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?

[Bev_Dan]

WORKHORSE BRAKE FAILURE On February 7/08 we left Lazy Days in Seffner, FL, drove North about 55 miles to our destination - an RV park in Port Richey, FL. We drive a 2004 Pace Arrow 37C towing a Malibu Maxx with a Brake Buddy. A few miles before our destination we started smelling something (smelled like melting plastic to me), wern't sure if it was something outside or coming from the coach. A couple of miles later ABS light came on and brakes went to the floor. We managed to get into the park by pumping brakes. Diagnosis was left rear caliper locked up, causing master cylinder fluid to boil over onto radiator, abs sensor melted, heat caused damage to hoses, pads,wheel bearings, rotors and differential fluids. All was replaced on both rear.
This coach had only 22,000 miles on a Workhorse 22 chassis. Searches on this and other forums show this to be a serious problem and there is an open investigation by NHTSA. If you have had a similar problem, please report it.

[47etep]

Solonoids and relays can be one of the major problems. If it is the main power solonoid nuttin even makes a noisewhen you turn on the key. If you can figure out where it is, hit it with a hammer (a small one) a couple of times. They tend to get corroded inside. Then buy 2 new ones, one for a spare. You can use the same one for several different jobs in a pinch.

[ch47pachyderm]

Jacks were made by Power Gear. FYI there was nothing in the jack cylinder that could have damaged the piston. Jack must have been assembled with damage at the factory.
Carl

gettinright wrote "What company made the Jacks?" in reply to msg from ch47pachydrem's msg: Posted: 02/05/08 03:48pm
RV particulars: Holiday Rambler Endevor
Driveline (Engine, Transmission): Cummings 400hp,
Miles: 18,360
Year: 2006
Break Down Description: Failure of front leveling jack seal.
Symptoms: Loss of hyd. oil
Effect: No leveling ability
Cause: Large gouge in jack piston, which damaged seal over time. The 1st owner had a similar failure when the coach was new and fixed under the warranty coverage.
Outcome: Factory is replacing the jack with a new unit as it is still has warranty coverage.

[gettinright]

What company made the Jacks?

[ch47pachyderm]

RV particulars: Holiday Rambler Endevor
Driveline (Engine, Transmission): Cummings 400hp,
Miles: 18,360
Year: 2006
Break Down Description: Failure of front leveling jack seal.
Symptoms: Loss of hyd. oil
Effect: No leveling ability
Cause: Large gouge in jack piston, which damaged seal over time. The 1st owner had a similar failure when the coach was new and fixed under the warranty coverage.
Outcome: Factory is replacing the jack with a new unit as it is still has warranty coverage.
Update:Power Gear sent a "new" jack which was installed. When the QC inspector powered on the levelers the new jack promptly blew a seal. Now I am scheduled to return late in April to have another "new" jack installed. Lazydays has been great in the way they treat me. I just wish Power Gear would produce a fully functional product.

[kjames90755]

Oooh boy! This is gonna be fun!

1. Got our rig in June 2006, used from a dealer, who checked and changed all fluids fresh, oil, coolant, etc., as part of a pre-delivery Good Sam Used RV Dealer Checklist.
2. Made 4-5 short trips.
3. Was headed for Laughlin, NV, on I-40, east out of Barstow. Climbing the grade to the Ludlow turnoff we started overheating, and so pulled off the road at that exit. Called Good Sam Roadside Assistance and were advised to let engine cool down 45min-1hour, then we'd be able to get back on the road.
4. Got about 1.5 miles East the I-40, and were stuck on the side of I-40 from 4:30pm, until 7:30am the next morning before a flatbed trailer tow arrived.
4.a. Good Sam couldn't locate us on the computer when we called, even using GPS Co-ordinates. (This was their Emergency Roadside Assistance) Finally got located with I-40 and name of the road for the Ludlow exit.

