Questions Regarding a Possible New to Us 1999 Winnebago Adventurer 33B

[darsben]

Guess the OP will have to decide for themselves.

 

[John Canfield]

.....As to a counter point, why do you think a random rv mechanic would do a better job?  Sure he may know how to rebuild a schwintek slide, or repair a water heater, but has he been trained to systematically look for signs of water penetration, .....

A one man mobile RV tech won't be in business very long if they are a poor performer. Over the years I've needed to use different mobile RV techs in different states and they were quite competent. However I chose based on an RV park recommendation instead of blindly choosing one.

I do see value in using an inspector for a pre-purchase evaluation in some situations. My nephew bought a Class C in another state sight unseen (which I strongly discouraged) and he forwarded me the inspector's report. It was quite comprehensive (and expensive) and in his situation as a complete newbie, I think money well spent.  If I would ever shop for another RV, there would be little value using an inspector - I would print out a checklist from the forum library and do my own inspection. However I am very mechanically and electrically inclined and have extensively upgraded our Horizon.

 

[thatguytom83]

Hi all,

Apologies on the delay, this weekend was busy. Well guys, we did. I also didn't do too bad on my first 60 mile trip from the lot to our home, lol! No massive pile ups, no craters in cement left and didn't knock over any mailboxes, haha!

Here she is in her new home.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Looking good!

 

[thatguytom83]

Also, here is some clarification on what happened when we picked her up. The wife was seriously ticked and I was a little frustrated. We wound up passing on repairs and figured I could do everything. Short version:

Inspected Items that Were Flagged:

1. Generator wires not hooked up - I found the battery positive cable to the generator broken during final walk through? The wife feels someone broke the battery positive cable going to the generator. I don't want really think that is the case but how can an eyelet terminal somehow become broken (maybe from vibration) in a weeks time. Fixed broken eyelet but unfortunately generator will turn over but not start. Yeah that sucks, it was working just fine a week ago.

2. Water pump comes on but does not pump to unit - LOL! During final demonstration, the darn water was pumping through the entire unit. Really, it was. The wife and I just stared at each other. Guess they figured out the valve orientation needed to flow water. Money saved, whew!

3. Pilot light on refrigerator sputtering / won't auto switch from propane to elec. - Yeah, all this works. The wife and I looked at each other again during final demonstration. Our demonstration tech said what was our looks for, we lol'ed and said, service mentioned this did not work. He said, nope works fine, even switches from propane to electricity (proceeds to show us).

4. Propane tank fails leak test - Still haven't fully tested this on my own end but the darn tank still had the same amount of propane in it from a week ago. No propane smells, nothing visually out of the ordinary.

5. Converter giving abnormal readings - Still haven't fully tested this on my own end but no funky issues are currently being experienced.

So it would seem I have saved some money and headache and just glad to have her home where I can spend some time trying to sort out the remaining anomalies. I'm upset with the generator, it was running fine during our initial viewing. I would hate to think their was malicious intent for service work, I really do. The facility has great reviews and while I think our salesperson was an honest person, the whole situation just seems really weird. I haven't seen my wife that pissed in a long time. They wound up compensating us for their diagnostic time estimate but now it is on me to fix it. I'm okay with that.

I hope to report back good things with our Winnebago. We are excited.
-Tom

 

[John Hilley]

Congratulations, I'm sure you are going to enjoy it a lot. Is your gas tank over 1/4th full. The pickup for the generator is higher than for the chassis so the generator doesn't run you out of gas and leave you stranded.

 

[Isaac-1]

Congrats, I hope it works well for you.

 

[John Canfield]

..... I'm upset with the generator, it was running fine during our initial viewing. I would hate to think their was malicious intent for service work, I really do. The facility has great reviews and while I think our salesperson was an honest person, the whole situation just seems really weird. I haven't seen my wife that pissed in a long time. They wound up compensating us for their diagnostic time estimate but now it is on me to fix it. I'm okay with that....

I finally figured out it's better to assume everybody I'm doing business with for the first time is attempting to scam me until proven otherwise. It's a jaded view of the world but it works for me and has kept cash in my pocket.

And, congratulations on your purchase  ) . I don't remember if you said this is your first RV or not.  If you can, camp in your driveway or a nearby RV park for the first few nights. Print your wiring and plumbing diagrams and keep in a drawer. If you don't have the user manual, that's available online at Winnebago. You can also find the service manual for your fridge online - that's a good resource to have. Oh, buy one of those water heater flush wand things and flush out the water heater - if it hasn't been flushed in a long time (or never), there will be a ton of precipitates in the tank.

 

[Alfa38User]

Could be those supposed faults came from a less than competent tech at one point and the proposed owner walked on the sale leaving that info with the dealership. Looks like you got a good one in the end. Congrats, now go and have fun!!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I would hate to think their was malicious intent for service work, I really do.

Remember Hanlon's Razor:  "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". 

It has been my experience that RV shops are all too likely to mess up at least one thing during a repair and sometimes can do more harm than good.  Poorly trained techs and a focus on quickly swapping parts rather than doing diagnosis are the major shortcomings.
Ditto with the sales guy. He is probably honest enough, but also likely to be incorrect about many things. The sales people learn mostly by word-of-mouth and bad information often becomes gospel truth around the dealership as it gets passed around and repeated to newcomers on the staff.

