This is long winded but covers the trial by fire the wife and I experienced in our first trip out in the new to us class c.
After camping in a travel trailer for 4yrs the wife and I decided to trade it in and get a class c. We determined that we wanted a shorted class c with a slide out. We also wanted a taller cabover area so that sleeping would not be cramped up. After alot of looking we found the perfect unit for us at Dusty's in Bartow, Fl. We found a 2003 Dutchman Express 23J with 8600 miles. The price was right and they gave decent money for the trade. On a Monday afternoon in May the deal was made and we drove off in the new MH and a tow dolly for our Trailblazer SS (rear up, front down.)
We already had vacation scheduled starting the following Friday and with no set plans decided to break in MH. We get the rig ready for the trip. I strap down the SS on the dolly, safety chain it in place, and add two extra "safety" straps (more on them later!) Early Friday morning we started heading North with no set destination. As we approached the decision point of North on I-75 or I-95 we went I-95 and decided on the Williamsburg Va area as we had never been there before. All is going well. We cook in the unit, take a nap when we get tired, all is well. As we cross the border into South Carolina I have multiple people flashing lights trying to get my attention. I check all the mirrors and see that the extra "safety" strap for the passenger side rear wheel has come loose and is dragging along the dolly. Pull over, its toast so I remove it. The regular strapping is holding perfectly. I determine that if I crank down the other "safety" strap tighter it won't come off right?! Back northbound we go. At appx 830pm on Sat night in the middle of nowhere North Carolina I see that gas is .03 cheaper per gallon (never really cared until 8.5mpg!) so I pull off to fill up. As I do the walk around while filling I see that my other "safety" strap has come off only in a destructive way. The ratchet lodge itself between the dolly frame and tire and ground the tire down. It was still holding air but was not safe to tow. So much for my safety straps. After failing to find a tire we pull the ss off the dolly. The wife follows me the remaining 200 miles to Williamsburg and we arrive without further incident. The staff at out park recommend local tire place. I end up replacing both dolly tires with new. I take the one good used dolly tire and put it on a new rim. Total price $195. I ask how much it would be to balance all the tires on the coach as I noticed a vibration in the seat at 60. They advise $30 and I make plans to bring it by when we planned to leave the area. When the day came I arrived and as I walk around the coach I notice alot of cracking in the rear tires. I knew right then and there they were dry rotted and that was the cause of the vibration. The mfg date on the tire is the 16th week of 2002. They confirm the dry rot and quote a price of $600 for 4 new BFG "E" drive tires. The fronts were new and mfg the 35th week of 2006. The get me in and out quickly. Now I am rather irritated that Dusty's did not replace the tires. When we looked at and then picked up our unit the tires were coated with a very thick tire dressing. I looked at the tires but didn't notice the cracking due to the dressing. At this point I owned the coach for one week and put 900 miles on it. More about this later.
We decide to drive over to Gatlinburg and spend 5days there. The drive over was uneventful and the MH handled the mountains with the toad well. Plenty of power. With the new tires the ride was very smooth.
As we drive into Pigeon Forge I notice that I am pulling hard to the left. It is also pouring rain and is 4:45pm. As I stop for a red light I see smoke pour out of the drivers front and the putrid smell of burning brakes. The drivers caliper is locked up. After fiddle farting with it it loosens up. We call the park we were staying at. They recommended a shop close to them and after a phone call they advise they have the proper caliper and will stay till we can get there. I nurse it to the shop. A new caliper and $200 later the MH is good as new and we arrive at the park.
We enjoy our 4 day stay and begin packing the MH up to come home. As I am tending to the outside the wife is tending to the inside. She yells for me to come into the unit. She points to the cabover area and says there is a serious problem. I pull the mattresses away and observe significant water damage all along the cabover. We had been using the pull out bed to sleep on and did not notice the damage. It rained most every day on the vacation. I go outside and begin to see water pooling inside the fiberglass area and feel that it is very soft.
