chp007kd40

Thanks you guys. I did just try it out with two new bolts and it sounds like it wants to bind up so looks like I need Winnebago.

While bringing in the bedroom slide we noticed the foot of the bed started kicking up as far as two feet. We can hold it down while bringing it in. What we found was two bolts broken off on the center guide. Can't figure out how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Nothing appears to be bent or broken except two 3/8 inch bolts inside this metal track holding the bed flat while moving.

Hi Bill and to others who replied Roof Coating----NOT ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL, her is one that works Son-shield ceramic elastomeric roof coating. Remains elastic in very cold temperatures Bill. You can put this on roofs that are not so good shape also (house, garage, trailer, motorhomes etc.) but some roofs will need Flextac primer along with a roof cloth like polyester, fiberglass. My understanding about elastomeric paints, should not be used on surfaces that need to breathe or release moisture so your fiberglass coach roof is a good roof for this product. The only place I know to get this product is Advance: Solar, Hydro, Wind Power, Inc., 843 N. Market St., Redding, Ca. 530-226-0701, fax 530-226-0704 Pete or Greg. I have given them permission to talk to all of you regarding my motorhome upgrade. One thing I did different that might be of interest to some is that my set-up has a dual purpose. I wanted one system that would provide power to my (although it be partial) home and motorhome. That happens when I plug my 50 amp cord into my home pedestal and send the power back into my RV Garage/ofc. and then to my home when the "electrical grid" is down. They tell me that is going to happen some day. This same 50 amp cord is then plugged back into my lithium/solar system in my motorhome whereas most cords just set there coiled up in the service bay. I have an order into this company for my commercial building. The price for this 5 gal. bucket was $260.00. You might want to be a little patient when you call because Advance Power is not equipped to handle large volume of calls. I will update all of you as I go through this shake-down process over the next two weeks. I got my first draft of the lawsuit against C/W so that is what I'm working on today. David

Thanks Carl. The things we have to go through to get where we are going! Does anyone in your communication circles know of someone else spending time in British Columbia/Alaska this summer that might want to tag along since Bill can't go? We are just now finishing the repairs to my coach that C/W did wrong. The last part, if I have time to do is have a shop strip the entire rear cap of clear coat and sand out the hundreds of particles of "dust" embedded in the paint. The clear coat has sags, heavy looking spots and one pencil size hole under the ladder. Depending on how rough the two months in Alaska will be on it I might just leave it alone till I return, except that it is SOO noticeable. Second question for you and Bill. The video of the Wynn's windshield with the hole in it from a rock from a passing logging truck is a concern. Do you know if this "Clear-Plex" film on the outside of the windshield would have deflected this rather large rock? David

Yeah Bill. Took a lot of courage to go that direction with that cost, but as you know I got pushed to the limit with Camping World and everyone of my batteries were ruined by the time I got it back. I should have paid them the $13,000.00 dollars last July and pulled it out of there. One of the reasons Bill I could so much solar on top was because I have no a/c's on top. Another thing I learned from Advance Solar was that my roof surface needed to be cool for efficient panel production of energy so they cleaned the roof twice, installed two coats of white "ceramic" coating and what a difference that made. I wish you had that beautiful coach up and running also, but come to think about it, I don't know if that C-12 could get you over the hill so you could get out of Colorado. lol. Know anyone heading up that way have them give me a call. Ruthie, the three weenie dogs and I are leaving around the 16th to 18th of this month.

