Breakdown Information

[Badeye]

Moderators Note: This thread is intending to report a problem and its resolution. If you are seeking help or information to help you resolve a problem you would best be served by initiating a thread on the class A forum proper

After some conversation with Diesel-Lover and others on this forum I thought I would try to start a thread concerning breakdowns on the road. We try to prevent this by good maintenance and driving reasonably but it can still happen. As I observed in a previous post, on a roughly 350 mile northbound drive on I-75 I saw 4 class A MH broken down. All were southbound.

If we should have a breakdown and would post the following information on this thread it could be a resource and reminder for others.

RV particulars:
Driveline (Engine, Transmission):
Miles:
Year:
Break Down Description: (You can add any description of the problem here that you think would help others in understanding the situation and problem.)
Symptoms:
Effect:
Cause:
Outcome:

This is the type of information that is recorded in the aircraft industry and other maintenance activities to track failure trends. It will take a while before we see a lot of value in this. If it continues for a time and sufficient data is available, I will analyze the data and put it into a form that I can send by email to any interested parties. I would suspect that an initial report could be done in about three months or when we have about 100 to 150 cases.

What do you think?

[aircraft_electr]

This is the only breakdown we've had with this classic coach in the year that we've owned it. We're looking forward to an even bigger trip this summer, from Idaho to north Texas, then Illinois, Montana and back to Idaho. I'm hoping to keep this the only post in this thread :B


RV particulars: 26' Revcon 250DT
Driveline: Olds 455 gas engine, front wheel drive
Miles: 79,800
Year: 1974
Break Down Description: Coming home from Salt Lake City (mountains of northern Utah, I-15 north)
Symptoms: Sputtering backfiring and stalling when climbing hill Effect: spent 30 minutes fixing it
Cause: plugged fuel filter
Outcome: changed the fuel filter(I always carry a spare) at the next available rest stop, made it home just fine.

[Don_Shar]

Lil trucker
A while back I had the same experience in my car. It would die and not start. After about 15 minutes it would start and run fine. about 3 weeks later it repeated. Nothing was showing up. The garage finally told me next time it happens to call the. They came right out and found the cranking sensor was going bad. i didn't even know there was such a thing as a cranking sensor. May not be your problem but its worth a shot.
Don

[WanttotravelDea]

Well we had a break down about two weeks ago and had to call Good Sam's tow service. Been waiting to post untill I was sure on what had happen. The fuel pump went out and has been replaced which I understand is a problem with the 460 Fords in the age brackey that my MH is which is a 1996 it has about 40000 miles on it and the service center tell me it still had the one that came in it. Sure hope this fixes it will not know until I go someplace in the next week or 2. When this happen it was running fine until I slow down to pull into a rest stop on I-75 it backfired and and lost power when I slow down to about 30 MPH then died. Set for about 30 min. and it started back up but was not running good got back on Interstate and ran fine for about 20 more miles and when I exited to go home it died and would not start then.Up date the fuel pump did fix it runs great now hope this last until I trade up in a few.

[Tumblebug]

Here goes my first attempt to reply--couldn't keep quiet on this topic.
Driveline: Cummins ISC 330 w/Allison 6 Speed
Miles: 39000
Year: 2001
Breakdown Description: Cruising North on I-95 in Virginia when I lost power steering and a little later engine temp. began to rise. We limped into gas station where hydrolic fluid was ok as was drive belts. Called Spartan who advises hydrolic punp failure or contaminated fluid. Got to campground with aid of roadside assistance and repaired by roadside mechanic in only 5 days.
Symptoms: Sudden failure of power steering with extreem difficulty steering and higher than normal engine temp.
Effect: noted above
Cause: Sheered splines on drive shaft of hydrolic pump which mounts on rear othe air compressor which had a bad bearing.
Outcome: Replaced hydraulic pump, air compressor and related filters and fluids.

[Buckeye_Bounder]

2004 Fleetwood Bounder Diesel 38N
Freightliner chasis, Cummins engine 300 hp ISB 5.9L, Allison transmission 3000H, 900 miles

Leaving Flying J after refueling and crossing overpass when a loud "clunk" was heard from the rear followed by a deceleration type of effect. Nothing noted under vehicle. Drove to another gas station on other side of overpass. All sensors and guages normal, transmission check normal. Took another short test drive. Same noise followed by rubbing/soft grinding kind of noise. Eventually towed to Freightliner. They will check it out on Monday (due to Easter). Initial inspection appears to be driver's side dual wheel trying to run off axle! Will post follow-up. Refer to longer story under separate Class A post.

edit: Drove MH home on 4/22/04 with everything fixed. Freightliner had to replace the whole left rear end. No explanation on cause. My take, after talking with several people, the two nuts holding the wheel on were either not torqued correctly or just came loose.

[Featherdog]

Got gas, got on interstate 65, lost all power. Easter Sunday of course 2 years ago. Finally got a tow truck. Took to Scary town in Columbia, TN across the street from crack houses. They did not know it was Easter. Next day, took for $200 for a fuse. Got 20 miles down the road, thought flat tire, big bulge on driver front tire, must have been the tow truck. Now second tow truck, the tire blew up on my husbands arm. Lucky he lived, new front tires cost $500. If you ever have tire that is bulged, please make sure the tow truck guy lets the air out, lot of pressure there, the guy at the tire store said he should have been dead, sounded like a bomb going off.
Still not real comfortable on the road.
Featherdog
96 Itasca

[xctraveler]

Follow up to my most recent post.