Did I mention that I was driving, my partner was co-pilot (a wheelchair user who had to be carried from his seat to the bed/bathroom and in/out of the rig, a friend of ours was going with us, and we were taking my 86 year-old grandmother and her 79 year old friend (who uses a walker) to the Avi, and that we had our two dogs with us as well?

5. Won't go into what this tow driver's shop told us...but if you ever break down near Bartow, CA, PAY TO HAVE YOUR RIG TOWED TO EITHER NEEDLES OR BACK TO CALIFORNIA! It cost us $900 to tow back to Orange County, but the repair savings was $13K, and 9 weeks. (Cost us $5K and 3 weeks)
6. Our tech in Orange County found so much rust in the radiator and coolant that he said, "could not be accounted for by the amount of time you've owned the rig. If the coolant had been changed, this water would be yellowish-green, it's bright orange." We told him to replace the radiator, hoses and engine.
7. He replaced the engine and hoses, but not the radiator. Our next trip to SFO pointed that out to us...but we didn't count it against him--he had still saved us a bundle. So we replaced the radiator at the Radiator Dr. in San Jose. This new one is 4x thicker than the old stock radiator.

While our tech replaced the engine we also had him do the interior carpet--we picked out from a friend in the wholesaling business, and after all was done we got 6 new tires.

Total cost of engine, radiator work, carpet & tires? $12K. A lot less than just the engine at that shafter in Barstow.

So:
Yr.: 2000
Make: Winnebago
Model: Adventurer 32V, 33.33'
Chassis: Workhorse P32
Drive: 7.1L (if I recall the manual facts), allison 5 spd a/t.
Replacement engine: Jasper

Symptoms: Overheat.
Effect: Engine stall.
Cause: Radiator fluids not changed by dealer prior to delivery, overheat caused valves to stick-losing compression.
Outcome: Replaced engine, replaced radiator.

Current Operation: Engine developed sticky lifter at 1,000 miles of use, being replaced under warranty at this time (Jan., '08).

RV'ing...whether you make money at it or not, it sure is interesting!

[detilebug]

After sitting for a few hours, days, or weeks I have this problem with the Motorhome. It is a 1999 Dutch Star Diesel Pusher, made by Newmar, with a 300 HP Cummins engine, six speed Allison transmission, Spartan Chassis, Mountain Master suspension.
As I start out, the transmission will shift, it seems very hard, from 1st to 2nd and on up to 4th gear. By hard, I mean the Rpm's go higher then when it shifts normal. The RPM goes all the way up to 2100 or sometimes 2200 RPM before shifting. Then when it gets into 4th gear it will not go any higher, I have tried up hills, down hills, load, no load, and it will not shift any higher. I also know it is not going to shift because the display number changes to "4" and will not change until slowing down, at 15 miles per HR, it will change back to 6. When it shifts correctly, the display always shows "6" and does not change. When shifting correctly, it will shift at about 1500 to 1600 Rpm's.
To get it to shift correctly, I have discovered that if I stop, shut the engine off, wait a few seconds and restart, it will shift correctly. I have taken the motorhome to a Certified Allison transmission Dealer and a Motorhome Certified Dealer. They have each charged me a lot of money and have not fixed the problem. To me it is like rebooting a computer and everything works fine. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Doane

[DeweyClawson]

Driveline (Engine, Transmission):DP
Miles:N/A
Year:N/A
Break Down Description: Bought 7yr old dp from boat dealer as is. It had sat at FL marina for 2 yrs. Fuel gauge read empty so the sales man got a jerry can from his shop and I got ten gals of diesel from the marina. Drained the fuel/water sep iaw coach label. motor would no longer run. Called mech and he tried to help over phone but was not able to get out for 2 days, mfgr also very helpful. Back to trouble shooting 101. "When something doesn't work- what was the last thing I touched."
Symptoms:Engine would not start.
Effect: Learned how fuel system works.
Cause:Air getting into lines at water sep drain. felt tightened but was previously cross threaded and very hard to turn.
Outcome:New water sep filter and plastic bowl when I got it home.

