An RV Tale: How I Decided To Stop Worrying and Just Love My RV

By Zack Bowen

We fell in love with our first coach during the summer of 2007.

We purchased a 1999 Holiday Rambler Imperial, the battleship of the Holiday Rambler line. I was comfortable with that coach because the name gave me a false sense of security knowing that they were owned at by Harley Davidson at one time (I had worked helping to take Harley Public as one of my earlier projects on Wall Street).

We took delivery of the coach on a July day and left that evening on its maiden voyage, driving first to Indiana to pick up our daughter who visiting friends near Indianapolis, and then on to Wisconsin for the EAA Air Venture Air show in Oshkosh.

For our first overnight extended stop, we pulled into a packed RV parking area in Oshkosh at 3 a.m. (in a field with no hookups) and promptly clipped the side of a trailer, rousting our neighbors. Hi, everybody! Eventually, we shut down the unit and went to sleep.

The next day we woke up to…nothing. No electricity, no water pump, no water, no lights, no working bathroom…nothing.

I called Bob Cox, the owner of Stoltzfus RV’s & Marine, the West Chester, Pa., dealership where we’d purchased the Rambler (he had the misfortune of being a friend and, yes, I had his personal cell phone number). He walked me through the process of what had likely gone wrong. For one thing, we actually hadn’t shut anything off overnight.

By then my worried pacing (along with open bay doors) had drawn the attention of my neighbors. We had no tools or spare parts. But I was at the ultimate mechanical tinkerers’ convention. It didn’t matter that the item in question not an airplane but an RV. The only thing that mattered was: it’s mechanical.  The Oshkosh air show has one of the largest public flea markets in the country and attracts some of the top aircraft mechanics in the world. As it turns out, a lot of those mechanics have other machines besides airplanes, such as classic motorcycles, cars, and RVs. While others at the air show spent the weekend in classes learning about their airplanes, I spent the time learning about our RV. We were up and running in no time.

When we got back, the whole family was filled with that “new toy” excitement. We began to use the motorhome as a mobile ski lodge on trips to the Poconos and the Catskills.  It was great. We had our own apartment in the parking lot of the resort complete with satellite TV, a fridge, and warm meals when the kids wanted a break.

However what I didn’t realize right away was that RVs are not made like automobiles. They offer no corrosion protection to speak of.  In addition, there are many more nooks and crannies on an RV that road salt can hide in, making it impossible to clean with a simple undercarriage washing, even in a truck stop wash. In time a pattern developed: the rear of the unit corroded much worse than the front. In a diesel pusher, that meant that the cheaper diesel engine (the generator) was in better shape that the expensive engine (the chassis engine). In the end, the corrosion got worse and worse, even though structurally it was OK.

The turning point came on a college tour visiting schools in upstate New York one spring. While staying in Letchworth State Park near Buffalo, we ripped off the main awning off the coach by wedging it against a tree. Then, on the New York State Thruway, we had our diesel fuel line return come loose because of a rusted connection, spraying a cloud of diesel fuel behind us for an hour until a good Samaritan alerted us to it.  We were stuck overnight trying to get parts to splice the fuel line together. I ended up smelling like diesel since there was no water left in the coach to wash with — I’d convinced my bride that we didn’t need to fill up with water at Letchworth and could save the weight because we were staying at a commercial campground at Lake Placid and could get all the water we needed.

We decided to go home to Pennsylvania. Near Binghamton, N.Y., my rear view camera caught our towed Honda CRV pulling out to the shoulder in what looked like in an effort to pass the RV. The tow bar had come apart on the pot-holed upstate roads and one arm had come entirely separated. I managed to slowed down gradually without hitting the guardrail with the CRV and unhitched the car. My wife Linda took the car and three kids and drove home, while I stayed with what was left of the RV.

When I finally limped home and took the coach directly to the repair shop, I parked onto the concrete apron in front of the garage doors, shut down the unit, opened the door to get out, and heard a loud crash as the radiator fell out of rear side the frame of the engine compartment, spilling what appeared to be at least 50 gallons of radiator and transmission fluid.

In the end, I had the undercarriage diamond plated and recoated and resealed, but by then I had just lost faith in the reliability of the unit altogether. Getting parts during the manufacturer’s bankruptcy became a real issue. I began to look for a replacement.

That was when I bought the Winnebago. We ordered a new Itasca J unit in 2015, added a Zodiac in 2016, and finally a towable Boston Whaler boat to haul behind the Winnebago in 2019. We always raise a few eyebrows on the ramp launching the boat off the back of the RV.