The ignition switch was the culprit again. This switch on the Workhorse Chassis is located on the steering column just above the floor. This is the sencond failure in less than 9,000 miles.

A residual from the first tow, last year, was a munged up drive shaft bolt (I think that is a technical term). This time the tow truck operator was unable to undo one of the four bolts and bent the cap to remove the shaft. Parts and labor came to $160 for the drive shaft, another $550 for the diagnosis and replacement of the switch and a fuse. Thank you very much Workhorse! They paid for everything and there are still 30 days on the warranty and 1200 miles!

Goliath is in the process of being traded for a 2004 Soutwind 36E.

[mvanmeter]

Recently while traveling west on I-10, my dash alarm went off and the trans check lite came on. I looked at the two digit display on my allison 6 speed and it had what looked like snake eyes displayed.

I pulled over to the side and stopped. Pushing the buttons did nothing to change the display. Being new to this rig, I didn't know what was going on. The engine was still running and it would move forward in given fuel. I switched off the engine to see if the trans would reset. Big mistake. The engine would not crank.

Called Foretravel tech support and they walked me through a lenghtly check, but it appeared to be the ECU. Required being towed to nearest Allison shop where they confirm ECU failure.

Allison does not rebuild this unit or take your old unit for core charge. The base unit is $2,000.00 plus $820.00 to program said unit.

Equipment Description:
1993 Foretravel GV
Cummins 8.3 (105000 Miles)
Allison MH3060 6 Sp

Side Note: Do not shut off engine if this happens. The engine will have to be jump started so unit can be towed with drive shaft attached.

[Trablyn]

hoodbird commented "I had the same problem with monaco dynasty and king control"

Dee: You were message #159 concerning breakdown information, and there is no reference to which message you were responding to. You can use the "quote" feature to assist in this area. I have had "King Control" (cruise control unit) problems with my Monaco in the past, and would have an interest in cases like yours. Thanks

[hoodbird]

I had the same problem with monaco dynasty and king control. Was stoped in town at a busy intersection. Had a roll of heavy string. tied it to the control in the engine, unrolled it until my wife could stand by me in front. She would pull the string to speed up and let off to slow down. We made it home (10 miles) then orderd a new one from king control no further trouble.

[clifflois]

Driveline: ISB 5.9L Cummins, Allison 5sp
Miles: 32000
RV: 2000 Kountry Star

Symptoms: Yellow Engine Light came on while driving uphill.
Effect: Kept losing Coolant
Cause: Cracked engine block.
Outcome: Cummins replaced block under warranty. Have gone about 4000 miles since repaired with no problems.

[herbtrout]

36ft 2000 Itasca sunflyer I suppose you might call this a breakdown or you could call it a piece of tire story. we were south bound on I75 when a piece of tire (not verry big)appeared that i couldn't miss so i went over it. NOT a good thing!! as best i can tell the piece of tire hit the tail pipe, knocked it into the left rear tire which ran over the end of the tail pipe removeing every thing after the catilic converter. that was not all, the exaust pipe goes up over the drive shaft so the tail pipe removed the drive shaft. didn't go far after that. the exaust system was a banks system so parts had to come from cal. they sent almost all the parts. I would suggest avoiding tires.

[xctraveler]

2001 Damon Daybreak on Workhorse P32, 34000 miles.

Broken down again. After normal days drive I shut down in parking lot to shop and pick up dinner. Decided to stay over and went to start theengine to relocate to a more level spot. Starter engaged but would not crank the engine.

Towed to GMC dealer on Friday, still waiting for diagnoses on Monday 3/29 at kids house, 200 miles from MH and 500 miles from home.

The difference from last year is we had power in the ignition system and were able to release the parking brakes.

[i49traveler]

96 Monaco Executive 8.3C-300 Cummins
98,000 miles
Engine cranked but would not start
Defective engine shutdown solenoid

We had just finished refueling at a Flying J in Indianapolis and still parked at the pump. When I hit the starter the engine cranked but would not start. A diesel mechanic told me once that one thing to check was the shutdown solenoid. My wife turned the ignition on and it did not move. An employee at Flying J reached in and held the solenoid closed while I engaged the starter and it started so that was the problem. We took a bungee and hooked one end to the solenoid linkage, ran it down under the frame and hooked the other end to another point to hold the solenoid closed. We started the engine and drove 1,000 miles back home. Of course, to shut the engine down we had to release the bungee then hook it up again to start the engine. Our son located a new solenoid on Ebay for a fraction of the cost of one in Indianapolis so we had it installed when we returned home and saved quite a few bucks as well as wasting a lot of time hanging around a strange repair shop.

[jnjdickson]

1999 Gulfstream/Sunsport 8325
Problem/No running lights
Where/ I 95 Sothbound/ Richmond VA
Which meant I couldn't run at night
I took the light switch out, which controls the running lights, which by the way was after I checked all fuses. On the back of the dimmer swith I took a paper clip and crossed jump two connections to give me running lights. I know that's a no no, but you have to do whatever it takes when you're out there. I did keep a very close eye on it and it was find until I got home and found the real problem. Which was a blown fuse I overlooked under the hood. They have two fueses under there both marked number six for running lights, I didn't know that at the time.