Maintenance, Troubleshooting

FINALLY SOME ANSWERS–PART II

We were very happy to have our E-trek back from Mercedes-Benz; however, we still had to address some problems with the dealer, such as the installation of the broken/missing parts. We had also discovered, when reviewing our paperwork, that we were missing the golf bag bar that should have been included with our XL package (extended 24’ chassis). So that was added to the to-do list for the dealer, and service was scheduled for the week of June 15th, when all of the parts, as well as the service technicians would be available.

Following are the open issues to be resolved:

  • Broken refrigerator latch to be replaced
  • Instant hot switchplate screw to be replaced
  • Golf bag bar/netting to be installed
  • Troubleshoot Webasto regarding automatic drain
  • Test battery charging systems, to include the solar panel charging system—which is not charging the batteries at all
  • Two of the cabinets were very hard to open, the “closet” next to the bathroom and one above the power sofa.
  • We also wanted to clarify with Roadtrek, the various battery charging rates as well as some vague terms from the manual (to be covered in our next post).

When we got to the dealer, we went straight to service and went over the to-do list. We then did a walk-through with the service technician, who right away said the cabinet door was warped so that would need to be replaced. He also confirmed that the problems we were experiencing with the Webasto were due to the battery being too low and triggering the automatic drain function. Now that the underlying battery charging issues has been identified (i.e., the alternator and serpentine belt replaced), we should not have this issue.

Regarding the solar, he noticed right away that some of the wires weren’t properly connected, so he that would explain why we weren’t seeing an increase charge during the day. However, he was surprised we were using the display on the inverter to track our findings. He fixed the faulty wire, but commented that the solar display panel provided by Roadtrek did not provide much information about the wattage, etc.

While he was replacing the various parts, we had a long discussion with the General Manager regarding our disappointment with all of the service issues we have experienced and Roadtrek’s failure to answer what we thought were basic questions. His explanation was that we were too analytical and our expectations were too high. He said in general there are more problems with Class B motorhomes—essentially they are works-in-progress.

 

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