1996-ish GB Pursuit 3150 Reviews & Tips?

[Ex-Calif]

Hey Ya'll. Newbie here. Just bought a 1996 Georgie Boy Pursuit 3150.

Looking for other owners, reviews, comments, tips etc...

I am a long time liveaboard boat guy so while new to RVs the systems are like 90% compatible. Love to hear tips and tricks on on-board systems but more interested in engine, transmission, basic "auto" electrics etc.

Found an owners manual on-line but would also be interested in some kind of maintenance manual or especially a manual to take care of the "vehicle" side - tune ups, oil changes etc, etc...

Many thanks in advance - look forward to hanging out and learning and maybe getting to know some folks with a similar marque...

 

[uchu]

We just bought a 1999 Georgie CruiseMaster last year. It was really well taken care of by the original owners, who imported it into Canada from a NY dealer. The motorhome is in really great shape, for its age and we like it a lot, so far.

We haven't had the chance to use it much, as we bought it at the end of last year's season. Hopefully we can start using it soon, pending the government slowly authorising private campgrounds to accept short-term campers. 

As for manuals, we have the original Ford recommended maintenance schedule for the engine and chassis. I'm not sure if yours is based on a Ford or a Chevy.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks for the reply - Mine is based on the Chevy platform. I think mine is in pretty good shape overall. It has had a lot of dodgy electrical work done over time which I should be able to put right. The previous owner seems like a pretty straight shooter and I don't think he would knowingly lead me astray.

He actually bought it a few years ago specifically to take his family on an extended trip through Canada, which he did. After that vacation he really stopped using it so he and his wife decided to part with it for an unbelievable price. My wife had been looking for a towable trailer but this deal came up too good to refuse.

We plan to use it to start traveling to research retirement locales and will probably live in it full tie for a while after retirement. Lots and lots of places we'd like to see at leisure.

Hope you get to enjoy yours soon!

 

[uchu]

Great! Hopefully the electrical work will turn out OK. My very first RV was a travel trailer and the electrical setup was nightmarish! It did not help that I'm not exactly very handy at electrical work 

We also had a great deal with our motorhome. We looked for a while and it came down to two. The other deal fell through, so I went for this one. The owners were only using it to go to the same place every year, some country music festival. And that was it. That explains the low milage (38K) for its age.

So far I haven't found anything major to fix, save a some for burned out bulbs...*knocks on wood*.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Well I actually go to pick mine up tomorrow...

I already surveyed it and saw nothing major but it's not running. He said there was a starter issue, also someone seriously messed around with the start/house baterry system and it looks like they disconnected the house.

He said the last thing he (and his son) did was install a starter and when they tried to start it smoke came out of the starter. The he said, "We were able to mess around with jumper cables and I think jumpered right to the starter and got it to start drove it here last November and parked it."

Batteries are all dead so I am taking two fully charged batteries and some tools tomorrow. I am guessing he fried a starter relay or even maybe just blew a fuse but he clearly wired something wrong. I am encouraged that the starter still spun up so I am bringing my remote starter gun. If I get it to start I am driving it home...

It's a new adventure for sure. Found an owners manual on-line and downloaded that and found what is advertised on Etsy as a Maintenance manual.  The few sample pages looked promising so I ordered it. It may be the wrong year as some of the feedback are folks ordering stuff and not getting exactly what was advertised. If it's the right manual and the year is off a bit I can probably deal with that...

Tomorrow is gonna be fun and I am excited to get it home...

 

[Ex-Calif]

Well my "ran when parked" RV moved under its own power since November 2018...

Insurance, temp tag and all sorted out and I am driving it home this morning...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCbVWc1ACa0

Oh another thing - I have not done a completely thorough search but I can't find the VIN tag. Anyone have an idea where to look?  Wasn't obvious in the front of the engine bay and isn't embedded in the dash either...

 

[ChasA]

Did you look on the wall next to the driver's seat?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

It will be visible through the lower left (driver side) corner of the windshield, just like on a car (same federal law applies).  The Chevy P30/P32 chassis service manual will show other places where the VIN is stamped onto the frame components.

https://www.gmcmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/P30-Chassis-Manual.pdf

 

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks guys - There definitely is no VIN plate on the dash but @ChasA was correct... It was behind the curtain and was a decal - Hope the BMV likes that.. It is definitely factory. I found another set of decals on the back of the galley cabinet door so that's the best I can do...

Learning a lot - found the owners manual along with a bunch of appliance manuals and the generator manual - rejuvenated and charged the house batteries which had been disconnected and bodged a bit. Installed a automatic bridging relay I had from my boat days to parallel the house and start batteries. Plugged the RV into my house and it looks like most everything is working on the RV.

