Hood Hinge...AGAIN (Plus Venting!!)

Capt Joe · 10-20-2008, 06:09 AM

Well, since we purchased out Winnie in January of this year I have had to have the hinges on both sides of the hood reglued at the local Winnebago dealer using what I am told is the approved method. The drivers side failed and then one month later, the passenger side let go. That happened in May and June....and of course I got to pay twice for these repairs.

Now we are all the way to October and the drivers side has let go again. This is on top of my W22 brakes going out again...but that is anothe story I posted in the Workhorse Chassis forum.... and the 8.1 seems to have developed a slight miss under a load (changed the fuel filter but it is still missing so our MH is still in the shop to be fixed and waiting to be taken back to the Winnebago dealer to have the hinges fixed again).

I am getting a bit frustrated with the continued problems cropping up. It's not totally the $$$ involved, although that is certainly a factor, but the lack of confidence we have in making a trip and being able to return home with a servicable MH.

We have been RVing for quite a few years with towables and I have owned boats for over 50 years with very few problems. I am very familiar with mechanical/electrical systems and recogize the value of PM so I tend to be pretty anal about my service and maintenance. I also owned and operated several businesses, including a boat dealership, so I do know a bit about keeping things operating.

I guess I'm just needing to vent as all of these things need to be taken care of for a trip we have planned in about a month and a half to go with friends up to Ashville, NC so the ladies can take in the Biltmore in all its Christmas splendor and we can take the Candlelight tour. I'm hoping we can get it all working right so we can have confidence that we will be able to pull off this trip without problems.

Thanks for letting me vent....

Capt Joe · 10-20-2008, 06:09 AM

Well, since we purchased out Winnie in January of this year I have had to have the hinges on both sides of the hood reglued at the local Winnebago dealer using what I am told is the approved method. The drivers side failed and then one month later, the passenger side let go. That happened in May and June....and of course I got to pay twice for these repairs.

Now we are all the way to October and the drivers side has let go again. This is on top of my W22 brakes going out again...but that is anothe story I posted in the Workhorse Chassis forum.... and the 8.1 seems to have developed a slight miss under a load (changed the fuel filter but it is still missing so our MH is still in the shop to be fixed and waiting to be taken back to the Winnebago dealer to have the hinges fixed again).

I am getting a bit frustrated with the continued problems cropping up. It's not totally the $$$ involved, although that is certainly a factor, but the lack of confidence we have in making a trip and being able to return home with a servicable MH.

We have been RVing for quite a few years with towables and I have owned boats for over 50 years with very few problems. I am very familiar with mechanical/electrical systems and recogize the value of PM so I tend to be pretty anal about my service and maintenance. I also owned and operated several businesses, including a boat dealership, so I do know a bit about keeping things operating.

I guess I'm just needing to vent as all of these things need to be taken care of for a trip we have planned in about a month and a half to go with friends up to Ashville, NC so the ladies can take in the Biltmore in all its Christmas splendor and we can take the Candlelight tour. I'm hoping we can get it all working right so we can have confidence that we will be able to pull off this trip without problems.

Thanks for letting me vent....

RCtime · 10-20-2008, 07:02 AM

No charge for venting on this forum and it does help some.
I had a similar problem with my Journey. I gently backed into a post and it broke loose all the glued on brackets for the rear lower facia.
When I had it repaired, the facility that repaired it said there was only one way they fix it, to make it a durable fix. They fiberglassed the brackets back in.
You might look into this method of attatching your hinges.

smlranger · 10-20-2008, 07:32 AM

My lower rear fascia is also letting loose and one side of the generator access door is giving way. I have to take my coach to a local, trusted collision repair facility for some minor damage I caused on our recent trip out West and I plan to ask him about re-attaching the panels. If he doesn't have a better idea, I plan to use some stainless fasteners and be done with it.

I like my Winnebago and I'd likely buy another. However, it does seem there have been enough failures of their attachment process that they would come up with a more reliable scheme (like glassing the attachment tabs into the panels).

autofish · 10-20-2008, 07:42 AM

I also had the hinges fail after about 3 yrs and 25000 miles a little JB weld epoxy took care of the problem for the past 5yrs and another 25k miles holds fine so far

John_Canfield · 10-20-2008, 08:11 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RCtime:
.....When I had it repaired, the facility that repaired it said there was only one way they fix it, to make it a durable fix. They fiberglassed the brackets back in.
You might look into this method of attatching your hinges. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Absolutely agree. Using fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin (after roughing up the panel with 80 grit sandpaper on a grinder) will make for a permanent fix.

