More Redwood Issues!!!!

[hoosierguy]

Last year was a down year. We weren't able to do much traveling and didn't make our annual trip to Florida for the winter as we were required to stay home for some family responsibilities.

Last summer I had taken our coach to a service facility, here in north central Indiana, to investigate/repair an issue with a leaking grey water tank or leaking plumbing. At the time I did not know exactly what was the source of the problem which occurred during our prior 2016/2017 winter in Florida. The service facility had the coach for 3 to 4 weeks. We did take a week long trip in October during which everything checked out okay with leaking issue. After the trip, I winterized the coach and placed the coach in storage in my barn.

During the winter I had a couple of issues to resolve. First the ceiling fan had failed so I was able to replace the switch and a capacitor and ceiling fan works again. Secondly, the furnace had stopped firing so I needed to dig into that issue. That turned out to be more of a challenge than it should have been due to poor installation of the furnace in the first place at the factory. But, that is a story for another time. Just suffice it to say that eventually I tracked the problem down to a bad igniter control board which I replaced with a control board from Dinosaur Electronics. Now the furnace works again.

Well, here I go again. We are again planning on returning to Florida this winter, so, I am starting through my preparation/check list to make our 2012 36RL road worthy.

- check batteries, need water.
- inspect and grease the suspension system
- check the tires/wheels (GY G614 originally ordered with coach); replaced 2 tires in
2015 on heavy side of coach, will replace the other 2 tires that are now 7 years old
- check the spare tire; it has never been on the ground, still holding air at 115 psi,
but, the winch system did not want to lower the tire without some major coercion.

When I finally was able to lower the spare tire, I found some metal fragments laying in the wheel rim. So, I decided to drop the entire framework holding the wench to see what is causing the binding of the wench. I will have to finish this investigation later as the weather rained me out for now.

Unfortunately, while under the coach, I discovered that the service facility that worked for me last summer had done some shoddy work. They had not replaced 3 or 4 bolts that hold up the covering on the bottom of the coach. So, if I had not discovered this I would probably have found that covering flopping in the wind on the way to Florida this winter. I can repair the issue easily, but, it certainly is a major aggravation when you pay someone good money and then you find too late that they don't care about even basic quality of work. I guess I should have crawled under the coach last summer before I payed the bill. Needless to say, I will not be using that facility again.

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by hoosierguy

Last year was a down year. We weren't able to do much traveling and didn't make our annual trip to Florida for the winter as we were required to stay home for some family responsibilities.

Last summer I had taken our coach to a service facility, here in north central Indiana, to investigate/repair an issue with a leaking grey water tank or leaking plumbing. At the time I did not know exactly what was the source of the problem which occurred during our prior 2016/2017 winter in Florida. The service facility had the coach for 3 to 4 weeks. We did take a week long trip in October during which everything checked out okay with leaking issue. After the trip, I winterized the coach and placed the coach in storage in my barn.

During the winter I had a couple of issues to resolve. First the ceiling fan had failed so I was able to replace the switch and a capacitor and ceiling fan works again. Secondly, the furnace had stopped firing so I needed to dig into that issue. That turned out to be more of a challenge than it should have been due to poor installation of the furnace in the first place at the factory. But, that is a story for another time. Just suffice it to say that eventually I tracked the problem down to a bad igniter control board which I replaced with a control board from Dinosaur Electronics. Now the furnace works again.

Well, here I go again. We are again planning on returning to Florida this winter, so, I am starting through my preparation/check list to make our 2012 36RL road worthy.

- check batteries, need water.
- inspect and grease the suspension system
- check the tires/wheels (GY G614 originally ordered with coach); replaced 2 tires in
2015 on heavy side of coach, will replace the other 2 tires that are now 7 years old
- check the spare tire; it has never been on the ground, still holding air at 115 psi,
but, the winch system did not want to lower the tire without some major coercion.

When I finally was able to lower the spare tire, I found some metal fragments laying in the wheel rim. So, I decided to drop the entire framework holding the wench to see what is causing the binding of the wench. I will have to finish this investigation later as the weather rained me out for now.

Unfortunately, while under the coach, I discovered that the service facility that worked for me last summer had done some shoddy work. They had not replaced 3 or 4 bolts that hold up the covering on the bottom of the coach. So, if I had not discovered this I would probably have found that covering flopping in the wind on the way to Florida this winter. I can repair the issue easily, but, it certainly is a major aggravation when you pay someone good money and then you find too late that they don't care about even basic quality of work. I guess I should have crawled under the coach last summer before I payed the bill. Needless to say, I will not be using that facility again.

Hi Guy! I haven't been on this forum for long time but for some reason fell on it today. Sorry to hear that you haven't been able to use your rig lately but glad the future looks different.

As for the repairs, I'm afraid that's typical of most repair facilities. Unless you do it yourself, you'll find shortcuts. I think this is a disease of the RV industry as a whole.

Happy Trails my friend

[travelin' texans]

Good to hear from you Dave! Hope all is well!

