Are there recalls for the Winnebago Journey slides?

[2dalake]

Folks, I have been to the Winnebago/Country Coach factory service center twice.  They are great folks and do extensive service and repairs on both Winnebago and Country Coach motorhomes.  Country Coach motorhomes used the HWH slide and jack mechanisms so they are very familiar with those systems.  They are actively building Winnebago diesel pushers there now. 

Their service department is on 4th street.  It does have a small customer lounge.  They have parking spots with 50 amp electric and a dump station and fresh water fill.  In most cases, they try to give you your coach back at the end of each work day then take it back into service on subsequent days.

It is close to Eugene and there is plenty to do there.  Not a lot in Junction City.

 

[maryinredding]

Thank you so much for the information. The woman that is handling our repair has been so nice. She sent us a map of where to park and told us that we could park there the day before our appointment. Our concern was with our pets. We have two small dogs and a parrot. The dogs are not a problem but the bird is. He has a cage that will fit in the back of our car but if it is hot I would not want to leave him in the car for too long. I understand that there is a park across the street so we could go hang out there for some of the day. If it's going to take a long time we could always go to our relative's place in Canby which is an hour and forty five minutes away. If they have a lounge maybe they would allow us to leave him there for the day. We have a dog trailer and bikes and we thought maybe we could explore the town while we wait. They have two dog friendly restaurants (seating outside) in Junction City which would suit us just fine for a meal. You all have been so helpful.

 

[2dalake]

Very easy to ride your bikes around Junction City.  The streets are mostly quiet with little traffic with the exception of 99 which is the main street through town.  If you leave JC and ride down River Road, there is a park and two large fresh veg/produce markets.  River Road will take you back into Eugene.  Armitage Park in Eugene has a nice fenced dog park.  We took our two dogs there for exercise. 

If you like brats or burgers, there is a little and interesting place just north of JC on 99 called the Junk Yard.  It is an old gas station turned eatery.  It was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network.  The food is really good.  They have outside seating so your dogs should be welcome there.  If you ride your bikes around the complex (the factory buildings are across the street from the service building), you can look into the bays and see them assembling the Winnebagos. 

 

[maryinredding]

Thank you so much for your suggestions. We will definitely look for that restaurant you mentioned. We love going to new places and my husband is the cook in our house so he is a big fan of the cooking channels and the restaurant reviews.
We are really looking forward to our appointment. Hopefully it will be something easy (for them) to diagnose and fix. I will let everyone know what the problem was after we return.
According to the weather channel we will be getting into some nice weather when we go. It will definitely be a welcome change from the 100 plus degree weather we have had here in Redding, CA. A few days ago our thermometer read 119!!! It has been a brutal summer everywhere it seems. I am ready for fall and winter. I don't usually say that because I love the heat, but we have had enough. Bring on fall.....

 

[John Canfield]

54 degrees this morning in Buena Vista Colorado,  usually its been about 49-50 degrees.  We leave here in about 12 days or so  .

 

[staggerlee]

The slide "recall" that tech read about wasn't a safety issue, it was a situation with the slide mechanisms having design and engineering problems.

Seems there outta be a way to manually pump the slides back in.
If not there should be. 
I wouldn't like getting stuck with slides out.
Lee

 

[mrschwarz]

x2 for the Junkyard.

Also, General RV, a local dealer has a great little cafe in their retail store (really!). They have a great staff, serve a nice breakfast and have all kinds of craft beer.

And yes, there is a customer lounge. It's not quite as fancy as Forest City, but it's a place to sit. They are also pretty competent there. If I still had a Winnebago, that's where I would go.

 

[maryinredding]

Update on our coach
Our appointment was on Sept 28th. We took it up there and they are diagnosing is as a problem with the slide pads again. They were replaced just 300 miles ago and they are already cracked on both sides. They have ordered the parts. The only problem is the insurance company is balking at the man hours that it will take to do the repair. They are estimating 16 hours per side. We left it there because they have to wait for the parts, then they do the tear down, then the inspector has to come to see the damage and ok the repair. When the pads were replaced before, they said that some of the parts didn't need replacing. We think this is why they failed so quickly. Now the other slide (passenger) pads are cracking so we opted to have those replaced at the same time. The estimate for the repair to be completed is up to 4 weeks. This is shorter than our local shop that had it for 6 weeks and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. We have been assured by Winnebago that they will figure it out and fix it. We just want it fixed so we can use it.

 

[John Canfield]

We had our slide mechanism inspected at Winnebago about three years ago and all was good - the mechanism and plastic glide blocks are all still okay (and still original.) I'm amazed you've had so much trouble with yours.  Anyway, thanks for the update.

 

[maryinredding]

Wonderful news today. Winnebago called and said our coach is ready for pickup!! They put new pads in, re shimmed it and both sides go in like they should!! I bet this coach was damaged in some way before we got it but now it has been fixed the right way. We go to pick it up on Monday. Hopefully we will now get some use out of it. Our summer was wasted waiting for our local shop to fix it. I guess if something structurally goes wrong with it again we will take it back to Junction City and just let our local shop do maintenance work on it.

 

[John Canfield]

That's great news! Now you have an idea why lots of us try to avoid local dealers and have factory service fix the non-trivial stuff. Let us know how the slides work when you pick it up.

 

[maryinredding]

We picked up our rig and it's wonderful! They told us they think the slide was not shimmed correctly. It had like 5 on one side and 1 on the other so it was coming in kind of skewed. They replace the pads on both the front slides (the passenger side slide pads were cracked so they probably wouldn't have lasted much longer) re shimmed both slides and now they both come in silently and quickly like they should have all along. We are wondering if this is the way it came from the factory in 2005. We will be asking our local repair place if they did anything with the shims when they had it. Now our trips will be a pleasure. It use to be embarrassing when we were preparing to leave because you could hear the slide come in from across the park. We are truly happy campers now!!

 

[John Canfield]

That's super news, thanks for checking back in. Now you understand why many of us travel 1,000 miles or more for quality service.