it should work. He added I probably shouldn't leave the dampers closed all the time. Will provide an update once the new vents are installed. Only problem is we are experiencing a heat wave here in Oregon and may a 90 degree day over the weekend.

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