New Four Winds 24F owner

[JimOIB]

Howdie - I’ve been lurking on this forum for about a month and decided to join. Lots of great information and tips here.

Any FW 24F owners? I took ownership of one in May 2017. Would like to hear what other folks think of their rig. Mine...problems starting to surface on this long trip. Big one - rear slide mechanism busted and I’m RVing without an operational slide. Only 6k miles and about 17 slide cycles. More later.

[JimOIB]

So here’s the story. First, we love the rig - perfect size for us and the cat. Wife is a bit claustrophobic so the full slide works for her. We had the usual QA issues on our 3 shakedown cruises and fixed them ourselves. Then we started out on our trip from NC to NM for 5 weeks. Bigger things started to show up but the slide was the icing on the cake.

Slide had been in and out 13 times this trip and on the second night in Roswell we heard a loud pop in the wall where the slide meets the rear of the coach. Next morning were we packing up, hit the slide retract button and the front of the slide moved but not the back. We heard the motor turning but no movement. Called Thor and they suspected a broken coupling in the bearing block. I was able to push and pull the rear in as wife retracted the front.

Moved on to Santa Fe and manually opened the slide so a mobile tech could look at it. I did a little inspection and found the back of the slide was not on the roller under it - at least a quarter inch of space so the weight of the rear of the slide was on the 3 trax gears...probably not a good thing. Mobile tech called back and told me they didn’t work on the Schwintek because they are too hard to fix in the field. He recommended disengaging the motor and pushing the slide in and apply slide locks.

Ok, being a retired systems engineer this was unsatisfying and I needed to know what was going on. I pealed back the slide wipe and low and behold the motor was loose on top of the bearing block...but wait...the manual says there should be a motor retaining screw...nope, a hole for one but no screw.

I tried to get the motor back into the bearing block but it wouldn’t go flush. It appears there is a pressed sleeve in the bearing block that pushed up about 3/8 of an inch and kept the motor from going in. Must have been that weight of the slide the roller should have taken.

So, going back to NC to see dealer -wife in cab over bunk and me on dinette.

[Hickorybill]

We will be getting our new 24F in a few weeks, and we're getting excited.

As these are essentially hand made I understand there are typically a few things that need fixing.

I hope to be posting a lot once we get ours.

[Bob Denman]

"Good luck, and welcome!", to the new rig owners.
Jimbo, I hope that you get yours sorted out quickly!

[JohnJ]

Going to go out this weekend for the first time. We have done our homework and now need to learn.
Has anyone installed an inverter for when traveling and wanting to use, say a crockpot, while traveling?

[Bob Denman]

Welcome to the Party, and good luck on your first outing!
Running a crock-pot? Wouldn't that be covered by the "normal" electrical setup in your rig? If you're plugging into Shore Power at your destination: you'd be good to go. On the road: you would probably be okay with the Chassis alternator (or for sure: your generator)
Let us know how it works!
(And what you cooked! )

[cannelle]

Hi, New at this will be getting our unit at the end of November, we are from Ottawa area, Ontario, with winter lurking, our first trip will have to be going to warmer climate. Hoping that we do not encounter major problems as we will be far away from our dealer?
been reading blogs and noticed owner,s club membership numbers what membership should a new comer to Rving gets that cover Canada/USA ?
Any suggestion on overnight stay in December on our way south towards SC?

[Peterrrr]

Originally Posted by cannelle

Hi, New at this will be getting our unit at the end of November, we are from Ottawa area, Ontario, with winter lurking, our first trip will have to be going to warmer climate. Hoping that we do not encounter major problems as we will be far away from our dealer?
been reading blogs and noticed owner,s club membership numbers what membership should a new comer to Rving gets that cover Canada/USA ?
Any suggestion on overnight stay in December on our way south towards SC?

Welcome and congratulations on your purchase. I am also from Ottawa, and travel to the southwest for the winter. PassPort America, is the only membership that I continue to use. Some parks have restrictions during the winter for the discount so you have to check it. Have used GoodSam but did not renew as only used it once in the past year. Past winters, the first night South have stayed at the Penn Welcome Centre(NY-PA Border), Binghamton New York WalMart, Home Depot in Carlisle PA. Few years back a Home Depot in Virginia. Depends on your distance and the times you leave and the time of year. In December its going to be cold and most of the Campgrounds in NY and PA are closed just after our Thanksgiving. If you want a camp ground, then there is one in Cortland NY open (not many spots and could be muddy) and Harrisburg PA. The Harrisburg one is too pricey now in my opinion. My BIL two years ago left in January and they stayed in a Hotel for the first two nights as it was just too cold in the RV. You have to pick your window of travel out as North of Syracuse you could get Lake Affect snow, which is not pretty to go through.

[TexasJoe]

Hello fellow 24F-ers!
We just picked ours up yesterday and are spending our second nite in it tonite. So far so good and I hope it stays that way as long as possible! We are in the Columbus, TX area and slowly making our way towards the Texas Hill Country over the next few days, meandering as we go! I will be keeping tabs on this post and will offer any tips I come up with as we go forward. As of now I am still trying to figure things out so I'm not much use at this point, but I am a fairly quick study!
Is there a group for 24F owners on here? I would like to join if so. If not does anyone know how to start one? Again, I would love to join to learn and contribute.
I welcome any/all responses.
Thanks!

[cannelle]

glad to read that you are doing good, hoping to get ours this week or at the latest end of the month. So for us it will be winter camping for our first outing since we had our first snowfall today.
looking forward to your comments. safe travel