[MonacoRon]

1998 Monaco Dynasty 38'
45K miles
325 Cummins/Allison

While traveling I-55 in MS heading toward Memphis, I noticed a loss of power condition which seemed to come-and-go. Assuming fuel filter problems, I stopped in a rest area and after a diesel bath, I was back on the road. The intermittent problem continued. When we pulled in to a campground for the night, the engine would not cut off (I had previously noticed a short, 1-second delay when switching the key off but thought it was my imagination). Turned out that the fuel shutoff solenoid bracket had broken and the solenoid had finally dislodged. It was hanging by the wiring and had shorted internally. We had to raise the bed to stop the engine for the rest of the trip and went through four more of the $397 solenoids before I traced the problem to a relay whose contacts were sticking closed. (BTW: A "certified" Cummins repair facility did the replacements and a mechanically-challenged owner was finally fed up enough to solve the real problem.)

My advise is to know where your shutoff is located on whatever diesel engine you have. I can testify that a cardboard box over the air intake on a turbo charged Cummins is NOT the way to shut the engine down. 🙂

[Luv_To_Fish]

Great Information.

[corgi-traveler]

RV particulars: 1988 Fleetwood Bounder 32K

Driveline (Engine, Transmission): Ford 460 --Deere chassis
Miles: 29K
Year:1988
Break Down Description: Going up a hill engine began to backfire, then sputter, then died. Once the engine died, could not get any power to restart.

Symptoms: On the surface it appeared the battery was dead, nothing at all happened when you turned the ignition, not even with the auxiliary start.

Effect: A perfect storm of electrical problems and fuel delivery problems. Also using the aux start ran our house batteries down, and we blew a fuse in the converter. Don't know if that was part of the same issues, or a coincidence.

Cause: A) the gaskets on the fuel filters did not fit. Had been replaced the day before our trip, had not seated correctly, and were sucking air into the fuel line instead of fuel.

B) loose wire powering the fuel pump... bad connection that was shorting out.


Outcome: replaced gaskets, re-spliced wire and we appear to be running OK. Also put on new spark plugs and wires just for good measure. (it was still running with the originals)

[ranger7]

Put my 33 ft. Fleetwood in for a repair at "RV Sales and Service" on I-24 in Smyrna Tennessee. I told the Shop foreman that it was "NOT" winterized as we stopped from a trip to have it worked on an were going to proceed after service was completed. I asked them to either winterize it or to please turn on the furnace. The next week had the coldest nights of the season. They didn't do anything.

I picked up the coach and proceeded to New Orleans, our next destination. I noticed the fresh water tank was empty and stopped at a rest stop and started to fill the tank to 1/2 full as I usually do to help with road side emergencies.

When I turned on the water, water sprayed from under and in the coach from every where. They had let the system freeze and destroyed the water piping in most of the coach.

So far I have not received a "sorry" or a apology from anyone at RV Sales and Service.

BEWARE!! of their "Service"

enuf said!!

[foxriverguy]

Badeye

I think you idea has lots of merit. I also suggest you post it on the Escapees Forum. In my opinion this the most read and most active forum on the www.

Good luck

[FSTEDYRV]

RV particulars:2006 presidio
Driveline330hp cummins-allison
Year:2006
Break Down Description:NO start @15k,18k &20K intermittently
Symptoms:no start intermittently
Effect:Restart on house batterys problem then goes away sometimes to return later.
Cause:POOR engine ground
Outcome:ENgine GROUND cleaned and and tighted. Impossiple to see from outside.

[FSTEDYRV]

RV particulars: 2002 dutchstar
Driveline (cummins 3oo isb):
Miles:1400,15000,18000
Year:2003 & 2004
Break Down Description: no power , fuel dash light 3 separate times
Symptoms:no power
Effect:max speed 30mph
Cause:low fuel pressure light
Outcom;removed several sensors on fuel sensor, finally cut wires on fuel filter & reprogram engine software.