 

[Isaac-1]

Gary, I have to agree with you here, let me relay a story that I was partly a witness to yesterday.

I had my wife's Jeep Cherokee at a locally owned tire and lube shop having a leaking tire fixed.  Just after I walked in a pair of young women walked in to get a leaking tire fixed on their Jeep Cherokee.  A conversation ensued about their issue, as they already had a chalk mark on their tire marking the leak.  It turns out one of these women works at the local Wal-Mart, had a leaking tire, so left the car with the Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express to be fixed while she was on her shift.  They ended up removing the wrong tire, so could not find a leak, then failed to tighten the lug nuts, which caused the studs to be damaged, and then when they did remove the correct tire they damaged the TPMS sensor, "fixed" the leak, and when it was still leaking the next day she brought it into the independent local shop.

 

[thatguytom83]

Hi all, well I pulled the generator out tonight. That wasn?t as bad as I thought. Ran all the tests, well the ones I could with the generator in the coach and finished up the rest on the bench tonight. Coil and module came back good. Within their resistance tolerances per the service manual. Plugs look decent but no spark. My fear was the ignition rotor. Well tonight I can rest easy. Thought the broken cable was most likely due to some incompetence by a lousy tech brushing up against it or similar, the main problem with the generator happened to be the STARTER! Haha, I haven?t had a good troubleshooting dilemma like this in awhile. Took me back to my younger years of wrenching. Ordered a new starter, new voltage regulator (original looks really rough) and a new air and oil filter. I?ll post more once I get parts but it looks like we?ll have a running generator here soon.

Thanks for everyone?s feedback. I look forward to our first trip coming soon. I asked the kids if they wanted to camp in it this weekend, they were so excited, lol! Now just to explain to them that the CRT TV in our coach isn?t as clear as the fancy LED TV mom has in the living room, lololol!

 

[John Canfield]

With your mechanical and troubleshooting skills, you should have a good owner experience with your Adventurer. We have a very long thread about others that have replaced the glass monster TV with a flat panel, put that on your upgrade list. Getting rid of all of that weight helps as well.

Oh, speaking of weight, as soon as you can weigh your rig. If you are not familiar with truck scales, there's a how-to on the Cat scales website.

 

[Isaac-1]

It sounds like you are getting it sorted out, I just changed the starter on my Onan 4000, the bendix went out on our memorial day trip, and was taking over a dozen tries to engage, when I got the starter out over half of the plastic bednix gear was missing.  Not a fun job due to limited access to drop the generator in my coach, I hope yours is easier to access.

 

[thatguytom83]

"( . . . ) I hope yours is easier to access."

I battled this same dilemma last night. I finally had to just make myself remove the darn thing out of the coach. The wife came out and was like, oh my gawd, you're filthy, lolol! I said I was tired of being crammed in a tiny space testing with the voltmeter and just needed some elbow room. I sympathize with you Isaac!
-Tom

 

[thatguytom83]

With your mechanical and troubleshooting skills, you should have a good owner experience with your Adventurer. We have a very long thread about others that have replaced the glass monster TV with a flat panel, put that on your upgrade list. Getting rid of all of that weight helps as well.

Oh, speaking of weight, as soon as you can weigh your rig. If you are not familiar with truck scales, there's a how-to on the Cat scales website.

Thanks for the knowledge John! Actually there is a Denny's close by us with CAT scales and a claw machine. The kids love the claw machine. Probably because I do as well, lol! Anyway, this is on my list of things to get done. I'll take a look at the how-to. Thanks so much!

 

[muskoka guy]

The sputtering fridge may have just been that it had not been lit in a while. The furnace, and hot water tank will do this also. The easiest way to light any of these appliances if nothing has been used in a while, is to light the propane stovetop for a few minutes. This will purge all the air out of the system. With auto light features, the appliances will try to light. If they don't sense a flame, it will shut off the gas. This is why lighting the stove helps with all the other appliances lighting. By the way, I had a 2000 37g Winnebago for five years. I had virtually no trouble with it, and sold it to a friend. One issue I did have was the roof separating at the edges of the full fibreglass top. If yours has the one piece fibreglass top, you might want to look into checking the edges where it seals to the trim. There is lots of info on the forums concerning this issue. Good luck, and happy trails.

 

[thatguytom83]

( . . . )One issue I did have was the roof separating at the edges of the full fibreglass top. If yours has the one piece fibreglass top, you might want to look into checking the edges where it seals to the trim. There is lots of info on the forums concerning this issue. Good luck, and happy trails.

Thank you muskoka guy! I got up on the roof this week and then used a ladder to inspect the sides. I found a few places of separation. I have ordered supplies to address this. If we ever meet in real life, I owe you a cold one or if you like cookies like me, a batch of cookies. Thanks man!

 

[John Canfield]

We've had extensive discussion about the roof to sidewall joint, sealants used, and even Entrnabond tape to permanently seal the joint. search this Winnie board for interesting reading.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

They appear to have corrected this problem on newer units. Mine has a solid joint all around.

Ernie