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Old 11-07-2017, 05:59 PM   #1
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Buying a Sunstar 27N?? Issues??

We are thinking of purchasing a 2013 Sunstar 27N with 22,000 miles on it and would love to hear what people have to say about theses units. The good, the bad and the ugly. New to this kind of RVing. Thanks. Ron
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Old 11-12-2017, 06:00 PM   #2
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We owned one for 4 years, with no problems. Only complaint is the rear queen bed is not useable if the closet slide is in. Otherwise a good unit.

David
2017 SunStar30T 30T
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Old 11-12-2017, 06:38 PM   #3
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The good: Great floor plan for 1 or 2 persons. Nice sized bathroom with decent size shower with a seat. Full size Queen bed. Lots of bedroom storage. Length under 30 feet makes it fit in 30' limit camping spaces. Huge water, grey, and black tanks. Over 100 square feet of basement storage. Plenty of Cargo Carrying Capacity. Tires used have plenty of capacity headroom.

The bad: The passenger side basement compartments are not watertight, plan on carpet in them getting wet when traveling in rain. Not well insulated, making it difficult to keep warm or cool in weather extremes. Very bad quality stock bathroom fan. Typical Ford F53 average fuel economy of 7 MPG or so at 65 MPH when pulling a toad.

The ugly: Driving experience of unmodified stock unit.

If you buy, do the following right away:

- replace the bathroom fan
- do the CHF (cheap handling fix)
- add a SAFE-T-STEER steering stabilizer
- do a 5 Star Tune Engine Control Module upgrade
- go under coach and tie up wiring harness - it will be hanging down in places
- go under coach and seal cable entry points into basement.
Some will be improperly sealed.
- make sure that roof sealing is good , in particular around the shower skylight.
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Old 11-13-2017, 12:12 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by powercat_ras View Post
If you buy, do the following right away:

- replace the bathroom fan
- do the CHF (cheap handling fix)
- add a SAFE-T-STEER steering stabilizer
- do a 5 Star Tune Engine Control Module upgrade
- go under coach and tie up wiring harness - it will be hanging down in places
- go under coach and seal cable entry points into basement.
Some will be improperly sealed.
- make sure that roof sealing is good , in particular around the shower skylight.
Powercat, I recently purchased a used 2016 Sunstar LX 27n, I assume most of these fixes apply to me as well? Can someone post a link to the CHF, I've searched for an hour and can't seem to find the exact instructions out there. Where can I find information on the 5 Star Tune Engine Control Module upgrade too?
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Old 11-13-2017, 03:31 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by starcrwzr View Post
Powercat, I recently purchased a used 2016 Sunstar LX 27n, I assume most of these fixes apply to me as well? Can someone post a link to the CHF, I've searched for an hour and can't seem to find the exact instructions out there. Where can I find information on the 5 Star Tune Engine Control Module upgrade too?
This is why I think the owners of IRV.2 made a HUGE mistake separating out just the Winnebago brand from the dozens of brands of RVs their big forum IRV2.COM supports.

To find the posts on the topics that are of general interest to all RV brands, you need to join IRV2.COM and search for the CHF ( Cheap Handling Fix ) thread and search for posts on 5 Star Tune.

You can search for posts from powercat_ras and you will find numerous posts on the mods and upgrades I have made to my Vista 27N.
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Old 11-14-2017, 09:45 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by powercat_ras View Post
This is why I think the owners of IRV.2 made a HUGE mistake separating out just the Winnebago brand from the dozens of brands of RVs their big forum IRV2.COM supports.

To find the posts on the topics that are of general interest to all RV brands, you need to join IRV2.COM and search for the CHF ( Cheap Handling Fix ) thread and search for posts on 5 Star Tune.

You can search for posts from powercat_ras and you will find numerous posts on the mods and upgrades I have made to my Vista 27N.
I agree. And someone in their infinite wisdom decided to block photobucket images - FOR PAID ACCOUNTS!!!

Oh well.

Good post - not much has changed in ten years - I've done all the same things to my '05 unit with workhorse chassis. [shrug]
Otherwise they build a good unit.