At this point I am quite livid and ready to unscrew someones head. We call Dusty's and advise them of the situation. They tell us to get it to them ASAP. We drive back to FL and drop it off on the way home. I speak to the collision manager. He assures me it will be fixed properly.
The sales manager advises we are going to get reimbursed for the tires and caliper. That is $800 back to me and I am happy they are taken care of. After the collision manager evaluates the cab over he determines it needs to be completely replaced. He advised me that Dusty's will completely cover the repair. I ask if during the repair they could omit the large front window. He tells me consider it gone. He advised all the wood and fiberglass will be replaced and that after the repair is completed they will leak check the unit and fix any other leak. At this point I am happy again.
Dusty's stepped up and fixed the problems with our unit. I would like to think that the tires being dressed were for show and not to hide the fact they were dry rotted. None the less they made right. As for the caliper I didn't ride the brakes in the mountains, I let the engine and tranny do the work. You can't really determine when they will seize up so them reimbursing me was a nice bonus. The mechanic that fixed it looked over the rest of the unit and advised nothing else looked dry-rotted or worn. We looked at the unit during the cab over repair and am happy with the way it is being fixed.
As for the trip. We averaged 8.25mpg with highway speeds at 62-65. The SS and dolly weigh in at 5200lbs. The GCWR of the MH is 20k. I hit a scale and came in at 17,700. We are happy with the MH and look forward to alot of use. Unfortunately even though we were reimbursed the repairs took our spending money for the trip. I am having a t-shirt with "I went to Virginia and all I got were tires" on the front and "I went to Tennessee and all I got was a brake caliper" on the back made! Enough rambling now..... it's time for bed.
2003 Dutchman 23J E-450
2006 Trailblazer SS 395hp LS2(family suv )
I'm a soon to be (2/09) "BabyDaddy" our first!
disce quasi semper victurus vive quasi cras moriturus
Good to hear Dusty's is taking care of you. I see them advertise units a lot on RV Trader (and similar sites). When I get serious about Moving to a Class C, I will keep in mind how they treated you. Word of Mouth is worth a lot to me.
Let us know how the repairs turned out. I like the removal of the front window. MAJOR problem in primary source of leaks in the overhead bunk area.
5,200 Lbs behind a class C without additional braking on the Toad/Dolly is a real concern for me Especially in mountains. I visit the Smoky Mountains a lot and it sounds like you were not even in the park on New Found Gap road (steep and narrow road with sharp turns) When the Brake caliper failure occured. Do you know if the Piston in the calipers are Phenolic or Steel ? I had Phenolic pistons crack several times on my Jeeps due to excessive heat and lock up / cause the pads to drag. I replaced them with steel. Only concern with steel is to bleed the brakes more ofter to remove moisture and prevent rusting & corision. of the piston and caliper.
Looking at your toad & dolly I can't help but think you are way overloaded on the towing end. What is the tow limit on your MH & hitch? Check out what your chassis mfg says about braking on toads. Most say that 1000# or 1500# is the limit for no brakes.
You are certainly lucky that Dusty's is stepping up to the plate and repairing the leak, damage, as well as paying for the tires and brakes. I am quite certain most dealers would not.
Good for you! You bought it, like it, dealer made you a price you liked and backed up their product! And you had a good vacation trip! Great start! Eliminating the front cabover window is a good idea.
Suggestion:
Replace the second caliper and both hoses. Calipers can stick at the piston, where they slide in their mounts, OR a hose can fail and not let the fluid escape after the brake is applied.
I agree that your TB is not the best toad. Towing backwards isn't recommended and it's heavy for a Class C, plus you add the weight of the dolly. Front end suspension isn't meant to be towed backwards. I think you'll see alignment and tire wear problems before very long. Worse, if a component fails, from your steering wheel lock to a tie rod, you'll lose control fast.
Looking again, I don't see where you say anything about an onboard generator. If you have one, did you run it and how well did it work?
I's forgotten to say before, I think the low mileage over the age of the coach can work against you. You don't want a 5-YOA coach with 125000 miles, but this one hasn't seen enough exercise.
