spanking new.. problems..

[hobbicam]

Hope this is not the start of how this will go..

Picked up my 2014 LivinLite VRV toyhauler.. earlier this month, but due to the cold, the dealer had told me that it was already winterized so we did not get a chance to test much out. He told me that this coming spring, I can swing by and he can help me test it and unwinterized it. so that is the plan for the plumbing part.

Now, today we had some good weather up in the 50s.. sunny and it was a nice day to get out and play around with all the electricals.. I plugged the livinlite to shore power, tested the propane "furnace, stove top.. all seems to work.

I then went to turn on the Domestic brand (2 door) re-fridge and got an E3 error. From the manual it reads "The cooling unit has malfunctioned. Contact a Service Center"

now, off to email my dealer. I found another posting somewhere that had some bad stories on their unit. I hope I won't be singing the same song, just a different verse of it.

Arrrggg.

hobbicam..

[hobbicam]

Hello Francesca,

I have not spoke to camplite/livinlite. I have been communicating through my dealer for now.

Interesting bit.. if you refer back to my post with the photo links.. notice the white wire on the bottom part of the photo. I did not notice that till another friend had mentioned that if that is should be plugged into the far right screw of the white plastic thing on that same picture.

My dealer and I check this and compared it with his unit on his lot and sure enough, the white cable was loose in my rig. Upon closer inspection, it looks like it was in there because there was some small strands of copper. The white wire also had the tip flatten that looked like it was, at one point, in there, though the copper strands on that white cable were all frail.

My dealer also ask me to make sure that the gas line was securely on, which I tested by trying to tighten it more.. but it felt tight already.

I emailed my dealer this morning and got a quick response.. he said he is working on it... that is so far what I have.

Will let everyone know the progress.

Anyone want to make a offer on a 8.5x26 Toyhauler with lots of upgrades and a Ariel Atom?..:)

hobbicam

[Francesca_Knowl]

What's Camplite saying about this so far? I'm very interested in how they handle something like this...I'd love to own one of these trailers and so far, their customer service looks first class. But I admit the record's from before Thor took it over, so this is a new day.


Are they aware that the guy they're letting sell their rigs maintains that he's "not an authorized repair facility for the brand" and evidently has no connection with such a facility?

[hobbicam]

Thanks Steve,

After passing the info on to my dealer. He seems sincerely concerned. Though he is not a authorized repair person for ths brand, he quickly searched around and sent me some local shops in town.

I called around and 2 of the 3 told me I had to take it to my own dealer. I ended up calling another local RV dealer in town who told me they were booked till next month.

Meanwhile the LivinLite dealer I purchase from is trying to help in another way. I am not sure where he is at yet, but right now, I am 4 weeks out to having someone look at it.

I hope something gets done.

Thanks again,

[Stevepro172]

First off congrats on the purchase. I have a 22' VRV which I have had about a year now and it is great. I would look to see what my fridge looks like but I store it about 20 miles away.

Just a note to anyone else that might read this thread...NEVER take delivery of a RV without the dealer showing you that EVERY option works (A full PDI). In your case I would have had him winterize it again after he showed you everything worked (I did) and the dealer was happy to do so.

As for Livin Lite/Thor - They have giving me great customer service and i'm sure you will get the same.

Good luck
Steve

[spadoctor]

there is a real problem there....even the decal is discolored. I would demand a total replacement fridge

[Francesca_Knowl]

hobbicam wrote:


He did tell me that when it gets warm enough to un-winterized, he would come out to me and spend a few hours getting it done.


hobbicam

If he's that close, he ought to send a tech out for this problem...bearing in mind that this started on a weekend, tomorrow's a regular business day- time for him to perform!

DO MAKE SURE to communicate with Camplite- copy them every e-mail with the dealer. That should make him sit up and take notice. I'd bet dollars to donuts that they'll light a fire under that dealer, who must want to keep the franchise/product line.

Keep us posted!

[TommyC83]

Yeah certainly not normal lol. What dealer did you buy from? We are in IL and will hopefully be making a purchase in the coming months. Let us know how the dealer handles the problems for you.

[hobbicam]

Hello Protector,

Thanks for the advice.. I ordered it from http://www.missouriteardroptrailers.com/ and when we picked it up the dealer did tell me that it was already winterized from the manufacture so he was not able to do a PDI. He does not have an indoor shop that I saw.

He did tell me that when it gets warm enough to un-winterized, he would come out to me and spend a few hours getting it done.

He told me he check the furnace, which works..:).. I did not bother to ask about the re fridge since it was cold out.

I have sent him the photos and he replied to me via email saying he did not think that is normal and passed it on to Livinlite. I hope to hear back from them..

I agree, if I wait too long, the general population camping season will be in the way and he or Livinlite/Thor will have time for post-sales focus.