Some recent updates...
• ARP unit with fan for the Norcold refer - safety and performance. Check 'em out.
• Replaced the skylight over the shower - it cracked from a branch hitting it during a wind storm - was aged and brittle from sun damage. Sealed with Eterna-bond - stuff is amazing.
• Added a RoadMaster RSSA steering damper - just really tired of the steering wandering back and forth especially with the toad.
• UltraTune ecu update was done very early on - performance is good if not fuel economy - still gets about 7.5 towing, but up to 10 without.
• Tires - a 2013 should still be fine, but be sure to check the sidewalls for cracking/checking. I put new Michelin XRV's on the front, Sumitomo's on the rear.
• Took the tube TV's out and installed flat-screens
• Removed the sun-side graphic stripes and painted them on. If you buy full-body paint and it sits out year round the clear-coat will deteriorate and flake off at about 10 years (if you're lucky).
• Replaced the front shocks with new Bilsteins - ride is improved.
• At least a couple of our double-pane windows are fogging inside so I'm getting ready to remove them, disassemble, clean, and reseal them. A known issue for Winnebago and other double pane windows. Sometimes you'll not have an issue, but I'd say 50-50 chance by about 5-7 years you'll have one where the seal between the panes fails and moisture gets in.
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Old 11-15-2017, 07:52 AM   #7
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Is it easy to access the fridge & toilet with the slides in? Looks like pretty tight access to both when the passenger slide is in.
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Old 11-15-2017, 10:52 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by al1florida View Post
Is it easy to access the fridge & toilet with the slides in? Looks like pretty tight access to both when the passenger slide is in.
Yes it is easy, at least for me. The things you can't access/use on the 27N floor plan with slides in are:

= the storage under the kitchen sink.
= the kitchen sink, if you close the full wall slide with both sink covers on
= the bottom 6 drawers in the bedroom
= the driver's side nightstand drawer and driver's side wardrobe door
= the large TV on the wall is blocked by the dinette slide.
= the bed unless you just lay on top of the bed cover

This is not a major issue for me. The benefits of this floor plan outweigh these limitations.
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Old 12-14-2017, 01:46 AM   #9
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We 100 percent love our 27N. We have done a lot of the chassis fixes, and now it drives pretty good.

We had the wet compartments as well, but spent a lot of time finding and sealing leaks and now no problems. Put a powerful worklight in the leaky compartment after dark, close the door, and you can instantly spot all the problems.

You just can't beat the livability of that floor plan, IMHO...
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Old 12-16-2017, 08:00 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by RonMags View Post
We are thinking of purchasing a 2013 Sunstar 27N with 22,000 miles on it and would love to hear what people have to say about theses units. The good, the bad and the ugly. New to this kind of RVing. Thanks. Ron
We have been using ours for the last year and a half. Love the floor plan when the slides are out. Little cramped when in, but when the slides are in we are driving. Lots of storage inside and out. We had problems with both the passenger slide and the dinette slide. Both had to be repaired under warrantee and seem to work ok but I still worry about the thin rack system and its reliability. Seems week and cheep. I expect they will fail again but I am fairly confident that Winnebago will continue to back this feature even out of warrantee. Fingers Crossed! We had wet compartments on the drivers side but also fixed under warrantee. We added sumo springs on all 4 corners. This improved much of its poor handling. In the last week we installed rear track bar and steering stabilizer. Our Christmas presents to ourselves! We will report the results in the future but I expect even more improvements in cross winds, truck traffic and even straight line driving on good road. So far we have 10,000 miles on our MH and other then the slides we have been pretty happy with the overall quality at the price point this unit sells for. We recently stayed a month in Lake Havasu and we found that the front living area is not as comfortable as we would like it. We used folding foot stools and that helped some. MH at this price point are all about compromise I suppose but overall we are pretty happy.
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Old 12-29-2017, 02:02 PM   #11
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Finally completed the CHF by installing the adapter plates made by TeJay. Here is how they look when installed on the front sway bar.



Now for a test drive of the finished modifications. Thanks for the advice everyone.
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