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This year’s Troubles in a nutshell
As I’m winding down this year’s 9000 mile tour, I thought that I’d jot down a few issues I’ve had and give some commentary.
Our first significant issue was the turbo pressure sensor. As I’ve written on other threads, I first replaced the sensor and then a few weeks later, its harness. The worst symptom was a 50% loss of power when the sensor fails. The problem was intermittent and sometimes read 0% and sometimes 100%. There was never a problem when the failure was 100%, plus I would swear that the fuel mileage went up when that happened (not proven).
Next, our electric shades have been failing randomly. These Somfy motors are crap (IMHO) and their limit mechanisms are unworthy of Marathon service. I’ve actually dismantled one and seen how they work. They are completely mechanical and are subject to wear and slippage. Maybe I shouldn’t complain on a 10 year old coach, however, it’s a major pain in the a** (PITA) when it happens. The usual failure mode is that the up limit switch will slip and the motor will continue to spin after reaching the top of travel, eventually breaking the string. When this happens, half of the shade falls down. Both last year as well as this year I’ve taken them apart and performed a field repair to put them back into service. Repairs involve new nylon string and some Gorilla tape. Finding the exact thickness string seems to be quite impossible when you’re on the road, so I substitue with whatever thin nylon cord I have on hand. Last year the passenger side front blind failed and dropped. Luckily we were in a park when it happened. I am now quite frightened to use the shade control while driving to get the sun out of my eyes as I can imagine the danger of it breaking and falling down.
We had a failure of the primary circuit breaker for the shore input power. This was easy to fix and not very remarkable.
Our satellite dish, a Winegard SK-3005, failed partially with the loss of some HD channels. It mostliy worked but generally it was frustrating. I bit the bullet and bought the new SK-SWM3 and installed it without issue, except for the nearly $2000 cost. The good news is that the new one works flawlessly.
We stopped in at Marathon and had the recall repair done on the chassis battery equalizer. This went well and didn’t take very long. Camping in the Marathon lot isn’t bad and they provide full hookups! I spoke to them about my crestron system and came away disappointed as it’s clear that any further improvements, or switching to iPad control will cost many, many thousands of dollars. So for now I’m stuck with these ancient touch screens and crappy composite video for all but the primary TV. My front driver side blind falls out of the track and must be hand held whenever it is raised to keep it from binding. Marathon said they could rebuild it for a price. I consider it a manufacturing defect. No resolution on that matter and none expected.
The fiberglass lower portion of our front bumper started flapping in the breeze. That was fixed with some Sikaflex.
I’ve had to re-lubricate the slide pin holes with graphite about 3 times this season. Extending the slides produces a a horrible sound when they start sticking.
My backup camera is intermittent. This may be a connector problem, however, there isn’t really a way to replace the little 5-pin molded connector. Still wondering what I’m going to do with that.
Our Girard awnings needed adjustment after the curb side rear folded over on the edge a bit which caused it to stick out about an inch when fully retracted. This wasn’t major. We also lost another anemometer on this trip. Looking at the top of the coach, 3 out of 4 of them have been replaced.
Our CB antenna snapped off somewhere along the road. Remarkably, it was found laying on the roof and we were able to put it back up, albeit about half an inch shorter. To hell with the SWR, as I don’t care about CB anyway.
My wonderful air slide joey bed has developed a habit of creeping out on its own. This is irritating and it means that I’ll have to look into it.
At Marathon, Leon was able to open my left rear access door where the Webasto is located. I had been locked out of it for the better part of a year, not knowing why. It was simply gummed up and it took a certain push to make it open. Thanks Leon! I’ll be disassembling and cleaning this back at home base.
Our front door latch has been a problem for the entire trip. Unless the door is slammed really hard, it will open to the first catch while enroute. This isn’t dangerous, however, the wind noise this makes is terrible. I think I need a new door latch as this one is evidently worn. We tried adjusting the latch bolt but the problem persists.
Our air operated salon windows have started self-closing, sometimes with a slam. It’s as if there is a sudden loss of air pressure. I do not know where the pressure valves are located on the coach.There are four of them.
My ISRI seat doesn’t adjust properly. When I press the UP button, the seat raises all the way to the top. If I press it down, it goes all the way down. It takes a fair amount of fiddling to get it to stop somewhere midway.
Our built-in Sub Zero refrigerator has failed. The model, 700TCI is a great unit and we love it, except that it has almost stopped cooling in the main compartment. The freezer drawers are fine. Getting it repaired will require removal from the coach, through the windshield. There is near zero clearance on the floor and the fridge doors will have to come off as well. A new one costs between $5000-$7000 so we’ll be getting this one fixed. I’m going to hire Taylor Tours to do this, and hope they’ll agree to do it. I can’t imagine what Marathon would charge.
I think I can solve the California drought by simply washing my coach. Every time I’ve washed it, rain was never far away.
So, how was your summer? All normal here.
-fred
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8 Replies
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The sub zero can be serviced in place. If it is not the condensing fan (if it does cycle on and off there will be heat around the perimeter behind the door gasket) it could be the compressor if your inverters are not pure sine wave. Peter is the expert in that area.
To access the serviceable items on your sub zero remove the lower panel(s) and you will see a scew on each side that holds the bottom tray in place. Remove those and just slide the tray out.
If it turns out to be the condensing fan motor it is an easy fix you can do.
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Fred,
No wonder we call these things a work in progress.
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We try to look at our similar experiences as expensive adventures!
It helps 🙂
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This sounds exactly like my 12,500 mile summer adventure. Turbo Sensor, front bumper, wiper arm falling off, center A/C failing, Auto power blinds doing what they want, water softener failing and flooding vanity area thru shower drain (twice), flood water leaking into polarity unit and shorting out coach power, generator developed a coolant leak after it’s exhaust system fell off. Just a normal trip.
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Fred, my ISRI seat behaves the same way, it’s weird. Also my air awning windows do the same thing, but only on the right hand side, prior owner had it fixed once but still does the same thing.
My Marathon is fairly simple, no slides, no crestron but I am finding out lots of little annoying things need to be looked after all the time. I am giving it another year to decide if these things can be relaible for non stop over the road service. It’s one thing to spend some $ now and again but I don’t have the time to be constantly fixing stuff when I need to be working. At least it is very comfortable to live in and the interior and exterior asthetics are near perfect after 12 years.
Oh, and I had Dazzling Detail do a wash and wax…and it rained the whole way back to California.
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G-man give me a call when you get a chance about the dyer
Sid
559-901-6426 -
Fred, Those things are just another bump in the road, not to be worried about, life can deal you a lot worse things than your bus breaking down, bite the bullit and enjoy your beautiful bus and the pleasure it brings! gary
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I second that Gary hope u r doing well
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