[hoosierguy]

Dave, good to hear from you. I always try to do as much of my own repairs as possible, but, something like a tank issue is beyond my capability. Also, when I have to work while laying on my back and working overhead causes me to have issues of vertigo........severe dizziness.....not fun. So, I have to do it in very short stints. It is so much fun getting older!!!

Hope you and Ginny are doing well. Check in a little more often.

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by travelin' texans

Good to hear from you Dave! Hope all is well!

Hi Danny and Linda!

everything is fine with Ginny and I. We've travel quite a bit and hopefully we'll be heading to Vegas with the RV for a rally if we can get things wrapped up at the office. We're now buying another commercial building that sits on over 4 acres of land. We'll be breaking ground soon for a large building where we'll have huge garages for rent. 20x60 with in floor heat. This will be my retirement job playing land lard with "man caves".

How are you folks doing?

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by hoosierguy

Dave, good to hear from you. I always try to do as much of my own repairs as possible, but, something like a tank issue is beyond my capability. Also, when I have to work while laying on my back and working overhead causes me to have issues of vertigo........severe dizziness.....not fun. So, I have to do it in very short stints. It is so much fun getting older!!!

Hope you and Ginny are doing well. Check in a little more often.

I will Guy but to be honest I'm not even on the Entegra forums much anymore either. When I see the Redwoods driving down the highways, I get a fuzzy feeling remembering the "Beauty" and our friends. That first Redwood Rally will forever be in my mind as the funnest rally I've ever been to. We really had a good time

I'm still able to do almost all of our maintenance but I sure feel it later. I guess we're all getting older. Yesterday I received a new A/C unit for the middle of my coach. This will be another education for me because I'm never installed one of those before.

How life for you folks?

[NW Snowbirds]

"When I finally was able to lower the spare tire, I found some metal fragments laying in the wheel rim. So, I decided to drop the entire framework holding the wench to see what is causing the binding of the wench. I will have to finish this investigation later as the weather rained me out for now."

Those metal fragments are likely from the cable spool in the winch. Our winch failed and I replaced it. The spool is made from pot metal in India. The failing spool is also the reason it was hard to crank the tire down.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by NW Snowbirds

"When I finally was able to lower the spare tire, I found some metal fragments laying in the wheel rim. So, I decided to drop the entire framework holding the wench to see what is causing the binding of the wench. I will have to finish this investigation later as the weather rained me out for now."

Those metal fragments are likely from the cable spool in the winch. Our winch failed and I replaced it. The spool is made from pot metal in India. The failing spool is also the reason it was hard to crank the tire down.

Did you replace the wench with the same Lippert wench or a different one?

Thanks, Guy

[Dave&Ginny]

Guy,

I had to replace the winch on my Redwood several years ago because it fell apart. When I did I also found several of the self taping screws were broken and I was lucky i didn't loose the whole thing while bouncing down the highway. I ended up putting a safety chain on the whole assembly.

From that time on, I would lower the tires and spay lube on the wench about 3 times a year.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

Guy,

I had to replace the winch on my Redwood several years ago because it fell apart. When I did I also found several of the self taping screws were broken and I was lucky i didn't loose the whole thing while bouncing down the highway. I ended up putting a safety chain on the whole assembly.

From that time on, I would lower the tires and spay lube on the wench about 3 times a year.

Dave...........I have lowered the spare every year to check the tire and pressure. The wench had always worked well. I remember your posts about the broken screws, so, I had alway checked those also. I had never found any issues. Last year I did not do this because we weren't traveling. So, now the wench has apparently seized up.

I will be replacing the wench and for sure I will be using some spray silicone lube on it.

I am glad I found the problem now. It would not have been a lot of fun trying to lower that spare tire along the road somewhere.

Guy

[homeguy]

Originally Posted by hoosierguy

Unfortunately, while under the coach, I discovered that the service facility that worked for me last summer had done some shoddy work. They had not replaced 3 or 4 bolts that hold up the covering on the bottom of the coach. So, if I had not discovered this I would probably have found that covering flopping in the wind on the way to Florida this winter. I can repair the issue easily, but, it certainly is a major aggravation when you pay someone good money and then you find too late that they don't care about even basic quality of work. I guess I should have crawled under the coach last summer before I payed the bill. Needless to say, I will not be using that facility again.

On our way to Oregon last year, I was walking out of a Walmart and noticed something going on underneath near the rear of the coach. I got underneath and noticed our underbelly had come loose as well. Luckily, we had some of that white tape you use on the roofs, about $70 per roll at camping world, and was able to tape it back up. Never had a problem before but it was a good lesson to look underneath before going anywhere.

[hoosierguy]

Well, I removed the entire frame assembly that the spare tire wench is mounted on so I could get access to the mounting bolts. I wanted to see what was causing the wench to bind up. I was able to remove the wench. I then disassembled the wench by drilling out the ends of the rivet bolts that holds everything together. It turned out that there was no lubrication in the sleeve bearings that holds the worm gear shaft ends. Some galling of the bearing shaft was starting to occur. After cleaning all the parts and re-greasing the bearings and worm gear, the wench now works better than it ever has.

