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?

[Yosemitebobr]

RV particulars:


Driveline (Engine, Transmission): Work Horse 8.1, Allison

Miles:28,000

Year: 2003

Break Down Description:
Ran over a several pieces of a tire in the highway from some vehicle, presumably a truck.

Symptoms:
none at all just decided to pull over and check the tires.

Effect: a gash on the inside rear

Cause: tire remnants in highway

Outcome:
Had to replace the tire. If I had not stopped and checked it out I would be paying for a lot more than just the tire and change.

BobR

[Community Alumni]

Excellent Thread! If I would suggest one thing though is to remind the members that post to list the information as the author requests, that will give us all a data base and a results that is easier to analyze. This way when this thread gets huge and it will, it will be easier for us to search by it's symptoms, make, engine type etc. Thanks for the thread.

A brand new newbie,
Randy

[jimnbonnie]

2004 Georgetown with Triton V10. Lost power steering on Pacific Coast Hiway near Eureka, CA. Seal ruptured at top of pump. Entire pump replaced. Under 12000 miles. Runs fine, but it was scary for a couple of minutes.

[garyrb3]

our new class a diesel pusher (99)was the trouble free answer to fulltime rving,NOT!!! at 8000 mi a fuel line broke, cummings knew of the problem but no recall, had to be towed from rufus,OR to pendleton, OR. 100 mile!! 3 days later on the road again, or next problem happened after leaving laughtlin nv. a hi pressure injector line broke while we were climbing up from the river and could not stop till igot to the top. wife smell diesel but no where to stop till we reached a service station. buy than there was fuel every where, wish it would have caught fire!!! found out after getting tow to vegas that a support for #4 injector line was broke, all was fixed under warranty,, and thank god for good sam emergency road service, they paid the tow

99 georgieboy 36ft.crusiemaster,275 cummings 6sp,99 dakota pickup tow.

[Merlefitz]

Also see the petition in these forums, I signed it because the dealers and manufactures will not fix things under warrantee and put out a lot of trash and expect us to turn the other cheek and stop complaining so much.

[Merlefitz]

Sorry I couldn't get spell check to work the usual way.

[Merlefitz]

We have had many breakdowns, It all started with our first gas Class A. 454 GM lost a sensor in the transmission, we drove in first gear about 100 miles before we got it to shift, then 500 more miles before we could get it fixed. Then at 38,000 miles it broke a piston at the wrist pin. GM didn't want to hear of helping in any way. $900.00 later we traided for another class A. Diesel this time, that had a call back on a fuel line that would break off from viboration. Well it did and it left me on the side of the road with about 10 gal. of fuel all over my new toad. Cummins half fixed it and it continued to leak for another 1,000 miles before I could get to a cummins garage.
Then the gagues all stopped working, another thing that they knew could happen and didn't fix it before they sold it to me.
Then the pitman arm wore a hole in a front air bag and I fit the pavement on the front end. An other call back that they knew of before selling the rig.
A lot of small things and then the big trip back to the factory up in Indiana and a list of about 10 things had to be fixed, one actually got done, the called me and said it was ready, I drove two days to get ther and they sais the problems were all fixed, I ask about each one, they didn't know about any of the problems on the list, they fixed the TV antenna that had just been replaced.
The big one was last summer, we saw a notice of a call back on NorCold fridges, we called and they assured us ours was not on the recall list. So on the way fron Ga. to Me. we got in a camp ground in upstate NY and at 2:30 in the morning my wife woke up caughing. We discovered there was a lot of smoke inside seeming like it was coming out of the convection oven but was really the fridge on fire. I held it down with the fire extingusher from outside but if we had not gotton out when we did another minute or so we wouldn't have had time.
NorCold came good for the fridge buy we had a mess of smoke damage and wes set back three weeks before we got under way again.
Lets just say I wont be going to any Golf Stream Rally soon.