Thanks again,

hobbicam

[Protector]

Hobbicam,

How far are you from your dealer? I think I would be bringing it back to them now! They must have service bays where it can be pulled into and let it warm up and go through everything and do a PDI. Otherwise if they make wait till spring it may be to late and they won't have the time of day for you and you will end up waiting weeks for service, while everyone else is out camping. Further I would not be messing around with any the components to where you may void a warranty. Just my two cents!!

[Old-Biscuit]

That is burnt wires/connectors......it has shorted.

Dealer didn't think it was normal...duh!!!

Good thing you sent pictures......document everything (phone conversations, who you talked to, time/date, copies of all correspondence)

Might want to contact Dometic also
CustomerSupportCenter@DometicUSA.com
1-800-544-4881

[hobbicam]

that is exactly what the wife said to me.... 🙂

it sorta bugs me knowing that this is a new rig. 3 weeks in my possession, too cold to do anything so I did not find out till the nice day we get and finding issue is not just a wire loose, screw missing, or fuse missing. looks like who ever did QA either was on the moonshine early or something. if this is residual of burning/damage.. I would want a new appliance.. not a repaired unit. I have not even had to use it.

I can see if I had it used it already, or even gone 3 months out without knowing about it.. but I hope their services is as understanding as what others have tooted about Livin Lite or now Thor.

hope this gets resolved before next time I travel..

Will update as I get updates.

Thanks all.

hobbicam

[oldtrojan66]

Looks like you have some real life electrical problems. If this is a new unit, don't even try to fix. Take back to dealer and have them get help from refr manufacturer of whatever. There has been a problem, and it looks pretty serious to me. I have 34 years as an appliance tech. hth, david

[hobbicam]

Wow.. thanks for everyone's input.. so from what I gather of all the response..

1. level rig.
2. if on propane, make sure purge line.
3. if on shore, nothing needed to purge.
4. hit reset on back of rig.

does that sound like the sum of the basic to try?

If so, here are the things I have tried.

1. the rig is somewhat level.. on pave driveway, not super level if I put a ball on floor of the trailer it will run.. I would say it is about about 3-5 degrees angle.

2. The rig is initially plugged to shore power. I have run the burner and the furnace in the rig is also running on propane and they were both on and working/heating while I was out there. I also switched the appliance to propane and notice the "click" noise when I did but the E3 error still shows up. I powered on an off while in that mode too.

3. This was initially the mode I was using.

4. I went to the back of the rig and notice something that looks like a fuse holder.. see image here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByyZwhB46pXGZ2hkTEhicGU1SU56WGxxMlEwS084ZDdNMjFj/edit?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByyZwhB46pXGZ2hkTEhicGU1SU56WGxxMlEwS084ZDdNMjFj/edit?usp=sharing I am not sure if anything goes in there, it was twisted together, I untwisted it to see if there was a fuse in there, but nothing was there.

I also press what looks like the reset switch under that black cover, but I did not feel like there was anything there. I took a flashlight to try to look in the hole, but it did not look like there was any button that could be depress.

I also looked around and to the right of the wires.. I saw some cables that does not look like normal.. is this a damage wire, or is this some sort of protective cover on the wires see image here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByyZwhB46pXGMVF2NHBia3dEQmtwd05idGVZVjZVU1FCT0ZV/edit?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByyZwhB46pXGMVF2NHBia3dEQmtwd05idGVZVjZVU1FCT0ZV/edit?usp=sharing

If you notice the white plastic is heat damage. The wires looks like heat damage to me too, but there are parts of it that has different colors of what looks like the black tar.

I also notice, the drain holes had a plastic tape over the black hose that goes out to the exterior of the wall.. so I removed it just in case it needed to drain.

Thanks for everyone's suggestion. I did get an email back from the dealer and his response to the photo's said he did not think it was normal.

I have not gone through the whole rig, but structurally, it feels solid for what I think. I will photo all the wire/cable egress and ingress points for reference in a future post of what I found.

Thank you for everyone's support.

Regards,

hobbicam

[Dirtclods]

RoyB wrote:
Whenever I first try to use my propane I always light off the stove top burners to purge the propane lines... Sometimes my furnace won't lit off the first couple of times if I don't purge the lines first.

Roy Ken

2nd that!!

[naturist]

I assume that fridge can be run on 120 v electrical as well as propane, and that it might run on 12 v too.

And most certainly I wouldn't try to run it at all unless the rig was level.

I get the error message, too, if I try to run it on propane when propane is unavailable, either because it isn't turned on, or because the propane lines have not yet been purged of air. The fridge will try to light the burner 3 times, and if it fails to light, you get an error code.

There are a couple things you might do. One is to make sure that it is set to 120 v electrical mode. Another is to turn on range top burner and get the lines purged that far before trying the fridge. You can also shut the fridge off after getting the error, give it 30 seconds or so to reset itself, and try again. On occasion, I've had to do THAT two or three times before success.