It looks like the Freezer is getting cold but not the reefer half. Weird... Any ideas? It's looks to be a standard Norcold auto/LP system and is running on electric - LP tank is currently empty and I want the system inspected before I fill anything into it...

I did a quick walk through video for my family and would appreciate any feedback or comments from all you experts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPfht6on-pI

Got the generator to rotate but looks like no spark so there is a some troubleshooting to do there...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2KFeOhLchs

 

[ferfer]

Freezer getting cold is positive.  Absorption refrigerator start with the freezer prior to the reefer. Give it 24+ hours.  Also helpful is to place some cold stuff or frozen jugs in reefer section.  Air circulation is important so look into a absorption fridge fan, either battery or wired.  Also limit number and time opening. 

Your propane capacity is likely in the 32 to 42 pound range.

Jennifer

 

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks ferfer - I will give it a chance. The freezer got cold pretty quick and the fins in the reefer weren't feeling that cold to the touch.

I'll give it some time and likely shoot the fins with my I/R temp gun and see how cold the fins are getting...

I temporarily had to unplug the RV from my house - Raining like crazy here and don't want to catch a sparky from a wet connection - LOL...

 

[Ex-Calif]

So I have sprayed some questions around the forum and will corral some of them here unless it's a specific system

A/C - Thanks to Gary & ChasA I went to home depot and got a 25 amp 100V cable. I plugged the AC back in and the reefer seems a lot happier.  I suspect my baloney 100ft of "garage" cable had pretty high resistance - In hindsight it was getting "warm" and I should have known better - 50ft (all I needed) of 10 gauge is way better and will go on the road with me. My 50a to 20a adapter is "loose" in the pins but I electrical taped it solidly for now and stored the "jointed" section in a locker out of the rain.

The freezer is frosty after only like 3 hours and the fins on the reefer side are way cold and temperature is coming down rapidly - Many thanks Gary & ChasA!

I haven't run the Air Conditioner yet as the priority was to check out the reefer and I didn't want to blow a circuit while unattended for 3 hours... I'll add that to the mix tomorrow which will be a good test because by then the reefer should be cycling rather than on continuously and is a better "real world" test.

On the DC side I either have a pretty good current leak or the house batteries aren't holding a charge. I deep cycled them with my charger for 2 days so I am pretty I did the best that I could for them - age unknown...

My kid told me he "heard something running" on the drivers side when he got home last night and I could hear something "humming" either in the electric bay or maybe one of the vents when I came out today but didn't spend much time looking as the rain is coming down pretty good. Is there any reason the charger would be humming with AC disconnected?

I don't have a voltmeter anywhere in the RV but before I rewired the house I pressed the water fluids level test button and only got up to yellow. After I rewired the house I got all the way to green - So I am presuming this is resistance based and I had low voltage, then normal DC voltage.

So today I go out and press test and again it's back to yellow and the incandescent DCs are dim again.  I started the engine and the dash VM went to 14 1/2 Volts so something was really sucking a charge - with the engine running again the test panel was all the way to green and the incandescents brightened up. I shut down and after 3 hours with AC hooked up I was getting a dim green so I guess it's charging.

I will have to pull the House positive when it stops raining and see how much it's leaking if any and try to find out what is running with the AC disconnected.

I am a data geek and have picked out some DC volt meter and AC voltmeter panels and I am planning to put in a master DC switch in the cabin - Like a boat...

Fun stuff - learning a lot

 

[uchu]

The freezer is frosty after only like 3 hours and the fins on the reefer side are way cold and temperature is coming down rapidly - Many thanks Gary & ChasA!

One detail I noticed in my CruiseMaster is that circuit for the Freezer/Fridge AC plug is wired in the same circuit as the GFCI plug in the bathroom sink. Right after moving the motorhome back to the driveway from storage, I plugged the AC cord and turn of the fridge. The next day i checked and the fridge was warm and freezer too. Then I saw the "A" code in the Nordcold panel and, upon reading the manual, realized that no AC power was detected by the unit. A quick troubleshooting at the panel and the outlet made me realize that the issue was something in between and Bingo! the GFCI needed resetting and all was good again. Code was gone and the unit working as expected.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Saturday update...

I installed new house batteries and rewired a couple of circuits. I installed an Automatic charge relay which will automatically parallel the house and chassis batteries. After 3 days on A/C power all the batteries are maintaining 12.5V and the relay appears to be doing it's job.

The reefer temps came down - not as cold as I like yet but freezer is around 26*F and the fridge is about 47*F.

When driving the temp indicator was closing in on redline (~220F) but when I shot the radiator with the infra red gun it is running about 170*F so I either have a bad temp sensor or high resistance. That's really good news!

