Thor Forums

[DocP]

Last weekend I took off by myself on my first big trip from Ohio to Florida in my new Hurricane 36M. Three hours into the trip along I77 in West Virginia I started to smell antifreeze, immediately saw billows of steam from the front end, the temperature gauge shot up to the red area, and I got the dash message - "reduced engine power, pull over". There were only 1138 miles on the odometer. Of course I was on a grade with a narrow shoulder and a guard rail, but I pulled off right away. I was so close to the guard rail over a ravine that I couldn't open the door all the way and had to squeeze out of the coach while trying not to go over the edge. My driver's side mirror was right on the line, yet many trucks and cars stayed in the lane, so the coach was really shaking as they passed. With all of the traffic and tight shoulder, there was no way that I was going to stand in front of the coach and pop the hood to see what was going on. Good times.

I called Ford Roadside Assistance (free for 5 years/60,000 miles on new units) and had to wait 3 hours for a big enough truck to arrive. I was told that the nearest authorized Ford truck dealer was 100 miles away and that they would pay for the tow. Being a Saturday, the facility was closed until Monday, so their solution was to tow me to a Wal Mart parking lot 10 miles away in Ripley WV for the weekend and they would come back on Monday to tow me the rest of the way.

Long story short. After sitting and stewing about my dilemma in the Wal Mart lot for several hours, I tried to determine why this occurred. Antifreeze everywhere in the engine compartment. As you all know, it's hard to see just about anything under the hood, so I just got back in the coach and spent the night. Vacation ruined? The next morning I decided to take a closer look. I ultimately found a 3/4" rubber hose just hanging there, not attached to anything! Turns out, it is supposed to be attached to the inlet port on the INVENSYS actuator motor (127-00020-001(80)). There was no clamp on the hose - perhaps there never was. I bought a clamp and antifreeze at the Wal Mart (it took 5 gallons to fill it), and then tested the system for 2 hours to make sure that it wasn't leaking and that the engine temperature held.

I got back on the road and there were no further incidents.

It's still not clear whether this is a Ford mess up, or if Thor installs this actuator motor. My research seems to indicate that the motor is involved with directing heat to the dashboard. Has anyone ever had this happen to them?

It's a bit frustrating to pay a decent amount of money to get something brand new, and then have to do the quality control work myself. Thanks for listening - I just had to vent a little. I still love the coach and the way it handles on the road.