The cost of the same wench new from Lippert is $76.00 plus shipping. The same wench is available on Amazon for $56. So, this exercise saved me at least that much and now the wench operates smoothly again.

Also, Dave mentioned finding broken bolts in the past on his rig. While mounting the frame back onto the I-beam rails I snapped the heads off two of the bolts. It just doesn't take very much torque to snap off the heads.........snug up and stop.

[ET156]

I used stainless steel nuts and bolts to mount the spare tire rack to the frame. I also mounted a small chain from the crank handle to the mounting frame to keep the winch from backing off when driving down the road.

[Jeff&Karen39MB]

Have never lowered my spare, but after reading this I will do so. I replaced the self tapping screws after reading about folks driving down the road and loosing their spare. Good thing I did as they were already a couple busted ones and I couldn't understand why they would mount a tire rack with self tapping screws instead of stainless nuts and bolts, easier and cheaper I guess.
All in all I have had pretty good luck with this unit, and better luck when I started fixing everything I was able to instead of depending on a dealer, found that I took the time did it better may not be as fast as them, but above all I did it and got it done without having unit sit at shop for weeks at time with promises and were waiting on parts.
Here in The Great Outdoors in Titusville Fl we have Eagle Pride Rv shop on site and had to use them in 2016 as the Trail Air Hitch had some movement, it appeared lopsided and was getting a lot of banging when stopping even though I keep the hitch and fifth wheel greased.
They gave me an appointment, was ready when I arrived and and did a great job taking the nose of unit apart, sending pictures to Lippert and working with tech to resolve to manufactures standard of approval. Also had some bolts replaced where King pin plate is attached to hitch where I was having to constantly tighten and they put new bolts with lock washers and was very satisfied with work that was done. Still get a little chucking when stopping and starting, but I have read where that is a problem with the Trail Air Hitch, so I stop slow and take off slow and that seems to stop the banging.

Living life full timing since 2015 and enjoying it, didn't travel last year due to birth of granddaughter, she stole my heart and wallet when she was born, but love her none the less. Only traveling was when Hurricanes chased us to Beloxi Ms, but that was fine as I ate a ton of Dungenous crabs for $20.00 all you can eat at casino.
This year haven't traveled either as wife had to have back surgery in Va, so we left RV here, but she is on the mend, and we are now back in Florida, watching the weather to see if it will chase me out again, if it does maybe I'll get to go eat more Dungenous Crabs again, what a shame.
Hope everyone on this site is safe and healthy and may the ball always bounce in your court.

There is always the promise of travel again next spring.

[palmatiert]

New to the forum and need help! Had Redwood in storage. Went to get it, hooked up power to truck, jacks would not retract. Ensured Battery switch was on and pressed circuit breaker. Took batteries out and recharged them. Same results, inside lights will come on but slides and jacks won't work. Battery meter reads E. Put in two new batteries. Same results.

[markharris3]

Does anyone have troubles with leaking in the front storage. The tech said he fixed last year but every time it rain I have a puddle of water in the storage

[drj564]

Originally Posted by markharris3

Does anyone have troubles with leaking in the front storage. The tech said he fixed last year but every time it rain I have a puddle of water in the storage

I get this. 18 3901 MB. Rain comes in on left side through the top of the big door at the convenience center. I’ve added weather stripping but all I have managed to do is slow it down, not completely stop it. I also turned the door catches around so it pulls the door in tighter.

[Cheezy1]

If you examine the weather stripping around the door opening there are small areas near the latch plates that require some black silicone caulking to keep the rain out. Wouldn't believe that that much water could come in through those little gaps.

[MtnGoat52]

Originally Posted by martaz

Well here we go again, it just never ends with this RV.....for three years straight now. We have a 36FL and I must say it is without a doubt the most issue ridden RV we have ever owned, and we owned several RVs over the years. After months of haggling we finally got our front and rear faded caps painted and finally at last I was hoping we would have some peace with this RV. Now I see the sidewall below the living room slideouts is cracking. It just NEVER ends with terrible rig. We fulltime and as a result need our rig to stay in. Like I tell others who ask me about this trailer....don't buy one of these as I have had to become pretty much a full time RV technician to deal with ALL of the continuing issues with this thing...if I took it into the shop for repairs, and this is not stretching the truth, we would never be able to use the rig as it would be in the shop pretty much fulltime. What can I say, simply just a low quality piece of junk.

Ditto, Ditto, & Ditto...couldn't agree with you more...well said!

[mhs4771]

Sounds like you just got the "Luck of the Draw" and drew a major LEMON, but there are thousands of us who have next to no issues or very minor issues. Can happen with anything made by Man. Sorry for all your issues but Redwoods are no different than any of the other brands, Top of the line or Bottom of the line, seems it doesn't make a difference.