Lou Morris wrote:
We have an 07 Winne View H, with slide, jackknife sofa and dinette. Bought it new in 06, been living and working (software) in it for the last 10 years, and much of that time has been in Mexico.
Still love it. Has held up very well, large enough for us to live in but relatively nimble in Mexico.
Everyone's different, but I highly recommend the slide, especially if you travel with more than one person. Makes all the difference for us, so much more space means you can have a couple of visitors inside comfortably f the need should arise, and has never failed (and we're much less than anal about maintenance).
I second the suggestion to get the metal/aluminum turbo resonator. Solves that issue forever.
Carry some spare belts, and order an after market ATF dip stick (it doesn't come with one). Last year we ran low on ATF fluid due to a leak while on the way south, put us into limp mode, which isn't fun on narrow 2 lanes in Mexico .
We needed some service work on it and discovered while in Sayulita that a new Mercedes dealership opened in Puerto Vallara and works on Sprinters. Nice people, great prices ($25/hr). And if you ever need it, the Mercedes dealership in Hermosillo will also work on Sprinters and are equally friendly and low priced.
Thanks Lou,
I'm in contract to get a 2006 Itasca Navion 23J. I've studied the Yahoo Skinnie Winnie group plus the forums for a list of spare parts. I'm a full timer in my fifth wheel rig (last 2 years), so I have some idea, but have a lot to learn about travel south of the boarder. I've been to Central America many years ago and loved it and just got back from a 14 month adventure to Alaska in the RV, but the current South American adventure is epic for us and the largest trip so far.
Good tip on the dip stick, because I did not have that on my list. It's looking like we'll launch on this trip 6/1/18 driving down from Texas. I think we'll use Airbnb to find a house on the coast in Uruguay so we can get of the "tin can" for a few months. We'll decide down there to either drive back up to the US, which is the primary plan, or alternately ship from Buenos Aires to Florida.
To increase cargo, I'm making a number of mods to the Navion just for this trip, and that can be reversed when I sell it. All in, I'm shifting 400 pounds out of vehicle weight and into discretionary cargo. I'm doing things like, removing the micro/convention oven, exchanging the AC for a Fantastic Fan with hood, removing the hitch (but installing skid wheels), exchanging the 3.6Kw generator for my Honda 2000, and exchanging the toilet/black tank for a Thetford Curve porta potty. I'm also removing the cab-over bed and installing cargo netting so I can get some storage/ weight up on the front axel.
I'll put 300-600 watts of solar, including an inverter, plus replace the Parallax 7345 power center with a new Parallax model 8345 with a better multi stage charger. I appreciate you experience in Mexico as it's the same general conditions that I'll face I suppose.
I will not operate over the GVWR, because the transmissions are too weak in these vehicles. Fortunately, the seller had replaced the transmission at Mercedes 2,000 miles back. He overloaded it with cargo + towed a toad; just blew it out at about 70,000 miles. I'm also putting a heavy duty transmission cooler on it, but not a deeper pan, due to clearance issues. If I keep within the GVWR, cut the service interval in half on the tranny and install the cooler, I think I'll be ok.
Any advice that you have is greatly appreciated.
John