[Jackjagt]

PrairieGirl wrote:
2003 Discovery 330 Cat Allison tranny
Our leveling jacks have recently developed a mind of their own. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. I have discovered that going through the gears (on the touchpad) I can eventually get them to extend or retract. Seems their is something NOT connecting in the neutral switch. Does anybody have any info on this kind of failure?
Ray in Oklahoma

Hi Ray, this type of problem usually is a LOW VOLTAGE problem. This in turn is often cause by a POOR Ground. Best bet is the clean the ground on the pump. Also check 12V conections. Use "corrosion block" liquid to keep the current flowing.. Jack

[juro]

I think this is a wonderful idea.
We bought our Coachman and after a very short time, (after being on the road long enough for it to warm up) when we would slow down, it would try to die. I would change the fuel filter and then it would run okay.(by then it would have cooled down). I stoped at a stop sign on a busy sunday in St. Louis and had to be towed. I did not know where to get help without spending a lot of money at a dealer. I found out from other RV campers that I was having fuel pump problems. I changed the fuel pump myself and that fixed the problem.

Hope this might help someone else that is having this problem and thanks to the ones that put me on to the fuel pump problem.

[czookeeper3]

An update on my last post. Now the mechanics, Freightliner, Cat, and Damon have agreed that a new engine is needed. Our main problem with this is that the engine was new when we took delivery on the coach in the first place. We don't have a lot of confidence in Cat or Freightliner at the moment. Also, we have to get back to the east coast (we're in CO now) and can't wait for the thing to be done. We are trying to figure the best way to accomplish that w/ 2dogs, 3 birds, and a trailer.

[czookeeper3]

Turns out our first breakdown was a fuel pump thing the freightliner guys called a "Huey" (sp?). That was fixed. Then yesterday another breakdown. It's in the shop as we speak. Not sure what it'll turn out to be this time. First indication is that one problem is a computer malfunction, but that apparently is not the whole issue. As for the windshield, we had a temporary repair done at La Mesa in San Diego. When the second breakdown occurred we were headed for the Damon factory in Elkhart, IN to have the windshield issue and hydraulics repaired. What's next is anyone's guess.:M

[munkalido]

czookeeper3 wrote:
we have a 2006 Damon Tuscany motorhome w/ Cat engine, Allison transmission, 6,000 miles. lots of problems from the start, but yesterday on I70 west of Denver, CO, the engine died and the thing had to be towed. Definitely not out of diesel, mechanic not able to restart, so far do not know what the problem is. We are also experiencing leveling problems, and my favorite: the windshield is threatening to fall out at any moment. Any thoughts?

Sounds electrical. Don't know what to say about the windshield apart from ensuring it's sealed to avoid water damage. How's it going with the dealer/mfg?

[hotjag1]

I finally read all 42 pages.
This is a very enlightening thread.
No official tally of problems has been done yet, but from memory, there seemed to be a higher percentage of rigs running good up until shutdown for a short period of time (at rest stop or refueling)and then not restarting. Seemed odd to me.
Any explanations for this?
Don

[czookeeper3]

we have a 2006 Damon Tuscany motorhome w/ Cat engine, Allison transmission, 6,000 miles. lots of problems from the start, but yesterday on I70 west of Denver, CO, the engine died and the thing had to be towed. Definitely not out of diesel, mechanic not able to restart, so far do not know what the problem is. We are also experiencing leveling problems, and my favorite: the windshield is threatening to fall out at any moment. Any thoughts?

[Bunnz]

Had an incident this summer that was a real surprise. We were driving our 2000 Trek in Washington State on a rather steep pass with the outside temperatures in the low 100s. After about 40 minutes of slow continuous climbing, the engine quit! No engine temperature increase (based on gauges), the temp would increase, fan kick in and the temp would drop. But no excessive engine temp.
After sitting for about 90 minutes, the engine started and we completed the climb over the pass and down into the valley. Following morning I had a shop replace the fuel filter and check the engine codes with only a voltage drop being indicated. Fuel filter did not appear to be plugged. Engine has run fine every since, including pulling some good passes while pulling our Toad.
Particulars: 2000 Workhorse P32 chassis,
7.4 L Vortec gas engine,
32,000 miles,
lightly loaded, ie: fuel, water, holding tanks 1/2 full.
Fuel pump in fuel tank... sure seemed to be vaporlock but this is not supposed to occur with pressurized fuel lines.

add this to your stats wherever it might fit.