Update on my Lithium/solar upgrade for my 40 ft. Itasca Horizon, model 40KD motorhome. I have always had battery power issues from day one because of limited battery space in this coach. After conferring with AM Solar in Springfield, Oregon I was caught off guard when they told me I would have to wait 5 to six months for an appointment for 12 volt lithium plus solar because the demand was that great. When I started looking around for other options I was really surprised that in my town, "Advance Power" of Redding, Ca. had a complete different approach which made complete sense to me. Their approach was to go from 52 volts to 110 volts which was more efficient, so here is what I ended up with: 1- API 13KWH LIPO-4 (52 volt) battery with 50a charger and a battery management system 2. (2) Outback 3648 inverters with Mate-3 system control meter and two TM-2030 TRI-Metric RV (Bogart Eng.) battery monitors 3. (8) Panasonic 325 watt (each) solar panels There are other products installed to support other systems like a 15 amp Genius to keep the starting batteries charged and an auto start for the generator. Things would have been a little easier if I had a generator that produced 240 volts and 10 KW, but I have a 7500 Onan. They were able to work around this to provide enough efficient power to the charger. Yes, it is expensive, $28,000.00 dollars, but we really like this motorhome and it appears to be a good investment going forward. Our first test: Ran the Coleman two ton basement a/c unit (two compressors) for 2hours, 15 minutes without any charing before the BMS auto shut down at 20% remaining battery capacity. We are now in the final testing mode before I take off for 21/2 months through Canada and Alaska. I'm sure I am missing something in this upgrade explanation. Greg or Pete at 530-226-0701 can fill in the details

There was a gentleman on the other Forum site that had a Vectra buy Winnebago and I think he said he took the parts off sanded them and painted them with a paint custom made in a spray can at his automotive paint store and it turned out good

Thank you for the replies. I wrote it all down Bill and I am going to discuss this again with Advanced Power. They seem to be really sold on Lithium and the model displayed in their showroom is impressive. Your all right about the cost of these newer products, a little concerning. David

That was good Herman. The reason I'm throwing this out there for discussion is because AM Solar in Oregon has a long waiting time to even visit my coach. There are a lot of coaches like mine (Itasca Horizon 05 40KD, same as Vectra by Winnebago) that have very limited space for batteries. Had to modify my battery box tray to accommodate the golf cart batteries and not so easy to pull out to clean and inspect. When I see other coaches at the Redmond OR. convention, I can only dream of having such flexibility in batteries. We live in such a beautiful part of the country that going to an RV park is not that great and since we don't have a lot of humidity to deal with the coach is used much different than when we are in the East or South part of the country. The thought of running the entire coach including a/c (2ton) is quite intriguing when you think of all other possibilities. Just thinking out loud.

Thanks for all the replies. Camping World ruined my 4 golf cart batteries so I'm thinking out of the box, but not wanting to throw money away. Side note: Camping World raised their shop rates to over $146.00. They are just ridiculous since their actual worth is so, so much lower. Okay, guess what I was presented with as an upgrade to my golf cart batteries. My local solar business (Advance Power Redding) suggested I could get a better system than just Lithium battery (800ah) upgrade and six solar panels. AM Solar is suggesting an installed price around $16,000.00. That really did seem high. Advanced Power is suggesting a more efficient system by going to a more residential set-up using 48 volt 13KWH LIPO-4 battery with 6 Panasonic 325 watt solar panels (1950 watt), outback fm-60, outback 3648 inverters, auto start, etc.. The thought behind this is take care of your 110v issues and then the 12v issues are easy to deal with instead of the reverse. This system is capable of running my two ton a/c unit, fridge, micro, TV's etc. That is the sort of thinking that is out there right now. Not saying I will or can do it, but I want too. The space required is around 42x26x22. It will take up my entire entertainment center compartment outside, but we never used it that much. The weight is about the same as my golf cart batteries. The Magnum product 2800 will be gone so as not to complicate the system with redundancy. We are still working on price, but what would normally be around $26k. I know, sounds a bit "out-there", but we really don't like RV parks so much. Another advantage would be that I could drive along side my home office and power it up also from the motorhome in case the electric grid goes down. I think we are all thinking something like that could actually happen with the way things are going in this world. Especially Calif., they wouldn't know which page the turn-on switch was located amongst the 26 million pages of regulations we have in this state. Sucky system, just sayin'.

