2003 Winnebago Adventurer 35U

[RacinNasonFan]

Hello:

I am new to the group and am looking to possibly purchase a 2003 Winnebago Adventurer 35U. The motorhome is in fabulous condition with very low miles(27,000). I have got in contact with the seller and the one and only problem seems to be with the Powerline System. The upper half all works the way that it should, which is the water pump & water heater switches along with the generator switch and generator hours display. The middle part which is service type amp area, amps digital display and what shows what is on all works as well. Battery voltage area whether house or engine battery also works. The issue is the bottom section which shows black water, grey water, fresh water and L.P. gas area does not work at all. Seller has said that he has just choose to pay more attention to it the last 2 1/2 years and has not bothered to fix it...i on the other hand being disabled would like it to be fixed. Would anybody have any insight on what this problem may be? Thank-you all for your time.

Dennis

 

[John Canfield]

Welcome to the forum! As far as low mileage on a 20 year old rig by itself isn't a guaranteed indicator of health. My saying is "use it or lose it" - treat this purchase like you would for anything expensive on wheels. For me, I would much rather see 75 or 80k miles on it which meant the owner used it and if something didn't work, they would have known about it rather quickly.

If you have experience with motorized RVs and can drive the Adventurer and do a thorough inspection that's great. However if you lack this experience, be very wary of buying a 20 year-old motorized unit without having either a professional inspection or a very knowledgeable friend look it over.

As far as the chassis - I think it's Workhorse which exited the motorhome (or closed their doors) market years ago. I would start a new thread in the Motorhome board asking questions about other's experiences with that particular chassis.

About the tank monitors not working - my guess is the owner pulled the power to it so it wouldn't 'nag' him about not working properly (not accurate.) Another guess is the tanks have crud on the walls which typically is rather common. That year model might have the sensors on the inside of the tank instead of the outside - Winnie switched to exterior sensors sometime around that time frame. On my former Horizon I installed a significantly better tank monitor system - link under my signature to my Horizon projects.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Just a wild guess but if all 4 of those lower gauges are dark I suspect they have a common power supply. Could be as easy as a blown fuse (although I doubt they would have their own fuser) or a broken/corroded or loose power supply or ground wire.

Have you been on-site to view this thing or just phone calls so far? Don't fall in love until after you buy it. These dark gauges would not be a deal breaker for me as the seller says each of these things can be monitored manually and in any case grey and black tank gauges are notoriously inaccurate anyway.

As John says the 27k miles on a 20 year old MH can be a problem. Make sure you get a thorough inspection. I would be tempted to have a compression check done. Cylinder pitting can happen with lack of use and broken rings and other problems can happen when an engine is started after extended idleness due to dry cylinder walls. Pay very close attention to any smokiness in the exhaust.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Re the low mileage, I'm not as negative on low mileage as the others, but agree you should not get too excited about it either. The miles are a fair indicator that there isn't much wear & tear on the engine and tranny mechanicals, but there are a lot of other chassis parts that are more affected by years and and regular maintenance than actual miles. Further, an RV that isn't used much is sometimes neglected (but you can judge that by other indicators too).

The tank gauges in the One Place center (Powerline refers only to the 120vac power indicators) likely has a loose power wire somewhere. That's about the only thing that could shut down all of them together. I suspect the owner hasn't worried about them because the three water gauges are notoriously inaccurate anyway. Only the Lp gas is reasonably reliable.

 

[John Canfield]

.....I suspect the owner hasn't worried about them because the three water gauges are notoriously inaccurate anyway. Only the Lp gas is reasonably reliable.

When they worked they were reasonably accurate but two inherent issues:

The resolution of the tank gauges is only 1/3rd, as it turns out (at least in my direct experience) I did not find that particularity useful as I wanted to know when the tanks were 1/2 full, then 3/4 full or ideally in the case of the aftermarket Garnet SeeLevel, resolution was about 1.0%. I should have migrated to the SeeLevel much sooner than I did.

Second major problem with the Winnie tank gauges in that era was not working after a while. When the sensors were inside the tank the problem was significant so WInnie changed to sensors affixed to the tank exterior wall. This was a significant improvement but unless the tanks were regularly cleaned/flushed the inside wall would get crud built up and then the sensors couldn't read. By the way, I think there's a sensitivity adjustment on that circuit board with the tank LEDs.

Since this particular motorhome has such few miles on it after 20 years, there's no telling what the tanks look like.

The propane gauge was useful and worked quite well but it was based on a float and potentiometer and not a capacitive sensor like used on the liquid tanks.