Still, it took two years to work the kinks out of the unit and achieve the reliability I was looking for and complete the modifications I needed for a rolling office we were using for our firm, Bowen Asset Management.  Rather than a custom-made coach similar to the Holiday Rambler Imperial, the Itasca J was a manufactured vehicle made like a car.  Each wire had a unique code stamped on it to be identified. The complete owner’s manual and wiring and plumbing manuals were available online.

A large portion of my repair time in the old coach had been spent identifying the wiring harness and tracing the wires back the length of the coach. It seemed that each unit was unique with unique parts and wiring. Winnebago was a breath of fresh air and made it easy by standardizing and coding the wiring making it easy to identify what wires went where. In addition, unlike Holiday Rambler, Winnebago adhered to standard automobile manufacturing practices. It wasn’t that the quality of the workmanship of the Holiday Rambler Imperial was poor. It was just so custom-made that it made repairing the unit very difficult for someone new to RV ownership. You had to identify each part and know what it did and where it was located and why.

The other joy with the Winnebago was dealing with Mercedes Benz for the chassis work. The Mercedes Sprinter technician population in the northeast was sufficient for me to get the unit worked on whenever I needed it worked on.

So far, with 80,000 miles on the unit, I have been very happy. It has never been out of use for more than three days except for a generator replacement (under warranty, took three weeks). But even then, I was able to use the unit with a portable generator to charge the batteries; I just couldn’t use the air conditioning while we were waiting for the new generator to arrive.

I have been to the Winnebago service center in Forest City, Iowa, three times for warranty work (flooring and upholstery) and it was worth the trip for what I learned in the process. I still have issues over some of the lamination on the cabinets and will take it back to the factory again the next time I am in the area.

The Itasca we opted for is a Class C based upon a Sprinter Chassis.  Winnebago was the first manufacturer to gain exclusive access to the Sprinter chassis for motorhome conversion. We selected the Sprinter based on size. Most but not all camping had evolved into just my wife Linda and I, but the kids wanted to use the new unit on their own.  Driving around a 24-footer is substantially less intimidating than a 40-foot monster.

There were still problems with the new Winnebago, however. This is to be expected. Customers don’t expect any issues when they pick up a new cars, but with new RVs it does not work like that. There are too many parts for the dealer to possibly know what is wrong with the unit. It is a good idea to sleep in the unit on the grounds of the dealership to catch the most obvious issues with the unit before driving off into the sunset. Though most problems are “user error,” many are not and can be easily corrected in the dealership. 

The issues I had with my coach were primarily three design issues. 

One was due to an effort on the engineering side (as revealed to me by one of the Winnebago service technicians who specialized in floor repairs) trying to make the RV lighter. In doing so, the engineers decided to remove some of the steel support pieces in the floor. The floor of our unit started to sag in some well-traveled places. We put plywood down to reinforce the floor so we could continue to use the unit. When we brought the unit to the Iowa factory they told me they had to drop the drive train and install the steel support pieces. I left the unit at the plant for two weeks for repairs. The sagging stopped but they did have to cut up part of the floor and lay down some floor trim.

The other two issues were sub-contractor issues. As noted earlier, Winnebago had issues with the glue used for the veneer for the cabinets, while the seat coverings began to come apart as surface pitted.  I had my unit completely reupholstered at the factory. I then reinforced the springs in the dinette so they would not sag and rebuilt the framework around the dinette to hold the cushions in place when using the dinette as a bed.

All in all we have been happy with the unit. We have taken numerous short trips and even a few cross country trips in all seasons and look forward to more. Stoltzfus RV and Marine in West Chester have always been helpful pointing me in the right direction trying to learn how to fix these things myself, and rescuing me when I get in too deep.Mercedes Benz of West Chester is wonderful for all things Sprinter related. The other useful thing is the  View/Navion Facebook page and its administration. They are a great bunch of tech crazy people to be in touch with any time you have a breakdown, any time, anywhere, and need answers fast related to the Sprinter Based Winnebago models.

Other modifications we have made include:

1. Adding KVH satellite system.
2. Adding (4) 6 Volt Lifeline Batteries- I just replaced them after six years of service.
3. Installing window awning over all exterior windows. They act as wind scoops and provide shade and keep the unit cooler in the summer- one of the best additions for summer use.
4. AM Solar System with (4) 130 Watt Hard Panels on roof.
5. Added Custom Made Marine Carpet to the floor that is held in place by hook and loop allowing part of the carpet to come up for retraction of slide.