My appointment for 800ah Lithium battery and solar upgrade is not until late July. Has anyone installed this type of system, and what advice can you give me as to brand quality, charging issues etc.? It is going into my Itasca Horizon 40 KD DP. I have four golf cart type batteries and they don't do so well dry camping. We just installed a 19cu.in. residential fridge, so my needs are greater now. I have been quoted $7,500 just for the battery install. I would appreciate any feedback.

My 2005 Itasca appears to be the same as yours. It was a poor design so I took it off and striped off the hinging system and threw it away. I made a manual system whereby I remove it each time I have some repairs and I designed it so it will hang down on the inside for checking oil. This is done by two springs holding the top in and the bottom sits on two pins. I have been quite happy with the simple system David

What a great bunch of replies about towing. I knew it would bring out the best in all of you. No, we seldom stay at resorts or RV Parks and that is why I'm now investing $7000.00 dollars in Lithium Ion Phosphate batteries and a residential fridge so to stay out longer. On our trip to the East Coast last March and April (43 days, we lucked out on the weather) and only stayed a total of 16 days hooked-up and that was mainly at Cherry Hill and the New Jersey pier at Ellis Island. The rest of the time we are hidden away in some cute little hide-a-way because we can "back-up" at will, spin around, tight turns and blend-in to our surroundings. It is also much easier to find a level spot when not having an extra 25 feet behind you. We could never do that in the 25 years of pulling two Jeeps and a Mitsubishi Raider. We still have our f650GS BMW strapped to the back of our Itasca and we did carry it on this trip. Yes, we do rent some vehicles and what a great experience that is in itself especially in the last 6 or so years when so many exciting vehicles out there. We do use our motorhome like a city bus because we can take our puppies with us and we "never" have to go back "home" to get our house. Backing up and having a tight turning radius is huge when you have no other vehicle. I bet some of you will actually try it some day and you might even thank me for the idea. Actually you would be thanking my darling wife whose idea it was many years back. Isn't it great to have this forum to share ideas.

I know this is a hard concept for most non-fulltimers, but don't "tow a vehicle" and your trip will be so much more enjoyable. We have not had a vehicle behind our Itasca KD40 for over five years now and have travelled over 35,000 miles since. Admittedly, the first couple of trips were like leaving a family member behind, but now we can't even remember their name. Enjoy your trip, it's a great adventure. Be careful who you let work on your vehicle, seriously. David & Ruthann with Peetie, Oliver and Tracker our doxies

Great discussions and some great points for me to consider. Fridge types, batteries, inverter/chargers draw so much "attention" they will probably end up being included in some of our profiles. LOL

Good reply. Things are changing rather quickly with regards to fridge designs (compressors, ex.) and also batteries (lithium) being promoted by companies like AM Solar in Oregon. The small RV's, with articles showing up using Lithium batteries are getting some traction. If a manufacture can put a 32 cell Lithium battery in a 22ft. class "B" motorhome then the possibilities for larger coaches is huge. I have an appointment with AM Solar this month to review the entire solar, lithium, inverter/charger set-up in my Itasca 40KD. I presently have "4" 6 volt Trojans, 2800 Magnum and it is not cutting it dry camping. They did say that lithium location is huge for protection against extremes (hot/cold) so a suggestion by AM Solar, they are looking to place this battery system inside the coach. Wow and REALLY?? Okay, I'm on board to learn. The residential fridge that would fit in my coach without a lot of modifications is the Maytag 18.7 cu in bottom freezer, MBF1958DEM. Like the previous article by caflashbob, our family (two adults and three weenie dogs) do a lot of dry camping in the beautiful "seven" Western states so this is my new adventure.

Thanks for the very informative replies. Dave, great info and Tom (aka no cold, had to reread it to "get it"), as always with lots of experience. Read your article from '11 and nice that you had a good outcome. I have the same battery configuration as you. Thanks for the venting advise kaysmith because that escaped me as one of the issues in a modification swap-out.

