We finally got back this morning from our 3 ½ week road trip out west. For the most part, everything went well …. until we got to Moab.
For starters, we left Maryland and headed west following I90 west until Indiana where we were stoping off in Elkhart to get out full wall slide looked at because the controller was throwing a short circuit code on motor 1. I spoke to Thor and let them know my plans and they said they they would get the slide fixed free of charge at a local dealer (Total Value RV) since their bays were full. Total Value RV got us in quickly and found out that the motor had been installed a little crooked which was tearing up the gear teeth and also the slide rail, not to mention it grabbed the wires and were slowly stripping them away. So they replaced everything, the motor, slide rails, wiring, and weather stripping. Everything seemed to go as planned and we got 2 extra days in Elkhart to look around (I wanted to give them extra time in case they needed it). Proceeding west, we made all the typical stops, Wall Drug, Badlands, Falls Park in Sioux Falls on our way to Mount Rushmore. So far so good. The slide and everything else worked perfectly. Even the wife was happy with the shower since I got a new water softener to hook up. Onward to Yellowstone where we spent three days to look around, then off to Salt Lake City, Bryce, Zion, Monument Valley, and then to Moab before heading home. Even though there was a lot of driving, all of the sights were well worth it and we even did some white water rafting at Moab.
Then, the sh!t hit the fan in Moab. The full wall slide failed again with the same error code. I took apart what I could to get a look at things, and the wiring looked good but the motor moved slightly when running the slide out. The slide would not go out at all, it would just move about 1 inch and then stop. The rear would get to about 1.5 inches and stop. So I tried to retract the slide and it came back in … so I thought. We had one hell of a storm that night, lots of lightning and rain. When we woke up, there was some water on the floor. We were scratching our heads wondering where it came from. Did it come from the A/C ducts somehow from the high winds and deluge of water? After the rain stopped, I walked around and could see that the seal was not tight against the coach in the rear of the slide. I hit the retract button several times, but the slide did not move. The first thought I had was $%@ ^!%$@ %$^^ slide. We could live with the slide in, but not having it all the way in was an issue. My son could even use the drop down bed without the ladder by using the dinette seat to jump in to bed. I called Thor and they said it sounded like the slide was out of sync and to try to run it our and in a few times to sync it up. Well duh, it doesn't move out, so how can I sync it up?
By this time, we had to get moving because we needed to get back home by the weekend (isn't working great?). We headed to Colorado. Once in Colorado, I remember reading about overriding the slide. I went out and pushed the override button 7 times and then it went into override mode. I ran back in and hit the retract button and that pulled the slides in as tight as they could get. Water problem solved.
Onward to Kansas City. Nothing really bad there, just an overnight stay.
Then to Dayton Ohio. We stayed one night with the deluge following us. We decided to sleep in because we were almost home and didn't anticipate anything going wrong … boy were we wrong.
We got out on the road around 10am to head home. About ½ into the drive, I see that the high beam indicator is on and my stereo is showing me the rear camera view. The only problem is, I am not in reverse and the lights are not on. Hitting the blinkers does not bring up the side view. The horn does not work. I turn on the light switch for the headlights and find out that my lights are not working. Again, first thought What the $@%@^ &#^#%&# is wrong now? We pull into a rest stop, I turn everything off (engine, lights, etc). I restart the coach and they seem to work. We drive off again and the first time I signal to pass, the high beam indicator comes on again and the stereo turns on the rear camera. %#%#%!!!!!!! This happens several times and sometimes it would just go off by itself. I am thinking there is a major short someplace in the wiring. I pull over and see that the A/C is dripping all over the wires on the passenger side. Down in to the wire loom. I get some wire ties but before relocating them to a dryer location, I pull them all out of the plastic loom and dry them off, then mount them up and out of the way. Yeah, this solves nothing just burns more light. So now I have no lights up front. I do however have lights in the rear of the coach, blinkers, running lights, everything. Absolutely nothing up front, no fog lights, headlights, running lights, LEDs, noting, zilch. I don't even have a horn. Apparently all of this is hooked together in some fashion.
Well anyway, we get about ¾ way home on I70 and it is pouring and getting dark. I really have no choice but to pull over. There was nothing around, so we had to sit on the side of I70 because with no headlights, I couldn't take any chances. I am thinking Yeah, this is real safe. We couldn't drive anymore because it was raining hard and getting dark. But I didn't want to get hit in the rear either. Luckily I was towing and ended up turning on my jeep lights so people could at least see the rear and I illuminated the RV by turning on the off road lights. Great way to spend the last day. So we slept there .. in the middle of nowhere. We woke up and drove off as soon as we had enough light. Turns out it was 10 miles before the next exit. A little far with the conditions we had.
Now I am home and pissed off and someone is getting an earful and needs to get this figured out ASAP. I already notified Thor and the dealer where I bought it. It's going on their lot and I will not take it back until everything is fixed. I cannot take a chance on losing lights on the road again, that's too dangerous. I guess I am cancelling the rest of the summer vacation unless they get it fixed and can prove to me that the lights especially will not fail. As of right now I don't trust it enough.
I am however, going to go buy some wire spools and if need be, directly wire the lights to the switch myself because there is something definitely wrong with their wiring harness.
Oh, and with talking to Thor, there is no way that I can lose lights, horn and have the stereo do what I am saying it does. Good thing I had my wife take video and catch it in action.
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