Exercise is very important to generators. Without running often, like half load for half an hour a month, the carburetor can gum up and they are difficult/expensive to clean. Usually replacement is less expensive but there's lots of labor if the genset has to be removed from the coach for repair.
As far as the hitch on the MH. It is a class three hitch rated at 5k. The UVWR is 11800. The GVWR is 14500. The GCWR is 20000. My total weight was 17700. The dolly has surge brakes.... I know better than to tow without trailer brakes The dolly we bought is rated for 5k on the axle. I know that I was 200 lbs total weight over the 5k rating but my SS has almost a 50/50 weight distribution so I figured at most I had 3k on the dolly axle. The owners manual for my SS actually specifies to tow backwards with the RWD models and my dealer verified this. Also to clarify I strapped the steering wheel down with straps/ratchets around the steering wheel to the seat frame. All is a moot point with the SS as we bought a 1993 4cyl Mustang with 78k miles to run errands and am going to tow it instead. The SS gets 13mpg on required premium while the mustang gets 23mpg on regular. It also weighs a ton less which sould mean better mpg in the MH plus less total weight. It'll still be towed backwards but friends of ours towed a similar mustang that way years with no problems. The mechanic that did the caliper looked at all the brake lines and didn't see any bulging or deformities that would necessitate repairs. I might do them on my own sooner than later. Also the generator performs well. It had 100hrs on it when we bought the unit. Dustys had changed the oil and spark plug prior to purchase. We ran it some on vacation. I plan to do a full service before our next trip. After we pick the MH up I'll clean it up and post some pics.
I am very happy that your story went so well. That dealer should be commended for standing behind his used RV sale like that.
About towing.....We bought our first "conventional" motorhome last year and struggled a bit on the whole idea of towing. For simplicity, convenience, enjoyment, & fuel efficiency for both the the RV and car itself, we decided to purchase and dingy tow the light weight 2100 pound car you see in my signature. When my wife and I work together, we can drive off in the car in 45 seconds. It's that easy with the Roadmaster Falcon-II hitch system.
When driving the train, there were a couple times we got in trouble maneuvering in gas stations, and plenty of times where we spontaneously parked in places like visitor & welcome centers to tour an area with the car. The quick release of the hitch kit made those times work effortlessly. I think we would have kept driving otherwise.
We replaced our non-dingy-towable 2004 Chevy Aveo with the 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder convertible. The MR2 gets the same great 32mpg "actual" gas mileage as the Aveo, but it is so much more fun to drive to work in, and sight-see with in mountains and canyons. People always look in wonder how we traveled so far in that sporty little two-seat car.
My point is, if you are able to tow your Mustang with 4 wheels down, you would appreciate that convenience. If it can't be dingy towed, then you may want to consider other options to get that convenience.
* This post was
edited 06/13/08 12:30pm by ron.dittmer *
Bought new in June 2007, Phoenix Cruiser-2350
Fits inside our garage.
Dingy towing a red Toyota MR2 Spyder
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The dolly we bought is rated for 5k on the axle. I know that I was 200 lbs total weight over the 5k rating but my SS has almost a 50/50 weight distribution so I figured at most I had 3k on the dolly axle. The owners manual for my SS actually specifies to tow backwards with the RWD models and my dealer verified this. Also to clarify I strapped the steering wheel down with straps/ratchets around the steering wheel to the seat frame. All is a moot point with the SS as we bought a 1993 4cyl Mustang with 78k miles to run errands and am going to tow it instead. The SS gets 13mpg on required premium while the mustang gets 23mpg on regular. It also weighs a ton less which sould mean better mpg in the MH plus less total weight. It'll still be towed backwards but friends of ours towed a similar mustang that way years with no problems. The mechanic that did the caliper looked at all the brake lines and didn't see any bulging or deformities that would necessitate repairs. I might do them on my own sooner than later. Also the generator performs well. It had 100hrs on it when we bought the unit. Dustys had changed the oil and spark plug prior to purchase. We ran it some on vacation. I plan to do a full service before our next trip. After we pick the MH up I'll clean it up and post some pics.