Great information on the experience, durability issues, venting and warranty from both of you, thank you. My understanding is that the manufacturers putting residential units in new coaches will have them with a separate charging/inverter and batteries. I found this out in Redmond, Oregon convention, but did not need the info then so I didn't pay to much attention. I overheard them saying that a fast charging lithium ion battery would be ideal for this set-up. Anyone have a solution or a coach with the set-up that I'm wanting to duplicate?

My Norcold 1201LRIMSS in my 40 ft. DP needs replacing. There is information on some sites that caution against switching away from rugged RV refrigerators to residential type because of sitting unused (off) for 30 or more days at a time and the jarring effect of some very bad roads. Also, I will need extra batteries and a second inverter/charger set-up if I do this. Can anyone guide me that has some knowledge and experience, please.

Update on Camping World fiasco in Redding Ca.. My Itasca 40KD is still not on the road or useable since 6-12-15. Imagine if you were out of state and on a tight schedule. If I knew any attorney's locally that I could trust I would have them in court. I was contacted by an out of state attorney, but I just want my wonderful motorhome back on the road! My Darling Wife just reminded me that tomorrow was the day we were to return from our 6 weeks in Yellowstone and Glacier National Park area. One of our favorite trips. Our insurance Co. (NGIC) is part of our delay problem also. They say they guarantee the work CW does for a 2 year period. I will never go back to CW for anything and the warranty is "hollow" in my opinion.

Some pretty interesting stories. I think we would all agree not all CW shops are as bad as the treatment I got in Redding (Anderson) Calif. , but their system seems to be flawed and their ability to restrict you from seeing the repairs being done, or not done, is very unnerving. My Itasca 40KD is still not useable since 6-12-15. Just imagine if I was out of state and on a time limit. The repairs were so bad you can't even make this stuff up!!

The dash is peeling a silicone type coating that has discolored. Anyone know of a fix? Dash cover will not solve this issue.

I wrote about my experience a few years ago and the conclusion I have is that the radiator is barely able to keep the motor cool. We travel a lot in the mountain areas in the West and desert areas where there are considerable grades. We do exactly as you do by downshifting prior to it getting hot and slowing down to moderate the rpm's in lower gears. Here is what we found and fixed Took the radiator out (not easy) and it was literally clogged with very small particles of volcanic crushed rock ( light and sharp) we could not pull it out with picks without ruining the radiator so we replaced it at around $900.00 dollars. The well equipped shop said we did not have a very large radiator for a 540 cu in diesel motor in our Itasca Horizon 40kd at 32k lbs with 400hp ISl so we needed to keep it in good shape. They also commented on the design and how close to the ground the radiator was to all that dirt, dust, weeds and mowed fields we often find at events. My maintenance man and myself did notice that the factory tried to seal the outside of all those coolers that are in front of the radiator so as not to let air come up vertically between them, but did a poor job with inexpensive materials. The idea was have all air come horizontally through the side radiator. Makes sense, but I have since noticed a lot a side radiators with that issue. Brett brought up a good point in that discussion about radiator screens and how much they restrict air flow and they really do!! We do not tow, but carry a BMW 650 GS. We never have problems on any of the major highways or freeways. It is usually when the curves start to slow us down is when I start being careful. I AM ALSO CAREFUL NOT TO GO TO CAMPING WORLD FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send rain to Calif...

I agree with the Amish unit and the ARP heat control. I have had mine for 2 years and working fine. What I did find was the tolerances around the fridge were not adhered to by the factory so I fixed that also. I think the leveling tolerances have to do with heat and gravity, making it a little difficult to be spot-on and that is why the ARP unit is helpful.

Thank you all for your support. Just today I received the adjusters forms and they are accepting my estimates to start the approx. $7900.00 dollars worth of repairs that were done incorrectly, not done at all or wrong parts ordered. Your right, don't go to Camping World. There system seems to be broken for responsible and caring repairs to your coach, at least in Redding, Ca.. There are seven coach owners around Redding that have similar stories of varying degrees, but we all agree when they take your RV behind those gates and restrict your access, things do go wrong.