FireStarter · 10-20-2008, 11:25 AM

I had the same engine miss problem. It turned out to be fried spark plug wires. Do a search on spark plug wires.
Good luck

Jackm · 10-20-2008, 01:00 PM

As any experienced motorhome owner will tell you, maintenace and upkeep is part of the game. There may be motorhomes in the future that are as reliable as a Honda Civic but not today. Keep in mind, these are homes that go down the road. That's a lot of vibration and a lot of stuff that can malfunction. That's why motorhomes are often referred to as "rolling maintenance".

That being said, there will come a time when you will resolve most of your problems. It took us a good year before we could relax on the road. The Brave is a solid, time-tested model that should ultimately give you everything you need. But it will take some time and a fair amount of patience. Best of luck and maybe we'll see you on the road.

Jack

Capt Joe · 10-20-2008, 04:05 PM

Thanks for all the replies.
I do recognize that the maintenance and upkeep is a part of the deal....as mentioned above, I owned and operated a boat dealership and have seen some horror shows with a few boats. I have also owned a whole bunch of boats over the years and do believe that a boat has a harder life than a motorhome given not only the hostile saltwater environment (locally) but also the vibrations and pounding they take. Thae said, a couple of manufacturers I represented did step up and take care of their customers (MY customers) when the dealer got involved in the process. I really haven't seen much support form the dealers with the continuing problems in the motorhome arena. They are very happy to take your money....at about $100/hour for tech time....to take a stab at fixing the problems we are facing.

I realize that in my case, I bought a used unit from an individual, but I do feel the dealer has an obligation to assist in helping any owner of one of the products they represent when they face problems that seem to keep on happening...brakes, hood hinges, etc.
OK..Off soap box now. I do realize that it is incumbant upon me to do due diligence and keep up with all the maintenance, scheduled PM, etc and do my part in keeping the wheels turning...and will continue to do so.

One other question I do have is regarding the engine miss and spark plugs/wires. Is there any particular plug/wire that is more apt to cause a problem? I talked with the shop today and they said that mine had a miss on the #6 plug. The plug wasn't firing and they felt it may be the coil for that cylinder. They were to put a new coil on this afternoon and try it. I did mention the wire problem that somehave experienced and they were going to check the wires too. Should hear in the am. Hope it is something simple like that and I can get a definative fix for it.
Anybody else have the #6 plug misfiring?

Thanks,

JC2 · 10-21-2008, 10:40 AM

Capt Joe:
I also had the hinges come loose on (3) different occasions this yr,(April,and twice in June). I called Winnie customer service and diplomatically stated that there was obviously a design flaw on this setup and that other owners had been encountering the same problem. They covered each of the redos as a goodwill repair. The last time it went to the Winnie dealer, I had them put stainless steel screws/washers/nuts through each one as needed and paint them white to match the outer paint. I am going to contact a local fiberglass shop and see about maybe adding a couple of latches similiar to thesehttp://www.cclsecurity.com/products/catches-enclosures/ at the top of the hood.
As far as your possible plug/plug wire problem, I had #3 wire burn last year and have since replaced the wires with Taylor 409 wires and have not had any problems since. They are a heavier duty wire and can be bought from I believe Brazel's, http://www.brazelsrv.com/ Summit Racinghttp://www.summitracing.com/or OEMY's websitehttp://oemys-performance.com/
If you still have the original spark plugs, I would consider replacing them with AC41-932 if available or AC41-993 and gap them @ .045. I believe these can also be purchased at the previously mention sites.

Capt Joe · 10-21-2008, 11:01 AM

Thanks for the info and links, JC2.
I have just gotten my Brave out of the repair shop and dropped it off at the Winnie dealer for the hood hinge repair. As they did the repair only about 3 months ago, they should do the repair at no cost. I'm going to have some SS fasteners put in on top of the epoxy on both sides. It is hard to believe they don't have some sort of mechanical fasteners in there anyway.

My engine miss was actually a bad coil on the #6 cylinder. Replaced the coil and plug and it ran great. I hooked up the Vue to put a bit of a load on it when I drove it across town (probably about 6 or 8 miles) to the Winnie dealer and it didn't miss a beat. I had the wires looked at closely and they didn't see any indication of over heating or burning on them so I'm going to run with what I've got thru the winter and might change them out for some of the Taylors or other more heat resistant ones in the spring.

Hopefully these most recent bugs will fix 'er up for a while.

Thanks Again,