This is a big weekend - I bought about $250 worth of tune up parts and a $230 in new Bilstein shocks. So I will give the engine a complete baseline tune up.  After that is probably plugs filter and oil change on the generator and get that thing to start.

Dumb new guy issue on the fan that was running - The LP tanks are empty but the furnace was on so the furnace fan was running. Glad is wasn't something real.  Read and reread all the manuals for the systems...

After that is to restore the water system to factory (PO had made some adaptation to city water / sewer that I need to undo) then I will clean/bleach/flush the system, fill it and test out the plumbing & equipment. If that's all good I think the final house system to leak check and fill is the LP tank.

Then I have to take a look at the leveling system - The pistons ran out a couple inches and then stopped and I have not gotten them to retract. It feel like low fluid but I will deal with that system last.

 

[IBTripping]

Looks like you're doing well in getting on top of all the RV issues. And, it sounds like you've got yourself a very nice motorhome that will give you years of pleasure. Enjoy!!!

 

[Ex-Calif]

It's going well so far...

The reefer temps have come way down and the beer is cold! Yay!

Yesterday I sorted the generator and the leveling lifts! I did a quick video for the family...

The first time you do anything takes a little longer - I mistakenly thought that I had to pull the genny cooling shroud to get to the back plug - I finally pulled the spare tire out (stored above the genny) and could see the access hole for the spark plug.

I also overfilled the lift system a little and got some spillage when the legs retracted - note to self. Only fill the reservoir when the legs are retracted - LOL...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLxkkLC6Fw0

Should finish up the engine tune up and I have a line at Love's to fill the LP.  With LP I can test the stove, water heater, furnace and reefer LP function.

Then the water system is all that's left to suss out.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Another update as I familiarize myself with the RV.

Engine Finished the engine tune up with the completion of the rotor and cap. Air filters were filthy, plugs were ancient and two of the wires came apart in my hands. Thanks to a member here I remember what "draw" latches are and received 4 of them to hold the engine cover down. THey will get installed as I move to the interior. Bad news is I found a wire plug laying up against the exhaust manifold melted - Some circuit on the engine must not be working but I haven't found it yet...

I hooked up the servicing manifold to the engine A/C and the good news is it is cycling "properly" but dropping out due to a big pressure loss when it kicks in. Pretty much needs a leak check and more refrigerant. I have refrigerant on the buy list.

Chassis battery was not holding a charge so I installed a spare I had a few days ago and it's holding fine along with the new house batteries.

Genset - Finished the generator tune up with the installation of a new air filter and fuel filter. Again big lack of maintenance back there. Ancient plugs and oil. Good news is the genset only has about 575 hours on it so there should be plenty of life left.

Shore Power! - The RV is basically set up for 50a - 50a genset, 50 amp charger, 50 amp ac panel... I was blowing my home 20a circuit with the a/c on so today I installed a 30a service in my garage. A/C has been running an hour and all seems good.

I had the house 110 a/c outlets go dead on Tuesday. I started tracing wires and looking for burnt outlets thinking that the knucklehead P/O had added 2 "terrible" 110 outlets to run a TV and DVD player - really shoddy work and I was calibrated to that. I did rip out his work and set things right.

Then reading a post here made my "lights" come on... I was thinking like house wiring. The post said RV wiring is different. A GCI fault trip can and will probably take out all the plugs on that circuit.  Sure enough the GCFI had tripped on the vanity outlet... Easy "push button" fix.

I have shocks to install and I need to air up the coil bags. And I don't think the "emergency" start relay is latching so I will fix that at some point. I also need to air up the tires then the chassis is about done I think. After that I will head over to Love's to weigh it and get the LPG serviced.

Then with A/C working in the RV I will "comfortably" start working on the interior, the plumbing and some "goodies" additions. The interior is generally in good shape. I have ripped out the dodgy mods P/O made including two failed radio installs, the aforementioned tv and dvd hookups and mounts.

Another "good" bit of info as I have been messing around with shore power - I have heard the LP side of the fridge spark and ignite a couple times - there must be just enough residual gas in the LP tank that it lights once in a while. Then it shut s off because the gas is empty - so good news on the reefer.

 

[IBTripping]

Thanks for the update. Looks like you are making great progress in getting the rig set up for travel and camping.

 

[ChasA]

Dan. Fyi, the emergency start relay is  not supposed to latch. It should only make contact while you hold the momentary switch on the dash down.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Dan. Fyi, the emergency start relay is  not supposed to latch. It should only make contact while you hold the momentary switch on the dash down.

Yeah. Thanks for that. It is not actually paralleling so something is up.  The good news is I found the wiring schematics for this circuit in the manual so i can see what the PO might have done.